LIBRARIES AND WAR!

The substance of this week’s readings revolved around the role of the library during the time of World War I. As we have read from other writers, and heard in our lectures, the library has at times and in places failed to live up to its role as a beacon of intellectual and social freedom. We have heard already how African American’s were virtually non-existent from the idealized library. This week’s reading’s document and demonstrate the expunging of dissent in the early 20^th century library as the United States entered World War 1. Ours was a just cause and it was seen as just at the time that the libraries should be converted from information clearinghouses into wartime propaganda factories.

Perhaps it was a demonstration of the public trust in the library and the honesty of its information that it was sought out among other institutions war information dissemination. Perhaps it was done out of desperation. It could have been yet another attempt for the library to establish a role for itself, justify its existence or maintain its viability. Just as Uncle Sam would declare on posters “I Want YOU!”, so too did the libraries call for books for Troops in the same manner. Children were enlisted in writing letters to the troops as well, making sure that every generation felt the same about the war. These programs were used to demonstrate the “wholehearted and unconditional loyalty to the United States”.

While libraries did provide meal ideas for rationed recipes throughout the wars, it was only after the war intensified that some felt the pressure to remove books in German and weed books offering dissenting opinions. This was done partially because of fear, and partially because of community sentiment. It was not done with any concern for library ethics.

Yet some such as Howard Kunitz deplored the jingoism of the day. Yet to read the article it would seem that men and women of such integrity were in short supply during this time.

It was noted that some turned to the library for reassurance that the sky was not falling. Questions about the citizenship potential for Japanese persons were often the topic of reference interviews during this time. Perhaps this was out of fear, or perhaps it was done to sift through the noise of wartime hysteria.

The effort to provide “correct” information about the war and how to ration throughout America’s libraries was taken up by The United States Information Service. The effort to use film to spark discussion (only pro-war discussion), was taken up by many libraries with the support of the ALA. Many times, the literature notes, the films shown were produced by the Armed Forces themselves.

Just as the war affected the materials collected by the libraries, so too did if affect the employees it was able to sustain. Given the state of women in the workforce, and the low pay of librarianship, it is noted that many left the library for war-time labor, seeking less feminized work and better pay. Into their place stepped war-time volunteers, and in some places, even Japanese-American workers.

In wartime, words such as Military Necessity took on ominous tones (Becker, p57). Would this signal only minor information blockades or would it be an invitation to widespread censorship? It is clear that some libraries bent over backwards to government demands in order to justify their existence, however it would be wrong to say that all were guilty of such intellectual cowardice.

It is clear though, in the writing “Errors of Omission and Cultural Destruction in Iraq, 2003), that America is not alone in this war-time intellectual fear. Cited in the chapter are events in Afghanistan, and Iraq. Though, not all damage was caused by the Taliban or by Iraqi looters. Some damage was caused by Americans, who in their effort to gain control of oil, lost sight of the books, and cultural treasures. Said the American Library Association in 2003, “Cultural Heritage is as important as Oil”. The targeting of historic buildings for bombings and the lack of protection provided for sites susceptible to looting left Iraq looking less like a picked over garage sale. This according to the writer told Iraq that America was less interested in its history, and more interested in American victory. Swept over by war, it would seem that America stole from Iraq the very institutions that could have provided for democratic inquiry. In the chaos of war and the excitement of a fallen leader, one can only know what idea a book might have given to a fighter. It may not have stopped the war, but it could have provided a modicum of reason in the state of anarchy.

Free to All

The world of libraries and library architecture in the late 19^th and early 20^th century was heavily circumscribed and highly organized. During this time, devices for transporting books from one area to another and architectural devices for the separation of the social classes would be both invented and standardized. During this time, industries developed to mass produce the means of library production. Just as the devices and the designs became standardized, so too did the gender and class roles also become standardized within the life of the library

In many respects, the early library represented the last stand of the American gentry. While they would later populate the Society Pages of many newspapers, their power as social arbiters was rapidly being diminished. Thus they sought out charitable causes as a means of securing their power over the lower classes. One traditionally genteel cause has been the library. Not only did the Gentry affect the way in which libraries were run, they also affected the way in which libraries were designed.

The early Carnegie Libraries, and the Boston and New York public libraries reflected not so much the purpose of the building, but the prowess of the donors and board members. Envisioning themselves as heirs to European royalty, many on library boards insisted on great and grand fortress-style libraries based on Greek and Roman designs. While they sought to give something to the community, they also wished to signify, if only in design, that the use of the library by the middle-class and poor was a privilege.

However, unlike the other libraries that were built by benefactors, the Carnegie Library developed a reputation for austerity in design as his secretary, and supervisor of library development sought to refocus the spaces on reading materials. This was no doubt influenced by the efficiency of others such as Dewey who had formed a company known as The Library Bureau (formerly formally associated with the A.L.A), which sought to streamline the bookplaces and workspaces of the library.

The design of libraries then was a statement not only about the majesty of the literate educated, but about the circumscribed divisions between those who were devoted to serious scholarship, and those who were reading the paper; those who were working in library management and those who were managing the volume levels of patrons with the infamous “Shhh”. Some were so bold as to worry about “the Newspaper reading rooms attracting the tramp element “as was expressed by Arthur Bostwick of St. Louis (Van Slyck p. 121). This view, however rude or backward it may seem today, reflected a move toward enlightenment according to Van Slyck, by denoting that indeed not all library patrons were vagrants that need not be trusted. As poor as a reader may have been, as long as they looked respectable they would be respected.

Just as the worker-librarians were situated amongst the patrons to denote their occupational status (by lack of walls for their office), so too does Van Slyck argue that buildings were purposefully placed next to majestic art galleries and other cultural landmarks to increase the status of the library. Only later would library branches emerge. Branch libraries, however, like female librarians were thought of as less than in some (but not all) cases. The majestic design that announced the library is all but gone from libraries that are placed in storefronts.

One improvement that did come from the formation of branch libraries was the increased space for service to children. While some of the older libraries did provide for children’s spaces, young patrons were often discouraged to use the library by age restrictions or by the design of the library that placed children’s books in far-off spaces. Yet even in children’s spaces, the rules of adult decorum prevailed. Van Slyck details how the young who wandered amongst the many books were told to “go to the park” and those who raised a fuss, as children are wont to do from time to time were promptly asked to leave. The same perfect posture demanded of adults was proscribed to the children in miniature. Lacking any evidence of the higher-order thinking ability of very young children, they were none-the-less expected to rise to the level of behavior befitting a businessman. Just as the adult library was seen as a means for the education of the educated and the uplift of the poor, so too was the children’s library seen as a preparatory nursery school for the development of future owners and workers.

For all of the failure in design and the pompous classism (to say nothing of the racism) the early library established a modicum of best-practices that are still used today in terms of cataloguing. As has been said in many classes, it is hard to judge history without having lived in the time-period. We can only compare and contrast today and yesterday. We can only understand the past, we cannot change it. Yet we can do the best honor to its best attributes by working to improve that which was built from those early foundations.

The Mission: Consensus and Contradiction

The dilemma of popular materials versus educational materials is perhaps one of the oldest philsophical questions to have faced librarians. While popular materials naturally cause circulation to rise, what good is a rise in circulation, some argue, if their is not a corresponding rise in the "diffusion of knowledge" (p. 13).
Where once the materials offered by a library were seen as a good in and of themselves, with the changes in social values and the role of the library in many communities, some argue that the expectation for the role of the materials distributed should change as well.
One might suggest that the notion of the "library faith" holds up not just the printed word, but elevates certain words, books and authors above others for their supposedly high moral content. Yet the way in which materials are being used does not suggest the quest for moral and social direction that some in librarianship suppose it does. While laws increasing funding for school libraries have increased the presence of those libraries, not every library user is browsing for academic reasons.
As neighborhood needs changed, places such as Detroit established ready reference information sites to distribute social service information. During this time libraries across the country looked more at the needs of community versus the goals of the library. With the rise of the shopping mall taking place during this time, libraries became consumer-driven, and focus marketed. It was less about having the greatest books and more about having enough copies of best sellers.

Pawley article

Christine Pawley's "Advocate for access: Lutie Sterns and the traveling libraries of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission" reminds us of the work that was undertaken by early library advocates to cultivate and expand libraries throughout America. while her focus was on one particular state, her tactics were no doubt copied or practiced elsewhere in America to promote the same goals.

Sterns saw herself as a radical and feminist in the model of Susan B. Anthony and Jane Addams. She is quoted as saying that "a liberal is a man who has left the room when the fighting begins." If this statement is not evidence enough, Sterns decried that women were secondary to men in Late 19th\ Early 20th century America.

In addition to the political climate, her work took place during the era of the Carnegie Library. According to Pawley, there were only 6 states that established more Carnegie Libraries than Wisconsin (Pawley 438). While steel moguls such as Carnegie were establishing libraries, and many places were glad to receive them, still others questioned the new role of money and power in relation to the state. Issues of goods production and wealth distribution became topics of debate in an era when Socialism and Progressive populism had the ear of many Wisconsinites.

The Wisconsin Free Library Commission's work was a response to the isolation of rural Wisconsin from print culture outlets such as libraries and newspapers. Traveling libraries, contained in suitcases were composed to combat this problem. Working with county boards and local librarians in towns across the state this program was expanded. This expansion was made possible by the political savvy of Sterns and the realization of the citizens demand for such services once the idea was proposed.

Fain Article

Elaine Fain’s Books for New Citizens: Public Libraries and Americanization Programs 1900-1925 tells the story of reformers such as Pratt and Carnegie who saw the library as a means of “social Improvement” . They supported and encouraged the development of small neighborhood libraries. Libraries such as the Carnegie in Pittsburgh had literally hundreds of distribution points. During the time-frame of 1890-1910, the public library would literally branch out and diversify its services. The formation of reference desks, children’s services and multiple sites revolutionized the way libraries operated, and indeed the way they saw themselves.

No longer limited to one central location, they began to reach out and (attempt to) meet the needs of immigrant and poor communities. New York claimed Settlement Houses, the social home for many new immigrants, as branch sites. However, as Fain notes, the development of such services was hindered by a sometimes limited understanding of how to meet the needs of diverse communities. While some had worked for immigrant organizations, others remained uneducated in the cultures and customs of those that they were trying to serve.

The work of Hull House, founded by Jane Addams, rested partially on the same beliefs that the poor lacked culture and beauty in their world. She and others sought to infuse such attributes in to their space by providing reproductions of art that could be taken home.

Later, as the fears of Communism and of the Japanese radiated throughout America, patrons were concerned that Yiddish works contained calls to revolution (Fain 270). Yet even with these fears permeating the culture. According to Fain, the library remained a place where the new immigrant could find himself, as a person, as an immigrant, and as a new American.

APOSTLES OF CULTURE

Dee Garrison’s Apostles of Culture is an engaging look at the development of librarianship in America. It provides an unflinching view of the luminaries of the library and explores the way in which their own history, combined with their place in history has affected the work we do today. From the very beginning the leaders of the library sought to advance culture, education and social status. In many ways those struggles and our role in them as professionals is the focus of great debate to this day.

From the establishment of the earliest American libraries, the motivations of culture, morality and literacy have been bound together. At once part of the social reform movements of Temperance Unions, at times leaders such as Dewey were themselves in need of social reform, being driven more by personal habits than by the desire for progress.

Coming into being at the end of the Victorian era, the library became the last stronghold of the gentry. Their social standing greatly diminished with the rise of industry, they sought to maintain influence and relevance by exerting control over the affairs of culture. As is the case today, many in this social class sought leadership within the world of the library to express their social and cultural leadership.

While men of industry would build great libraries, and impose their vision upon them, others would come to positions of leadership within the profession itself. Just as Andrew Carnegie was instrumental in constructing many of America’s libraries, leaders such as Samuel Swett Green lead movements to encourage reading amongst school children and laborers. Men such as Dewey and Cutter developed classification systems that allowed for easy retrieval of materials as collections expanded greatly.

For his part Carnegie would bring the “Carnegie Library” to towns across America, sometimes in the face of great opposition. In particular, union members and Socialist leaders were repulsed by the idea that the Carnegie libraries were nothing more than an attempt to polish the image of a union-busting industrialist soon after the Homestead Strike. The formation of such libraries was seen not as a deed of altruism, but as a further effort to lull workers into complacency and quash their expansion with bland fiction.

Furthermore, at this time the library was seen as the place of the leisure classes, with workers shut out by the social mores of the institution. Such refined halls reflected an air of upper-class exclusivity that made many working men feel unwelcome. At the same time as working men were feeling shut out, the feminization of the library was taking hold. Women began to remake the library in the image of the home. This suited the gentry quite well as the gentry began to find their power, rooted this time not in industry or money, but in morality. Thus they saw themselves as protectors of women and savior-teachers to the worker; and guardians of morality for all.

Just as the gentry struggled to redefine their status at this time, much of the struggle experienced by early library leaders revolved around matters of status. In the economy of ideas they wanted to be seen as more than department store clerks selling literacy to the masses. Rather they saw themselves as professionals, akin to educators. While they espoused high culture ideals, they were often forced to reconcile this with the demand for the dime novel. Efforts were made to curtail this demand by culling from the collection works of fiction and works that were deemed morally questionable. Yet the desire for fiction never waned. Even as the library would be re-imagined as the University of the working- man, librarians were forced to understand that their students did not always want to study the Classics. Thus, as the society changed, so too did the role of librarians. Where once they were cultural ambassadors, infusing the masses with the works of Shakespeare, and Chaucer, librarians began to understand the place of recreational readers in the life of the library.

At its core, Apostles of Culture is a story about the development of the library, sometimes in spite of those who are viewed as pioneers within the field. Between Carnegie’s anti-Labor views, and Dewey’s eccentric refusal to write in standard English, it is amazing that a public backlash to the idea of the library did not develop. More than anything then the book is a story about the persistent draw of the written word in spite of those who sought to control it. In the modern world of media saturation, one has to imagine that such personalities properly projected and distorted could have derailed the development of the American library. It is fortunate then, that the library took hold before the quirks of the personalities took over the public imagination.