Library and Information Science

The Sub-committee for Public Librarianship, Committee on the Training for Librarianship of Japan Library Association recently made a proposal which recommended to offer eight units to the technical processing courses out of the total forty units which were considered by the Sub-committee to be the minimum for the future professional public librarians as their major study requirements.

The problem of how much emphasis has to be put on the technical processes in the curriculum of education for librarianship urges us to pay attention both to the nature of technique employed in the library and to the means to prepare students for actual library work. Being stimulated by a veteran librarian who criticized the above proposed plan because of its putting too much emphasis on the technical processing, the writer tried first, to clarify the concept of technique and technical education for librarianship, second, to make retrospective search in the history of courses offered in this respect together with problems involved in it, and third, to examine historical outlook of the technical courses in American library schools.

It is of utmost importance to see what is really required by libraries and librarians at work on the content of courses provided for technical processes and to try to make courses applicable to existing demands. At the same time, however, we have to recognize the fact that both the nature of libraries or information centers and the demand of users do change. To meet the situation, we can't be satisfied only by fulfilling the demands unless the demands are analyzed and utilized, supported by theoretical basis, to grasp the true picture of technical services in the library in view of all related elements.