College and Research Libraries


Bibliography of Bibliographies 
A World Bibliography of Bibliographies and 

of Bibliographical Catalogues, Calendars, 
Abstracts, Digests, Indexes, and the Like, 
by T h e o d o r e B e s t e r m a n . V o l u m e I, A - E . 
T h i r d and F i n a l Edition, R e v i s e d and 
G r e a t l y E n l a r g e d T h r o u g h o u t . G e n e v e , 
Societas B i b l i o g r a p h i c a , [ 1 9 5 5 ] xxviiip., 
1326 cols. 

M r . T h e o d o r e B e s t e r m a n concludes the 
" I n t r o d u c t i o n " to his third (and as he 
threatens final) edition w i t h the same valedic-
tory as the t w o f o r m e r editions: 

M a y t h e n o b l e - m i n d e d s c h o l a r s i n s t e a d of 
c h e r i s h i n g ill f e e l i n g k i n d l y c o r r e c t w h a t e v e r 
e r r o r s h a v e been h e r e c o m m i t t e d t h r o u g h t h e 
d u l l n e s s of m y intellect in t h e w a y of w r o n g 
i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s a n d m i s s t a t e m e n t s . 

( F r o m H e m a c a n d r a ) 

A c c l a i m and success must h a v e assured M r . 
B e s t e r m a n t h a t only a fool w o u l d accuse him 
of "dullness of intellect," and t h a t only a 
w a s t e r w o u l d spend the time to find the f e w 
mistakes in i n t e r p r e t a t i o n and statements 
w h i c h inevitably must have crept into so l a r g e 
an u n d e r t a k i n g . O v e r the years, this re-
v i e w e r has occasionally f o u n d a l a c u n a ; he 
n a t u r a l l y assumes t h a t it has been c o r r e c t e d 
in this n e w edition. O n c e in a w h i l e he 
s o u g h t in vain a solution to a bibliographical 
problem, or he w a s not able to discover the 
p r o p e r heading. H o w e v e r , he has never been 
a w a r e of serious e r r o r s or of intellectual 
boners common in this type of a l l - e m b r a c i n g 
bibliographical enterprise. R a t h e r , he has 
m a r v e l e d , o v e r and o v e r again, h o w one man 
can deal as s a t i s f a c t o r i l y w i t h so many lan-
g u a g e s and w i t h p r a c t i c a l l y all fields of 
human k n o w l e d g e . 

W e n a t u r a l l y assume t h a t all readers of 
C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S are f a m i l i a r 
w i t h both, or at least w i t h either of the pre-
vious editions. Should this not be the case w e 
can only u r g e them to examine and to peruse at 
least the n e w third edition w h i c h f o l l o w s , in 
scope and t r e a t m e n t , the first and the second 
editions. A b o u t 80,000 monographic "bibli-
o g r a p h i e s " ( a s defined in the c a r e f u l l y w r i t t e n 
original " I n t r o d u c t i o n " w h i c h has been re-
printed in the second and third editions) are 
listed c h r o n o l o g i c a l l y under alphabetically a r -
ranged subjects. A r t i c l e s are e x c l u d e d ; w e 
believe t h a t quite a f e w of the items listed 
are a c t u a l l y separately paged reprints f r o m 

j o u r n a l s . T h e description of each item in 
this edition has again been critically examined 
and has, w h e n necessary, been corrected and 
revised. O u r sample checking w o u l d indicate 
that M r . B e s t e r m a n ' s claim that the third 
edition lists t w i c e as many entries as the first 
and about 2 5 % more than the second, is on 
the c o n s e r v a t i v e side. In addition, many n e w 
cross r e f e r e n c e s have been added. 

Since this r e v i e w e r has never applied time 
and motion studies to his o w n w o r k , he can-
not state h o w many hours, days or w e e k s the 
World Bibliography has saved h i m ; may it 
suffice to say t h a t the s a v i n g of time and l a b o r 
has been g r e a t . C u m u l a t i v e l y , the biblio-
g r a p h i c a l searches of thousands of librarians, 
scholars and laymen must h a v e been shortened 
v e r y considerably t h r o u g h intelligent use of 
B e s t e r m a n ' s World Bibliography. 

W e do not w i s h to question the v a l i d i t y of 
M r . B e s t e r m a n ' s a r g u m e n t s in f a v o r of his 
alphabetical s u b j e c t a r r a n g e m e n t . I t is a 
f a c t , h o w e v e r , t h a t sometimes the user looks 
under one s u b j e c t only to discover l a t e r t h a t 
he missed one equally or even more i m p o r t a n t 
bibliographical tool, listed under another re-
lated or l a r g e r subject. W e believe that a 
classified listing of the " a b o u t 12,000 headings 
and s u b - h e a d i n g s " w o u l d be e x t r e m e l y use-
f u l and g r e a t l y enhance the v a l u e of the 
World Bibliography. 

In conclusion, w e c o n g r a t u l a t e M r . B e s t e r -
man and thank him f o r his third improved 
and g r e a t l y expanded edition. W e hope that 
he w i l l find w e l l qualified successors to c a r r y 
on as a g r o u p w h e r e he b o w s out as a one 
man bibliographical c e n t e r . — R u d o l f Hirsch, 
University of Pennsylvania Library. 

Financial Subject Headings 

Subject Headings for Financial Libraries. 
C o m p i l e d by a C o m m i t t e e of the F i n a n c i a l 
D i v i s i o n , Special L i b r a r i e s Association. 
N e w Y o r k : Special L i b r a r i e s Association, 
1954. viii, 94p. $5-00. 
A s a combination of alphabetic-classified and 

alphabetic-subject list, this compilation f a l l s 
directly in the middle of c u r r e n t c o n t r o v e r s y ; 
but as a practical aid in o r g a n i z i n g m a t e r i a l s 
in the g r e a t v a r i e t y of financial libraries, it 
o f f e r s good guidance in b r i n g i n g some system 
into the range of s u b j e c t s covered in such 
libraries. T h i s revision of the 1940 list again 
suggests subdivisions, or " S t a n d a r d S u b h e a d s " 

424 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES