College and Research Libraries Review Articles T h e U n i v e r s i t y Library The University Library, its Organization, Administration and Functions. Louis R . Wilson and Maurice F. Tauber. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1945. x, 57op. This book, replete with statistics, tables, and charts, completely documented through- out and devoted to an exhaustive and authori- tative analysis and discussion of all the facets and problems of university librarianship, is a must item for every university library ad- ministrator. If he is planning a new build- ing, debating the merits of divisional subject reading rooms versus the more traditional large main reading room and rooms housing material by form, struggling with the problem of independent departmental libraries op- posed to centralized control, contemplating a survey of his library, planning a general staff reorganization, or concerned with any one of a dozen other problems, he can turn to this volume with confidence and find a discussion of present and past practice and citation of the more important literature bearing on his problem, whatever it may be. The authors, in projecting their study, set for themselves the following ambitious goals: T o r e v i e w the c h a n g e s w h i c h h a v e taken p l a c e in the u n i v e r s i t y l i b r a r y . . . ; to consider sys- t e m a t i c a l l y the p r i n c i p l e s and methods of uni- v e r s i t y l i b r a r y a d m i n i s t r a t i o n . . . ; to f o r m u l a t e g e n e r a l i z a t i o n s c o n c e r n i n g the o r g a n i z a t i o n , a d - ministration and f u n c t i o n s of the u n i v e r s i t y li- b r a r y . . . ; to aid the u n i v e r s i t y a d m i n i s t r a t o r in u n d e r s t a n d i n g the role of the l i b r a r y in the total administration of the u n i v e r s i t y ; to a c q u a i n t f a c u l t y members and members of l e a r n e d socie- ties w i t h the p r o b l e m s w h i c h a d e q u a t e s e r v i c e to them i n v o l v e s . . . ; to m a k e a v a i l a b l e to stu- dents of l i b r a r y science a body of p r i n c i p l e s and methods b e a r i n g upon the specific problems of u n i v e r s i t y l i b r a r y a d m i n i s t r a t i o n . Obviously, these varied intentions could not all be fulfilled with equal success. What the authors have achieved is definitely a book by librarians, for librarians. While it will undoubtedly be quoted repeatedly for the edi- fication of administrators and faculty mem- bers, the university administrator or faculty member who will read it will be rare indeed. As a matter of fact, perhaps not too many librarians will read its 570 pages in detail but every university library administrator worthy of the name, whether in a chief, di- visional, or departmental capacity, and all university librarians of professional caliber will know this book and refer to it repeatedly. It is in this respect and as a comprehensive statement for students of university librarian- ship that it will be most useful. As a matter of fact the volume suffers, in places, as a tool for the practicing administrator, by the detail, sometimes seemingly obvious, which is included presumably for the library school student. Perhaps it is this pedagogic bent that accounts for the aura of the doctoral disserta- tion which in places pervades the volume. The authors point out repeatedly the lack of adequate study of many of the problems they discuss and the need for further investi- gation. The assertion in regard to centralized versus departmental reference service, that "conclusive generalization cannot be made con- cerning this controversial matter until exten- sive data have been systematically gathered and analyzed" is typical of the consideration of many problems throughout the book. That progress is being rapidly made in studying pressing problems and developing a substan- tial professional literature of caliber' is indi- cated by the bibliographies supporting each chapter. The chapter on acquisitions and prep- arations, as an example, cites such significant contributions as Downs's Union Catalogs in the United States; Kellar's "Memoranda on Library Cooperation;" Raney's The Univer- sity Libraries; M a n n ' s Introduction to Cata- loging and Classification of Books; V a n Hoesen's "Perspective in Cataloging;" and similar studies. A noteworthy feature of the supporting bibliographies in general is their recency. Of the sixty-one citations supporting the acquisitions chapter, not a single one is older than 1930 and most fall in the late thirties and early forties. Anyone projecting a study, as recently as two decades ago, of the scope and quality of the one here under review would have found a thin literature indeed on which to base it. 90 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES Another interesting factor is the frequency with which the phrases "unpublished master's study" and "unpublished dissertation" appear in the bibliographical notes. The frequent ci- tations of unpublished material of this kind indicate how extensively we are indebted to and rely on the work of library school stu- dents in understanding and mastering our problems. This is not to be deplored but it may be hoped that more and more we may provide opportunity for mature and experi- enced librarians systematically to study the problems of the profession independently and not necessarily in pursuit of additional de- grees. An extension of sabbatical leaves on pay to university librarians generally, which the authors stress as important, would permit further and more rapid progress in mature and scholarly study of our many problems needing systematic investigation. The authors, in every phase of librarian- ship they discuss, review the problems in- volved and the efforts to solve them as reflected in the literature. They often seem studiously to refrain from making pronounce- ments or leaning to one school of thought more than another. This is undoubtedly due to the lack of systematic and detailed studies of many of the problems they consider. An example of careful balance is the chapter on library buildings. It provides an excellent re- view of past and present trends and the newer developments in library architecture but it does not give an expression of opinion as to the relative merits of the more or less stand- ardized monumental buildings and the new functional divisional reading room buildings. This much, it seems, could be expected of ex- perienced administrators and careful students of university librarianship, even though the newer functional divisional type of building which has recently come into favor undoubtedly is not the last word in library architectural planning. At least, the costly and now very ob- vious mistakes of many of the monumental buildings erected in the twenties and thirties could have been stressed much more exten- sively than they have been. Two Parts Although not formally so divided the book falls into two chief parts. The first of these, constituting the major portion, is concerned with the details of library organization, ad- ministration, housekeeping. These some 380 pages will be fairly familiar to the average librarian of some experience and background. The second part is concerned with the wider aspects of the functions of the university li- brary, one might almost say with the end product for which all our meticulous organi- zation, management, and housekeeping exists. Considered in this section are such matters as the teaching function of the library, the off-campus relations of the librarian, co- operation and specialization, and the future of the university library. Particularly challenging the attention of this reviewer in the first j)art is the excellent chapter on administrative organization which is one of the strongest and most useful chap- ters in the book. The statement in this chap- ter, however, that "one of the glaring faults" of university librarians is a lack of progres- siveness and unwillingness to permit depart- mental heads to experiment with new devices and procedures is a matter that works both ways. As often as not, resistance, either pas- sive or open, to experimentation and change, comes from the department head and also rank-and-file workers. Many administrators are stymied by this situation, for obviously no change of importance can be successfully un- dertaken without the enthusiastic support of the persons in charge of carrying it out. This chapter has an excellent summary of the departmental library versus centralized li- brary situation which merits the close atten- tion of librarians and presidents and deans alike. Performance in this matter in many of our universities, some of them noted for ex- cellence of administration in other matters, is far from ideal. For this reason and because there is a tendency for systems already cen- tralized to decentralize, the following state- ment of the authors, which this reviewer subscribes to as basically sound, deserves to be quoted. N e w d e p a r t m e n t a l l i b r a r i e s should be estab- lished and m a i n t a i n e d outside the g e n e r a l li- b r a r y only upon the official a p p r o v a l of the president and the l i b r a r i a n . A l l e x p e n d i t u r e s f o r l i b r a r y m a t e r i a l s and the a r r a n g e m e n t f o r u s i n g them should be m a d e under the direction of the u n i v e r s i t y l i b r a r i a n . A l l l i b r a r i e s on the c a m - pus should be a d m i n i s t r a t i v e p a r t s of the g e n - eral l i b r a r y . More than one university president and his librarian need to read and ponder the in- JANJJARYj 1946 91 escapable common sense and wisdom of these words. Chapters on Personnel Of special interest in the first section, at least to this reviewer, are the two chapters on personnel. Included, very appropriately, is emphasis on in-service training, attendance at meetings, leaves for study, and promotions as recognition of special achievement. T o the degree that these recommendations are put into effect in our various libraries, we will de- velop a professional personnel of worthy caliber. The principles of ethical staff rela- tions within the library, while well known and generally accepted by informed librarians, may well be read and reflected on by all of us. The consideration of this matter seems to place the chief burden on the administrator, but here again there is a reciprocal responsi- bility for the staff at large which deserves more emphasis than has been given it. The lack of classification of university li- brary positions of which the authors complain, is not, in our universities, a situation peculiar to the libraries. It extends, in many, perhaps in most of our institutions, to the whole personnel, including the teaching and research faculty. While it is true that faculty mem- bers range from instructors to professors and deans, promotions and advances in these various categories are often a matter of ex- pediency and frequently the relationship be- tween salary and rank, again as a matter of* expediency, is not too close. Under these circumstances it is difficult for university li- brary administrators to set up, as good per- sonnel administration requires, neatly classified and described position and pay classifications, with regular salary increments within the various classifications. The authors rightly say that "the appoint- ment of the chief librarian is, without doubt, one of the most important administrative de- cisions the president of a university has to make." Included in their consideration of this matter is a logical well-reasoned refutation of some comparatively recent statements that professional training of the head librarian is not important. Especially to be applauded in this section is the assertion that nonlibrarians, if appointed, owe all their time and energy to their libraries and to the cause of university librarianship. The authors defend the university library against the charge that it has, in emphasizing the acquisition of research materials, neg- lected the undergraduate student. They say that if the university is to do research it must have the books and general library facilities to support the program. This is obviously true, but the emphasis on research materials which followed the last war need not be as one-sided as it has been and is. If only a very small portion of the thought, energy, and money which our large universities have poured into acquiring research materials can be devoted to meeting the library needs of the undergraduates the justifiable criticism of the university in this matter can be completely met. Existing practices and procedures in our universities are not as easily changed as the book sometimes infers. After acknowledg- ing that other agencies of the university, and particularly the extension division, have generally assumed the responsibility for ac- quiring and caring for films relating to their particular activity, they go on to say that it may be expected that the university library of the future will be the film center of the entire university. It can be safely predicted that those agencies now acquiring and using film will tenaciously retain their prerogatives and priority in the field. Any changes in a well- developed situation of this kind will either require administrative edict, usually a ques- tionable device, or else exceptional diplomacy and tact, if the library is to take over and develop work already under way in this field. Progress in this matter will require an in- formed alertness on the part of all library administrators and a readiness to assume ini- tiative, on their own, for all auditory and visual records of the experience of mankind, however recorded. Progress in the beginning, at least, is more likely to be in addition to the services of existing agencies rather than in replacement of it. The Teaching Function In considering the teaching function of the library it is noted that there is now, in uni- versities generally, little or no organized in- struction in use of the library provided for undergraduate students. A positive rather than a passive library program in this mat- ter is urged, cooperatively planned by faculty and librarians. This again illustrates the university tendency to neglect the undergrad- 92 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES uate. There is a no-man's land here between faculty and library which requires the close attention of library administrators, perhaps through a regularly constituted teaching di- vision of the library. Ten thousand dollars or so in salaries at this point might pay sur- prisingly rich dividends in which the pro- motion of effective research, in which our * universities are so interested, would inevitably be included. A detailed and very interesting chapter is devoted to the important matter of coopera- tion and specialization. Most of this is con- cerned with developments of the last two decades, with considerable attention to the organization of union catalogs, union lists of serials, bibliographical centers, cooperative and centralized cataloging, to interlibrary lending, inter-institutional and regional agree- ments, specialization, and similar matters. Here, in the opinion of this reviewer, by the mandate of necessity, lies one of the most im- portant areas for future library progress. While this is a book on university libraries, this chapter might have stressed, much more than it does, the importance of public libraries in these varied joint enterprises. One of the interesting features of the operation of the Pacific Northwest Bibliographic Center in Seattle is the extent to which it has increased interlibrary lending among libraries within its area, thereby reducing the burden on larger outlying libraries. Much of this increase has fallen on the larger public libraries of the region, such as Spokane, Portland, Seattle, T a - coma, and Vancouver. In some of these pub- lic libraries interlibrary lending, much of it to colleges and universities, has increased as much as 400 per cent since the Bibliographic Center began functioning. Here, as well as in the matter of specialization and financial support of joint enterprises promoting re- gional and national cooperation, the public li- braries and university libraries have common cause. Libraries of every category must in- deed stand together and work together if, as the former Librarian of Congress once said, we are to "win the battle against the flood of materials which are going to drown us all out of all our buildings." In considering the off-campus relations of the librarian the very effective device of set- ting forth briefly, as examples, the regional, national, and international scholarly contri- butions of outstanding librarians is used. In- cluded among the librarians whose achieve- ments are so discussed are Justin Winsor, Melvil Dewey, Ernest Cushing Richardson, William Warner Bishop, James Thayer Gerould, M . Llewellyn Raney, Charles C. Williamson, Charles W . Smith, Malcolm Wyer, A. F. Kuhlman, Robert Bingham Downs, Charles E. Rush, Charles Harvey Brown, Keyes D. Metcalf, and two non- university librarians who have made im- portant contributions in the college and university field, Harry Miller Lydenberg and Herbert Putnam. All university librarians could readily add to this list former and present librarians who have made outstanding contributions outside their own libraries. Certainly in any list of distinguished national achievement the senior author of the book here reviewed would rank high indeed. Records, Reports, and Surveys Particularly interesting and pertinent is the chapter on records, reports, and surveys and the part that they have played and can play in assisting us to understand and solve our problems. Every practicing university librarian should read this chapter carefully. A good many of us could profit particularly by the discussion on the annual report and the part that it can take both in interpreting the work of the library to its own staff and as a contribution to our professional litera- ture. Too many university librarians con- tent themselves with a bare and uninspired collection of the annual statistics accompanied by a minimum of routine comment. This re- viewer confesses to a sense of disappointment over each such report encountered. Rather than a brief summary to be tossed off in an afternoon, preparation of the annual report should be a period of careful analyzing and recording of the successes and failures of the year. This, if properly done, must necessarily occupy the major attention of the librarian for a considerable period of time. Only so could the excellent reports from Michigan, North Carolina, Minnesota, and other universities which the authors cite be prepared. This reviewer can testify that these and similar reports have been a con- siderable factor in his own professional education. In preparing reports all of us could profit by carefully studying the stream- lined easy reading reports of Archibald MacLeish as Librarian of Congress. M r . JANUARY, 1946 93 MacLeish has brilliantly demonstrated that the detailed operations of a large library can be presented with verve and eclat which definite- ly holds the interest and thereby better por- trays the events of the year. Few of us can hope to achieve the MacLeishian skill with words but our profession would definitely benefit if more of us would seriously try. The final chapter of the book is a brief consideration of the future of the university library. This, in the opinion of the writer, is one of the least satisfactory chapters in the book. I t portrays well enough the present stage of our development, present trends, and opportunity for additional study, but the au- thors miss an opportunity to come dramati- cally to grips (and basically it is a dramatic situation) with the enormous and ever-in- creasing complexity of assimilating the graphic and auditory records of mankind for ready use. Which way our libraries will turn before this ever-increasing task; at what point, if any, our growing miles of books will be too f a r removed from a central delivery desk to make their delivery feasible; how indexing and cataloging problems will be handled; what part mechanical gadgets and the shrinking of the size of our books by photographic or other methods, will play in future librarianship; what developments of vast central storage reservoirs we are likely to have; whether the book of the future will be instantaneously or almost instantaneously transported from such reservoirs to whatever outlying point at which it may be needed, physically or in image— all these and similar matters could, it seems, have been dealt with more imaginatively without moving too far into the world of fancy. Certainly, such a challenging concep- K tion as Fremont Rider's microcard book de- serves more than the five lines it rates. Summary In summary, we have in this book an ex- ceptionally important addition to our profes- sional literature. It could have been more facile and concise in writing but it is an ade- quate and very complete consideration of the problems of university librarianship which we have long needed and for which all of us will be duly and continuously grateful as we have occasion to use it again and again. Per- haps only those who were intimately concerned with its production can fully appreciate the discussion and planning, the long hours of reading, checking, and writing, the work and sweat that must have gone into its preparation. I t constitutes an important and major star in the already bright professional diadem of the senior author. For the junior author it represents an outstanding profes- sional contribution of the kind we are now beginning to expect increasingly from our younger men.—William H. Carlson. T h e Library School Curriculum Evaluation and Revision of the Library School Curriculum. Edward A. Wight. (Peabody Contributions to Library Educa- tion, No. i ) Nashville, Peabody Press, 1945. v, 64P. $1.10. Curriculum evaluation and revision is per- force a continuous process, but it is subject to acceleration and deceleration. The current acceleration in changes in training for library service is not due primarily to current social changes but to a deep dissatisfaction with past practices and results. Library training is generally agreed to involve certain funda- mental techniques, special knowledge of the clientele served, and subject knowledge. The patterns of interrelationship of these three phases of training are exceedingly complex. Much of the recent curriculum revision seems to consist of altering the relative quantities, the chronological sequences, and the methods of teaching of these three. Librarians are ex- pert classifiers, but the content of their train- ing defies with kaleidoscopic impudence all attempts to arrange it in rectilinear sequence. In the impressive pamphlet in hand, D r . Wight presents the worksheets of a recent curriculum evaluation and revision at the Peabody library school. The introductory chapter includes an excellent definition of the modern library in terms of social values and of the library school as the agency for preparing library personnel. There follows 94 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES