College and Research Libraries


out a substantial increase in its annual ex-
penditures for books. A major capital outlay 
to remedy accumulated d.eficiencies of the 
past is also indicated." Undoubtedly the erec-
tion of a new library would be of direct help 
to the university in its efforts to develop the 
collections. In the last few years there has 
been some serious questioning of the expan-
sion of university libraries, but at New York 
University it has been pointed out that "un-
questionably the over-all instructional pro-
gram would be improved if better library fa-
cilities were available." Educators and librar-
ians alike know that quality education re-
quires a quality library service.-Maurice F. 
Taub er, Columbia University. 

Modern Archives 

JWodern Archives,· Principles and T ech-
niques. By T. R. Schellenberg. Chicago : 
University of Chicago Press, 1956. 247p. 
$5 . 

The establishment of the National Ar-
chives in 1934 marked the beginning of a 
new era in archives administration in the 
United States. While a few departments of 
the national government and some of the 
state governments had made contributions 
to the development of a science · of archival 
management, the United States had been 
until that time decidedly backward in com-
parison with some European countries. In 
the past twenty-two years, however, the Unit-
ed States has made up for much of the time 
lost. Not only do we now have a well-organ-
ized archival agency for the national govern-
ment, with record management programs in 
the government departments to supplement 
the work of the National Archives, but we 
also have improved facilities for preserving 
and administering archives in a number of 
the states. In this period we have also seen 
the establishment of the Society of Amer-
ican Archivists in 1936, an association which 
has done much to further our knowledge of 
the principles and practices of archival man-
agement through the work of its commit-
tees, its annual conferences, and its quar-
terly publication, The American Archivist, 
which began in 1938. 

MAY, 1957 

While these developments have been of 
great benefit to everyone interested in ar-
chives, there has been one gap which needed 
to be filled. Anyone wishing to learn about 
the methods of administering collections of 
government archives has had to depend 
largely upon articles in periodicals or upon 
manuals prepared on the basis of experience 
in European archives. The publication of 
Modern Archives,· Prin ciples and Techniqu es 
by Dr. T. R. Schellenberg has now admirably 
filled that gap. The book had its inception 
in a series of lectures which Dr. Schellen-
berg gave as a Fulbright lecturer in Aus-
tralia in 1954, but does not reproduce the 
lectures as they w·ere given, for the author 
has rewritten the material and added to it. 

Dr. Schellenberg has wr~tten a clear and 
concise text on the administration of ar-
chives, basing it chiefly on his long· experi-
ence at the National Archives, and including 
descriptions of European methods as well. 
The book is divided into three parts. The 
first part deals with the importance of ar-
chival institutions, the nature of archives, 
library relationships , and archival interests 
in record management. This section serves 
as an introduction to the book, giving a 
brief history of archival establishments in 
France, England, and the United States, and 
some of the basic philosophy of record and 
archives management. 

The second part of the book is devoted 
to record management. Here the author gives 
much valuable information on the adminis-
tration of records in government agencies, 
with excellent chapters on production con-
trols, classification principles, registry sys-
tems, American filing systems, and disposi-
tion practices. In the third and largest part 
of the book, Dr. Schellenberg discusses ar-
chival management, describing the tech-
niques for handling government records in 
an archival agency in detail. 

Dr. Schellenberg has chosen his topics and 
organized his material extremely well. The 
clarity and completeness of coverage of the 
book make it an excellent text for a course 
in archival management. '"'e are indeed for-
tunate to have this basic text to serve as the 
foundation for a knowledge of archives ad-
ministration today.-John R. Russell, Uni-
versity of Rochester Library. 

245