College and Research Libraries


College Library 
The Function of the Library in the Modern 

College: Papers Presented before the Nine-
teenth Annual Conference of the Graduate 
Library School of the University of Chicago, 
June 14-18, 1954. Edited by H e r m a n H . 
Fussier. C h i c a g o : University of Chicago, 
G r a d u a t e L i b r a r y School, 1954. viii, 117 p. 
$3.75. 
Questions of college library policy are con-

tinually arising. H a v e library and adminis-
trative policy, authority, and responsibility 
been clearly defined? C a n the library do 
more than it is presently doing to assist or 
stimulate the faculty to make the library's 
resources a center of study and a means to-
w a r d self-education? H o w does the library 
select books for purchase? W h a t is the place 
of instruction in the use of library materials 
in the university and w h a t should the content 
of such instruction be to make it effective? 
H o w can librarians recruit persons f o r their 
staffs w h o are "educated" as w e l l as " t r a i n e d " ? 
Should library resources be broadened to in-
clude the provision and use of non-book ma-
terials? W h a t standards, if any, may be 
applied to measure the adequacy of financial 
support? W h e r e v e r college librarians con-
gregate, these same questions provide an un-
failing topic of discussion. T h e y are, as a 
librarian once said, "perennial, like sex in 
dormitory discussion." 

Believing that a discussion of some of these 
issues would be of value, the G r a d u a t e School 
of the University of Chicago arranged a sym-
posium on " T h e Function of the L i b r a r y in 
the M o d e r n C o l l e g e . " T h e immediate occa-
sion for the symposium w a s the nineteenth 
annual summer conference of the G r a d u a t e 
School on June 14 through 18, 1954. T h e 
papers presented in the publication under re-
v i e w w e r e prepared f o r the symposium, f o r 
publication in the Library Quarterly, October, 
1954, and f o r this volume. Everyone in-
terested in the college library should buy and 
read this book. Even if, as editor Fussier 
candidly and honestly admits in his summary 
chapter, the ideas and the picture of college 
library operations presented at the conference 
are not markedly different f r o m those ex-
pressed in w h a t another contributor to the 
symposium describes as the "exhaustive, and 
at times exhausting" writings on college 
library administration, you w i l l be missing a 

great deal if you don't buy the book and sit 
down w i t h its richly informative, stimulating, 
and highly readable essays. 

President C a r t e r Davidson of Union C o l -
lege sets the background with his discussion of 
" T r e n d s and Developments in H i g h e r Educa-
tion," in which he confesses his weakness for 
alliteration and sets forth the objectives of the 
liberal arts college under four headings: cul-
ture, character, competence, and citizenship. 
H e leaves to P r o f e s s o r R. F. A r r a g o n of Reed 
College the job of relating these objectives to 
the college library. In " T h e Relationship 
Between the L i b r a r y and Collegiate O b j e c -
tives," Professor A r r a g o n ranges f a r beyond 
his assignment to present a portrait of every-
day library problems that is clear, balanced, 
objective, and yet deeply sympathetic. H i s 
treatment of the reserve book problem and 
book selection as it applies to primary source 
materials for undergraduates is particularly 
helpful. W e most frequently think of the 
responsibility of the board of trustees and the 
president for the college library in matters of 
financing. T h e i r responsibility, as any college 
librarian knows, goes beyond this. T h e y 
must lead in classifying the kind of program 
needed and in defining the external and inter-
nal functions of the library. T h a t this is 
still a goal to be attained rather than an 
accomplished fact is painfully evident f r o m the 
findings of D r . Eugene W i l s o n ' s detailed and 
admirable study of the " G o v e r n m e n t of the 
College L i b r a r y . " H e discusses institutional 
control, codes of library policy, library com-
mittees, and the position of the librarian in 
the hierarchy of the college. T h e c r u x of the 
whole problem is, of course, the relationship 
between the administration and the librarian. 
W i t h o u t the whole-hearted cooperation and 
support of the former, the latter is stymied. 
C h a r l e s A d a m s ' brilliant summary and review 
of college library building problems, entitled 
" T h e C o l l e g e - L i b r a r y Building," is a mine of 
information that is detailed but never dull, 
broadly conceived but never vague. In recent 
years w e have seen the appearance of new 
and highly influential media of communication 
adapted to educational purposes. In " T h e 
Place of N e w e r M e d i a in the U n d e r g r a d u a t e 
P r o g r a m , " C . W a l t e r Stone, Associated P r o -
fessor of L i b r a r y Science at the University of 
Illinois, emphasizes the need for broadening 
the library's program to include the provision 
and use of non-book materials and suggests 

JULY, 1955 313 



the principles which w i l l guide the college 
librarian in administering such a service. In 
the chapter entitled " T h e L i b e r a l A r t s Func-
tions of the University L i b r a r y , " Stanley E . 
G w y n n occupies himself almost entirely w i t h 
t w o m a t t e r s : first, w i t h the importance of 
giving students instruction in the role of the 
library and librarian in society and in the 
methods of using library m a t e r i a l s ; and, 
second, w i t h the admonition that w e l l - q u a l i -
fied librarians can be more influential in en-
couraging the reading habit among students 
than "luxuriously furnished reading-rooms and 
the invitingly arranged shelves." I am sure 
he would agree that it w o u l d be nice to have 
both. W y m a n W . P a r k e r of the University 
of Cincinnati presents in " C o l l e g e - L i b r a r y 
Personnel" an informed and lively discussion 
of one of our most pressing problems in 
library w o r k today and makes several promis-
ing suggestions f o r bringing new recruits into 
the profession. I w o u l d like to think that our 
profession " o f f e r s g r e a t variety and prestige 
to its members," and I bless P a r k e r f o r saying 
it, but it is a deplorably w e l l - k n o w n fact that 
our lack of prestige is one of the principal 
deterrents to encouraging young people of 
ability and personality to become librarians. 
T h e r e are many problems in the theory and 
practice of book selection, and for those w h o 
w a n t a fresh look at how these may be solved 
f o r the liberal arts college library, D r . N e w -
ton F . M c K e o n ' s g r a c e f u l l y w r i t t e n chapter 
on " T h e N a t u r e of the C o l l e g e - L i b r a r y Book 
C o l l e c t i o n " can be w a r m l y recommended. 

T h e author of the chapter on "Finance and 
the C o l l e g e L i b r a r y , " Reubin Frodin, execu-
tive dean, f o u r - y e a r and professional colleges, 
State University of N e w Y o r k , may be a 
newcomer to many of us librarians of the com-
mon species, but he has had an interesting and 
varied library career which he describes at 
the beginning of his chapter. In v i e w of his 
background, associations, and obvious w i t , 
it is little bewildering how in this contribution 
he could w r i t e so much in the manner of a 
dilettante. H i s treatment is a breezy ramble 
through the byways of college library finance. 
H e says nothing about the how, why, or 
w h e r e f o r e of college library financial problems 
that has not been better said in the library 
writings to which he refers so contemptuously. 
W h e r e sincerity and fundamental seriousness 
are called for, notes of smugness and falsity 
are perpetually intruding. T h e only construc-

tive point in the chapter is the proposal of the 
N e w Y o r k State Regents' Committee (of 
which M r . Frodin is an important member) 
for linking up the college libraries in the 
state in a system of mutual help. Presumably 
many of the college libraries are deficient in 
support, book collections, and space, and need 
more help than can be secured in a liberal 
system of interlibrary loans. T h e Regents' 
Committee feels that college library service 
could be improved by strengthening the N e w 
Y o r k State L i b r a r y as a kind of "library's 
l i b r a r y , " to which the college libraries should 
be able to look for the supply of those rarer 
and more costly sets and journal files which 
they cannot provide themselves. 

T h e value of a liberal arts education, the 
importance of books and libraries in the provi-
sion of a liberal education, the necessity f o r 
appraising the college library in humanistic 
terms, the uncertainty about the position of 
the library and librarian in the college, and 
the necessity for better communication be-
tween library and faculty and library and ad-
ministration; these, I believe, are the funda-
mental principles of the annual conference 
proceedings which H e r m a n Fussier summa-
rizes and interprets in the final chapter of this 
book. W h i l e he states there is nothing " d r a -
matically n e w " in the ideas expressed in the 
conference meetings, he and his colleagues 
have taken, as I am sure D e a n Asheim and 
the G r a d u a t e School intended them to take, 
a wide and high view of the college library 
task. T h e y have endeavored to establish the 
position which it ought to hold as one of the 
most p o w e r f u l means of enabling the college 
to fulfill its p u r p o s e . — G u y R. Lyle, Emory 
University Library. 

Book Collecting 
Book Collecting and Scholarship. Essays by 

T h e o d o r e C . Blegen, James F o r d Bell, 
Stanley Pargellis, Colton Storm, and L o u i s 
B . W r i g h t . M i n n e a p o l i s : University of 
M i n n e s o t a Press, 1954. 67 p. $5.00. 
T h i s handsome little book—designed by 

Jane M c C a r t h y of the University of M i n -
nesota Press, crisply printed by the L u n d 
Press, and tastefully, as w e l l as durably 
bound, by the A . J. D a h l C o m p a n y — w i l l itself 
be sought by private collectors, librarians and 
scholars. T h e collection of essays derives 
f r o m the program papers read on the occasion 

314 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES