This report traces the emerging relationships between the school and library systems during the colonial era until the late nineteenth century. It examines the public library's influence on early educational methodologies, describes the beginnings of the cooperative movement between teachers and librarians, and the new interrelationship which developed between the libraries and the schools. Also detailed are early efforts in the normal schools (teacher training institutions) to inform teachers about the library's educational dimension, the movement to establish separate school libraries, the subsequent establishment of a school library section/department by the National Education Association (NEA) in 1898; the early beginnings of librarian training in normal schools and library skills instruction in school libraries, and the NEA report on the relations of public libraries to public schools. An epilogue provides a brief look at the late nineteenth century in which a more harmonious relationship developed between teachers and librarians. (122 references) (MAB)