Jesse Shera
Encyclopedia
Jesse Hauk Shera was an American librarian
and information scientist
who pioneered the use of information technology
in libraries and played a role in the expansion of its use in other areas throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
He was born in Oxford, Ohio
on December 8, 1903, the only child of parents Charles, and Jessie Shera. His hometown of Oxford was a farming community and the home of Miami University
. Shera went to William McGuffey High School, and graduated in 1921. While attending high school he played the drums in the school band, was a member of the debate team, a cheerleader, and he was the senior class president. He lived in Oxford until after he obtained his undergraduate degree from Miami University
. In 1925 Miami University awarded Shera with a B.A. in English with honors. Shera later went on to earn a Masters Degree in English literature from Yale University
in 1927 and a Doctorate in library science
from the University of Chicago
in 1944, advised by Louis Round Wilson
with Pierce Butler
on his committee.
In the thirties, Shera was trying to convince the ALA
Bulletin to be a more serious journal, and for librarians to be more careful and precise in how they answered patron questions. In short, he was concerned with their level of professionalism. At that particular time, there was no “professional creed”, and this upset him, also.
He studied and wrote on the history and philosophy of libraries often, and considered the work of libraries to be one of humanistic endeavor.
As early as 1935, he was suggesting that college libraries should develop collective purchasing and interlibrary loan
systems. In addition, he suggested using microform
s for the same purposes that services like Lexis Nexis would eventually be created to perform cooperative cataloging, and reference.
From the very beginning of his career, Shera seemed to be entirely comfortable with whatever type of controversy came to hand. On librarian "neutrality", Shera warned in a 1935 address to the College and University Section of the American Library Association
In 1940 Shera accepted an appointment with the Library of Congress
as chief of the census library project. The next year he transferred to the Office of Strategic Services
, where he was deputy chief of the central information division of the research and analysis branch. In 1944 the same year Shera obtained his Doctorate in library science, he was named the associate director of libraries for the University of Chicago
. Throughout his time in this position Shera was the head of the preparations division, and then of readers’ services. He became a member of the University of Chicago
’s graduate school faculty as an assistant professor with the library school in 1947. Four years later he was promoted to associate professor. In 1949 Shera’s first book Foundations for the Public Library
; The Origins of the Public Library Movement in New England, 1629–1855, was published by the University of Chicago Press
. This book is generally accepted as a classic discussion of the social factors contributing to the emergence of tax-supported public libraries.
From 1950–1952 Shera was the chairman of the American Library Association
’s committee on bibliography. In 1952 Shera became dean of the library school of Western Reserve University
, expanding its faculty and adding a doctoral program within a few years. Under his leadership, the library school at Western Reserve became a leading contributor to the automation
of libraries over the next three decades. According to an excerpt from the Saturday Review (December 1, 1956) found in the Current Biography, Shera suggests that “through the use of many machines we are at the beginning of a new era: an age which may bring quite unheard of ways for the more effective communication of knowledge”.
Also in 1952 Shera took over as head of the American Documentation Institute
(ADI) (now the American Society for Information Science). Prior to 1952, that organization had been focused on refining the use of microfilm for the preservation and organization of documents; Shera turned its attention to applications of information technology
. In 1955 Shera teamed with James W. Perry and Alan Kent to found the Center for Documentation and Communication Research (CDCR), which advised industry, government and higher education on information systems. This center was the first of its kind to be associated with any library school, and became a resource for the research into new areas of education for library schools.
In the 1960s Shera designed a proposal for his project of “Social Epistemology
” Shera obtained this idea from Douglas Waples
of the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago
. Waples dealt with social effects of reading, and asked the basic questions of the new discipline that Shera named social epistemology. This new discipline is a study of the ways in which society can access and perceive its environment or information. It can also provide a framework for the production, flow, integration, and consumption of information throughout society. One of the most practical applications of social epistemology is in the library profession. A librarian aims to be an efficient mediator between man and his access to recorded knowledge. Tools to achieve this goal are classification schemes, subject headings, indexes, and other devices for the subject analysis of bibliographic units. In 1963–1964 Shera was the president of the Ohio Library Association. Shera served as president of the Association of American Library Schools from 1964–1965. This Association in now known as Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE).
He wrote and spoke about every type of librarianship from public to special and the history thereof. Of special interest to him was the effect that modern culture has had in the shaping of the modern library and the effect that libraries have had on their host societies in turn.
Shera wrote numerous books and articles and served as the editor of a number of library and information science related journals. Between 1947 and 1952 Shera was an associate editor for Library Quarterly,and from 1952 to 1955 he served as an advisory editor. Shera was also an editor for American Documentation from 1953 to 1959. He was an advisory editor of the Journal of Cataloging and Classification 1947-1957. He also served as editor of the Western Reserve University Press from 1954 to 1957.
Despite his work in advancing information science and the use of information technology in library contexts, throughout his career he was a consistent believer in the importance of sociological
and humanistic aspects to librarianship and information organization. Late in his career he came to believe that the "human side" of librarianship and information work in general faced a danger of being overshadowed by attention to technical matters as the information explosion
of the 1980s began to take shape.
Over the course of his life, Shera touched every aspect of Library science. He championed technology and stated “that the computer would revolutionize libraries” but urged careful use of it, rather than subservience to it. Shera saw the potential for technology in library science. “He tried to build information retrieval systems yet at the same time was a sober and sharp critic of the faddists, commercial hucksters, and techie boosters who would and often did take us down expensive and obscure roads on our way to the future.” At times, his articles almost seem to push entirely in one direction or the other, but taken as a whole he was fairly evenhanded. Proponents on both sides of the technology debate claimed him as their own, but he didn't seem to have any affinity for either extreme camp until at least the mid-seventies. Shera wrote of the progress made over the last century in 1976, in an article he wrote for the Library Journal entitled “Failure and Success: Assessing a Century”. This article can be summarized in saying that the new technology is leading librarians to analyze more thoroughly, and makes them ask if that is something that should be done. Shera states that it can be beneficial to librarianship so long as machines and the demands of machines are not allowed to determine the character of and the limitations upon our professional services. This technology is a great opportunity, but it is important to keep Shera’s advice in mind to not allow it to define the profession. This theme is repeated over and over across several years: ‘’Embrace the technology but do not become its servant’’.
Many of his books are actually compilations of essays or presentations, but there are a fair number of text books scattered through his life’s work.
JESSE, the primary email discussion list used by library and information science educators, is named in honor of Jesse Shera.
The American Library Association offers two awards in Shera’s name: the Jesse H. Shera Award for Distinguished Published Research, and the Jesse H. Shera Award for the Support of Dissertation Research. The first of these awards is given for research articles published in English during the calendar year, nominated by any member of LRRT or by the editors of research journals in the field of library and information studies. The second award is given to provide recognition and monetary support for dissertation research employing exemplary research design and methods.
Librarian
A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...
and information scientist
Information science
-Introduction:Information science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information...
who pioneered the use of information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
in libraries and played a role in the expansion of its use in other areas throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
He was born in Oxford, Ohio
Oxford, Ohio
Oxford is a city in northwestern Butler County, Ohio, United States, in the southwestern portion of the state. It lies in Oxford Township, originally called the College Township. The population was 21,943 at the 2000 census. This college town was founded as a home for Miami University. Oxford...
on December 8, 1903, the only child of parents Charles, and Jessie Shera. His hometown of Oxford was a farming community and the home of Miami University
Miami University
Miami University is a coeducational public research university located in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the 10th oldest public university in the United States and the second oldest university in Ohio, founded four years after Ohio University. In its 2012 edition, U.S...
. Shera went to William McGuffey High School, and graduated in 1921. While attending high school he played the drums in the school band, was a member of the debate team, a cheerleader, and he was the senior class president. He lived in Oxford until after he obtained his undergraduate degree from Miami University
Miami University
Miami University is a coeducational public research university located in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the 10th oldest public university in the United States and the second oldest university in Ohio, founded four years after Ohio University. In its 2012 edition, U.S...
. In 1925 Miami University awarded Shera with a B.A. in English with honors. Shera later went on to earn a Masters Degree in English literature from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1927 and a Doctorate in library science
Library science
Library science is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information resources; and the...
from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
in 1944, advised by Louis Round Wilson
Louis Round Wilson
Louis Round Wilson is an important figure to the field of library science, and is listed in “100 of the most important leaders we had in the 20th century,” an article in the December 1999 issue of American Libraries...
with Pierce Butler
Lee Pierce Butler
Lee Pierce Butler was a professor at the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago. He was one of the first to use the term "library science" Lee Pierce Butler (1884 – 1953) was a professor at the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago. He was one of the first to use the...
on his committee.
Career
In 1928 Shera returned to Miami University and took a temporary job in the library as an assistant cataloguer and later in the year took a job as a research associate and bibliographer with the Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems. He remained a part of this project through 1938. Shera hoped to become a college English teacher but never succeeded due to the depression and a lack of available teaching positions in colleges and universities. “In what he has called ‘an act of desperation on my part which the library profession has lived to regret,’ he decided to make librarianship his career.”In the thirties, Shera was trying to convince the ALA
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
Bulletin to be a more serious journal, and for librarians to be more careful and precise in how they answered patron questions. In short, he was concerned with their level of professionalism. At that particular time, there was no “professional creed”, and this upset him, also.
He studied and wrote on the history and philosophy of libraries often, and considered the work of libraries to be one of humanistic endeavor.
As early as 1935, he was suggesting that college libraries should develop collective purchasing and interlibrary loan
Interlibrary loan
Interlibrary loan is a service whereby a user of one library can borrow books or receive photocopies of documents that are owned by another library...
systems. In addition, he suggested using microform
Microform
Microforms are any forms, either films or paper, containing microreproductions of documents for transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about one twenty-fifth of the original document size...
s for the same purposes that services like Lexis Nexis would eventually be created to perform cooperative cataloging, and reference.
From the very beginning of his career, Shera seemed to be entirely comfortable with whatever type of controversy came to hand. On librarian "neutrality", Shera warned in a 1935 address to the College and University Section of the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
“ … Today we can ill afford to stand mutely behind our circulation desks, calmly handing out reserved books at the beck and call of an endless stream of students, blandly reaffirming our convictions of our own “academic detachment.” We may be rudely awakened some morning with the realization that we are the hapless and unwilling guardians of the propaganda of a fascist ‘’regime’’.”
In 1940 Shera accepted an appointment with the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as chief of the census library project. The next year he transferred to the Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
, where he was deputy chief of the central information division of the research and analysis branch. In 1944 the same year Shera obtained his Doctorate in library science, he was named the associate director of libraries for the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. Throughout his time in this position Shera was the head of the preparations division, and then of readers’ services. He became a member of the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
’s graduate school faculty as an assistant professor with the library school in 1947. Four years later he was promoted to associate professor. In 1949 Shera’s first book Foundations for the Public Library
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
; The Origins of the Public Library Movement in New England, 1629–1855, was published by the University of Chicago Press
University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style, dozens of academic journals, including Critical Inquiry, and a wide array of...
. This book is generally accepted as a classic discussion of the social factors contributing to the emergence of tax-supported public libraries.
From 1950–1952 Shera was the chairman of the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
’s committee on bibliography. In 1952 Shera became dean of the library school of Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
, expanding its faculty and adding a doctoral program within a few years. Under his leadership, the library school at Western Reserve became a leading contributor to the automation
Automation
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...
of libraries over the next three decades. According to an excerpt from the Saturday Review (December 1, 1956) found in the Current Biography, Shera suggests that “through the use of many machines we are at the beginning of a new era: an age which may bring quite unheard of ways for the more effective communication of knowledge”.
Also in 1952 Shera took over as head of the American Documentation Institute
American Documentation Institute
The American Documentation Institute was founded by Watson Davis in 1935 as Documentation Institute which changed its name to the American Documentation Institute in 1937...
(ADI) (now the American Society for Information Science). Prior to 1952, that organization had been focused on refining the use of microfilm for the preservation and organization of documents; Shera turned its attention to applications of information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
. In 1955 Shera teamed with James W. Perry and Alan Kent to found the Center for Documentation and Communication Research (CDCR), which advised industry, government and higher education on information systems. This center was the first of its kind to be associated with any library school, and became a resource for the research into new areas of education for library schools.
In the 1960s Shera designed a proposal for his project of “Social Epistemology
Social epistemology
Social epistemology is a broad set of approaches to the study of knowledge, all of which construe human knowledge as a collective achievement. Another way of positioning social epistemology is as the study of the social dimensions of knowledge. One of the enduring difficulties with defining social...
” Shera obtained this idea from Douglas Waples
Douglas Waples
Douglas Waples was a pioneer of the University of Chicago Graduate Library School in the areas of print communication and reading behavior. Waples authored one of the first books on library research methodology, a work directed at students supervised through correspondence courses...
of the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. Waples dealt with social effects of reading, and asked the basic questions of the new discipline that Shera named social epistemology. This new discipline is a study of the ways in which society can access and perceive its environment or information. It can also provide a framework for the production, flow, integration, and consumption of information throughout society. One of the most practical applications of social epistemology is in the library profession. A librarian aims to be an efficient mediator between man and his access to recorded knowledge. Tools to achieve this goal are classification schemes, subject headings, indexes, and other devices for the subject analysis of bibliographic units. In 1963–1964 Shera was the president of the Ohio Library Association. Shera served as president of the Association of American Library Schools from 1964–1965. This Association in now known as Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE).
He wrote and spoke about every type of librarianship from public to special and the history thereof. Of special interest to him was the effect that modern culture has had in the shaping of the modern library and the effect that libraries have had on their host societies in turn.
Shera wrote numerous books and articles and served as the editor of a number of library and information science related journals. Between 1947 and 1952 Shera was an associate editor for Library Quarterly,and from 1952 to 1955 he served as an advisory editor. Shera was also an editor for American Documentation from 1953 to 1959. He was an advisory editor of the Journal of Cataloging and Classification 1947-1957. He also served as editor of the Western Reserve University Press from 1954 to 1957.
Despite his work in advancing information science and the use of information technology in library contexts, throughout his career he was a consistent believer in the importance of sociological
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
and humanistic aspects to librarianship and information organization. Late in his career he came to believe that the "human side" of librarianship and information work in general faced a danger of being overshadowed by attention to technical matters as the information explosion
Information explosion
The information explosion is the rapid increase in the amount of published information and the effects of this abundance of data. As the amount of available data grows, the problem of managing the information becomes more difficult, which can lead to information overload. The Online Oxford English...
of the 1980s began to take shape.
Over the course of his life, Shera touched every aspect of Library science. He championed technology and stated “that the computer would revolutionize libraries” but urged careful use of it, rather than subservience to it. Shera saw the potential for technology in library science. “He tried to build information retrieval systems yet at the same time was a sober and sharp critic of the faddists, commercial hucksters, and techie boosters who would and often did take us down expensive and obscure roads on our way to the future.” At times, his articles almost seem to push entirely in one direction or the other, but taken as a whole he was fairly evenhanded. Proponents on both sides of the technology debate claimed him as their own, but he didn't seem to have any affinity for either extreme camp until at least the mid-seventies. Shera wrote of the progress made over the last century in 1976, in an article he wrote for the Library Journal entitled “Failure and Success: Assessing a Century”. This article can be summarized in saying that the new technology is leading librarians to analyze more thoroughly, and makes them ask if that is something that should be done. Shera states that it can be beneficial to librarianship so long as machines and the demands of machines are not allowed to determine the character of and the limitations upon our professional services. This technology is a great opportunity, but it is important to keep Shera’s advice in mind to not allow it to define the profession. This theme is repeated over and over across several years: ‘’Embrace the technology but do not become its servant’’.
Many of his books are actually compilations of essays or presentations, but there are a fair number of text books scattered through his life’s work.
JESSE, the primary email discussion list used by library and information science educators, is named in honor of Jesse Shera.
The American Library Association offers two awards in Shera’s name: the Jesse H. Shera Award for Distinguished Published Research, and the Jesse H. Shera Award for the Support of Dissertation Research. The first of these awards is given for research articles published in English during the calendar year, nominated by any member of LRRT or by the editors of research journals in the field of library and information studies. The second award is given to provide recognition and monetary support for dissertation research employing exemplary research design and methods.
Books by Jesse Shera (a partial list)
- Introduction to library science: basic units of library service. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1976 ISBN 0872871738
- Knowing books and men; knowing computers too. Littleton, Colo., Libraries Unlimited, 1973 ISBN 0872870731
- The foundations of education for librarianship. New York, Becker and Hayes 1972 ISBN 0471785202
- "The complete librarian"; and other essays. Cleveland, Press of Western Reserve University, 1971, 1979 ISBN 0829501932
- Sociological foundations of librarianship. New York, Asia Pub. House 1970 ISBN 0210222832
- Documentation and the organization of knowledge. Hamden, Conn., Archon Books, 1966
- Libraries and the organization of knowledge. London, C. Lockwood 1965
- An epistemological foundation for library science. Cleveland, Press of Western Reserve University, 1965
- Information resources: a challenge to American science and industry. Cleveland, Press of Western Reserve Univ. 1958
- The classified catalog: basic principles and practices. Chicago, American Library Association, 1956
- Documentation in action / Jesse H. Shera, Allen Kent, James W. Perry [editors]. New York : Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1956.
- Historians, books and libraries: a survey of historical scholarship in relation to library resources, organization and services. Cleveland, Press of Western Reserve University, 1953
- Bibliographic organization. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1951
- Foundations of the public library: the origins of the public library movement in New England, 1629–1855. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1952, 1949
- An eddy in the western flow of America culture. Ohio state archæological and historical quarterly. --Columbus, O., 1935.
- The age factor in employment, a classified bibliography, by J.H. Shera ... Bulletin of bibliography and dramatic index. --Boston : Boston Book Co., 1931-32.
Further reading
- H. Curtis Wright. Jesse Shera, librarianship and information science. Provo, Utah : School of Library and Information Sciences, Brigham Young University (1988)
- John V. Richardson Jr., The Spirit of Inquiry: The Graduate Library School at Chicago, 1921-1951. Foreword by Jesse Shera. Chicago: American Library Association, 1982.
- John V. Richardson Jr., The Gospel of Scholarship: Pierce Butler and A Critique of American Librarianship. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1992. xv, 350 pp.