College and Research Libraries


gram of his own providing for increased subsi-
dies to Swedish authors on a somewhat dif-
ferent basis. It would seem clear that the 
larger a country is, the less applicable is the 
demand of an author for a subsidy as reim-
bursement for free circulation of his books. 

The last essay, by Helge Berthelson, an 
amanuensis at the Stockholm Public Library, 
deals with the libraries of the U ppsala student 
corporations (not "fraternities" in our sense of 
the word , as the author of the English sum-
mary translates nation). Ranging in size 
from 2,000 volumes in Gotlands Nation to 
some 34,000 in Vestmanlands-Dalas Nation, 
these libraries go back to the eighteenth cen-
tury. Recent proposals include a union catalog 
(in process) and the establishment of a li-
brary of curricular reading to be selected from 
the present · holdings of the corporation li-
braries. 

This first collection of lectures at the Biblio-
tekstekniska Klubben is at once an informative 
and a provocative volume, and readers will 
look forward to the publication of a second 
series. -Lawr ence S. Thompson , Univ ersity 
of K entucky Libraries. 

Punched Cards 
Pun ched Cards,· Th eir Applications to Scienc e 

and Industry. Edited by Robert S. Casey 
and James W. Perry. New York, Rein-
hold Publishing Corp., 1951. viii, so6p. 
$10.00. 

Though the general problem of the organi: 
zation of knowledge and the specific matter of 
discovering the ways in which bits of data 
are interrelated are perhaps as old as recorded 
history, both have recently become matters of 
great and pressing concern. As the amount 
of time and money going into scientific re-
search increases, the failure of conventional 
methods of literature control gives rise to 
experimentation with various mechanical de-
vices. This book is a collection of papers on 
practices and philosophies developed for the 
most part by scientists who see the punched 
card as " ... opening up new possibilities for 
coping with the growing mountain of research 
publication." (p. g) 

Over thirty individuals with first-hand ex-
perience in using punched cards or with an 
interest in them as a possible basis for solving 
the problem .of bibliographic control have 
contributed to this book. Leading off with a 

JULY, 1952 

rather brief but fairly detailed description of 
the major varieties of punched cards , the edi-
tors then have rounded up a group of 14 case 
histories in a variety of fields , 10 papers on 
basic issues such as coding, indexing, and 
classification, and one on future possibilities , 
and have reproduced as the last section the 
extensive bibliography previously made availa-
ble through the American Chemical Society. 

As with most collections , the papers vary 
in quality considerably, and are to some extent 
repet1t10us. A few of the contributors ap-
proach their subject as though they had dis-
covered both a problem and a solution hitherto 
unknown. Consequently, some bits of specious 
reasoning and rather elementary statements 
of philosophy are included which may amuse 
or annoy, depending on the reader. Some 
of the papers included are to be found in other 
sources, and few of the ideas expressed in the 
book are unique. However, for either the 
specialist with a problem to solve , or for the 
general librarian who proposes to keep in-
formed on recent developments, Punch ed 
Cards should be of interest. For the special-
1st, it provides a handbook dealing with such 
specific matters as the spacing of code fields 
to such general considerations as a theoretical 
discussion on the number of combinations 
possible with various codes. The specialist 
w~ll find a kind of ready-made literature 
search more complete than he could develop 
for himself for ten dollars' worth of time. 

The general librarian will find less of inter-
est. Punched Cards adds little, if anything, 
by way of new or unusual thinking; indeed, 
some may be annoyed by the rather airy dis-
missal of topics which have baffied experts 
in classification for years. For example , what 
constitutes "ample capacity for future ex-
pansion" of either a coding system or a classi-
fication scheme? Some of the papers in this 
book approach that problem , but none pro-
poses any generally acceptable answer. None-
theless, the book does provide a review of the 
uses of punched cards-both hand-sorted and 
machine-sorted-in information services of 
various kinds. 

One of the most valuable parts of Punch ed 
Cards is its twenty-five page annotated "Bibli-
ography on the Uses of Punched Cards." 
This reviewer had occasion to make extensive 
use of the bibliography in its original form 
(in the 1 ournal of Docum entation) and found 
it to be the most helpful single source of 

279 



information on its subject. In addition, the 
final paper by Dr. E. H. E. Pietsch on the 
proposed Gmelin Information Center con-
tains dramatic evidence of the growth of 
research and publication in the sciences. In its 
presentation of the total problem of biblio-
graphic control, this article is of definite inter-
est-and, perhaps, the most valuable one in 
Punched Cards.-Ralph Blasingame, Jr., 
Columbia University, School of Library 
Service. 

Early State Records 
A Guide to the Microfilm Collection of Early 

State Records. Supplement, prepared by 
the Library of Congress in association with 
the University of North Carolina. Col-
lected, compiled and edited by William 
Sumner Jenkins. ·washington, D.C. 
Photoduplication Service, Library of Con-
gress, 1951. 161p. (Offset Reproduction, 
$3.00) 
In the fall of 1950 the 8oo-page Guide was 

issued, the monumental significance of which 
has been noted in reviews at home and abroad. ' 
The Supplement released in January, 1952, 
extends the scope of the earlier publication by 
listing 170 reels of additional microfilm ma-
terials. The Guide lists 1,700 reels of film 
concerning six subject classes: legislative rec-
ords, executive records, statutory law, con-
stitutional records, administrative records, 
and court records. Within each class the ma-
terial is arranged by states and chronologically 
within the . state. The Supplement utilizes 
the same arrangement in the presentation of 
five additional classes: ( L) local records-
county and city, (M) records of American-
Indian Nations, ( N) newspapers, ( R) rudi-
mentary states and courts, and (X) Miscel-
lany. 

The two volumes represent one of the most 
comprehensive and worthwhile microfilming 
projects ever undertaken in the United States. 
The volumes provide a complete list of the 
historical state records that have been micro-
filmed during the past decade by a project 
sponsored jointly by the Library of Congress 
and the University of North Carolina. 

History, government, and sociology students 
will find their range of possible research 
greatly extended by each of the five new 
classes covered in the Supplement. 

In the section, Local Government Records, 

only seven local units are covered. However, 
two of these, the New Orleans Cabildo rec-
ords and the Texas Nacogdoches Archives, 
are most rewarding and suggest the feasibility 
of a more comprehensive collection of such 
local records. The very roots of our demo-
cratic development are to be found in the 
deliberations of local bodies in the late 18th 
and early 19th centuries. 

Nothing is more exasperating to the scholar 
than to find his source material scattered in 
a multitude of libraries over the whole coun-
try. The future student of Indian affairs 
will be most grateful for the section of the 
Supplement covering the Records of American-
Indian Nations. The resources at the Okla-
homa Historical Society and the resources of 
many secondary repositories are now con-
veniently brought together on the · film. 

The preservation and storage of newspapers 
is one of the prime problems of librarians 
today, yet we know that the student wishing 
to use official records of many early govern-
mental bodies must rely on the newspaper for 
the only extant printing of those records. In 
the fifty-odd reels covered by the section on 
newspapers in' the Supplement an attempt 
was made to arrange in chronological files the 
official gazette in each of the colonies and the 
first newspaper in each of the territories. 
Extracting the official documents in each of 
the paper:s resulted in copying about half of 
the pertinent newspapers . 
. The student interested in frontier govern-

ments will find great help in that section of 
the Supplement dealing with Rudimentary 
States and Courts. In this class are collected 
the records of those bodies which possessed 
at some time the rudiments of organized 
government. These governments were some-
times abortive, provisional, revolutionary, 
rival, usually extra-legal, and always transi-
tory. On the frontier local needs gave rise to 
provisional courts for the administration of 
civil and criminal justice. The use of this 
great body of records will help us separate 
legend and fact in many instances. 

In a class of Miscellany are included a 
great lot of irregular and non-serial official 
material and some non-official material written 
about the states. A considerable amount of 
this is broadside and manuscript material not 
quite fitting the major classifications of the 
microfilm project. These forms occupy an 
important place among source materials avail-

280 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES