This paper traces a brief history of the development of American librarianship as a profession and examines the social climate from which it emerged. Several traditional and modern models of professionalism are discussed and applied to librarianship. Shortcomings of the profession, e.g., its scholarship and the non-prescriptive nature of its…

Advocates pursuit of service to the public rather than autonomy of practice as the proper professional goal of librarians. This article explores the tensions between professional attributes and the bureaucratic demands of the organizational environment. (Author/RAA)

Reviews the social responsibilities traditionally recognized as directly related to librarianship and explores the question of whether librarians should take positions on broader social issues. Arguments on both sides are presented and some of the philosophical and professional concerns that should be addressed are discussed. (20 references) (CLB)

The purpose of this treatise is to bring to light some of the conceptions that educators have of the library and its librarian. The study was prompted by the discovery of a lack of information regarding the library in teacher training textbooks. This report is concerned with two things: how the public school educator views the library and its…

Links the origin, decline, and renaissance of bibliographic instruction to the increasing specialization and democratization of education and reviews the history of the academic library and the role of the academic librarian in American higher education. The value of concept-oriented bibliographic instruction is stressed. Included are 18…

Discussion of the profession of librarianship focuses on changes in the profession and the role of women. The deprofessionalization, or de-skilling, of cataloging through the use of automated systems is described; new labels for library and information work are examined; and the future of librarianship is considered. (28 references) (LRW)

Argues that, with the trend toward viewing reference librarians as information brokers and the reification and privatization of information, the traditional goals of libraries and librarianship are being lost, i.e., providing free and open access to books and information to promote informed democracy and the public good. (63 references) (EAM)

This book examines the professional and political ideology that informed and sustained the Public Library Inquiry--an inquiry conceived in the late 1940s to study and document the conditions, achievements, and weaknesses of public libraries and librarianship. This book explores the consistencies, contradictions, and assumptions inherent within the…