Abstract
This study investigated the movement for legislating the university librarian system in Japan from 1952 to 1965, including the negotiations among the principals in the movement. It considered the overall significance and limitations of the movement and some factors that worked against the proposals; it also took up the qualifying examination system for university librarians as a focal issue. The study revealed the following four items that needed to be addressed at that time if taken the standpoint that the status of Special Librarians at colleges and universities should be established. (1) Consider concrete proposals for establishing a qualifying examination system for university librarians in order for all kinds of university libraries to achieve a basic solution. (2) Adapt the perspective of university libraries as a whole instead of the differentially-formed perspectives of national, public and private university libraries. (3) Consider the basic flaws of the proposals for legislating the university librarian system to achieve solution. (4) Address an organized and sustained movement to meet those needs.
