College and Research Libraries university (specifically graduate) education in this country. It is the reviewer's convic- tion that it will become clear to all who read, understand, and evaluate this volume that the university is needed today more than ever, and especially as an agent in preserving the peace, nor is it too late, so it seems (the undersigned is optimistic), for the university to help secure it! The author has given us a solid, penetrating, valuable volume on a timely subject. The reviewer considers it a power- ful and significant addition to the small but growing literature produced by thinking men who, mindful of the dangers besetting the uni- versity, are doing something to save it.— William A. Kozumplik. College and University Libraries College and University Libraries and Librar- ianship. An Examination of their Present Status and Some Proposals for Their Fu- ture Development. P r e p a r e d by the Col- lege and University Postwar Planning Com- mittee of the American Library Association and the Association of College and Refer- ence Libraries. William H. Carlson, chair- man. Chicago, American Library Associa- tion, 1946. The publication of full-fledged volumes in the college and university library field occurs rather infrequently. Consequently the appear- ance of a new addition to our bibliography is something of an event and is bound to be seized upon eagerly by academic librarians. When such a new publication offers less than we had hoped, disappointment is correspond- ingly keen. The disappointment involved in the volume under review lies in the fact that the study offers virtually nothing which will be new to college and university librarians who are acquainted with our professional literature of the past decade or two. Such persons will presumably already be familiar with what has been written concerning the "fundamental principles which have governed, or should govern, the sound administration of libraries," and will find little with which they are not already familiar in the "extensive attention and evaluation . . . given to the past and present status of college libraries and librar- ianship" (Preface, p. v). The statement just made certainly applies to the chapters on "Acquisition, Organization and Use of Li- brary Materials," "Cooperation and Coordin- ation in the Profession," "Philanthropy and College Libraries," "Professional Organiza- tions," "Professional Literature," and "The College Library Building." These chapters constitute more than two-thirds of the study. While the work is avowedly directed to the practicing librarian, it is the reviewer's opinion, for the reason already stated, that it is much more likely to be useful to library school students and to those just entering upon their professional careers. T o such per- sons the historical discussions of the subjects taken up in the chapters referred to should be of real help, obviating the necessity of wading through a large amount of periodical and pamphlet publication. The present status, as well as the historical aspects of these topics, is covered adequately and comprehensively, though succinctly. Three chapters which are of more than historical interest and do provide a consider- able amount of new or newly-treated ma- terial are those on "Library Expenditures and Standards of Support," "Books in the Li- braries," and "Characteristics and Education of Personnel." The subject matter of these chapters, which is probably sufficiently indi- cated by their titles, is especially well han- dled. Many of the data and the conclusions and opinions based upon them are challeng- ing and thought-provoking. Comments and questions on a few specific statements may be in order: Although total expenditures in proportion to population for college and university libraries have increased, as the study points out, during the past fifteen years, that increase is in absolute figures and it is problematical whether there is anything like a corresponding increase in the materials and services that libraries have been able to procure as a result (p. 11); the inclusion (p. 18-19) of recommended standards promul- gated twenty years ago is of doubtful value since those standards, if not in need of upward revision at the least, now demand reappraisal and re-evaluation; librarians of the great university and other scholarly libraries will OCTOBER, 1946 369 probably look askance at the suggestion (p. and that in the last paragraph on page 47; the 30) concerning vigorous weeding and discard- data in Table 10, page 74, showing that 16 ing; in connection with the "proposal for a per cent of the personnel in 826 higher edu- carefully developed book collection for the cational libraries have more than one full year use of undergraduates" (p. 33), Harvard's in an accredited library school certainly do plans might well have been cited; there is not support the statement on the following very little evidence to support the categorical page that "16 per cent . . . have had two or statement (p. 37) that librarians "have as more years of instruction." often as not been guilty" of buying extensively The volume is well and clearly written, in some narrow specialty, leaving behind them each chapter is followed by a list of recom- accumulations of books that will be little mendations, which are, however, for the most used by anyone else; some readers might well part not new, and there is a seven-page bibli- wish for a reference to or authority for the ography which should be useful.—J. Periam statement in the first paragraph on page 46 Danton. Reading and Book Buying People and Books: A Study of Reading and Book-Buying Habits. Henry C. Link and Harry Arthur Hopf. Book Industry Com- mittee, Book Manufacturers' Institute, 1946. 167P. In the fall of 1944 it was anybody's guess whether the boom in book buying would con- tinue after the war, decline gradually, or collapse. Faced with shortages of material and personnel and with the prospect of heavily rising costs, the book industry, in order to protect its heavy investment in plants and organization, needed facts about book reading and book buying upon which to base accurate estimates of future market trends. With the cooperation and financial backing of all branches of the book industry, a consumers' survey on a national scale was conducted jointly by two independent research organiza- tions, the Psychological Corporation and the Hopf Institute of Management. People and Books is a report of the findings of this study by the men who served as joint directors. Conventional public opinion polling tech- niques were used in gathering data. These are fully described. A questionnaire contain- ing 63 items (reproduced in the report) that had undergone eight pretests in the field was administered by a total of 235 interviewers to a stratified sample, consisting of 4000 indi- viduals fifteen years of age and older, of the nonfarm, civilian population of the United States. This was supplemented by two short- er questionnaires used in interviewing 225 book dealers and distributors and 100 college and university administrators (the latter to obtain facts relevant to the publishing of textbooks). The main body of the report consists of a series of simple tables and graphs, showing percentages of people in the consumers' group who answered the questions according to each of various alternatives, with accompanying text describing and interpreting these statis- tics. Basic breakdowns are made according to recency of reading, income level, educa- tion, age, sex, and religious background. The questions deal with such matters as frequency of reading, types of books and subjects read and preferred, physical characteristics and price of last book read, where and how books are obtained, book ownership, price prefer- ences, how and why books are selected, time spent in reading as compared with other activi- ties, comparison of recent with estimated future book reading and buying. "Correla- tions" are reported between some of these vari- ables, apparently from inspection of the per- centage data, but no coefficients of correlation are given. The major conclusion is that "everything in our survey points to a long-term gain in the reading, and therefore in the purchasing, of books." The validity of this inference might be questioned. Years of formal educa- tion appear to be more closely related to fre- quency of readership than any other variable, although there is some relation between fre- quency of reading and socio-economic status. The authors predict a pronounced trend to- ward increased reading of nonfiction. They also anticipate the creation of a huge market 370 COLLEGE AND RESEARCLI LIBRARIES