History of higher
education libraries
Reported by:
Rochel A. Villar
BLIS- 3
June 26, 2010
Terms
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An academic library is a library which serves an institution of
higher learning, such as a college or a university— libraries in
secondary and primary schools are called school libraries. These
libraries serve two complementary purposes: to support the school's
curriculum, and to support the research of the university faculty and
students.
The University Grants Committee was an advisory committee of
the British government, which advised on the distribution of grant
funding amongst the British universities. It was in existence from
1919 until 1989. Its functions have now largely been taken over by
the higher education funding councils
Provision- something provided; a measure or other means for
meeting a need.
Higher education refers to a level of education that is provided at
academies, universities, colleges, vocational universities, community
colleges, liberal arts colleges, institutes of technology and certain
other collegiate-level institutions, such as vocational schools, trade
schools, and career colleges, that award academic degrees or
professional certifications.
Highlights in the history of books and libraries
People or
period
Approx. dates
Antiquity
►Sumerians
Babylonians
Assyrians
3600 BC
626 BC
Egyptians
3000 BC
Greeks (Crete)
2d millennium BC
6th century BC- 146 BC
Greeks
Romans
173 BC- 476 AD
Kinds of
libraries
Examples of
libraries
Temple
Government
Private
Royal
Telloh
Borsipa
Nineveh
Temple
Government
Private
Gizeh
Thebes
Private
Royal
Government
Alexandrian library
Library at Pergamum
Aristotle’s library
Private,
Government,
Public, Christian,
Pagan
Ulpian Library
Middle Ages
12th century- 15th
century
Renaissance
Invention of
printing with
movable types
Private, Royal
Church, monastery,
university
15th century
1500- 1900
Europe
University of Paris
Public, Private,
Government, Royal
National, Private,
Public, University,
Royal
Vatican library
Oxford
Cambridge
British Museum
Bibliotheque Nationale
America
1607- 1776
College, University,
Private, Subscription
Harvard, Yale, William &
Mary
Princeton
America
18th and 19th century
College, university,
private, public,
Government
Library of Congress
Boston Public Library
America
20th century
Academic
Special
Public
School
Research
Private
Government
Rare Book Archives
New York Public
Library
Major university
libraries
Major public libraries
Development of Academic libraries
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In United Kingdom
In the United States of America
In the Philippines
Approx. date
Events/
Development
19th Century
Establishment of
universities and their
libraries
20th Century
Libraries
1967
Emergence of the Parry
Report
1975
Atkinson Report
Person
responsible
continued to
grow gradually
UGC published a report
in 1921, which made one
of the most supportive
and appreciative
statements about
libraries
Mr. Thomas Parry
1992
Follet Report
Sir Brian Follet
1994
Anderson Report
Prof. Michael
Anderson
2001
Establishment of the
Research Support
Libraries Group
Sir Brian Follet
2003
Publishing of the
Report of the Group
2004
Founding of the
Research Libraries
Network
19th Century
 Establishment
of mechanics institutes
 “senior academic” are the ones who
perform the role of the librarian
 Edward Nicholson at the Bodleian, founder
of the Library Association
Approx. date
Events/
Development
19th Century
Establishment of
universities and their
libraries
20th Century
Libraries
1967
Emergence of the Parry
Report
1975
Atkinson Report
Person
responsible
continued to
grow gradually
UGC published a report
in 1921, which made one
of the most supportive
and appreciative
statements about
libraries
Mr. Thomas Parry
20th Century
The UGC report’s statement
“The character and efficiency of a university
may be gauged by it’s treatment of its
central organ- the library. We regard the
fullest provision for library maintenance as
the primary and most vital need in the
equipment of a university.”
Approx. date
Events/
Development
19th Century
Establishment of
universities and their
libraries
20th Century
Libraries
1967
Emergence of the Parry
Report
1975
Atkinson Report
Person
responsible
continued to
grow gradually
UGC published a report
in 1921, which made one
of the most supportive
and appreciative
statements about
libraries
Mr. Thomas Parry
Parry Report
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Influenced by the new thinking about academic libraries
which had been brought about by the creation of new
universities
The library had been regarded as symbolic to the
universities themselves, and was placed centrally on the
campus
Recognized that the libraries are expensive to build and
maintain, and recommended that universities should
devote a mminimum of around 6% of their revenue
expenditure to the library
Introduced library cooperation
Approx. date
Events/
Development
19th Century
Establishment of
universities and their
libraries
20th Century
Libraries
1967
Emergence of the Parry
Report
1975
Atkinson Report
Person
responsible
continued to
grow gradually
UGC published a report
in 1921, which made
one of the most
supportive and
appreciative statements
about libraries
Mr. Thomas Parry
Atkinson Report
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

Propose the concept of a “self- renewing” library
Recommended new space norms for libraries
Urged greater cooperation and reliance on
interlibrary loan
1992
Follet Report
Sir Brian Follet
1994
Anderson Report
Prof. Michael Anderson
2001
Establishment of the
Research Support
Libraries Group
Sir Brian Follet
2003
Publishing of the
Report of the Group
2004
Founding of the
Research Libraries
Network
Follet Report
Background
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Terms of reference:
a. )the planned expansion of higher education
b. ) the current potential impact of IT on information
provision
c. )the possibilities of greater cooperation and
sharing of capital and recurrent resources
Recommendations:
a. ) the development of library buildings
b. ) a program of development to enable the
exploitation of the potential of information technology
Evidence
a. ) massive expansion of student numbers
b. )very little funding available for capital building
projects
c. )increase in cost which is far above the annual rate of
general inflation
d. )changes in teaching and learning methods in
institutions
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Increasing proportions of mature and part- time students,
who tended to make different demands on libraries
Modularization of degree courses
Learning methods which put more stress on student centered
learning
A decline in book purchasing by students
Recommendations
a.) information strategies
b.) library expenditure
c.) performance indicators
d.) staffing and staff management
e.) purchasing
f.) quality assessment and quality audit
g.) space and space management
h.) library cooperation in support of reading
i.) library provisions and the needs of
researchers
j.) information technology
Academic libraries in the
1990’s
institutions were continuing to epand
their student numbers and to compete
for recognition of research excellence
→ Increasing IT capabilities
→ international collaboration was becoming
more significant
→ The issue of lifelong learning also started
to have an impact on academic libraries
→
1992
Follet Report
Sir Brian Follet
1994
Anderson Report
Prof. Michael Anderson
2001
Establishment of the
Research Support
Libraries Group
Sir Brian Follet
2003
Publishing of the
Report of the Group
2004
Founding of the
Research Libraries
Network
Anderson report
the report of this body stressed the need for
all major libraries in UK to cooperate to ensure
that researchers had adequate support
► Establishment of the Research Support Libraries
Programme (RSLP)
►
1. supporting access to major library holdings
2. collaborative collection management projects
3. research support for humanities and social
science collections
4. targeted retrospective conversion of catalogues
Research Libraries Network
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Would carry out a strategic planning and
coordination role alongside the universities
themselves, the British library and national
libraries of Scotland and Wales
Development of Academic Libraries in the USA
Approx. dates
Event/ Development
American Revolution
Most books were imported from
England
1639- 1776
Local presses produced about 60
books per year
1776
Increase in publications in America
1804
Catalog listed 1, 338 American
publications in print
John Harvard donated
approximately 300 of his books to
Harvard University, and so he
created the first academic library in
the colony
19th Century
Early 1800’s
Serial publications gained in
importance
Harvard and Yale were the first to
establish endowments during this
period
1800- 1880
Literary society flourished
1841
Harvard constructed the first
freestanding library building
1876
Adoption of the Dewey Decimal
Classification System
John Hopkins University was
established and faulty used the
German seminar method for
instruction instead of the recitation
method
Departmental libraries
predominated
1873
1856- 1876
Charles Eliot, long time
president of Harvard
University, stated that the
library is the “heart of the
university”
Number of volumes in the
collection at Harvard
increased by an average of
63% per year
Emphasis was primarily on
supporting the curriculum
rather than research
Hours are extended and
services were improved
20th Century
By World War 1
Most academic libraries have
reference department
1947
Harvard opened the first library
building dedicated to
undergraduate services
1906- 1941
Carnegie Corporation of New York
gave grant funding to 248 college
libraries to develop book collections
for undergraduate students and to
108 institutions for library buildings
Undergraduate libraries developed
and became a measure of the
quality of library collections, this
authoritative guide to purchasing of
books became known as the “Shaw
list”
Development of Libraries in the Philippines
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The Colonial Philippine Library Period (15651780)
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The first collections came with the Spanish missionaries.
The earliest records speak of a private collection in
1583. It was owned by Bishop Domingo de Salazar and
was probably the first of its kind in the islands.
Other collections of an academic nature followed: those
of the Augustinian Convent of San Pablo, the University
of Santo Tomás, and the College of San Ignacio.
Printing was being introduced
Need and urgency made them use the xylographic
method to produce the first printed book in the
Philippines in 1593, the Doctrina Christiana
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Philippine library developments during the 17th and 18th
centuries had a common feature: the urgently felt need
for books. Books from Europe seemed to have poured
constantly into the Philippines, as attested to by news
from different parts of the Philippine islands.
Modest but Modern Philippine
Library (1780-1898)
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The roots of the modern Philippine library may be traced
to the so-called Age of Enlightenment, which seized and
dominated European thought during the 18th century.
he Sociedad Económica was established in 1781 by
Governor José de Basco y Vargas, and it engaged mostly
in the free distribution of books.
Although the libraries of the Sociedad did not yield any
record of holdings until 1877, its creation signaled the
beginning of a new era in Philippine library history:
popular and public reading.
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A culture of reading, created in the highest
strata of Philippine society, motivated the
collection of books in private libraries by
Filipino scholars and heroes of the 1896 and
1898 Philippine War of the Independence.
This passion for collecting books and the
growing interest in library management
carried over a library tradition to the 20th
century: the scholarly library.
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Libraries in religious schools and the new secular
academic institutions had also grown in
importance, pushed by political and ideological
forces, but lacking in means and handled by
non-professional library staff.
The three seminaries of the Islands, the
religious schools in Manila, and the new secular
institutions, like the Escuela de Artes y Oficios,
had libraries supporting their curriculum.
The University of Santo Tomás had a collection
of 12,000 titles, the largest in the archipelago.
The library's holdings reached 20,000 by the
beginning of the 20th century.
Turnover in Philippine Modern Library
(1898-1945)
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Opening of the American Circulating Library
Establishment of what we know today as librarianship
American pioneers introduced modern library standards,
while Filipinos contributed with their collections,
scholarly support, and leadership.
But the foundation of Philippine librarianship was forged
by Lois Osborn, Mary Polk, and James Robertson in
1914, through the establishment of library courses in the
University of the Philippines and the Philippine Normal
School.
The universe of the private sector comprised an
expanding number of schools and universities, a few
business libraries, private collections, and libraries in the
houses of religious institutions. In 1941, there were 19
private colleges and universities.
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Their libraries had grown from small collections,
managed by working students and faculty, to
comprehensive holdings, maintained by trained
librarians and organized according to the new
trends.
University of Santo Tomás-which started offering
library courses in 1932; the Ateneo de Manilapraised as one of the best organized libraries in
the Philippines; the College of San Beda and a
few others
Modern Libraries for the Philippine Republic (from 1946
to Today)
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"The outbreak of World War II in the Philippines in
December 1941 tolled the death-knell of almost all
the rich depositories of Filipiniana materials in the
country.
government libraries, school libraries, and scholarly
collections in religious houses, and in most of the
private universities were also destroyed or looted.
During this half-century, libraries in the Philippines
had undergone re-establishment, organization, and
modernization, three stages that provide a fitting
division of our analysis into historical periods.
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The books distributed among the public libraries
did not suit the needs of readers, but the
University of the Philippines obtained three large
shipments of important publications through the
University of Michigan and the University of
Southern California at Los Angeles.
Librarianship has been pushed through
Increase in the growing body of library
professionals resulted to establishments of
library organizations
Automation of library services
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To solve the problem, the conference of 1952
proposed a plan for the improvement of library
services outlined in a five-stage draft: (1)
regular meetings; (2) cooperative organization
and cataloguing; (3) the compilation of a union
catalog and a union list; (4) the publication of a
monthly listing of combined acquisitions; and (5)
cooperation with other government agencies.
The implementation of this plan was assigned to
a new department, the Interdepartmental
Reference Service (IDRS), which spearheaded
the establishment of the Association of Special
Libraries of the Philippines (ASLP) in 1954.
At the turn of the millennium, the collections
and services of Philippine libraries reflect both
the national identity and the country's level of
technical development. Much still needs to be
done. The enthusiasm of a few can change a
country when their efforts are channeled into
training, cooperation, and association. And a
strong will is necessary when circumstances are
most trying.