Jesse Shera was an influential librarian and scholar born in 1903. He graduated from Miami University and Yale, then earned his PhD from the University of Chicago Graduate Library School. Shera held various librarian and teaching positions, making important contributions to the professionalization of librarianship. He established one of the first library and information science PhD programs and research centers. Shera was a prolific writer who developed the field of social epistemology and advocated for the application of technology in libraries. He had a lasting influence on library and information science before his death in 1982.

1. The Legacy of
Jesse Shera
Reaching Back to
Look Forward:
By Cynthia Bosak
Vincent Jew &
Hanako Moondance

2. Biography
 Born December 8, 1903 in Oxford, Ohio
 Graduated from Miami University with an B.A.
in English literature in 1925
 Graduated from Yale University with a M.A. in
English in 1927
 Married Helen M. Bickham in 1928 and had
two children
 Graduated from the University of Chicago,
Graduate Library School (GLS), with a Ph.D.
in 1944
 “Backed into the library profession”
 Prolific writer; remarkable given he was
visually impaired, making reading difficult
 Died March 8, 1982 in Cleveland, Ohio

3. Librarian Career
 1927: Unable to find a teaching position, he became an assistant
cataloger at Miami University’s library
 1928-1940: Became a bibliographer at Scripps Foundation for
Population Research
– Worked with a Hollerith Machine, a computing machine used to
compile and tabulate data electronically, using punch cards
 1938-1940: On leave to attend GLS
 1940-1941: Chief of the library census
project at the Library of Congress
 1941-1944: Assistant Chief, Central Information
Division of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)
– Supervised conventional library and picture collection
– Organized reports from various military services and censorship
intercepts

4. Librarian Career (continued)
 1944: Completed Ph.D. dissertation; became Chief of Preparation
and then Assistant Director at the University of Chicago Library
 1947: Became assistant professor at GLS, teaching courses on
American Library history, academic libraries, cataloging, library
administration and the theory of classification
 1951: Became associate professor with tenure
 1952: Became Dean of the School of Library Science (SLS) at
Western Reserve University (WRU), increasing faculty and library
graduate populations; reorganized the American Documentation
Institute (ADI), which eventually became the American Society for
Information Scientists
 1953: Editor of American Documentation
 1954-1959: Editor of Western Reserve University Press

5. Contributions to Librarianship
 1955: Established the Center for Documentation &
Communication Research (CDCR) with James Perry and Allen
Kent (information retrieval pioneers)
 1956: Established a doctoral program at SLS which served as a
model for other librarian schools (received a 3-year grant from the
Carnegie Corporation for the study of library education)
 1956: CDCR sponsored a conference on Practical Utilization of
Recorded Knowledge (PURK) with librarian and non-librarian
representatives discussing common problems
 1960-1971: Became CDCR director, created curriculum on
information storage and retrieval
 1961-1968: Wrote a column “Without
Reserve” in the Wilson Library Bulletin

6. Career & Contributions to
Librarianship (continued)
 1967: Remained Dean of the School of Library & Information
Science as WRU merged with Case Institute of Technology
 1970: Retired as Dean; remained as professor
 1970-1971: Visiting professor at University of Texas
 1972: Dean Emeritus at Case Western Reserve
 As a prolific writer & lecturer, Shera maintains an enduring
influence on the Library & Information Science profession
 Writings included: 11 books (wrote, edited or assisted editing), 45
book chapters, 10 reports, 108 periodical articles, 74 columns in
Wilson Library Bulletin, 29 editorials in American Documentation,
104 book reviews, 45 publications in Library Literature (some of
them reprints and collections); occupying 29 linear feet at the
Case Western Reserve University Archives in Cleveland, Ohio

7. Philosophies
 Wanted librarians to have a professional creed; to be more careful
and precise in answering patron’s questions
 Thought classification basic to bibliographic organization (1st
American to note that classification was used outside of libraries)
 Wanted automation and computers to be applied to library science
without losing sight of humanism of the profession; “Embrace the
technology but do not become its servant” (1976)
 Believed elements in American life contributed to the growth of the
public library as a social agency; society shapes libraries
 Developed a new discipline – social epistemology – with Margaret
Egan exploring ways society can access and perceive its
environment or information using bibliography, documentation and
librarianship, introduced in the article Foundations of a Theory of
Bibliography (April 1952 issue of Library Quarterly, 22:125-38).

8. Historical Context:
Professionalism in Librarianship
 Librarian position not actively thought of as a scholarly position
 1930’s -1940’s: varying types of library education available based
on previous and continuing education levels
 Disparities in education received from programs and thus difficulty
to award same degrees to students of the field
 Absence of cohesive education for librarianship across the board
 Standards adopted in 1925, updated in 1933; one of few written
forms regarding consistent librarianship though lacking thorough
terms
 New terms not created until 1951 and applied in accreditation
visits to schools in 1953

9. Historical Context: Organization of
Information and Use of Resources
 “The library problem, like the problem of education, is not storage
but retrieval” (Shera, 1973)
 American Documentation Institution previously focusing on
microphotography, microfilm as resources
 Microfilm effective tool for space conservation, but not access,
retrieval and dissemination
 Libraries coming together in order to
share information (i.e. ILL) thus creating
need for optimal organizational systems

10. Legacy
 JESSE is the primary email discussion list used by
librarian and information science educators in his honor
 ALA LRRT(Library Research Round Table) Research
Award (1975-1986)
– The award was established by the Library Research Round
Table to honor excellence in library research.
– $500 award given annually
 Jesse H. Shera Award for Research (1988-1995)
– After Jesse Shera’s death in 1982, LRRT obtained permission
from his family to use the Shera name.
– In 1996 and 1997 no worthy winners were found thus a new
award was formed.

11. Legacy (continued)
 Jesse H. Shera Award for Distinguished
Published Research (1998-current)
– Honoring exemplary publications in the field of
library science
 Jesse H. Shera Award for the Support of
Dissertation Research(1998-current)
– 2012 winner was Victor J. Sensenig for his
dissertation “Public Libraries and Literacy in
Ecological Perspective”

12. Learning Points
 Use technology to your benefit and that of your
“customers” rather than allowing it to use you
 Perseverance prevails
 Society does shape libraries: digital has made
a world of difference
 Master the basics first, then “tweak” them
 Librarianship is customer diven, not data or
technology driven

13. References
 Carroll, C.E. (1970). The professionalization of education for
librarianship: With special reference to the years 1940-1960.
Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press.
 Farkas-Conn, I.S. (1990). From documentation to information
science: The beginnings and early development of the American
Documentation Institute-American Society for Information
Science. Contributions in Librarianship and Information Science,
67. Retrieved from www.asis.org.
 Garraty, J. & Carnes, M. (Eds.). (1999). American national
biography. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
 LRRT’s Shera Research Awards Recipients. Retrieved from
http://www.ala.org/offices/ors/orsawards/sherawinners

14. References
 Shera, J.H. (1953). Historians, books and libraries: A survey of
historical scholarship in relation to library resources, organization
and services. Cleveland, OH: Western Reserve University.
 Shera, J. H. (1973). Knowing books and men; Knowing
computers, too. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
 Wiegand, Wayne A. (Ed.). (1990). Supplement to the dictionary of
American library biography (Vol. 1) Englewood, CO: Libraries
Unlimited.
 Pictures from www.weebly.com, www.likrakauer.com,
www.nypl.org and www.case.edu respectively.