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Dissertation Information for John Mark Tucker

NAME:
- John Mark Tucker

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (USA) (1983)

ADVISORS:
- Donald W. Krummel

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Winton U. Solberg
- Linda C. Smith
- Jerome Miller
- Kathyn Luther Henderson

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: LIBRARIANSHIP AS A COMMUNITY SERVICE: AZARIAH SMITH ROOT AT OBERLIN COLLEGE

Abstract: Azariah Smith Root served as Oberlin College Librarian from 1887 to 1927 in which capacity he succeeded well enough that obituaries referred to him as the "dean" of American college librarians. He built the largest collection for a college (as distinguished from a university) library in the nation. He taught courses in library use and he established and administered the Oberlin Public Library, which was united with the college library in 1908. His willingness to assume non-library duties on campus, such as budget planning and fund-raising, was a distinctive feature of his career. Service in other professional capacities included lecturing in library schools, presiding over professional organizations, and library consulting.

The thesis contends that to understand Root's contributions to academic libraries and his place in American librarianship, one must see him in relationship to his community. His career is examined in the context of his geographically-based communities--the college of Oberlin and the town of Oberlin, Ohio--and his experience-based communities--professional, historical, and political associations.

The study is based primarily on Root's correspondence, reports, and unpublished speech texts in the Oberlin College Archives, and, among others, the Rutherford B. Hayes Memorial Library in Fremont, Ohio and the American Library Association Archives at the University of Illinois. The study indicates that Root saw the library as an educational instrument, useful for the occupational improvement of workers, the political assimilation of immigrants, and the liberal training of students. It concludes that Root succeeded as a librarian because he came to understand, embody, and articulate the values of his various communities and that he often functioned as a reconciler of opposing views. Less satisfactorily, he tended to view libraries and society from the standpoint of Oberlin's somewhat parochial way of doing things and he emerges as a kind of exemplary leader for his own day rather than as a trailblazer for future library development.


MPACT Scores for John Mark Tucker

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:16:58

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Students under John Mark Tucker

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None