College and Research Libraries Review Articles A Survey of General Interest The Columbia University Libraries. A Re- port on Present and Future Needs Pre- pared for the President's Committee on the Educational Future of the University. By the Subcommittee on the University Libraries. Maurice F. Tauber, Chairman, C. Donald Cook and Richard H. Logsdon. New York: Columbia University Press, 1 9 5 8 . 3 2 0 p . $ 5 . 0 0 . This monograph on Columbia libraries evolved from and was part of a patently sincere and critical investigation recently undertaken to answer questions on the edu- cational future of Columbia University. The fact that it is a survey made by Columbia talent, a professor in the School of Library Service, the director of libraries, and the now assistant - to the director, in no way detracts from its usefulness as a book that will interest, instruct, and assist many who are concerned with the operation, manage- ment, and development of contemporary research libraries. Indeed, additional validity is given to the findings, conclusions, and rec- ommendations because the authors have a capacity for self-analysis and are men of sound and mature judgment thoroughly ac- quainted with the complex administrative and educational structure that exists at Co- lumbia University. Using almost every source available to those who investigate modern library opera- tions—personal knowledge and observations; records, reports, and memoranda from the libraries and administrative offices; observa- tions, opinions, and knowledge of faculty, university officers, and students—the authors have examined in some detail the major problems that confront Columbia libraries. Nine chapters are devoted, in the order listed, to: the libraries in the university pro- gram; administrative organization; resources; cataloging and classification; quarters— equipment—preservation of m a t e r i a l s — photoduplication; personnel; readers serv- ices; interlibrary cooperation; and financial support. A tenth chapter is devoted to a resume of conclusions and recommendations contained in the first nine chapters. Fifty- two pages of appendices contain sample questionnaires and forms used in gathering data from faculty, administrative officers, librarians, and students. These are skillfully worded and may, and probably will, be adopted for local use in other institutions. Those who are searching for quick cures for the ailments of research libraries will not find them in this volume. The recom- mendations are cautious and restrained—no revolutionary inventions that will radically change the nature of library service are prom- ised—and will not plunge Columbia li- braries into any irrevocable or restrictive pattern of development but will permit them to evolve with the unpredictable but certainly changing teaching and research demands of the future. The following, of the many conclusions and recommendations contained in the vol- ume, seemed important to the reviewer: 1. The present centralized administrative organization operates efficiently and no de- sirable results could be seen in separating any present library unit from the central ad- ministration. 2. Acquisitional policies should be closely linked to the curricula and research pro- grams of schools and departments and the necessity to use materials in other libraries, particularly in the metropolitan area, should be recognized. The libraries should continue their efforts toward the formulation of acquisitions codes. 3. There is need for a program to catalog a sizeable backlog, revise classification, and bring subject headings up to date. 4. Space to alleviate present crowded con- ditions can be obtained from new construc- tion for the libraries of law, business, and medicine and by renovations within Butler or the addition of four levels on the stack- well as provided in the original design of that building. 5. As the curricular and research pro- grams of the university expand, provisions for additional staff must be made. Columbia has a problem, held in common with most JANUARY 1959 81 libraries: a high rate of turnover in clerical employees. No permanent solution to this costly and frustrating condition is given. 6. No positive conclusion was reached about the type of library facility Columbia should provide for undergraduates in the future. The present College Library located in Butler can be expanded or separate un- dergraduate quarters may be provided. 7. Columbia cooperates in interlibrary ventures nationally and locally and should continue. The authors recommend the re- vival of the idea of the abortive Northeast Regional Library. 8. In the ten years from 1945-46 to 1955- 56 the expenditures for Columbia libraries increased 106 per cent, but the total per- centage of the university budget for library service decreased from 5.64 per cent to 5.25 per cent. Additional financial needs are listed as $1,540,000 for capital sums, $150,- 000 for continuing needs, $6,000,000 for new quarters. An increase in library endowment from approximately $3,000,000 to $10,000,- 000 plus regular appropriations from the university is the suggested method of meet- ing present and future needs. Throughout the report the reader is made aware of the necessity for closer understand- ing between those who approve research programs and those who must supply the research materials: "The requirements of the university library as we know it today are determined by programs developed by faculties and approved by university admin- istrators, of which the librarian is only a part. The librarian accordingly has respon- sibility for meeting demands which are ac- tually beyond his jurisdiction and control" (p. 2). Though the authors do not say co- operate or smother, a credo is enunciated: "It is the firm belief of the Subcommittee that many of the library problems of Co- lumbia University are similar to those of other large research libraries, and that local expedients alone will not solve them com- pletely. What is needed are regional and/or national approaches to many of the prob- lems" (p. 3). The library profession should be grate- ful to the authors for this assiduous per- formance. The problems of library service to American universities that are rapidly becoming characterized as institutions of "re- search unlimited" can be more fully com- prehended because one university had the courage and capacity for self-examination. The formulation of a program for develop- ment in one great research library is of positive benefit to all research libraries, great ones or those less than great.—Cecil K. Byrd, Indiana University Libraries. Uses of Bibliography The Uses of Bibliography to the Students of Literature and History. By Edwin Eliot Willoughby. Hamden, Conn.: The Shoe String Press, 1957. 104p. (Lithoprinted) $3.00. In four chapters, based on lectures given in 1952 at the Universities of Liverpool, Leeds, and Manchester, the author under- takes to show that "the study of the physical book by means of analytical bibliography has uses that no student of literature or of history or of the historical aspects of any other subject can safely neglect." While dis- avowing any intention to provide instruc- tion in bibliographical techniques, the au- thor claims, correctly, that his work does "attempt to show the reader the uses to which he may put the art of analytical bib- liography, if he masters it. It does attempt to show him the unsuspected mystery and excitement that may lurk behind type and paper, evidence which read aright may even give the lie to the words that the type has printed upon the paper. This book does endeavor to show the reader why he should wish to possess that art of the analytical bib- liographer." Most of the examples will be familiar to students of bibliography: the innocent fraud of the English Mercurie; the Wise forgeries; the problems of the "Mecklenburg Declara- tion," the Ulster County Gazette, the 1619 Shakespeare quartos, and the like; yet all the stories are good enough to bear repeti- tion, and there is some virtue in having them brought together as parts of the larger story of the role bibliographers play in un- tangling the details of history. For the new- comer to bibliography or to librarianship this small book might very well provide the stimulus the author hopes for, thereby bring- ing new recruits to the fascinating study of 82 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES