EDUCATION FOR LIBRARIANSHIP: THE GRASS‐ROOTS PERSPECTIVE

In 1964 two events taxed the energies and imaginations of lecturers in schools of librarianship — the introduction by the Library Association of a new syllabus and the inauguration of the Council for National Academic Awards. One was the culmination of an examination system nurtured by an organisation which had shaped for so long their professional context as practitioners and as teachers. The other heralded a system, as promulgated by Robbins, which would provide the opportunity and stimulus for colleges “to pioneer and experiment on distinctive lines in accordance with their own traditions”. The transition from the custom and practice of one to the innovative possibilities of the other was the greatest single challenge confronting lecturers in non‐university schools of librarianship. It was a challenge made more formidable by the general lack of support — indeed hostility — of the profession at large, furthering the divide between schools and practitioners, and by the characteristic ambivalence of the Library Association. The status quo of custom and practice seemed sufficient to many.