Chapter Two: The Establishment of Modern Librarianship in America: 1876–1909

As stated in the previous chapter, John Cotton Dana saw the need for a new kind of librarianship. What would have motivated a person such as Dana to embrace a campaign that would require strong and often competing forces to think about "doing things differently"? A clue can be found in Dana's already quoted call for a "new library creed." His thoughts on what comprised specialized librarianship are so important that they deserve to be quoted again: "...select from the vast flood of print the things your constituency will find helpful, make them available with a minimum of expense, and discard them as soon as their usefulness is past."

Dana's words clearly indicate his new way of thinking with regard to the library service provided by librarians working with specifi c constituencies. It is interesting to note that if we substitute the words "information and knowledge sources" for "print," Dana could easily be describing the work of today's knowledge services professionals, as they seek to manage information, knowledge and strategic learning for their employing organizations.

Other founders of the Special Libraries Association (SLA)--the leaders of the proposed new movement, as they called it--agreed with Dana. Daniel N. Handy of the Insurance Library Association of Boston; Dr. John A. Lapp of the Indiana State Library (later to take on the editorial responsibilities for Special Libraries and to become famous as the originator of the specialist librarians' motto, "Putting Knowledge to Work"); Guy E. Marion of Arthur D. Little; Sarah B. Ball and Beatrice Winser, working with Dana at the Newark (N.J.) Public Library; and others were all seeking methods and techniques for providing better library services to their particular constituencies.

These were people who were reacting to the times, when librarianship--a particularly American phenomenon--was coming into its own.¹ they wanted to take librarianship further, to ensure that the techniques and practices of general "library economy" (as it was called in those days) could be put to particular use for the benefit of the organizations that employed them, or--if in public or academic libraries--for the benefit of library patrons who required a different kind of service delivery than was usually available in the larger profession.

The founders' goals were clear. Although there always has been--and was from the beginning of the movement--a considerable amount of difficulty (some would say even a considerable amount of confusion) in defining the term "special library," the running theme as the movement was being established was apparent to these leaders: librarianship could offer better service delivery if the relationships between the library's clients and the librarians were enhanced. And enhancing that role was exactly what the movement's leaders were about. In today's terms, they would certainly be described as "change agents," for they were not at all uncomfortable with the role of change in their professional lives, a sentiment that has been a constant throughout the association's history, up to and including the present day. That acknowledged strength--the ability to recognize societal change and to incorporate change into the organizational framework--has contributed significantly to the success of SLA.

Excerpt from the book SLA at 100: From Putting Knowledge To Work To Building The Knowledge Culture by Guy St. Clair