TY - JOUR
AU - Charles I. Terbille
AB - The rivalry between Pierce Butler and other teachers at the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago has received little attention. Douglas Waples's pragmatic empiricism and Bernard Berelson's behavioral science apparently won over librarianship, yet even psychologists are today questioning some of their basic tenets. Butler anticipated most of these challenges. I examine specific disagreements about (1) interior phenomena, (2) unambiguous definitions, (3) uninterpreted observations, (4) replicability of findings, (5) organization and cumulation of knowledge, and (6) prediction and control of behavior. Butler accepted science, but severely limited its role in librarianship. He argued that the profession needed a humane "worldly wisdom" to determine what libraries can and should be.
BT - Libraries & Culture
IS - 3
LA - English
N2 - The rivalry between Pierce Butler and other teachers at the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago has received little attention. Douglas Waples's pragmatic empiricism and Bernard Berelson's behavioral science apparently won over librarianship, yet even psychologists are today questioning some of their basic tenets. Butler anticipated most of these challenges. I examine specific disagreements about (1) interior phenomena, (2) unambiguous definitions, (3) uninterpreted observations, (4) replicability of findings, (5) organization and cumulation of knowledge, and (6) prediction and control of behavior. Butler accepted science, but severely limited its role in librarianship. He argued that the profession needed a humane "worldly wisdom" to determine what libraries can and should be.
PY - 1992
SP - 296
EP - 319
T2 - Libraries & Culture
TI - Competing Models of Library Science: Waples-Berelson and Butler
VL - 27
ER -