College and Research Libraries


of reproduction—a Dutch process of semi-
dry diazo printing, pages 147-49. T h i s 
method, already in operation for the dis-
semination of abstracts on "fiches" (folded 
index slips) has implications for publishing 
and for card production in libraries. 

Section I V under the editorship of H . 
M u n r o Fox considered "Reviews," "Recent 
Advances," and "Annual Reports of Progress." 
It was pointed out that there are two main 
purposes for these types of publications. T h e 
first is to gather together and present for the 
specialist the progress which has been made in 
a whole subject during a period of time or to 
review the state of knowledge in a particular 
branch of a subject. T h e second is to provide 
scientists with knowledge of what has been 
going on, not so much in their own field but 

in. other fields. Reviews may well be written 
to suit several levels of interest. For example, 
a review of a particular aspect of physical 
chemistry may be written for physical chem-
ists, for chemists in general, in a simpler form 
for other scientists or even in a still simpler 
form for the intelligent layman. 

T h e whole conference points up the fact 
that scientists have evolved in the course of 
years a remarkably effective system for pro-
viding themselves with information, but the 
system is suffering from strain and requires 
renovating and strengthening. In order to do 
this there needs to be more research into how 
scientific information is used.—Thomas P. 
Fleming, College of Physicians and Surgeons 
and School of Library Service, Columbia Uni-
versity. 

Source Material on Meteorology 
Meteorological Abstracts and Bibliography, 

Vol. 1, no. 1. Boston, American Meteoro-
logical Society. January 1950. $3.00 per 
year. 

T h e important role played by military avia-
tion in the settlement of the last world conflict 
awakened much interest in aeronautics and 
allied sciences. Meteorology, in particular, 
rose to a position of great significance in the 
field of applied science. College and research 
librarians were besieged by demands for com-
prehensive source material in meteorology. 

Professional meteorologists realized that the 
poorly organized material was a definite handi-
cap in the pursuit of basic research and in the 
exchange of ideas in their field. Technical 
librarians soon recognized the gaps in their 
reference collection: ( 1 ) T h e r e was no com-
prehensive meteorological bibliography being 
published anywhere in the world, and (2) 
there was no meteorological abstracting serv-
ice comparable to those existing in nearly all 
the other fields of science. 

Meteorological Abstracts and Bibliography 
vol. 1, no. 1, dated January 1950, sponsored 
by Geophysical Research Directorate, A . F . C . -
R . L . and the American Meteorological 
Society, with the cooperation of the Library 
of Congress, is the latest of many sincere 
attempts to provide a comprehensive, inter-
national, bibliographic and abstracting service 
for meteorology. 

Each issue will contain: ( 1 ) A review of 
20 to 30 scientific journals, part of an asymp-

totic plan to evaluate the contribution to 
meteorology of some 15,000 technical journals; 
(2) approximately 150 abstracts from ma-
terial of current interest; (3) a cumulative 
annotated bibliography on a special phase of 
meteorology [vol. 1, no. 1, Atmosphere Pol-
lution (240 entries), Aerobiology, Artificial 
Precipitation, Hail, Tornadoes, etc. to fol-
low.] 

M . K . Rigby, outstanding American bib-
liographer, editor, and D r . C . E. P. Brooks, 
dean of British meteorologists, corresponding 
editor, have done a creditable job on their first 
issue. Important features of this journal are: 
international coverage; objective evaluation of 
periodicals in the light of their contributions 
to the field of meteorology; succinct annota-
tions ; and an excellent index. 

T h e MAB subject heads each bibliographic 
entry. It is the only permanent international 
abstracting journal to have such a feature. 
These subject headings, however, are too 
specific for the small and medium-sized 
libraries, and the large and highly specialized 
libraries will have to make a conversion before 
integrating MAB subject headings with their 
catalogs. These subject headings are also 
inconsistent, some are qualified by the term 
"meteorology." Others that obviously should 
be qualified are not. T h i s failing and other 
problems, e.g., the magnitude of the field to 
be covered, and the journal's lack of that pres-
tige which comes only with age and tradition, 
will be solved with the passage of time. 

JULY, 1950 
25 7 



However, the inauguration of this journal is 
important to librarians. It will be an aid 
in acquisitions work and cataloging—an in-
valuable reference tool in a scientific field 

which, heretofore, has had inadequate cover-
age.—Edward J. Doherty, Jr., Geophysical 
Research Library, IVatertown (Mass.) 
Arsenal. 

Library Education 
Education for Librarianship. Papers Pre-

sented at the Library Conference, Uni-
versity of Chicago, August 16-21, 1948. 
Edited by Bernard Berelson. Chicago, 
American Library Association, 1949, 307P. 
$4.00. 

A f t e r nearly three decades of relative sta-
bility, education for librarianship has become 
an area of change and experiment. T h e flux 
of new thinking on library education has pro-
vided a theme for innumerable books, pamph-
lets, and periodical articles. It has been the 
subject of at least a score of conferences and 
meetings. As an area which reflects the whole 
complexity of the profession, each issue in-
volved has found scores of highly vocal dis-
cussants frequently reflecting very differing 
points of view. A s D r . Berelson's "Intro-
duction" to the report of this conference 
indicates, these new patterns of thought on 
library education as they have developed since 
1946 represent as significant a period as any 
other in our history. Library education very 
appropriately became, then, the subject for 
the conference of 1948 at the University of 
Chicago. 

T h e particular contribution of this meeting 
to its subject lies in part in its three distinctive 
characeristics: first, in the preliminary de-
termination to confine it to general problems 
of library education rather than to allow it 
to be dissipated in consideration of perhaps 
temporary experimentation; second, in the in-
clusion of library practitioners rather than the 
professional educator in presenting the sub-
ject; and third, in employing a discussant to 
bring some ready evaluation to each paper 
presented. This third device would seem to 
have gone far in bringing to the report of the 
conference more continuity of thought than 
is usually possible with such a medium. 

Sixteen papers were presented at the con-
ference, and these were arranged in five 
general groups. T h e first group on "General 
Education and Backgrounds" includes the role 
of the professional school, educational prob-
lems of allied professions and historical and 

foreign aspects of the subject. A second 
division, "Preparatory Education," was a 
paper on preprofessional education. T h e third 
group entitled, "Professional Education for 
Librarianship," included presentations of the 
problem peculiar to public libraries, academic 
institutions, service to children and youth, 
special librarianship, and a general summary 
of issues. T h e fourth, "Special Problems," 
included advanced study and research, clerical 
and subprofessional employment, and admin-
istrative problems of library education. T h e 
final group, "General Summaries," consisted 
of " T h e Non-Librarian Inquirer," (Robert 
D . Leigh) ; " T h e Practicing Librarian," 
(Luther H . Evans) ; and " T h e Library Edu-
cator," (J. Periam Danton). 

A conference of such breadth carrying the 
differing theses of 16 major presentations and 
11 discussants is impossible to summarize. 
Some issues emerge, however, as providing the 
structure of basic problems of library educa-
tion. These include: T h e stratification of 
library education (and a correspondent strati-
fication of library positions) ; general library 
education as opposed to specialized library 
education; preprofessional and postprofes-
sional education; the quality and number of 
library schools; the academic point at which 
various types of library education should 
occur, and the length of various types of pro-
grams; the relationship of library education to 
the field of practice; and the role of the Board 
of Education for Librarianship and other 
interested bodies. 

Quite aside from its necessarily speculative 
nature, this conference follows a trend in a 
number of recent meetings where the presenta-
tion of problems is sharpened by definite 
recommendations and proposals. As Berelson 
points out, this conference had neither author-
ity nor mandate to recommend action, yet 
from it come a body of specific proposals. 
These are: 

1. T h a t the number of library schools be 
sharply reduced in order to improve the qual-
ity of the remaining schools. 

284 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES