1. BIOGRAPHY
Jesse Hauk Shera (8 Dec. 1903-8 Mar. 1982), internationally
respected librarian and library educator and dean of the School of
Library Science at Western Reserve University(subsequently Case
Western Reserve University, was born in Oxford, Ohio, the son of
Charles H. and Jessie (Hauk) Shera. He received an A.B. from Miami
University (Ohio) in 1925, an A.M. from Yale in 1927, and a Ph.D.
from the University of Chicago in Library Science in 1944. He
became dean of the Library School at WRU in 1952, having worked
for the Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems
(1928-40), Library of Congress (1940-41), Office of Strategic Services
(1941-44), and as associate director of the library and associate
professor of library science at the University of Chicago. As dean of
WRU Library School, Shera helped found the Ctr. for
Documentation & Communication Research which did pioneering
research in automated information storage and retrieval and
machine literature searching, and of which Shera became director in
1959.

2. Shera was president of the Ohio Library Assoc. and on
advisory commissions to the Census Bureau, Education
Office, and Natl. Science Foundation. He represented the
U.S. government in Europe and Latin America at
international conferences on documentation and
librarianship, served on the President Lyndon Johnson's
Commission on Employment of the Handicapped and the
Cleveland Mayor's Commission on Employment of the
Handicapped. Shera was dean of the Library School until
1970; in 1972 he was appointed dean and professor
emeritus. Shera married Helen M. Bickham and had 2
children, Mary (Baum) and Edgar B.

3. CONTRIBUTION:
Shera’s contribution to reference services through the major writings on
bibliographic organizations began in collaboration with Margaret Egan, with
whom he published conference papers with the title Bibliographic Organization
(1950), contributed by the most eminent national and international scholars in
the area. Shera’s own paper dealt with classification. Reviewing the history of
library classification, beginning from Aristotle to Comte, Shera reached for a
principle that “classification is basic to bibliographic organization.” From this
Shera argued for “divorcing classification from hierarchical order because
such a single-faceted arrangement failed to account for multifarious relations
in a book.”
Throughout his professional life, Shera was a prolific writer. Although he held
successive positions in international organizations, government and academia,
it was primarily as an author that he exercised an enduring influence on
library and information science profession in general, and reference services
in particular. His Introduction to Library Science (1976) is still one of the
world’s most widely-used texts for the reference services profession, and it has
been translated into many languages, including Russian.
Shera defined “the true essence of librarianship” as “the maximization of the
effective use of graphic records for any purpose that contributes to the dignity,
beauty, and strength of human endeavor.” Over and again, he asserted his
thesis that the library must derive its goals and practices from the needs and
goals of society.

4. ACADEMIC
LIBRARIES

5. Academic libraries is a library that is attached to academic
institutions above the secondary level, serving the teaching and
research needs of students and staff.[1] These libraries serve two
complementary purposes: to support the school's curriculum,
and to support the research of the university faculty and
students. There are the libraries in community colleges in four-
year colleges, and there are the central libraries in the
universities and the more specialized libraries in colleges within
the universities. In each kind of institution, the purposes, staff,
buildings, program of services, equipment, and physical
facilities of the library are determined by the extent and nature
of the curriculum, the size of the faculty and student body, the
methods of instruction, the variety of graduate offerings, the
needs of faculty and graduate of financial support, and whether
or not the library is a part of an area, state or regional
cooperative system which certain materials, equipment and
services may be shared.

6. FUNCTION
AND
ORGANIZATION

7. Academic libraries is a library that is
attached to academic institutions above the
secondary level, serving the teaching and
research needs of students and staff.[1]
These libraries serve two complementary
purposes: to support the school's
curriculum, and to support the research of
the university faculty and students.

8. 1. It selects and acquires books and materials through purchases and gifts.
2. It prepares these materials for the use of students, faculty, and others who
require them. This preparation includes:
a. Classifying materials according to the classification system in use by the
library
b. Cataloguing these materials, that is, providing descriptive information
about each other one as to author, title, facts of publication, number of pages,
illustrative material, and subject matter
c. Stamping, pasting, typing and lettering
3. It makes these materials easily accessible physically through open shelves
or other efficient means and bibliographically through catalogs,
bibliographies, indexes, and thesauri.
4. It circulates materials from the general collection and from the reserve
collection.

9. 5. It gives reference service.
6. It offers both formal and informal instruction in the use of the library.
7. It borrows and lends materials on interlibrary loan.
8. It provides adequate and comfortable physical facilities for study, including
carrels for private study and such aids as typing facilities and photocopying
devices which are operated by users or by the library staff. In some libraries,
especially in community college libraries, facilities for graphic, photographic,
audio, and video production are provided.
9. It may make bibliographical searches by computer.
10. It administers the total library program, including the budget, the
organization and supervision of the various library activities, the
maintenance of the building and equipment, and the public relations
activities.

10. KINDSOF
MATERIALS
PROVIDED

11. The quantity and diversity of library materials will vary according to the size,
purpose, and the program of the college, but in most college libraries
materials will include:
1. Reference sources of a general nature and reference sources in the subject
fields, with emphasis upon the subject areas included in the instructional
program. These reference sources include dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes,
yearbooks, handbooks, atlases, gazetteers, bibliographies, reference histories
like the Cambridge Ancient History and the Cambridge History of American
Literature and non-book sources such as microforms.
2. A collection of materials containing:
a. Book and non-book materials which relate to and supplement each
curriculum offered, such as history, education, foreign languages and
mathematics.
b. Important general materials not relating to a specific subject area and
important sources in subject fields not included in the college curriculums
c. Books and non-book materials for voluntary and recreational reading,
viewing, and listening
3. Periodicals and newspapers current issues, bound volumes, and issues on
microfilm and microfiche.

12. 5. Audiovisual materials, which include pictures, motion picture films, slides
filmstrips, music phonograph records, tape and disk recordings, maps, globes
cassettes, videotapes, and videocassettes.
6. Microfilm, micro cards, microfiche, and other microforms.
7. Government publications.
8. Programmed materials.
9. Archival materials pertaining to the institution.
10. Equipment for the use of these materials, such as microreaders and
listening and viewing equipment.
11. Terminals for on-line catalog and other searches- computer or CD-ROM.

13. STAFF
The academic library is administered and staffed by professional
librarians who have a broad, general education and the specializations
which are required in each area of service offered by the library, such
as specialties in the subject fields, in languages, in audiovisual and
other non-book materials, in guidance of readers, and in computer and
other technologies. They have an understanding of the educational
philosophy and teaching methods of the institution and work with the
faculty in selecting and evaluating materials to support the
instructional program. They keep up with trends in higher education,
curriculum development, methods of teaching, and new materials and
new sources of materials. They may teach a course in their specialty
and they may participate in team teaching.

14. Types of
Academic
Libraries

15. Community college library
The public community college is designed to meet the needs of
the high school graduate who may not choose to go to a four-
year college but must have additional education and training to
prepare for a vacation, to update occupational skills, or to
acquire new skills. It also provides for the needs of the students
who will continue formal education at a four-year institution.
The community (junior) college library must provide the
materials and services to support each of the programs offered
general education, vocational, technical, semiprofessional, and
adult education- and to serve the needs of the widely different
students who enroll in these courses and the faculty members
who teach them. The community college library may provide
cultural activities for the entire community and often serves as a
center for community affairs.

16. Community Library

17. UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
A university has a liberal arts college; it offers a
program of graduate study; usually it has two or
more professional schools or faculties; and it is
empowered to confer degrees in various fields of
study. The university library may be a central
library which serves all students—undergraduate
as well as graduate.

18. University Library

19. RULES AND REGULATIONS
In order that all students will have equal opportunity
to use the library materials, certain rules and
regulations are established in all libraries. These rules
govern the kinds of materials which are circulated, the
length of time they can be borrowed, the fines charged
for overdue books, the use of library facilities—
reading rooms,
Listening rooms, conference rooms, and other special
areas—interlibrary loans, photocopiers, computer
searches, and the hours of service.

20. ORIENTATION VISIT
A part of the first-year orientation program in
most colleges and universities is a visit to the
library. In many libraries students are given a
handbook which includes information about
the physical arrangement of the library, the
kinds of materials it provides, the
classification system in use, the nature of the
library catalog, the rules governing the use of
the library, and the schedule of the hours the
library is open.