(21 September 1884 – 4 January 1961)

31 March 1999

Dr. John V. Richardson Jr., Professor

PHONE: (310) 206—9369

E—MAIL: JRICHARDQ@UCLA.EDU

INTERNET: HTTP://PURL.ORG/NET/JRICHARDSON

Department of Information Studies

Graduate School of Education and Information Science

University of California, Los Angeles, PO Box 951520

300 Circle Drive North, Suite 204

Los Angeles, CA 90095—1520

HUTCHINS, Margaret (21 Sept. 1884—4 Jan. 1961), librarian and professor, was born in Lancaster, New Hampshire, one of two children and the only daughter of Frank D. Hutchins, a flourishing attorney and banker, and Elizabeth Carleton Hutchins. Later in life, she was described as "a tall, raw—boned woman of dignified appearance who seemed younger than her years." Hutchins graduated from Lancaster High School and Academy in 1902 and enrolled in Smith College that fall. A double major in Greek (she could also read French, German, and Latin) and philosophy, Hutchins was a member of the Literary Society and the Philosophical Club. Upon her graduation with a Bachelor of Arts degree in June 1906, she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Hutchins promptly applied to the University of Illinois’ library school, studied with Frances Simpson (to whom she later dedicated her 1944 textbook), and was graduated with a Bachelor of Library Science with honors in June 1908. In evaluating her work there, Albert S. Wilson and Stella Bennett wrote: "Miss Hutchins has done good work showing care and thought. Does not write a very good library hand but does neat typing. Careful as to details." Invited to stay on at the University of Illinois’ library school as a lecturer, she also worked in the University Library: first as a reference assistant (1908—12), a library assistant in the Classics Department (1912—13), and as reference librarian from 1913 until 1927. During World War I she selected military books, compiled a bibliographies for the National Council of Defense, and entertained military personnel at Chanute Field. Writing about reference work in June 1923, she said: "One of the hardest things we have to do is to find out what a person wants." Her first book entitled Guide to the Use of Libraries: a Manual for College and University Students (co—authored with Alice S. Johnson and Margaret S. Williams) was published H.W. Wilson and went through five editions from 1920 to 1935.

An opportunity to teach at the 1926 and 1927 summer Chautauqua Institutes lead to her being offered the position of first assistant in the Queens Borough (New York) Public Library. In asking to be released from her post at Illinois, she wrote the head librarian, Phineas L. Windsor, "It offers the opportunity to teach reference to the training class as well as build up their reference work." Without a doubt, Windsor thought highly of Hutchins, for he wrote: "Miss Margaret Hutchins is about as good a reference librarian as I have ever known, and I have seen some good ones. She has an unusually keen mind, broad interests, a splendid knowledge of what we call reference material, is quick at catching new points of view, has good common sense, good judgment, and is herself a hard worker." During her three—year stint in New York, she was promoted to superintendent of branch reference work and instructor. Seeing the need for continuing her education, Hutchins accepted a Carnegie Fellowship and started work on her masters in librarianship at Columbia University, studying under Isadore Mudge (c.v.) and she became deeply influenced by Columbia Teachers College Dr. W. C. Bagley’s educational theories, especially the concept of the artist—teacher. Based on her first—hand observation of library practices in England and Ireland during the summer of 1930, her master’s thesis covered the historical aspects and organization of interlibrary loans in Great Britain.

In 1931, Hutchins joined the faculty of the School of Library Service at Columbia University as an instructor; she was promoted to assistant professor in 1935, associate in 1946, and she retired in 1953. During a search for a new dean, she wrote her long—time friend and mentor, Frances Simpson: "They will try to make me take over the direction of the library school and I have never hankered to run a library school—it’s too much work and responsibility. I had much rather just teach or run a reference department." Another telling insight into her thinking comes from this same letter: "Salary never had been so much in my mind as opportunity to try out my ideas."

In her 1937 Library Quarterly article, Hutchins articulates what may be for the first—time in print how reference librarians use "the power to analyze a question or problem and connect it, first, with the proper type of book [i.e., reference formats such as bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, or indexes] and, second, with the right individual book" in order to answer questions. In this same article, she also anticipated the need (which was not fulfilled for over twenty years) for "an analysis of just what features of the commonest reference books a reference librarian uses and a tabulation of the reference books most used."

The landmark work of her forty—four year career was the appearance of Introduction to Reference Work (American Library Association, 1944) which was reprinted at least six times and as recently as 1959. Not a revision of James I. Wyer’s earlier textbook, she intended it to deal, as she said: "with the principles and methods of reference work in general." In addition, it contains a fascinating subtext entitled "By Way of Introduction" on pages 1—8, which readers should not miss. Dedicated to Frances Simpson and Isadore Mudge, her now classic text emphasized method over materials or even detailed knowledge of the library user. In particular, she analyzed four types of reference questions: bibliographical, biographical, history and geography, and current information and statistical type questions. In her classroom, she employed the problem—discussion approach.

Frances Cheney, one of her early students, wrote: "Margaret Hutchins was a fine, thorough teacher, and although she intimidated her students with difficult examinations, she was fair in her assignments, and her lectures were clearly organized. Without the flair of Isadore Gilbert Mudge (q.v.) whose classes she took over when Miss Mudge gave them up, she nevertheless inspired her students with a desire to do careful reference work. She was withall [sic] quiet, modest, and pleasant in manner."

Upon her retirement from Columbia in 1952, she spent May to November at her Lancaster, New Hampshire summer home with its spectacular setting in the White Mountains and wintered at the House of the Holy Nativity, an Episcopalian convent. She died in the Southside Hospital, a Bay Shore, Long Island, facility on 4 January 1961.

Recognized as the "Hutchins heuristic," her reference method of classifying the question by type of source and then by specific title continues to serve modern—day American reference librarians as their foundational technique. Some of Hutchins' papers are extant in the archives at the University of Illinois and at Columbia University. There is no comprehensive, book—length assessment of her life as yet.

John V. Richardson Jr.

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