College and Research Libraries


Review Articles 
W h o ' s W h o in Library Service 
Who's Who in Library Service. Third edi-

tion. A Biographical Directory of Profes-
sional Librarians of the United States and 
Canada. D o r o t h y Ethlyn Cole, editor. 
Prepared under the direction of the Council 
on Who's Who in Library Service f o r the 
School of L i b r a r y Service, Columbia U n i -
versity. N e w Y o r k , T h e G r o l i e r Society, 
1955. 546P. $6.00. 

A t long last the third edition of Who's 
Who in Library Service has made its ap-
pearance, the result of the cooperative effort 
of many volunteers. Its organization, plans 
and policies w e r e under the direction of the 
Council on Who's Who in Library Service 
of which C a r l M . W h i t e w a s chairman and 
L e e A s h co-chairman, and due to the generos-
ity of the H . W . W i l s o n Company, M i s s 
D o r o t h y Ethlyn C o l e w a s granted part-time 
leave to serve as editor and chairman of the 
Committee on Editorial Policies. T h e greater 
part of the actual labor w a s done by numer-
ous volunteers from the N e w Y o r k area who 
processed the thousands of returned question-
naires and, quite properly, the names of eight 
f a i t h f u l w o r k e r s w h o did an exceptional 
number of these questionnaires are listed in 
the front of the volume. A f t e r considerable 
investigation the G r o l i e r Society w a s chosen 
as publisher and the Science Press in L a n -
caster, Pennsylvania, prepared the final copy 
f o r reproduction by the photo-offset process. 

T h i s edition includes sketches for more than 
11,000 librarians f r o m the United States and 
Canada, compared with 5764 in the first edi-
tion ( 1 9 3 3 ) , and 8869 in the second ( 1 9 4 3 ) . 
According to the introduction the f o l l o w i n g 
categories are included: 

1) Professional librarians, defined as per-
sons holding degrees f r o m accredited library 
schools, or others classified as professional in 
libraries. ( I t w a s the responsibility of the 
Committee on Eligibility to evaluate the 
records of these latter).; 2) Persons active in 
such closely related fields as library school 
teaching, bibliographical and editorial w o r k ; 
3) Librarians w h o retired during the past 
y e a r ; 4) O t h e r s w h o have retired, but w h o 
are still w e l l known in the profession through 

writing, teaching, w o r k in professional as-
sociations, or consultant service; 5) Foreign 
librarians employed in agencies of an inter-
national character w h o are in the United 
States on a more or less permanent basis. 

T h e sketches are w r i t t e n in as concise a 
form as possible, using abbreviations and 
omitting non-professional information (home 
addresses are given only f o r persons w h o have 
retired or w h o are employed in libraries out-
side of the United S t a t e s ) . U s u a l l y given 
is full name, place and date of birth (if given 
by biographee), education, i.e., college, gradu-
ate w o r k , and library school; honors, publica-
tions, memberships, and positions held. 

Facts have been taken f r o m the question-
naires w i t h o u t further checking with other 
sources and f o r the most part seem quite 
accurate, although a f e w errors in tran-
scribing have been noted. U n f o r t u n a t e l y , the 
stringent budget did not permit follow-ups 
for persons w h o did not return the question-
naires. W h i l e it is possible that some of 
these may not wish to have been included, it 
would seem highly desirable that a certain 
amount of follow-up be provided when 
another edition is to be prepared. 

A f e w minor deficiencies have shown up as 
the volume has been used; e.g. 1 ) present 
position is given in caps at the end of the 
sketch which is usually an excellent arrange-
ment, but in the case of persons w h o have 
held several positions in the same library the 
name of the library is given only w i t h the 
first position and sometimes it is necessary 
to check back quite carefully to discover the 
name of the institution at which one is direc-
tor, head, technical processes, acquisition 
librarian, etc.; 2) date of retirement is not 
indicated so that, frequently, part-time jobs 
held a f t e r retirement are given more promi-
nence than the career position of an individual; 
3) in some cases abbreviations used for in-
stitutions with lack of place-names make for 
ambiguity. 

In spite of these f e w criticisms the volume 
is most welcome and w i l l be heavily used. 
It is to be hoped that some adequate arrange-
ment can be made f o r bringing out revisions 
at regular intervals.—Constance M. Win-
chell, Columbia University Libraries. 

OCTOBER, 1955 
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