Vocational Technical Collection Building Does It Exist?

Since the passage of the Smith‐Hughes Act of 1917, which established vocational‐technical education, more than 17,000,000 students annually are served by some type of vocational school program. In spite of this impressive figure, vocational schools are still considered by many people as a place to send students who are “good with their hands” and who are less academically inclined than their counterparts in comprehensive schools. Yet, the simple hands‐on training experiences, so commonly employed as the main method of instruction, no longer assure that one will have the necessary knowledge to be a competent and employable tradesperson or technician. With advances in technology in all areas (e.g., automotive mechanics, data processing, printing, electronics, aviation, agriculture, etc.), it is now necessary for students in vocational schools to study the related technical sciences and mathematics and the continuing technical developments in an area in order to gain employment. With these advances in technology there has been a large growth in the literature, but no one up to this time has examined collection development.