College and Research Libraries


pieces, and would pay much more attention 
to research in the effects of particular media, 
especially magazines and newspapers and 
books, and would give much less attention to 
too-easy generalizations about all media.— 
LeRoy Charles Merritt, University of Cali-
fornia. 

Classified List of Reference 
Books and Periodicals 
The Classified List of Reference Books and 

Periodicals for College Libraries. W. Stan-
ley Hoole, editor. 3d ed. Atlanta, Ga.: 
Southern Association of Colleges and Sec-
ondary Schools, Commission on Colleges 
and Universities, 1955. xi, 227p. $3. 

In 1940 at the suggestion of the then Com-
mission on Institutions of Higher Education 
of the Southern Association of Colleges and 
Secondary Schools, a group of college and 
university librarians of the South undertook 
the compilation of two checklists, one of ref-
erence books and one of periodicals, for use 
in checking and strengthening the collections 
of the libraries of member institutions. These 
lists were in every sense cooperative efforts, 
representing the pooled judgments of librar-
ians, teachers, and subject specialists and based 
on a study of the curricula of representative 
southern institutions and an examination of 
existing comparable lists. The separate mim-
eographed editions of 1940 were revised and 
published as one in 1947 and now a third ed-
ition has been issued. 

Still representing the needs of the four-year 
undergraduate college as reflected in the cur-
ricula of the colleges of the South, the new 
edition was compiled in the same way with 
the additional advantage of the knowledge 
gained from use of the earlier editions over 
many years. 

As in the second edition the reference works 
are grouped in five major categories: Gen-
eral, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, 
Social Sciences, and Humanities, with further 
subject subdivisions under each. Strictly a ref-
erence list, general treatises are said to have 
been included only to supply an essential need 
in an area where reference books are not avail-
able. In this connection one might question 

the need of having in reference collections 
the various series in American history. How-
ever, if they are to be included, even the 
American Nation series, now largely out of 
print, why is there no mention of the New 
American Nation series of which a number 
of volumes are already published? 

In any work of this nature there are bound 
to be differences of judgment, but for the 
most part the quality of selection remains 
high. Although anthropology is apparently lit-
tle emphasized in southern colleges, it would 
seem that at least a directory like Thomas 
and Pikelis' International Directory of An-
thropological Institutions would be needed. 
And it is strange not to find such titles as 
the Bibliographic Index, Library Literature, 
Facts on File and the Neio York Times In-
dex. 

The deletion in this edition of subdivisions 
like Anthropology and Ethnology, Astronomy, 
and Meteorology has forced the titles in these 
fields into other groups where they are found 
only if a key word in the title provides a clue 
to their location through the index. The An-
thropology titles are placed under Sociology, 
at least four Astronomy books are among the 
Physics titles, while seven of the titles classed 
under Meterology in the 1947 edition are now 
located in the same or revised editions under 
Geology. It seems doubtful that the elimina-
tion of these subdivisions has served any use-
ful purpose. 

Only a casual check was made for accuracy, 
but it was surprising to note the (Guide to) 
American Business Directories listed under 
Davis and again under U. S. Bureau of For-
eign and Domestic Commerce, since the Pub-
lic Affairs Press edition given under Davis is 
a reissue of the government document with 
substantially no change. Also, it was the Men-
efee and Chambers bibliography American 
Youth which was published in 1938; the sup-
plement to it, Youth, Key to America's Fu-
ture, by Chambers and Exton, which is listed 
here, was published in 1949. 

The titles in the reference list now number 
1,447 as against 778 in the first edition and 
1,262 in the second. Symbols used in the 1947 
edition to denote books for first purchase and 
those suitable for junior colleges have been 
dropped. 

Periodicals, which were last given in a sep-

MAY, 1956 271 



arate list under such headings as Book Re-
views, H o m e Economics, History, and Physics 
have now been divided into the five major cat-
egories of the books and are listed alphabet-
ically at the end of all the subdivisions of 
each category. T o this reviewer, the one major 
criticism of this very useful work is the failure 
to subdivide the periodical lists, placing, for 
example, the chemistry periodicals after the 
reference works on chemistry and the history 
periodicals after the reference works on his-
tory, leaving, as before, for the general section 
those which belong in no subject grouping. 
Under the present arrangement it is necessary 
to read through 195 titles in the social science 
group to locate the ten or twelve sociology 
periodicals. 

A new feature in this edition is the nota-
tion of the sources of periodical indexing, an 
addition placed immediately in error by the 
many changes i n t h e International Index. This 
only emphasizes the great difficulty of keep-
ing lists of reference books and periodicals 
up to date, for the closing compilation date 
here was October, 1954. 

In spite of a number of typographical er-
rors and the loss of the Biographical Directory 
of the American Congress among the biblio-
graphical entries, the index is greatly improved, 
placing this time in a single alphabet the au-
thors and titles of the reference works and, 
in italics, the periodical titles. 

Once more the editor warns against the use 
of the list as an acquisitions guide or for ac-
crediting purposes without consideration of 
local needs and recognition that other titles 
might serve as well. These are valid warnings 
to be heeded in the use of any standard list 
and detract not at all from the value of this 
one as "a reasonably effective measurement 
for improving the quality of college libraries 
in the S o u t h . " — W i n i f r e d Linderman, Colum-
bia University. 

The First Cambridge Press 
The First Cambridge Press in its European 

Setting. By E. P. Goldschmidt. T h e Sandars 
Lectures in Bibliography, 1953. N e w York: 
Cambridge University Press, 1955. x, 99 p. 
$3.75. 

The First Cambridge Press (1521-1522) 
which the author describes in his preface as a 

story of the "literary characteristics of the pub-
lishing venture of Siberch (i.e., John Laer of 
Siegburg) . . . in comparison with similar en-
terprises in other university towns on the Con-
tinent" is a fascinating and intriguing study. 
Even those who may not always agree with 
the theses of the late E. P. Goldschmidt will 
admire anew his tremendous fund of knowl-
edge and his mastery of intellectual history. 

T h e first chapter deals with the connections 
between Siberch and the Greek scholar Rich-
ard Croke, Henry Bullock, Bishop John Fisch-
er (the chancellor of Cambridge University), 
and other more or less famous contemporar-
ies. It analyzes in detail the ten books now cred-
ited to the first Cambridge press, among them 
Bullock's welcome to Cardinal Wolsey, the 
first edition of Lucian's Dipsades (in Latin), 
the first edition of Erasmus' De Conscribendis 
Epistolis, Galen's On the Temperaments, and 
the anonymous allegory Hermathena. 

T h e second chapter serves to connect Eng-
land's first humanist press with parallel de-
velopments on the Continent; it is in fact a 
concise and very useful history of Greek stud-
ies around the year 1500. It contains, besides 
a wealth of information on the spread of clas-
sical knowledge, some rather thought-provok-
ing observations. Here is one example: 

T h e magnificent effort of the Aldine editions 
of the Greek authors marks the end, not the be-
ginning, of humanism in Italy. T h e y are the 
culmination of the endeavours and wishes of a 
whole century; but their sequel is negligible in 
Italy. T h e y bear their fruit beyond the Alps. 

Chapter three is entitled "Continental Schol-
ar-Printers" and deals with Siberch's Roman 
type and with the humanist presses in Erfurt, 
Wittenberg, Leipzig, Cracow, Vienna, Basel, 
Louvain, Paris, Caen, Toulouse and some few 
other towns. 

T h e three chapters (originally planned as 
lectures) are accompanied by an equal num-
ber of appendices of which one will prove 
particularly useful. Appendix B, "Renaissance 
Translations from the Greek," lists in tabular 
form the first Greek printing and the first Lat-
in translations of Greek authors and texts 
produced during the Renaissance. This com-
pilation alone will serve as a monument 
to the erudition of the scholar-bibliographer-
bookseller E. P. Goldschmidt. 

T h e book is most pleasingly produced and 

272 C( . L E G E AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES