Article

Should Public Libraries Issue BA Degree Credentials?

Public libraries are cathedrals of learning, many on par with colleges and universities. One day, like colleges and universities, some public libraries will issue bachelor of arts (BA) degree-equivalent credentials to their most loyal patrons—their earnest army of autodidacts.

As a former elected public library board member and retired university professor, it is evident to anyone familiar with creating new graduate programs that one of the most cost-effective uses of a public library’s resources would be to develop a curriculum (reading guide) and a proctored comprehensive examination as an additional benefit to the community.

This would permit the self-educated to earn a credential equivalent to a BA degree from a public library in a manner similar to the seven-hour General Educational Development (GED) tests which certify that an adult has attained a high school–level academic knowledge and skills.

Sixty-three percent of states offer a GED diploma and thirty-one percent of states offer a GED certificate. Ninety-eight percent of colleges and universities
accept the GED credential, as do ninety-six percent of all companies which require job applicants to have a high school degree, according to the American Council of Education (ACE).¹

ACE was commissioned by the armed forces to develop the tests in 1942, which were expanded to test non-veteran adults in 1947. ACE continues to develop the GED Tests Series and develops programs to ensure equal access to the tests. According to ACE, more than seventeen million people have
earned a GED credential since 1943.²

As for the credibility and feasibility of this comprehensive testing form of credentialing at the college level, consider this: Robert Maynard Hutchins, when chancellor of the University of Chicago, revolutionized university undergraduate education with his Chicago plan by declaring that a liberal education could be measured by comprehensive examination rather than by classroom time served. His undergraduate core curriculum is still followed at the university.

BA degree credentials would confer enormous lifetime benefits to the recipients, not only in terms of earnings (compare the earning and employment rates of those with a BA with those with only a high school diploma even in these difficult times), but also in socio-economic terms, since America has an open society. (The first thing managers check in a résumé for a potential new hire is the academic or equivalent credentials the candidate has earned on his or her own initiative and then look at the work experience, if any.)

The working poor and others unable to attend college because of financial and family responsibilities need opportunities to earn this credential in their own communities. The working poor are the most underserved of our population.

Accreditation and Credentialing

The U.S. Department of Education does not confer individual accreditation on any college, university, or any other organization. However, the secretary of education is required by law to publish a list of nationally recognized private and state accrediting agencies that the secretary determines to be reliable authorities.

At the present time, these accredited colleges and universities hold a monopoly on BA degree granting.³ Nonetheless, any determined creative and innovative public librarian has three paths that could be taken to develop a college degree equivalent credential:

1. Approach one of the private organizations 


2. Approach the local state accrediting unit.


3. Approach ACE for suggestion and assistance.

ACE is the only higher education organization that represents presidents and chancellors of accredited colleges and universities. It has ongoing research activities seeking to extend educational opportunities to the public of different ages, and social strata. Perhaps it might be interested in taking on a research project with a major public library in developing a college-level GED test series that would certify that an autodidact has attained college-level, liberal-arts, academic knowledge and skills.

The point of this column is to nudge some creative, innovative, and visionary chief public librarian to start the credentialing journey on behalf of deserving autodidacts as yet unborn.

Public libraries are trees of knowledge in their communities and trees of liberty for those seeking escape from poverty. The public library has the power to break this dismal cycle by providing an open system for the self-motivated who want to escape the poverty-ignorance stratum.

Finally, consider some of our most gifted autodidacts: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Paine, Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Jack London, William Saroyan, Bill Mauldin, and Steve Jobs.

The mission of libraries, it would seem, is to carry forward the collective knowledge of civilizations, and to encourage the creative to contribute to their advancement. Empowering the searchers and seekers, the autodidacts, would fit in that mission.

References and Notes

1. GED Testing Service, “GED Testing Fact Sheet,” page 1,  (accessed Aug. 27, 2010).


2. Ibid.


3. This monopoly was first brought to my attention by the Canadian author, D. Stuart Conger, who also thought public libraries should challenge it.