This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first course in library methods offered at the Geneseo Normal School.
Geneseo Normal School was one of only three early normal schools in the United States to offer a program for the training of teacher-librarians.
Other Geneseo Library School “firsts”:
On June 1, 1950, alumni were invited back to Geneseo for a special Spring Departmental Dinner featuring Lois Lenski. The May 1950 issue of Alumni Notes announced that “You are coming back for a royal welcome from your faculty and the students at Geneseo.”
Library School alumni reunions traditionally took the form of a dinner at the annual NYLA conference. In later years (i.e., late 1970s & early 1980s), dinner was replaced with a reception or coffee hour.
From 1958 to 1977, the Library School (a division until 1967) sponsored the Mary C. Richardson annual lecture and featured such outstanding speakers as Marshall McLuhan (1970) and Archibald MacLeish (1972).
In 1967, in-state library school students paid tuition of $300 per semester; in 1973, they paid $600, and $850 in 1981. Today, in-state students pay around $2,175 per semester.
By 1980, the School of Library and Information Science was producing more than 100 MLS graduates per year.
In the early 1980s, the library’s computing power consisted of seven terminals connected to a single Burroughs B-6810 computer, located in Erwin and serving the entire college. The library subscribed to two online bibliographic services – BRS and Dialog – and all searches were mediated by librarians.
Some Geneseo Library School “lasts”: