Peter Johan Lor

The 1970s saw the publication of several noteworthy contributions to the theory and methodology of comparative librarianship. The first was Simsova and MacKee’s (1970) Handbook of comparative librarianship, a pioneering but ultimately disappointing work, of which a revised edition followed in 1975 (Simsova and MacKee 1975). I call it ‘disappointing’ because barely seventy of its 548 pages, “Part 1, Comparative librarianship and comparative method”, dealt with theory and methodology, and that rather superficially. Simsova was strongly influenced by pioneers of comparative education such as George Z.F Bereday (1964) and followed his rather mechanistic approach to comparisons between countries. The remaining 460 pages of the book is devoted to an eclectic “Guide to sources”, contributed by MacKee, and organized mainly by country. Nevertheless, this book was influential in stimulating international and comparative librarianship studies in the United Kingdom.

The second work that should be mentioned is an entry on “Comparative Librarianship” by Dorothy Collings in the Encyclopedia of library and information science (Collings 1971). Collings pioneered the teaching of the subject in the USA, where she taught it as Columbia University from 1956-1971. For her course she had developed an “Outline  for the study of a foreign library system”, which was later reprinted by Simsova (1982). This inventory is still useful, albeit very outdated. After Columbia she returned to Jamaica, where she established a library science course at the University of the West Indies.  Her career and influence have been discussed by Jackson (2001).

Joseph Periam Danton (1908-2002) (C) Guggenheim Foundation

Having missed the anniversaries of these two pioneering works, I come to a true golden jubilee, that of J. Periam Danton’s Dimensions of comparative librarianship (Danton 1973).

Joseph Periam Danton (1908-2002) had a long and distinguished career in library education and international librarianship. The latter should be no surprise, given his educational and working background. His parents were German language educators who moved to Beijing in 1916 and stayed there for ten years. In 1924 he enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio to study German. He spent an academic year in Leipzig, Germany, where his parents were then teaching. After graduating with a BA in German, Danton obtained a BS in Library Science at the library school of Columbia University. He then studied part-time for a master’s degree in German. In 1930 he was recruited by the ALA as secretary to its chief executive, Carl Milam, who was active in IFLA and in other international initiatives. Continue reading →