Charles H. Stevens
Charles H. Stevens (b. 1924) was an American librarian.
Life
Charles H. 'Chuck' Stevens was born December 10, 1924 in Chicago. He served as First Lieutenant in US Army Ordnance Corps in the Pacific Theater of Operations, 1943-1946. He studied English 1942-1943 & 1946-1949 at Principia College, in Elsah, IL (AB, 1949) and then engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (later renamed the New York University Tandon School of Engineering). He received a BS (1952) and an MA (1955) in Library Science at the University of North Carolina.
His interests included: computer techniques, administration, space and building planning, and information transfer. He believed information was a natural resource and was committed to information resource sharing via a national network.
Stevens worked at the University of North Carolina library, 1951-52, was Librarian, US Air-Ground Operations School in North Carolina, 1952-54, then Librarian, Aeronautical Engineering, Purdue University, 1954-56, then Assistant Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering 1957-59.
In 1959 he moved to MIT, where he was Director of library service, Lincoln Labs, MIT 1959-65; Director of library and publications, MIT, 1962-65; then Associate director for Library Development of Project Intrex and director of the Model Library Project, 1965-72.
Stevens was Executive Director of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, In 1972-1974, then of the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET), Atlanta.
Publications
- "Library pathfinders: A new possibility for cooperative reference service." With M. P. Canfield & J. J. Gardner. College & Research Libraries 34, no. 1 (Jan.1973): 40-46. [1]
- "Governance of Library Networks." Library Trends 26, no, 2 (Fall 1977): 219-240.
Contributions
Stevens was involved with INTREX Pathfinders, self-guided leaflets for library searching, which once developed, could be adapted for other libraries. Each was concerned with a specific topic and were based on the assumption that readers' questions are of four types: directional; ready reference; search; and library instruction (use). "The Library Pathfinder is a kind of map to the resources of the library; it is an information locator for the library user whose search for recorded materials on a subject of interest is just beginning. A compact guide to the basic sources of information specific to the user's immediate needs, it is a step-by-step instructional tool that will, if followed, place before the user those items that the most skilled reference librarian would suggest as basic to an initial investigation to the topic." (Stevens & others 1973, p. 42).
Offices
- Special Libraries Association. Chairman, Science and Technology Division, 1965-66.
Further reading
- A biographical directory of librarians in the United States and Canada. 5th ed. Lee Ash, ed. Chicago: American Library Association, 1970, p 1051.