Presents arguments for the importance of a historical approach in the library and information science curriculum. Highlights include learning from past mistakes; understanding the reason for successful ventures; censorship and intellectual freedom; professional identity; and integrating historical background into each course. (Contains five…

Discusses the importance of historical studies for librarians and how knowledge of the past contributes to the research base. Social science and historical perspectives on library research are considered; and hypothesis testing, the study of causality, and the history of information practices are examined. (Contains eight references.) (LRW)

Educators can construct practices that provoke processes of remembrance to alter the way the past is made present in desires, plans, and actions. The paper highlights the collective aspect of living memory to emphasize the organized, nonidiosyncratic quality of such memories. Four historical events are examined. (SM)