College and Research Libraries


Many other points that Lyle rais~s would 
also deserve comment. Space does not permit 
discussing here, however, various questions 
that have vexed many a college librarian, 
be it the desirable size of the open-stack 
book collection, the . usefulness of brows-
ing rooms, or the educational value of de-
partmental libraries. Suffice it' to say that 

the forward-looking college librarian will do 
well to buy not qnly a copy of Lyle's book 
for the library but to add another to his 
private collection. It is one of those fairly 
rare volumes of our profession:al literature 
th~t warrants re-reading.-Felix · E. Hirsch, 
librarian, Bard College,, Annandale-on-H ud-
son, N.Y. . 

The Eleventh Catalogers, Y earboo.k 
Catalogers, and Cla;si/iers, Yearbook No. I I, 

1945. Compiled by the Division of Cata-
loging and Classification of the American 
Library Association. Chicago, A.L.A., 
1945· 96p. 
This, the eleventh number of the Cata-

logers, and Classifiers, Yearbook, represents 
a resumption of the series . (the tenth number 
appeared in 1941) after the plans for a 
quarterly journal were at least temporarily 
abandoned. Sponsored, as in the past, by 
the Division of Cataloging, and Classification 
of the A.L.A. and under the general editor-
ship of a special committee of which Mar-
garet Oldfather, of Ohio State University, 
is chairman, the volume closely follows the 
pattern and format of its predecessors. 

The first six contributions to the symposium 
· were presented originally at the Milwaukee 
Conference in 1942. That their publication 
has been so long delayed seems not in the least 
to have diminished their usefulness-a virtue 
which may be either attributed to the time-
lessness of their contents or to the eternal 
repetitiousness of library literature, depend-
ing upon one's point of view. To these have 
been added two special papers by Robert B. 
Downs and Herman H. Henkle and the text 
of the report made at the close of 1943 by 
the Library of Congress to the General 
Education Board concerning the status of the 
cooperative cataloging project. · The com-
pilation concludes with a listing of the officer's 
and committees of the Division of Cataloging 
and Classification, and the entire work is 
dedicated to the memory of]. C. M. Hanson. 
Truly a modest libation for one whose career 
was so distinguished. 

As one might expect, the implications of 
the new A.L.A. catalog code loom large in 
the several papers, for it was during the 
period covered by these essays that the 

SEPTEMBER~ 1945 

A.L.A. Catalog- Code Revisio~ Committee 
brought to completion its prelimin:ary work. 
But if one were to point out a common 
denominator for all the papers which com-
prise this collection, it would be a recognition 
of the growing awareness among catalogers 
that they are on the defensive against charges 
of steeply . mounting cataloging co~ts. . That 
these accusations are not without foundation 
is evident from the seriousness with which 
all the writers re-gard them and th~ impres-
sive array of statistical · evidence that is be-
ginning to accumulate from cost. analysis 
investigations in various types of institutions . . 
It is too easy to dismiss the seriousness of the 
growing financial burden invol~ed in the 
maintenance . and expansion of our swelling 
card catalogs as being merely an Inevitable 
by-product of the increasing size and com-
plexity of libraries themselves. The problem 
is much more than a mere exer~ise in the 
projection of a parabolic curve; it strikes at 
the very raison d,etre of the dictionary cata-
log and asks frankly and bluntly whether the 
instrument really justifies the tremendous 
expense involved. 

Julia Pettee, in the opening paper of the 
collection, hastens to defend the "authorship 
principle" elaborately set forth in the new 
code as being in reality a long-term economy 
and denies that the code should be made a 
"scapegoat" for "all the costs that new mod-
ern demands make upon our catalogs" 
(p. 19). Grace P. Fuller is equallystaunch 
in her support of econ9mies made possible by 
the present methods of establishing corporate 
entry; and a similar poi~t of view .is main-
tained by Clara Beetle when she writes of 
personal authors and anonymous classics in 
the Library of Congress catalog. 

That the card catalog is a focal point in 
library operation is implicit in the trilogy on 

371 



cataloging for the college library. Frances L. 
Yocum, after examining her survey of ten 
college libraries, urges greater care in de-
veloping and expanding the resources of the 
catalog and more attention to its interpreta-
tion on the part of both library staff and 
faculty. She would be among the first to 
argue for the values inherent in this increas-
ingly expensive index of the library's re-
sources. In an effort to determine haw far 
simplified cataloging practices could con-
tribute to the current demand for decreasing 
the cost of cataloging, Evelyn Hensel sur-
veyed twenty college librari'es. She con-
cludes, however, that there has been "too 
much attention to the problem of simplifica-
tion of the details on catalog cards without 
having determined what simplication is de-
sirable" ( p. 50). Finally Winifred A. John-
son reverts to the age-old cry of the cataloger 
that "economies" in cataloging do not always 
result in economies elsewhere in the library 
system. 

The papers contributed to the Yearbook 
terminate with Robert B. Downs's cursory 
examination of the perplexing problems of 
library statistics, duplicate copies, pamphlets, 
and rare books, and Herman H. Henkle's 
report on the Library of Congress confer-
ence on .cataloging held in Washington from 
Oct. 18 to Nov. 19, 1943. At these meetings 
there apparently was much agitation for a 
simpli_fication of cataloging processes that 
would result in a material reduction of costs, 
but little seems . to have been accomplished 
except a general expression of faith in pooling 
resources and intensifying cooperation. 

One perhaps can best summarize the cumu-
lative impression of the symposium under 
review by saying that it is professionally 
wholesome to see catalogers and library ad-

mm1strators alike alarmed by the increasing 
costs of the catalog, which are certain to in-
crease if present-day procedure and meth-
ods are maintained in the face of the growth 
and increasing complexity of book stocks. It 
is heartening to see this new awareness be-
cause the recognition of any problem is an 
essential preliminary step to its solution. But 
these essays also testify to the degree to 
which the thinking of catalogers is still too 
strongly molded by tradition to admit of 
effective action in dealing with rising catalog 
costs. The real problem of the catalog is 
not one of costs but of values, and until we 
can view the catalog, especially the subject 
catalog, objectively and in its proper relation 
to the other bibliographical resources of the 
library and can say with certainty that it 
can accomplish with greater efficiency than 
any other bibliographical instrument the task 
which it purports to perform, then and then 
only can its mounting costs be justified. This 
is a problem which is certainly not impossible 
of solution, but it cannot be solved by con-
ferences and armchair speculation. It is one 
that can be met adequately only through the 
united effort of practicing catalogers and the 
library schools; for only by research and 
experimentation, based on a sincere attempt , 
to examine all the factors involved, can the 
true answer be found. One scarcely needs 
labor the point that if libraries continue to 
grow as they have in the past the dictionary 
catalog in its present form cannot long sur-
vive; and if a more effective substitute is not 
developed catalogers will soon discover that 
the house of cards which they have so pains-
takingly built will come fluttering down about 
their ears.-] es-se H auk Sh era, chief, Prepa-
rations D epartment, University of Chicago 
Library. 

Liberal Education in America 
Teacher in America. Jacques Barzun. Bos-

ton, Little, Brown, 1945. (An Atlantic 
Monthly Press Book) vi, 321p. 

Better Colleges-Better Teachers. Russell 
M. Cooper, et al. [New York, Macmil-
lan , 1945] viii, 167p. 

The Rebirth of Liberal Education. Fred B. 
Millett. New York, Harcourt, Brace, 
1945· [xii] 179P· 

College librarians looking for a simple 
answer to all problems confronting teachers 
will not find it in any of these studies. There 
is no blueprint for the good life. Each of 
the books is pregnant with the complexities 
of our present-day culture. Recognition of 
these complexities should stimulate rather 
than frighten, should encourage rather than 
depress. The greatest ultimate strength of 

3i2 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES