Library and Information Science Education: An International Symposium (Papers Presented atthe International Conference on Library and Information Science Education Sponsored by theDepartment and Graduate Institute of Library Science, National Taiwan University, November29-30, 1985) by James S. C. HuReview by: Lee-hsia Hsu TingLibraries & Culture, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Spring, 1989), pp. 258-259Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25542158 .

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258 L&C/Book Reviews

of tracing the intellectual development of long-dead individuals, who left few written

records.

Susan A. Stussy, St. Norbert College (Wisconsin)

Library and Information Science Education: An International Symposium (Papers Presented

at the International Conference on Library and Information Science Education Sponsored by the Department and Graduate Institute of Library Science, National Taiwan University,

November 29-30, 1985). Edited by James S. C Hu. Metuchen, N.J., and London:

Scarecrow Press, 1987. 277 pp. $27.50. ISBN 0-8108-2111-7.

The volume under review is a collection of seventeen papers, all of which were

presented by library educators, at the International Conference on Library and

Information Science Education in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1985. Besides the six library educators in Taiwan, seven were from the United States, and one each from

Canada, Great Britain, West Germany, and Japan. The articles are arranged in

the order of their presentation, with the conference program included as an ap

pendix. They center around the following topics: the present role of library and

information science in the information age; current status and national trends in

library and information science education in the East and the West; assessment

of current library and information science curricula; the integration of library and

information science; and future trends in library and information science education.

The articles are well written. Most of them are on library education in other

lands and may be useful for the study of comparative librarianship. Yet the whole

volume, though presenting different views, offers no original or fresh ideas. We

are told repeatedly that the libraries have changed in an age of information, and

that the library schools must change their curricula to meet the needs of the time.

Many are what-I-do-in-my-library-school type of reports. Of the few suggested

solutions, none is new. Even the seven American participants, all deans of ALA

accredited schools and some known for their publications, are no exceptions. One

paper is, by the author's own admission, "based partially on" speeches delivered

on four other occasions in 1985 alone (p. 16).

Although surveys show that "courses in traditional library science are essential

to anyone who wishes to be hired" by a library (pp. 233-234), some library edu

cators seem to think differently. In this volume, the most enthusiastic advocate of

"information specialists" is Dr. Ching-chih Chen. She stresses that "the library

is only one of many viable information providers and, most frequently, not the

most important one." "In order to increase the library's relevancy and its role

in the present information environment," she proposes, "our professional educa

tion must shift focus . . . from library-centered to information-centered; from the

library as an institution to the library as an information provider . . . ; from using

new technology to automate library functions to utilizing technology to enhance

access to information not physically . . . [in] the library; from library networking

for information provision to area networking for all types of information source

providers" (pp. 13-14). Oscar Handlin, Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Harvard University,

writes in his thought-provoking article "Libraries and Learning" (American Scholar

[Spring 1987]; reprinted in Western Illinois Reader [Fall Semester 1988]: 9-11): "the

Library and its kind of learning, are now under siege, surrounded by enemies

without and within. ..." His comments, though centering around the research

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259

library, are well worth our attention. The users of libraries are not all scientists or

physicians in need of large amounts of data presented quickly in convenient formats.

Because of our concerns for such needs, we seem to have forgotten the needs of

other scholars and researchers in fields such as philosophy, history, or literature, who may want to browse or to read a book, to reflect, and to enjoy quietly by them

selves. We also seem to ignore clienteles of other types of libraries, such as school

and small public libraries, not for professional information but for learning ex

perience, personal improvement, or pleasure. As Handlin says, "the difference

is clear: in the library, no one tells students what to read; they roam where their

own interests lead. No one doles out information, they seek knowledge where

they wish." It would be suicidal for the library to climb up the bandwagon of

the information industry to dole out bits of information only, and to forsake its

unique mission of helping curious minds to explore and to discover. Any library school that encourages this tendency does a disservice not only to the profession,

but also to the culture. In spite of all the talks about a paperless society or the

"wall-less library," one look at the reams of paper computer centers use is enough to convince me that we cannot do without paper in the foreseeable future.

After all, no matter how much attention is paid in the library school to '

'manage

ment, communication and behavioral sciences, to computer sciences and new tech

nology, to problem-solving tools such as statistical methods and problem-oriented research methodology" (p. 15) as some library educators advocate, if librarians do

not know the subject matter or have not done research themselves and, therefore, do not know what research really is, they cannot provide the information needed

by a real specialist. Already scientists have complained that "information scientists

do not really understand the information problems in their field" (p. 92). We have

seen page after page of bibliographies generated by online searches that prove to

be of little use, because librarians and information scientists do not understand

the subject matter. To know how to use the computer or any other new technology does not make one at once a specialist in all subject fields.

Professor Peter Harvard-Williams has rightly pointed out that "the danger

currently is that computers will dominate the scene. . . . We are all too prepared to wipe away history, and to neglect or to forget what has happened in the past''

(pp. 90, 91). Indeed, "it is important to consider the aims, the 'ends' of the service

rather than the means" (p. 90). The present volume could have contributed more

to the library science field if it had included some other articles that made a clear

distinction between "information" and "knowledge," stressed the philosophical and theoretical foundations of library and information science, and reasserted the

rightful place of the library in a democratic society. Articles by scholars from other

disciplines, such as that of Professor Handlin, may cool our heads a little and help us achieve the goal, which is, as Dean Harold Goldstein puts it, "to challenge

young people ... to undertake a responsibility for relating information sources to

human needs and to discharge that responsibility effectively" (p. 113, italics mine).

Lee-hsia Hsu Ting, Western Illinois University

Mass Media: A Chronological Encyclopedia of Television, Radio, Motion Pictures, Magazines,

Newspapers, and Books in the United States. By Robert V. Hudson. New York and

London: Garland Publishing, 1987. xxxviii, 435 pp. $39.95. ISBN 0-8240-8695-3.

Robert Hudson intended Mass Media to be the ultimate one-volume reference

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