Columbia University School of Library Service

The Columbia University School of Library Service was a school dedicated to education for librarianship that was part of Columbia University in New York City. It was founded by Melvil Dewey and began operation in 1887 as the Columbia College School of Library Economy and as such is considered to have been the first library school in the world. In 1889, the school departed Columbia and became the New York State Library School located in Albany, New York. Then in 1926, it returned to Columbia University as the School of Library Service.

In its first few decades, the school usually awarded additional bachelor's degrees, but beginning in 1948, it granted mostly Master of Library Science degrees, as well as a number of doctoral degrees. The school's enrollment fluctuated over time, reaching a peak of over a thousand students in the late 1930s but more commonly being in the several hundreds. During the 1970s and 1980s, two unique programs were developed at the school, one for the training of rare book and special collections librarians and the other regarding the conservation and preservation of paper.

In 1990, amidst a budget crisis, the university decided that the library school no longer fit into its overall plans, and it was closed in 1992. Nonetheless, in its time, as the New York Times wrote, it was "one of the most prestigious library schools in the nation." As one scholar has said, the school "came to exercise a profound impact on the library profession." And as a history of it has stated, "The School of Library Service and its [Columbia and Albany] predecessors have influenced training for librarianship all over the world."