College and Research Libraries one. Likewise the relative poverty and prim- itive administration of Latin American li- braries make the page and a half devoted to them about all they deserve. It might be noted, however, that some attention could be paid to the numerous excellent private collections in the various Latin American capitals. A student of Mexican history using Father M a r i a n o Cuevas' admirable private collection could accomplish slightly more than he could in the Biblioteca Nacional and slightly less than he could in the Ban- croft Library. H o w e v e r , Vorstius has done a good job within the limits of the space allotted to him, and, after all, it is the task of librarians in Finland, Portugal, or Japan to write the history of their own institutions. Documentation in this volume of the Handbuch is uniformly satisfactory, al- though no attempt is made to give complete bibliographies. H o w e v e r , enough is given on all topics to provide a good start to any- one interested in more detailed investiga- tions of any given subject. M o s t of the errors in the bibliographical notes are due to excessive brevity of citation rather than to any gross carelessness. Evidently the volume began going to press in late 1938 or early 1939, since virtually no references are made to research published at a later date. Like the other volumes of the Handbuch, the Geschichte der Bibliotheken suffers bad- ly f o r the lack of an index. W h i l e the excellent analytical tables of contents of all three volumes compensate in some small degree for this fault, it might be conserva- tively stated that the usefulness of the set would be increased 25 per cent by good indices. It would be a pious w o r k for some library school class in indexing to under- take this job as a term exercise. H a r r a s s o w i t z risked shipping only a f e w copies to the United States before P e a r l H a r b o r . T h e only copies located thus f a r are in the Brooklyn Public Library and the G r a d u a t e Library School of the University of Chicago.—Lawrence S. Thompson, Uni- versity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Administration and Finance The Administration of the American Public Library. E. W . M c D i a r m i d and John M c D i a r m i d . American Library Associa- tion and University of Illinois Press, 1943. 250p. Public Library Finance and Accounting. Ed- w a r d Allen W i g h t . American Library A s - sociation, 1943. I37p. Judging from their titles it would seem at first glance that these two works are of no special interest to those concerned with col- lege and reference libraries. W i g h t ' s w o r k is a study chiefly of municipally controlled public libraries. T h e volume representing the joint w o r k of the brothers M c D i a r m i d is a study of 315 municipal libraries whose staffs range in size from ten persons to three hundred or more. Privatelv endowed libraries are excluded. Municipally con- trolled universities excepted, it would appear that the material in these two volumes would not directly apply to college and reference libraries. Further examination, however, brings out the fact that the works under review contain many useful statements and suggestions applicable to libraries of any type. T h e r e is no difficulty in finding quickly in the w o r k of the M c D i a r m i d s pertinent sug- gestions. A f t e r each subject discussed there are specific recommendations clearly set out in paragraph form. T h e place of the board and its committees in the library management and questions of w h a t duties should be left by the board to the librarian, are admirably treated. T h e r e is a discussion of lay groups, including Friends of the Library. Particu- larly useful are the chapters dealing with the duties of the librarian and his assistants and the pros and cons of departmentalization in larger and medium-sized libraries. Organi- zation charts are suggested for libraries of both types. Sensible broad principles of prac- tice are recommended, with which no one will quarrel, to be applied as circumstances dic- tate. Financial management, including practical suggestions f o r budget preparation, receives v 372 COLL EGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES adequate attention. Fully treated are prob- lems of personnel management, including se- lection, records, classification, and the train- ing of new staff members. Proper retirement plans are discussed. Questions of staff organization and meet- ings and other coordinating devices are re- viewed, and formal recommendations of policy are suggested. M r . W i g h t ' s book dealing with library finance and accounting is a useful contribu- tion to the subject. Sources of revenue are discussed, including state and federal aid, and methods are suggested for the proper build- ing and operation of the budget. T h e book concludes with two chapters on library ac- counting. T h e latter of these is a distinct contribution to the sparse literature on library cost accounting, a subject likely to re- ceive more attention in the future. These two volumes are valuable additions to the growing list of reference manuals on specific library problems. T h e y will serve the administrator as conveniences. T h e y should be especially useful to teachers in library schools. Both volumes contain se- lected bibliographies. M r . W i g h t ' s w o r k has, as a supplement, a glossary of accounting terminology.—Robert J. Usher,x Howard- Tilt on Memorial Library, Tulane Univer- sity, New Orleans. 1 Mr. Usher died on August 3, after his review of the McDiarmid and Wight books had been set in type for inclusion in this issue of College and Re- search Libraries. Classics of T h e W e s t e r n W o r l d Classics of the Western World. A l a n W i l - lard Brown and members of the faculty of Columbia College, editors. W i t h a foreword by John Erskine. T h i r d edition, completely revised and rewritten. I45p. Chicago, American Library Association, 1943. T h e extensive interest of recent years in "the great books" may account for the preparation of a new edition of the Colum- bia University list which for some twenty- five years had served the purposes of the undergraduate honors course of that univer- sity. It is gratifying to the compilers to observe that it was this list, in turn, which occasioned so much public interest in "the one hundred great books" and in other enumera- tions and selections. T h e greatest advertise- ment of these laureati came from St. John's College of Annapolis, where they were made (with many additions and omissions) the sub- stance of the course of study. St. John's makes revisions at will, which means, so f a r , quite frequently. Considering the purposes of the Columbia Colloquium, as the honors course is now styled, and the further purpose of the compilers to serve the intellectual public, we can readily understand that altera- tions of previous curricula would become de- sirable. It was the leading purpose of earlier edi- tions of this bibliography to enlarge "the pleasure of reading." T h e present edition does not employ this phrase but in its place are the expressions, "the formation of a good man and a wise citizen," "voluntary self-edu- cation," "the preservation and understanding of our democratic heritage," "the layman of eager mind who desires to know the nature, tone, and quality of our intellectual tradi- tion," and others which indicate that liberal education by w a y of private reading is now the uppermost concern. However, we find here "very f e w of the major contributions to pure science" as well as "many omissions among historians and writers on political economy," not to speak of the "serious limi- tations" upon the competency of the scholars — o f whom there are eight—who, we are sur- prised to read, dictated the exclusion of all works of the Orient and of Latin America. Only the excessive modesty of this, let us sup- pose, is a match for the supposition that these learned men are unacquainted with L a o - T s e , the Bhagavad-Gita, the Upanishads, or with the Latin American writers whom they would rank with the immortals. In the event they did not have the cooperation of the depart- ments at Columbia which study the Orient and Latin America, why did they not apply SEPTEMBER., 1944 373