Historically Black College Closes its Library Studies Program

Colin Dube looks forward to graduation in May with mixed feelings. The Clark Atlanta University (CAU) graduate student will receive his master's degree in library and information studies. However, the celebration will be bittersweet.

This spring will be the last for Clark Atlanta's School of Library and Information Studies. The university's Board of Trustees voted in October 2003 to phase out the school as part of various cost-cutting measures to eliminate a $7.5 million deficit.

It is one of 52 library education programs nationwide, the only one in Georgia accredited by the American Library Association (ALA) and one of only two at historically Black universities - the other is at North Carolina Central University. According to the latest ALA figures, African Americans represented 5 percent of the 4,119 library school graduates in the 2001-2002 academic year.

"The school is so important - not only to Georgia and Atlanta, but to the library community," says ALA president Carol Brey-Casiano. "Our society is becoming more diverse, and I feel that our library staffs should reflect our communities. If we cannot attract and educate more African Americans and other people of color in our profession, it will be a great tragedy for our country."

Clark Atlanta established its library and information studies program in 1941. Its first dean, Eliza Atkins Gleason, was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in library science. The school has conferred almost 2,500 graduate degrees since it was first established.

In 1995, however, the ALA expressed concern about the program and in 2002 placed it on conditional accreditation. The university could not afford to provide the financial and faculty resources needed to bring the academic program "up to a standard of excellence," officials say. The 48 students who remain in the program will graduate in May, and the staff will be terminated.

"One of the lessons learned from right-sizing our university is that no institution can be everything to everyone, and tough choices have to be made to ensure that this university not only survives, but thrives with programs of excellence," CAU President Walter D. Broadnax says.

Brey-Casiano, however, disagrees that ALA's recommendations and requirements would have caused an undue financial burden. Most of the school 's funding comes from outside sources, she notes.

More important is the negative impact the program's demise will have on the number of future African American librarians, she says. Librarians are an integral part of society. Their skills are used not only in schools and public libraries, but also in businesses, government and hospitals.

Dube, president of the ALA's student chapter at CAU, also worries that in a field that already has too few African Americans, other schools will not be able to fill the void left by CAU.

"It's a shame. This school provided an education to students who might not otherwise have the opportunity," he says. "We're the last graduates. I'm honored to be a part of the legacy. But it's real sad that others like me won't have this opportunity."

- Connie Green Freightman

Copyright Crisis Publishing Company, Incorporated Jan/Feb 2005
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