Robert Saxton Taylor
Robert Saxton Taylor (1918-2009) was an influential American library scholar.
Life
Robert Saxton Taylor was born on June 15, 1918 in Ithaca, NY. He studied history (AB) at Cornell University 1935-1941; civil engineering at Virginia Polytechnic, 1943-44; library service (MSLS) at Columbia University, 1949-1950; and an MA in history at Lehigh University, 1951-1954. He was also a newspaper reporter in Lufkin, Texas, 1941-1942 and served in the US Army, 1944-1945, and Army intelligence, 1945-1947.
Taylor worked Lehigh University from 1950 in the library and from 1962 to 1967 as director of information science at Lehigh University. From 1967 to 1972 he was professor and and director of the Library Center at Hampshire College, in Amherst, Massachusetts, a new experimental liberal arts college that stressed students' self-directed learning.
In 1972 Taylor joined the faculty of Syracuse University School of Library Science, later School of Information Studies, from 1972 to 1983, serving as dean between 1972 and 1981. He died on January 1, 2009.
Contributions
One of his most memorable accomplishments at the school was changing its name from library science to the more comprehensive information studies. "The change in name is not a cosmetic cover, but a recognition that the activities and courses we presently have can no longer be called library science," he said at the time. "Simply put, 'information studies' better represents what we are doing and the direction we are going." Taylor founded the nation's first master's degree in information resource management (which is now called information management) in 1980.
Publications
Google Scholar lists numerous publications by Taylor.
- Question-Negotiation and Information-Seeking in Libraries (Studies in the Man-System Interface in Libraries, Report Number 3). Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University, Center for the Information Sciences, 1967. Also AD 659 468. Reprinted in College & Research Libraries 76, no 3 (Mar 2015): 251-267. [1]
- Value-added processes in information systems. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1986.
- The making of a library; the academic library in transition. New York: Becker and Hayes, 1972.
Offices
- American Documentation Institute / Society for Information Science. Executive Council 1959-61; President, 1968.
Awards
- Society for Information Science Best Information Science Book, 1972; Award of Merit, 1992.
- Fulbright Lecturer, 1956.
Further reading
- "Robert Saxton Taylor." Wikipedia [2]
- Robert S. Taylor: Dean 1972-1981. Syracuse University School of Information Studies. Obituary. [3]
- Obituary. Bulletin of The American Society for Information Science and Technology (April-May, 2009).
- Who’s who in library service. 4th ed. Ed. by L. Ash. New York: Shoe String Pr., 1966, p. 686.
Papers
- Syracuse University Libraries. Special Collections Division. Robert Taylor Papers. 1943-2004. [4]