Critical Conversations: bridging pathways forward to greater understanding and creative solutions.

History

Our Location

The School of Information resides on Mannahatta—which translates in the Lenape language to “hilly island”—and is part of Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape people. Lenapehoking extends beyond what we would consider the greater NYC area. Please visit Pratt Institute’s Living Land Acknowledgement to learn more about our location.

A photo of the School of Information facade.
An old sepia-toned archival photograph of students sitting in a classroom studying.

Early Background

The School of Information offers the oldest Library and Information Science (LIS) program in North America. Its roots trace back to 1890, a few years after Pratt Institute’s founding in 1887, when it began offering courses in cataloging and library economics. Trained librarians were needed because founder Charles Pratt also created the Pratt Institute Free Library, which offered library services to the Brooklyn public. The library was open to the Brooklyn public until 1940, at which point public library services were subsumed in-full by the Brooklyn Public Library.

The American Library Association (ALA) accredited the LIS program in the 1924/1925 academic year, making it part of a group of six programs originally accredited by ALA that continue through today.

An archival scan of a student enrollment sheet from 1890.
An archival color photograph of about fifteen students studying in a classroom.

Women Leaders

Early innovators of the School include Mary Wright Plummer, who was a graduate of Melvil Dewey’s class of 1888 from Columbia University, who took lead of the School in 1895. She was the second woman president of the ALA. In 1911 when Plummer left to direct the Training School at New York Public Library, Josephine Adams Rathbone was appointed vice-director, allowing her to lead the School while Library director Edward F. Stevens took charge of the Library. She also became a president of the ALA.

An old archival black and white photograph from the early 20th century of two women.
An old archival black and white photograph from the early 20th century of a twenty-five person class. Twenty-four of the people in the photograph are women.

Pioneer in Children’s Librarianship

When Pratt Institute opened its new library building in 1896, it included the first children’s room in America to be planned for in the architecture and built. Director Mary Wright Plummer hired Anne Carrol Moore to run the children’s room. Under Moore’s leadership, a course in children’s librarianship was introduced in 1899. Moore went on to be Superintendent of the New York Public Libraries Department of Work with Children in 1911, a role she held until 1941. She is often credited with creating the field of Children’s Librarianship.

An old archival black and white photograph from the early 20th century of a twenty-six person class. All of the people in the photograph are women.
An archival color photograph of about fifteen students studying in a classroom.

From Brooklyn to Manhattan

The School was run from the third floor of the Pratt Institute Library for 78 years. To alleviate space constraints on the Library and School, the School moved into a redesigned building in 1974—the Information Science Center (ISC)—which still bears that name. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Clinton Hill neighborhood of the Brooklyn campus—as well as many parts of New York City—deteriorated significantly, plagued with high crime and financial exigencies. By the 1990s, to better attract students and also allow them to work in Manhattan and take classes in the evening, many LIS classes were being held in Manhattan, specifically at the Puck building on Houston Street. In 2002, the School relocated entirely to the Pratt Manhattan Center at 144 West Fourteenth Street.

A scan of a document from 1990 with the masthead,
A photograph of the School of Information's facade in Manhattan.

Name Changes

The name of the School has evolved over the decades. Originally called the “Library School,” the name was updated in 1968 to include “Information Science” and thus reflect this evolution in the field. The name evolved again in the 1980s to “School of Computing, Information and Library Science” after the School absorbed the Computer Science program. After, the School even ceased to be a school but rather a department within Pratt’s School of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In the early 1990s, the School was restored with the name “School of Information and Library Science,”  and in 2015, the School was again renamed to “School of Information” to reflect the broadening of programs available.

More Information

For more information on the history of the School of Information, please visit our Wikipedia page or consult the references below. Primary source information about the school, including photographs and other records, can be found at the Pratt Institute Archives.

REFERENCES