Holding the Key to the Hall of Democracy: Professional Education for Librarianship in Toronto, 1882-1936

The history of women's higher or professional education in the mid-nineteenth century is an expanding field. A great deal of study has been done on the traditional fields of teaching, nursing and social work. However, education for librarianship has been largely overlooked by educational historians in Canada. Most of what research exists has been done by people in the field; librarians or those responsible for educating them. It is hoped that this study will contribute to the larger body of educational history. My focus falls mainly on the education for librarianship in Toronto from 1882 to 1936. In these years the Toronto Public Library opened, trained its own staff and supported the Provincial Training School for Librarians. This Library School was run, without fee, for the benefit of public librarians by the Department of Education. It operated initially as a short summer course which gradually grew to become a full year course at the University of Toronto. At the University, education in Library Science was not a degree program until 1936. It is the object of this study to situate education for librarianship at the University of Toronto, the Library School and the Toronto Public Library within the larger environment of the Public Library Movement and the training of librarians in North America. It is my belief and the premise of this work that significant professional education occurred in the years before the first Bachelor of Library Science was conferred by the University of Toronto.