Reference Services in University and Special Libraries since 1900

BE T W E E N 1900 AND 1950 the number of graduate students enrolled in American universities increased forty times, and the number of persons earning the Ph.D. degree increased twenty times. By 1950 every major university expected most of its regular staff to possess the Ph.D. degree, and in high schools in larger cities teachers with graduate training were a commonplace. Also at work were other factors which would influence reference service in university libraries. The number of subjects in which graduate degrees were granted grew larger, and within existing subject fields scholars became more and more specialized. With wider and deeper research, and an increasing number of scholars, came the demand for greater research libraries, which in turn led to larger and still larger concentrations of books. Even as early as 1900 anybody could see that university research had come to stay, in fact by that year research had become a near monopoly of university scholars. Yet at first, university reference libraries were mostly concerned with service to undergraduates. Indeed, in a revealing article written in 1915, W. W. Bishop argued that librarians could not be experts in enough subjects to be of much help to scholars and graduate students, and as a practical matter he recommended concentration upon skill in library methods. Normally, universities move slowly. For