INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LlBRARIANSHIP

Considers the scope and content of International andComparative studies in librarianship and gives 2

brief account of the emergence of Comparative Lib-rarianship as a component of Library Science in 'itsown right. Introduces the comparative method aspart of.. research methodology avaUable to libraryresearchers, emphasises the need for institutin~formal courses in this area and proposes a tentativesyllabus for a paper at Master' e degree level.

An interest or even mere curiosity inother countries, other people and their affairshas been a basic characteristic of man sincethe very beginning of history. People haveventured to leave their homeland in pursuit of anew home, knowledge, riches, on pilgrimage,military adventure, trade or to satisfy merecuriosity.· Many instances of people coming toIndia or Indians visiting other countries aboundin Indian history and are too numerous tomention. However, this limited activity hasgrown in size and scope along with the march ofman and today is on its way to becoming almostuniversal. Technological, industrial andcommunications advances have destroyed thetraditional barriers of space and time and havebrought the nations. of the world much nearer.The concept of 'Global Village' is widelyaccepted today. No country is free fromforeign influences. No one is an 'island tohimself' anymore. Developing an 'inter-national outlook' and thinking 'comparatively'have become needs of our times. This isreflected in various activities of governmentsand people in every nation, totalitarian, de-mocratic or whatever. International travel hasr ea ched it. new milestone. Internationalism haspervaded educational institutions all over theworld, in some countries more pronounced thanin others. Second World War and the activitiesof the United Nations have played a very signi-ficant role in precipitating this situation. Ourchildren are beginning to be more aware ofinternationalism than ourselves. This trendis reflected in courses; syllabi and texts ofeducational institutions every where. Academic

Vol 20 No 1-4 Ma.rvDe c 1973

K Setty Umapathy

Graduate School of Library andInformation Serv ices

U'ni.ver s it y of Pittsburgh, U.S. A.

disciplines at the university level have takennote of these developments and have added aninternational dimension to their content,structure and methodology.

L ibrar Ians have often vis ited other count-ries, have observed libraries and have con-fered with professional peers in an atte~pt toexchange views. Librarians such as S. R.Ra nganatha n, Louis Shores, Melvi.l Dewey,Harold Lancour and others have always engagedin international and comparative librarianship.Many Indian librarians have visited severalcountries of the world. Some are educatedabroad and some are working in other countriesand in international organizations. Some haveshared their experiences with librarians inIndia on a formal and informal. basis. Somehave written about them in professional journalsand occasionally have shar ed their experienceswith readers in the f or m of a book [1,2]. Anumber of foreign librarians, library consul-tants and library educators. rnoa tlv Americanand British have come to India in recent yearsunder various schemes and have attempted toshare their knowledge with their peers in India.UNESCO is active in the library field all overthe world and has done some significantthings in India including the well known pilotproject of Delhi Public Library. The knowledgeit gains through its operations is available toall countries. Such things have their place andhave enriched librarians hip.

However, Comparative Librarianship, asit is emerging today goes far beyond this. Ittakes us a st ep further from the idea of'library talk shop' and provides a scient Ifi.cmethod to study comparative library phenome-non. Library Science, being a new sciencehas heavily drawn upon the research methodsused by social scientists for library research.The m et hodologies developed and used by socialscientists in Education, Economics, PoliticalScience, Sociology and History are more and

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SETTY UMAPATHY

more utilized by researchers in LibraryScience. So far, librarians have at their dis-posal six research methods: (J) historicalmethod, (2) survey method, (3) case method,(4) statistical method, (5) experimental methodand (6) composite method which is a combi-nation of any or all of the five methods. Com-parative method the seventh and the newest re-search method is the product of ComparativeEducation and owes its origin to the pioneeringwork of Marc-Antoine Jullien de Paris (1817),George Z. F. Bereday and others of recentdate. Libraries, being so similar to edu-cational institutions in purposes, policies andprocedures, it is natural that library research-ers have seized the comparative method andhave begun applying it to libzar ianahip, It isa' procedure which facilitates the study of dataconcerning two or more comparable libraryphenomena, collected thr-ough any of the

1 DESCRIPTION

Peooqoqicol DoteOnly

m. JUXTAPOSITION

Establ;shing Similaritiesand Differences

Crileria Clft--------Iconl~orabllil'l

Hypottocsis for I~----~Icomparotive oO(,)jl!.iS . J

methods mentioned above and juxtaposed forthe purpose of formulating a logical hypothesisand working towards conclusion.

The four steps of comparative methodolo-gy are: (1) Description, (2) Interpretation,(3) Juxtaposition and [4) Simultaneous (;'om-parison. Description presents a systematicstatement of information concerning libraryphenomena in two or more geographical areas.Interpretation involves the analysis of collecteddata in terms of Social Sciences such asHistory, Econom ic s, Sociology and PoliticalScience. In Juxtaposition, comparable data isplaced side by side for the purpose of formu-lation of one or more hypothesis. Simul-taneous comparison takes the form of anintegrated report and includes conclus ions.These steps of comparative methodology. aregraphically represented as follows: [3]

11. IN 1 ERPRF.TATION

E",~!uolicn cfP,dogo1icol Oofo

H;sloricol

Pc1iticol

FccncrnicSocial

Cc .•••nfryA ·r ,

I I Historical

8 Lf_-.:..._~..~ Potuicct____ F:co".o:nic

seetet

(

rz, COI<'PARISON

SimuncneousCorr.por.son

H)"C'l:)!hesis

(Substitute 'library data' for 'padagogical data' ]

The principle of 'comparison' alwaysoperates in whatever we do or think on aconscious or unconscious plane. It is notpossible to understand, many things in properperspective unless we look at them compara-tively. We compare one object with another,

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one country with another, present with the pastEast with West, black with white and so on. Inso doing we not only learn about the thingscompared but also begin to know ourselvesbetter. As pr ofe ss ional s , librarians need toknow what is happening in different types of

Ann Lib Sci Doc

INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATNE LIBRARlANSHIP

libraries around the world, why they are asthey are; why they are doing what they aredoing, and how they are going about achievingtheir objectives. This adds to our knowledge,broadens our outlook and lowers barriers ofethnocentrism. Often, it could result inpractical, immediate benefits by way ofimprovements in o'ur own operations and maylead to new lines of thinking. In the words ofFoskett 'Communications between nations isvital and librarians stand at key positions inthe communication network. If we increase ourknowledge of the work of our professionalcolleagues abroad, if we help them to solvetheir problems and call on them to help us solv-ing our own, we do more than merely improveour professional skills; we make a genuinecontribution to the achievement of peace andhappiness for all men across the world. [4].Comparative studies in Librarianship with itsapproaches and methodology promises toenrich the corpus of knowledge in LibraryScience.

Comparative librarianship is not synony-mous with International Libr ar ians hip althoughit includes it. Comparative Librarianshipincludes comparative studies on an internationalscale as w ell as studies on an intra-nationalscale. A study of public library legislation ofKarnataka and Andhr a or a study of acquisitionprocedures of the Public Library in Bangaloreand the Public Library in Mysore cities or astudy of education for librarianship in West.Bengal and Rajasthan are all examples of intra-national comparative studies in LibrarianshipWhile a study of the objectives of Indian NationalLibrary with those of National Diet Library,Japan or the British Museum in United King-dom and a study of Book Selection Policies ofthe Library of Congress in the USA withthose of Lenin State Library in the USSR areexamples of comparative studies on an inter-national scale.

Com parati ve Librar ianship a s a distinctactivity and a component of Library Science asan academic discipline is of recent origin;although the application of comparativeprinciple to librarianship was inherent in theactivities of scholar librarians in Ashur banpa l+slibrary (668-681 B. C. ) or in AlexandrianLibrary (Third century B.C.) or at 'DharmaGanja" (Seventh centur y A. D. ) the library ofNalanda University, whenever two or moreversions of a text were compared to determineauthenticity. Gabriel Naude's 'Advice on

Vol 20 No 1-4 Mar-Dec 1973

Establishing a Library' (1600-1653) definitelyshows a comparative attitude. Edward Ed-wards' Free Town Librar ieB' (1869) includesmaterials from France, Germany and Americain support of his plea for public librariesin United Kingdom. Wilhelm Munthe's'American Librarianship from an EuropeanAngl e' - an attem pt at at: eva luation ofpolic Ies and acti vities of librar ies of the USApublished in 1939 marks a significant stagein the development of International Compara-tive Librarianship. Munthe was the first touse the term 'Comparative Library Science' inprint. Publications in this area have greatlyincreased during the last ten years. Theappearance of 'A Handbook of ComparativeLibrarianship' in 1970 by S. Simsova andM. Mackee marks the publication of a manualoutlining the research methodology of thefield along with a brief scope note of the sub-ject and bibliographies about many countries ofthe world.

During the years 1956-1960 there wasonly one entry under the subject heading 'Lib-r a r ians hip , comparative' in Library Scienc eAbstracts, while Library and InformationSc Le nce Abstracts during the year 1971 had for-ty eight entrie s under the same heading.Library Literature which listed entries under'Librarianship, International Aspects' since1958 has begun listing entries under 'Librarian-ship, comparative' since 1970. This shows asteady growth of the area and its increasingacceptance by the profession. However,Comparative Librarianship is yet to enter anyof the Encyclopedias though some of theminc lude as many as ten different subjects undercomparative sciences. It is interestingto notethat Comparative Education with a history of acentury and a half is included only in Chamber'sEncyclopedia and does not appear in OxfordEnglish Dictionary which lists ComparativeAnatomy and assignes 1765 as the date of itsappearance.

COMPARATIVE LIBRARIANSHIP - Definitions

Several people have attempted to define Com-parative Librarianship. A look at some willaid us in understanding the subject better.Louis Shores defines Comparative Librarian-ship as the 'study and comparison of librarytheory and practice in all of the differentcountries of the world for the purpose ofbroadening and deepening our understanding of

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professional problems and solutions [s].According to Dorothy G. Collings it is 'thesystematic analysis of library development,practices or problems as th~y occur underdifferent circumstances (most usually indifferent countries): considered in the contextof the relevant historical, geographic, politi-cal, economic, social, cultural and otherdeterminant background factors found in thesituations under study [6]. ComparativeLibrary Science, according to Richard Krazysis Ithat field which analyzes Libz-a r y phenomenathrough comparative methodology for theproximate purpose of understanding theirorigin, development, and essenc e, and for ulti-mate purpose of deepening the t heor y of libraryscience and improving the practice of Librarianship [7]. Comparative librarians hip is usefulas a tool for cultural borrowing. It can pro-mote international understanding. It can bringorder into our thinking. These aspects arestressed in the definitions with varying degreesof emph~sis. A comparative study may dealwith the whole field of librarianship in givencountries becoming a 'total comparison' ormay deal with an aspect of librarians hip intwo or more countr ies or rnay cover ageographic or cross-cultural area and becomean larea study'. It is basically interdiscipli-nary in nature and the services of socialscientists will strengthen an investigation.

COMPARATIVE &, INTERNATIONALLIBRARIANSHIP IN LlBRAR Y SCHOOLS

Library Schools in the United States ofAmerica and else where are quick in r ea l isj ngthe importance of International and Compara-tive librarianship and have instituted coursesof formal study in the field. Journal ofEducation for Ll br a r ia ns hip in Fall 1962 listedonly two instructors in the area of ComparativeLibrarianship, while the Special edition 1972of the same journal lists 104 instructors inthis area. From two school s in 1962, the USAhas come a long way and in 1972 more thanfifty Library Schools in the USA and six Schoolsin Canada are offering courses in InternationalComparative Librarianship [8]. North WesternPolytechnic and University College, London inU. K. are now offering instruction in this area.Advanced Institutes of Librarianship inMoscow, Kharkov and Vilnius in the USSR areproviding instruc'tion in international andcomparative librarians hip. Some Schools likethe University of Pittsburgh with a largeenrollment of international students (51 during

78

Fall 1972) and a commitment to internationalcomparative librarians hip offer more than onecour se in this ar ea and provide an opportunityto do doctoral research. Pittsburgh is alsounique in maintaining an International Librarylnformatio"n Center which provides primarysources from many countries of the worlddealing with several aspects of librarians hip.Increasing interest in this area is furtherevidenced in the membership of over 5,00persons in the International and ComparativeLibrary group of the British Library Associa-tion. International Relations Office of theAmerican Library Association is active in thefield since a considerable time and publishesa news letter 'Libraries in InternationalDevelopment.' The publication of UNESCOBulletin for Libraries in 1947 did much tothe growth of International outlook in: Libra-rianship everywhere. Many journals inthe field in India as well as abroad havealways publ is hed material in these areas. Theappearance of International Library Review in1969 has created another significant forum forthi s field.

COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL LIB-RARIANSHIP IN INDIAN SCHOOLS

Library Scieric e is relatively new to enterthe community of academic disciplines ininstitutions of higoer education. The fir stformal school of Library Science in the UnitedStates was established by Melvil Dewey in1887 and is still not a century old. MadrasUniversity in India began offering formaleducation for librarianship at graduate level in1937. 1£we consider this as the Significantbeginning of library education in India it isbarely half a century old. Infact, as an acade-mic discipline it is just beginning to beaccepted, is gaining ground on the academicsoil and has a long way to go. Li.b r a r ian sh ip inIndia today is on a firmer ground and is fastgrowing. India occupies an important placeamong the developing nations of the world. Itis actiy:ely cooperating with several countries indevelopmental efforts and is providing teChnicalknow how and personnel. Several of ourlibrarians may follow the example of S. R.Ra nganatha n, B. S. Kesavan, P, N. Kaula andothers in actively working on an internationalplane. Our young librarians will look beyondthe national boundaries for Challenging workexperiences. We need to be aware of thenewer developments in l ibr a r ians hip on aglobal basis to gain its many benefits. In re-

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INTERNATIONAL A~D COMPARATIVE LlBRARIANSHlP

cognition of these needs and in response to therecent developments in the f ieldj l lbra r y edu-cators in India should consider institutingcourses in International and Compar a t iveLibrarianship in our formal programs atleast in one or two places in India.

Library Science programs at Bachelor'sdegree level in India do reflect the spirit ofinternationalism to some extent. Syllabi inmost of the Universities at this level providesfor a brief constderation of library movementin U. K. and the USA. They al so include theactivities of international organizations such asUNESCO, FID and IFLA. This is indeedcommendable. However, we should not stop atthis potne, There is room for sys.tematicimprovement at this level. Further, definiteattempts to build on this foundation at theMaster's level should be made. At the presenttime no organized attempt to cover this areaat the Master's level is visible either in thesyllabi followed by the universities or in thesyllabus recommended by the U. G. C. Re-view Committee [9]. A»rief course outline inthe area is suggested for consideration bylibrary educators and others.

Paper Title: bternational and Compara-tive Librarianship

Objectives

To study and analyze librarians hip indiffer ent regions of the world

To promote international outlookTo promote professional self awareness,To introduce comparative method and to

provide an opportunity to wr ite a paperusing the method

Outline: A

1. Activities of international organizationssuch as FID, IFLA and UNESCO

2. International activities of ALA, LA, ILA,Ministry of Education of GOI and suchother bodies

3. Aspects of International co-operationrelated to l ibr ar ianship (Includes anoverview only)

B

1. Comparative Li br-ar ianship: develop-ment, definition, purpose

Vol 20 No 1-4 Mar-Dec 1973

2. Historical, Social, Political, Economicand Cultural factors relevant tolibrarianship within a country - Ana-lysis of librarianship within a countryof the students choice with the approvalof the instructor in the light of thesefactors

3. Methodology of comparative studies inlibrar ianship

4. A study of library history, professionalassociations, education for librarian-ship, library literature, financialsupport for libraries, library legisla-tion, types of librar ies, kind s ofser-vices , status of librarians in re-lation to selected countries.

Teaching methods:

Lectures, discussion, case study,' films,lectures by visiting librarians and(Team teaching recommended if aschool feels ready for such an approa-ch) Students to write a term paper andgive a report about librarians hip in aselected country.

The course should be subjected to eva Iuat ion bythe students each time it is taught. It should beoffered at the Master's level on an optionalbasis.

The selection of countr Ies for study and forcomparison naturally should take intoconsideration availability of resources,library and otherwise as well as the interest ofindividual students. Any school that desires tooffer such a course should augment its libraryresources cover ing the international aspectsof l ibr a r ianship and should have some plan ofacquiring primary sources around the wortdon a continuous basis. Bibliographies for theuse of students in the course should be preparedby instructors from time to time taking intoconsideration the areas they intend to includeor exclude or emphasize.

Ref.erences

Garde, P K:'of libraries.House, 1970.

The United Nations familyBombay, Asia Publishing

(2] Saha, J: Special libraries and informa-tion services in India and in the USA.Metuchen, N. J., Scarecrow, 1969.

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SETTY UMAPATHY

[3] Bereday, George G F: Comparative [7Jmethod in education. New York, Holt,Rinehart Ie Winston, 1944. p.28.

[4] Foskett, D J: Comparative librarianship..!2,.,Progreu in Library Science, 1965.144-45. [8]

[5] Shores, LouiB: Why comparative libra-rian.hip? WUson Lib Bull 1966, 44,204. [9]

(6) Callings, Dorothy G: Comparative us-rarianship. Eneyclopaedia of Libraryand lDformatioo Scienee. New York,Marcel Dekker, 1971, vol 5, p.492.

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Krzys, Richard: Syllabus for the Semi-nar in Comparative Librarianship.Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh,School of Library & InformationSciences, 1971, p.4 •

Journal of Education for Librarianship,Special edn 1972, p. 105.

University Grants Commission (India),Review Committee. Library Scienee inIndian Universities. New Delh], U.G. C. ,1965, p. 20-2 1.

Ann Lib Sci Doc