University of Chicago Graduate Library School

The University of Chicago Graduate Library School (GLS) was established in 1928 to develop a program for the graduate education of librarians with a focus on research. Housed for a time in the Joseph Regenstein Library, the GLS closed in 1989. GLS faculty were among the most prominent researchers in librarianship in the twentieth century. Alumni of the school have made a great impact on the profession including Tsuen-hsuin Tsien, Benjamin E. Powell, Charlemae Hill Rollins and Hugh Atkinson.In February 2016, Carla Hayden (PhD, 1987) was nominated by President Obama to serve as Librarian of Congress. She was confirmed in July 2016.

Early in the 20th century, the Carnegie Corporation of New York began offering grants to change the direction of library education and scholarship. Of particular interest was the creation of an institution analogous to the Harvard Law School or the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The result was a sensation: the 1926 endowment of a research-oriented program offering only the Ph.D. degree, With an emphasis on investigation fostered among students, studies conducted and conferences held at GLS provided a center for intellectual inquiry in the development of 20th century librarianship. The Library Quarterly, a scholarly journal focused on research, was launched in 1931 to provide an outlet for the publication of rigorous research.

The Graduate Library School (GLS) at the University of Chicago changed the structure and focus of education for librarianship in the twentieth century. Funded by the Carnegie Corporation the GLS set forth policies to establish an institution to educate students imbued with the spirit of investigation. Prior to establishment of the GLS education for librarians had been an apprenticeship model. Douglas Waples wrote of the policies that would differentiate “The Graduate Library School at Chicago” from schools in the apprenticeship mode.

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