BIOGRAPHYJesse Hauk Shera (8 Dec. 1903-8 Mar. 1982), internationally respected librarian and library educator and dean of the School of Library Science at Western Reserve University(subsequently Case Western Reserve University, was born in Oxford, Ohio, the son of Charles H. and Jessie (Hauk) Shera. He received an A.B. from Miami University (Ohio) in 1925, an A.M. from Yale in 1927, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Library Science in 1944. He became dean of the Library School at WRU in 1952, having worked for the Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems (1928-40), Library of Congress (1940-41), Office of Strategic Services (1941-44), and as associate director of the library and associate professor of library science at the University of Chicago. As dean of WRU Library School, Shera helped found the Ctr. for Documentation & Communication Research which did pioneering research in automated information storage and retrieval and machine literature searching, and of which Shera became director in 1959.

Shera was president of the Ohio Library Assoc. and on advisory commissions to the Census Bureau, Education Office, and Natl. Science Foundation. He represented the U.S. government in Europe and Latin America at international conferences on documentation and librarianship, served on the President Lyndon Johnson's Commission on Employment of the Handicapped and the Cleveland Mayor's Commission on Employment of the Handicapped. Shera was dean of the Library School until 1970; in 1972 he was appointed dean and professor emeritus. Shera married Helen M. Bickham and had 2 children, Mary (Baum) and Edgar B.

CONTRIBUTION:Shera’s contribution to reference services through the major writings on bibliographic organizations began in collaboration with Margaret Egan, with whom he published conference papers with the title Bibliographic Organization (1950), contributed by the most eminent national and international scholars in the area. Shera’s own paper dealt with classification. Reviewing the history of library classification, beginning from Aristotle to Comte, Shera reached for a principle that “classification is basic to bibliographic organization.” From this Shera argued for “divorcing classification from hierarchical order because such a single-faceted arrangement failed to account for multifarious relations in a book.”  Throughout his professional life, Shera was a prolific writer. Although he held successive positions in international organizations, government and academia, it was primarily as an author that he exercised an enduring influence on library and information science profession in general, and reference services in particular. His Introduction to Library Science (1976) is still one of the world’s most widely-used texts for the reference services profession, and it has been translated into many languages, including Russian.  Shera defined “the true essence of librarianship” as “the maximization of the effective use of graphic records for any purpose that contributes to the dignity, beauty, and strength of human endeavor.” Over and again, he asserted his thesis that the library must derive its goals and practices from the needs and goals of society.     

ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

Academic libraries is a library that is attached to academic institutions above the secondary level, serving the teaching and research needs of students and staff.[1] These libraries serve two complementary purposes: to support the school's curriculum, and to support the research of the university faculty and students. There are the libraries in community colleges in four-year colleges, and there are the central libraries in the universities and the more specialized libraries in colleges within the universities. In each kind of institution, the purposes, staff, buildings, program of services, equipment, and physical facilities of the library are determined by the extent and nature of the curriculum, the size of the faculty and student body, the methods of instruction, the variety of graduate offerings, the needs of faculty and graduate of financial support, and whether or not the library is a part of an area, state or regional cooperative system which certain materials, equipment and services may be shared.

FUNCTION AND

ORGANIZATION

Academic libraries is a library that is attached to academic institutions above the secondary level, serving the teaching and research needs of students and staff.[1] These libraries serve two complementary purposes: to support the school's curriculum, and to support the research of the university faculty and students.

1. It selects and acquires books and materials through purchases and gifts.2. It prepares these materials for the use of students, faculty, and others who require them. This preparation includes:a. Classifying materials according to the classification system in use by the library b. Cataloguing these materials, that is, providing descriptive information about each other one as to author, title, facts of publication, number of pages, illustrative material, and subject matter c. Stamping, pasting, typing and lettering 3. It makes these materials easily accessible physically through open shelves or other efficient means and bibliographically through catalogs, bibliographies, indexes, and thesauri. 4. It circulates materials from the general collection and from the reserve collection.

5. It gives reference service.

6. It offers both formal and informal instruction in the use of the library.

7. It borrows and lends materials on interlibrary loan.

8. It provides adequate and comfortable physical facilities for study, including carrels for private study and such aids as typing facilities and photocopying devices which are operated by users or by the library staff. In some libraries, especially in community college libraries, facilities for graphic, photographic, audio, and video production are provided. 9. It may make bibliographical searches by computer.

10. It administers the total library program, including the budget, the organization and supervision of the various library activities, the maintenance of the building and equipment, and the public relations activities.

KINDSOF MATERIALS PROVIDED

The quantity and diversity of library materials will vary according to the size, purpose, and the program of the college, but in most college libraries materials will include: 1. Reference sources of a general nature and reference sources in the subject fields, with emphasis upon the subject areas included in the instructional program. These reference sources include dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, yearbooks, handbooks, atlases, gazetteers, bibliographies, reference histories like the Cambridge Ancient History and the Cambridge History of American Literature and non-book sources such as microforms.2. A collection of materials containing: a. Book and non-book materials which relate to and supplement each curriculum offered, such as history, education, foreign languages and mathematics. b. Important general materials not relating to a specific subject area and important sources in subject fields not included in the college curriculums c. Books and non-book materials for voluntary and recreational reading, viewing, and listening 3. Periodicals and newspapers current issues, bound volumes, and issues on microfilm and microfiche. 

5. Audiovisual materials, which include pictures, motion picture films, slides filmstrips, music phonograph records, tape and disk recordings, maps, globes cassettes, videotapes, and videocassettes. 6. Microfilm, micro cards, microfiche, and other microforms. 7. Government publications. 8. Programmed materials. 9. Archival materials pertaining to the institution. 10. Equipment for the use of these materials, such as microreaders and listening and viewing equipment. 11. Terminals for on-line catalog and other searches- computer or CD-ROM.  

STAFFThe academic library is administered and staffed by professional librarians who have a broad, general education and the specializations which are required in each area of service offered by the library, such as specialties in the subject fields, in languages, in audiovisual and other non-book materials, in guidance of readers, and in computer and other technologies. They have an understanding of the educational philosophy and teaching methods of the institution and work with the faculty in selecting and evaluating materials to support the instructional program. They keep up with trends in higher education, curriculum development, methods of teaching, and new materials and new sources of materials. They may teach a course in their specialty and they may participate in team teaching. 

Types of Academic Libraries

 

Community college libraryThe public community college is designed to meet the needs of the high school graduate who may not choose to go to a four-year college but must have additional education and training to prepare for a vacation, to update occupational skills, or to acquire new skills. It also provides for the needs of the students who will continue formal education at a four-year institution. The community (junior) college library must provide the materials and services to support each of the programs offered general education, vocational, technical, semiprofessional, and adult education- and to serve the needs of the widely different students who enroll in these courses and the faculty members who teach them. The community college library may provide cultural activities for the entire community and often serves as a center for community affairs.   

Community Library

UNIVERSITY LIBRARYA university has a liberal arts college; it offers a program of graduate study; usually it has two or more professional schools or faculties; and it is empowered to confer degrees in various fields of study. The university library may be a central library which serves all students—undergraduate as well as graduate.  

University Library

RULES AND REGULATIONSIn order that all students will have equal opportunity to use the library materials, certain rules and regulations are established in all libraries. These rules govern the kinds of materials which are circulated, the length of time they can be borrowed, the fines charged for overdue books, the use of library facilities—reading rooms,Listening rooms, conference rooms, and other special areas—interlibrary loans, photocopiers, computer searches, and the hours of service.  

ORIENTATION VISITA part of the first-year orientation program in most colleges and universities is a visit to the library. In many libraries students are given a handbook which includes information about the physical arrangement of the library, the kinds of materials it provides, the classification system in use, the nature of the library catalog, the rules governing the use of the library, and the schedule of the hours the library is open.