School of Information
Previously School of Library & Information Studies
Philip Keeney, 1891-1962.
Philip Olin Keeney, known to his friends as Angus,
received a Certificate in Librarianshp from the School of
Librarianship, University of Calfornia, at Berkeley. After
working at the University of Michigan library, he became University
Librarian and professor of library science at Montana State
University (now known as
the University of Montana) at Missoula. His progresssive views and
support for intellectual freedom led to his dismissal, which was
overturned by the Montana Supreme Court. This case was
important for the development of tenure for university faculty
but left Keeney in an untenable situtaion.
Leaving Montana Keeney worked for the Office for Special
Services and other Federal agencies in Washington, D.C., then
went to Japan to work in the General Headquarters of the Supreme
Commander Allied Powers (SCAP). He became Library Officer in the
Civil Information and Education Section and worked skilfully
to encourage and assist Japanese librarians and improvement of library
services in Japan. After providing support for the Education
Mission in 1946, he proposed his own plan for the development of library
services in Japan. Keeney's plan, entitled Unified Library
Service for Japan, was submitted in April 1946. It was
modeled on the California County Library
System. Unfortunately Keeney was relieved of his duties a year
later and discharged without explanation. No
evidence was provided but with their left-leaning views he and
his wife were regarded as security riske during the Red Scare.
Philip Keeney's career was ruined. He died in 1962.
Little of Keeney's Plan survived in the eventual
Japanese national Library Law of 1950.
Sources
- M. Buckland with Masaya Takayama. Ideology and
libraries: California, Diplomacy and Occupied Japan, 1945-1952.
(Rowman & Littlefield, 2020) available from https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538143148.
- - Japanese edition 2021 Ideorogie
to toshokan. Jusonbo, 2021. ISBN978-4-88367-354-4.
- M. Buckland. Philip Keeney’s Californian plan for Japanese
libraries. California State Library Foundation Bulletin 131 (2021):
6-9. pdf.
- P. Keeney. Reorganization of the Japanese library system. Far
Eastern Survey 17 (Jan 28, 1948):19-22; (Feb 11, 1948): 32-35.
Reprinted in Urata, Takeo & Ogawa Takeshi, eds. 1968. Toshokanhō
seiritsushi shiryō, pp 419-433. Also available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/3022376.
- R. McReynolds & L. S. Robbins. The Librarian Spies: Philip and Mary Jane Keeneyand Cold War Espionage. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2000.
For additional background on US influence on libraries in Japan during
the allied occupation see also Robert
Gitler and the Japan Library School.
Go to
History page
or to Michael Buckland's
Home Page.