The Reference Services Division of the American Library Association

Barton, Mary N.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1449 Copy

Description

Title

The Reference Services Division of the American Library Association

Author(s)

Barton, Mary N.

Issue Date

1957

Keyword(s)

Reference services (Libraries)

Abstract

To present this new Division to reference librarians and others interested in reference services is an opportunity that this writer welcomes with the greatest enthusiasm. The Reference Services Division is the fulfillment of a dream which has been in the minds of many reference librarians for a very long time. It is hard to imagine any group of people more zealous in their interest in the library profession and what it can mean to the general public, particularly as applied to the reference function, or a group more talented; yet, until the new Division was formed, they had no over-all meeting place of minds, where they could pool their ideas, discuss mutual problems, and make genuine contributions in the field. Since the founding of the American Library Association in 1876, a period of eighty-one years, reference librarians have more or less gone their several ways, making wonderful contributions, to be sure, as individuals, through publications, professional papers and articles, editing and compiling reference tools, administering units of reference service, and above all, that day-byday aid to the library's clientele, which can never be adequately assessed or measured. No one can look back over the achievements of reference librarians without feeling a glow of pride. The following names, to mention only a few of the many which readily come to mind, may illustrate this point--Isadore Gilbert Mudge, Winifred Gregory, James I. Wyer, Margaret Hutchins, Pierce Butler, Edith Guerrier, Mabel Conat. One could list many others who, by writing or other work in the field, have made noteworthy contributions. Surely now, however, a new day is dawning with the new Division which will serve as a framework for producing ideas and carrying them out.

Publisher

Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Series/Report Name or Number

Allerton Park Institute (4th : 1957)

ISSN

0536-4604

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1449

Copyright and License Information

Copyright owned by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois 1957.

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