Library Institute- N.D.E.A.

HISTORICAL SKETCH

The National Defense Education act ( NDEA ) Institute, Library Service for the Deaf, Public Law 85-864 provided support for School Library Institutes.  It was recognized that many elementary school libraries were not served by full time professionally trained librarians so "services to children and the teaching staff are diminished."

As the final report on the NDEA institute held at Gallaudet College in the summer of 1965 and 1966 indicates, Mr. Marshall Hester, Mr. Ralph Hoag, and Dr. George Detmold conferred with Mrs. Lucille Pendell with the outcome of a decision to petition for an institute for library personnel from school and programs for the deaf children.  Not only were libraries for many schools for the deaf small or non-existent, but also collections were weak, sometimes appropriate for the special needs of deaf children.  Moreover, "librarians" were often part-time and untrained.

In 1965, Twenty-seven eligible people attended the institute from July 5th through August 13th.  Also in 1966 thirty-seven people attendees the institute from June 27th through August 5th. 

Before the close of the institute the participants elected officers giving them the charge of developing a constitution for an organization that would motivate professional contact with each other, draw other school librarians into the fold, and to continue professional growth though exchange of information.  This group became known as School Librarians for the Deaf Association ( SLDA ) but later revised its constitutions to include media specialists.  This organization is now known as Association of Resource Personnel Serving the Hearing Impaired ( ARPSHI ).

SCOPE AND CONTENT

This collection of materials includes grant proposal, contract, planning documents, implementation materials, correspondence, and fiscal data about the NDEA institute, Library Services for the Deaf, held at Gallaudet College, Summer of 1965 and 1966. 

The instructional material in the files is limited to essays and hand-outs but schedules and the personal folders of some of the instructors reveal details of what is covered in their lectures, and what reading  they expect participants to do, and also revealing is the plan of Operation as well as the final report.

One of the outcomes of this institute was the establishment of the School Librarians of the Deaf Association (SLDA).  A listing of the first officers with the charge to write a constitution can be found in box with evaluations.

FOLDER LIST