Professionalization, Gender, and Librarianship in Ontario, 1920–75

Bruce, Lorne

doi:10.1179/1758348912z.00000000009

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Bak (2002) examined the Maritime region in the 1930s and found evidence to conclude that many aspiring librarians preferred non-academic training (i.e., apprenticeship, optional courses, and conferences) and learned their techniques in the workplace. Bruce (2012) outlined the hesitant course of professionalization in Ontario, which was where the majority of librarians worked. Studies of prominent librarians, such as Mary Kinley Ingraham (Harrison, 2012), Nora Bateson (Adams, 2009), AEgidius Fauteux and Edmond Desrochers (Lajeunesse, 2012), Bruce B. Peel (Jobb, 1987), Edgar Robinson (Curry & Carre, 2002), Marie-Claire Daveluy (Chabot, 1968), and August-M. Morisset (Greene & LeBlanc, 2000) have illuminated careers, private viewpoints on librarianship, and the role of formal education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Library Work to Library Science: Forming Canadian Librarianship, 1920-1960

Bruce

2019

Partnership

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper explores the discourse presented about a distinctive chapter in Canadian librarianship when it emerged as a modern professional career between 1920 and 1960. During the four decades following the World War I (WWI), librarians sought to develop an intermediary role between different clienteles and the world of print. At the same time, library science evolved as a university-based discipline grounded in the knowledge and techniques of collecting, organizing, and managing printed records for public consumption. Three prominent issues are examined: the question of acceptable library education and training, the primacy of a service ethic, and issues surrounding the profession's female-intensity during first-wave feminism. Before the 1960s, a two-term bachelor's degree in library science was the standard requirement to gain entry into the profession. There was an identifiable blend of public-spirited service and print oriented stewardship to librarianship serving diverse clienteles in municipalities, universities and colleges, schools, businesses, and governments. As well, librarianship was a femaleintensive career that strove to attain better public recognition. While there were many influences on the development of librarianship, the regional considerations, the everpresent English-French cultural divide, and the American precedents were very important. All these interconnected elements changed after 1960 as the core knowledge of librarians began to transition to library and information science, as they adopted new values, as the importance of print resources lessened, and as second-wave feminism came into being.

show abstract