College and Research Libraries


Thurlow (see "Graduate Theses Accepted by 
Library Schools in the United States, 1950-
195 !-Supplement," Library Quart erly 22:36-
37, January, 1952) , and the essay by Malcolm 
(George Peabody) listed in the Library 
Quarterly 20:296, October, 1950. There may 
be others, as no effort was made to check all 
items. 

Material relating to college and research 
libraries may be estimated as abundant when 
one realizes that 12 pages of entries are needed 
for "College and university librarians" aQ~ 
"College and university libraries" and its vari-
ous subdivisions. Many more references of 
special interest are included under such head-
ings as Acquisitions, Bibliographical control, 
Bibliography, Cooperation, Photographic re-
production and projection, Reference books, 
Research and the library, and Research mate-
rials.-Mauric e F. Tauber, Columbia Uni-
v ersity. 

M anagement Terms 
The Management Dictionary; Standardiza-

tion of Definitions and Con cepts of the 
T erminology in the Field of P ersonnel 
Management. By A . E. Benn. New York, 
E.xposition Press, f952. 376p. $7 .50. 

It is fairly easy for a reviewer to pick out 
faults in a compil~tion of this sort, especially 
a pioneer reference book in its field. One can 
criticize the omission by the Management 
Dictionary of a definition for cost accounting 
(one of the 14 topics specifically mentioned as 
being within the scope of the book). Then 
there is an elaborate, inconsistent system of 
indirect entries, using DEPARTMENTAL 
RANKING, ORDER OF MERIT and 
ORGANIZATION, COMMUNIST-
ACTION; but GUARANTEED ON-
TRIAL RATE and 1oo PER CENT 
PREMIUM PLAN. There are numerous 
cross references, but one looking under COM-
MUNIST-ACTION ORGANIZATION; 
RATE, GUARANTEED ON-TRIAL; or 
PREMIUM PLAN, 100 PER CENT wol,lld 
not find any guide. The compiler's penchants 
for listing abbreviations twice, with and with-
out the periods (as ALA, A.L.A.) and for the 
expression "and so forth" are annoying. 

However the essential criteria in judging a 
dictionary are the proper choice of words and 
phrases to be included and the accuracy and 

OCTOBER, 1952 

clarity of the definitions. To insure excellence 
in these endeavors, the compiier analyzed sta-
tistically over 50,000 possible concepts; defi-
nitions were compiled from 86oo current 
( 1945-) sources, including some 3300 periodi-
cals, 2600 newspapers, 1400 pamphlets, 1200 
monographs and 100 speeches. Only those 
concepts defined similarly at least five times 
were retained. Thus the method of compiling 
items and defining them seems unusually valid. 

The definitions should be correct as far as 
they go, though in that for the LABOR-
MANAGEMENT RELATIONS ACT not 
too rpuch light is cast on the provisions: 
" Federal legislation~ enacted June 23, 1947, 
which amends the National labor relations act 
of 193 5 ; • it deals with labor and management 
relations affecting interstate commerce. Abbrevi-
ated L.M.R.A. Syn.: Taft-Hartley law." 

This characteristic is neither rare nor, on the 
other hand, typical. . 

The dictionary can be improved, and a pos-
s:ble future second edition should be more 
satisfactory. It provides definitions of words 
and phrases, with their synonyms and anto-
nyms, and explanations of symbols and formu-
las, brought together for the first time in one 
alphabetic list. For its accuracy and conveni-
ence, it is recommended to business, industrial 
engineering, labor and personnel management 
libraries.-Robert Scott, Engin eering Library, 
Columbia University. 

Marginal Punched Cards 
Marginal Punched Cards. By Howard F. 

McGaw. Washington, D.C., The Scare-
crow Press, 1952. 218p. $4.50. 
Many librarians shy away from articles con-

taining statistics set forth with highly techni-
cal explanations that only practising experts 
can appreciate. They are apt to treat similarly 
the descriptions of punched card routines that 
have been appearing the last few years in re-
gard to the bibliographic control of the litera-
ture of scientific and technical subjects. The 
relatively small number of articles on library 
applications of punched card systems has 
shown a conscious effort on the part of the 
writers to use terms familiar to any librarian 
with an ordinary knowledge of mathematics, 
but Dr. McGraw takes the extra precaution 
of warning readers on page 61 of his book: 
(Librarians who have had no experience with 

401