College and Research Libraries the number of articles published in each journal for the period covered. Brown cor- rectly points out that such a list is not neces- sarily related to the value of the contribu- tions in those journals or to their usefulness to the scientist, but that there is a relation between the periodicals with the most arti- cles abstracted and the periodicals most like- ly to be requested by the user who works through the abstracts. Brown emphasizes the value of these lists for programs of cooperative acquisition and storage, and indeed they may have their greatest value for these purposes. The lists might well be studied by groups of libraries in close geographical proximity to help eval- uate and to improve the adequacy of their composite collections. The author refers to the project of the Midwest Inter-Library Cen- ter, in which MILC will attempt to obtain all of the periodicals abstracted by Chemical Abstracts which are not held by member li- braries. MILC is working out a similar pro- gram for the biological sciences. The lists in this volume are not complete enough for a large regional undertaking like MILC, which should be securing, not titles frequently cited, but rather those rarely cited. The author has compiled a useful consoli- dated list of all of the journals cited in the eight fields. Almost 20 per cent of the jour- nals listed by Brown appear on more than one list. Librarians need to consider the over-all values of periodical titles when de- ciding whether or not to purchase them. Of value to institutions building up back files are the summaries on comparative impor- tance of earlier and more recent publications in each field. The university librarian plan- ning branch libraries for the sciences can profit by data which show, for example, that approximately 12 per cent of the references in mathematics or in chemistry are to jour- nals prior to 1924, while only 2.y2 per cent of physics references go back of 1924. This volume is considerably more than a report on reference counts. Methods used by libraries* for the selection of serials are sum- marized and evaluated. In this chapter and in another on the acquisition, storage, and discarding of scientific serials, the author has called on his years of experience in develop- ing one of the country's best scientific collec- tions at Iowa State College to interpret the results of this study in terms of practical ad- vice for those who are called on to supply re- search scientists with basic literature sources. This volume is the first clothbound book in the Association of College and Reference Libraries monograph series. The A C R L has done well to put it into this form, and it is to be hoped that future substantial contribu- tions can be given similar treatment.—Melvin J. Voigt, University of California Library (Berkeley ). Boston Public Library Boston Public Library: A Centennial His- tory. By Walter Muir Whitehill, Cam- bridge: Harvard University Press, 1956. 274p. $4.75. Institutions are necessarily what the ideals and acts of individuals make them; but not all institutions are fortunate enough to have a historian whose literary talent and lively interest in people are equal to the task of demonstrating the fact. The Boston Public Library, the first of the great American pub- lic libraries, has found such a historian in Dr. Walter Muir Whitehill, the capable di- rector of another distinguished library, the Boston Athenaeum. From the earliest page, wherein he relates his own initial acquaint- ance with the library, to the final paragraphs of commendation of the current mayor for his support of the library's program, the volume abounds in human interest as the story of men's attempts, some wise, some foolish, some brave, some timid, to create a collection of books with the essential services to the public that, as George Ticknor, one of the library's founders, wrote in 1851, would "carry the taste for reading as deep as possible in so- ciety." The vagaries of fate are apparent in both the first and the latest of the great benefac- tions: the first when Joshua Bates, the Lon- don banker, recalling his own experience as a poor boy in Boston, responded from across the sea with a promise of fifty thousand dol- lars when Ticknor sent out his noble printed proposal for a public library open to all; and the latest, when the library received in trust the million dollar gift of John Deferrari, whose amazing career from fruit peddler to millionaire was guided, unknown to the li- 518 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES brarians, by its books on real estate and busi- ness. The reader has ample material here upon which to reflect on the need for a scholarly and farsighted acquisitiveness in librarians, coupled with solid and sensible accomplish- ments in administration. The Boston Public Library has fortunately had some librarians distinguished for both: the names of Charles Coffin Jewett, Justin Winsor, and Herbert Putnam are writ large in library history. Trustees and librarians alike may profit from the story told in detail of the construction, without regard to function, of the great ar- chitectural monument that is the present li- brary in Copley Square, and the more sig- nificant story of attempts to rebuild the in- terior into the useful and complicated service areas demanded in a modern public library. Anyone who has watched the ingenious changes taking place under the present cap- able director, Milton E. Lord, will better ap- preciate the extraordinary complexity of the problems created by the necessity of defrost- ing architectural icebergs. Branch libraries, bookmobiles, the dual emphasis upon re- search facilities and services to the reading needs of the general public have their proper parts, as has, too, quite fortunately, the dis- pute over Macmonnies' sculpture "Bachante." If the reader does not turn from the few pages about the "Naked Drunken Woman" in this book to the author's longer account in the New England Quarterly for December, 1954, he will have missed one of the best stories in library history. In a note Mr. Whitehill commends David McCord's centennial pamphlet as "full of in- formation and free from the pompous solem- nity that affects many commemorative publi- cations of institutions." One can do no better than use the same words to describe Mr. Whitehill's own book. T o this should be added a tribute to Rudolph Ruzicka, whose fine illustrations and expertness in book de- sign give the volume a deserved distinction. —Robert E. Moody, Boston University Li- braries. Medical Library Practice Handbook of Medical Library Practice, with a Bibliography of the Reference Works and Histories in Medicine and the Allied Sciences. 2d ed., rev. and enl. Janet Doe, Mary Louise Marshall, editors. Chi- cago: American Library Association, 1956. 601 p. $10. When the first edition of this Handbook appeared in 1943 it was described as "a man- ual of procedure and a reservoir of useful data." Emphasis was placed on the latter aspect, with happy results; and happily this revised and enlarged second edition has continued this emphasis. A very wide range of information is included: organization charts; salary scales; factors for calculation of stack capacities; names and addresses of book and periodical dealers; directions for using mending glues; samples of various classification schemes now prevalent; lists of subject heading aids; manufacturers of map cases, display equipment, and micro- film reading machines; checklists for a pub- lic relations program; and data on medical library resources, medical library education, and the Medical Library Association. There is something here for everyone. All of it will be of daily usefulness to the younger librarian, and to the librarian of the "one- man" library, while even the most sophisti- cated and experienced librarian must find in it an invaluable source of occasional help. The last half of the book deals with ref- erence and bibliographic service applicable to clinical medicine and medical research, and to a discussion of rare books and the history of medicine, both sections being capped with a really magnificent annotated "Bibliography of the Reference Works and Histories in Medicine and the Allied Sci- ences" numbering almost 2,000 entries. This bibliography was the outstanding feature of the first edition. It is here revised, aug- mented (the number of entries has doubled), and rearranged. Formerly the bib- liography was arranged primarily by form of publication; in the second edition it is arranged basically by subject, and only sec- ondarily by form. Finally, this book has what might be called an indexer's index, the kind which every librarian admires but finds all too infrequently. This edition appears as its co-editor, Janet Doe, who edited the first edition, retires fol- lowing a distinguished career at the New NOVEMBER, 1956 519