“Missionaries of the Book” or “Central Intelligence” Agents: Gender and Ideology in the Contest for Library Education in Twentieth-Century America

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the early twentieth century American librarians laid a foundation for professional education that emphasized knowledge of literary books. However, already by the 1920s, a growing emphasis on providing useful information challenged leading librarians' concentration on reading in claiming intellectual dominance and practical resources. Professionally educated librarians shifted their disciplinary allegiance from the humanities to the social sciences and reinvented themselves from “missionaries of the book” to expert managers and “central intelligence” agents, a move that also called into question the profession's feminization. This article traces the history of this tension and suggests that late twentieth-century developments have provided scope for a renewed role for the humanities and a reconsideration of gender in education for librarianship.

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