College and Research Libraries


use with printed bibliographic tools, and 
putting more cross-references, title cards, and 
analytics into the catalog, but the study 
provides us with statistical, in addition to 
logical, bases for its arguments. 

One other finding and recommendation 
deserves special comment: the average li-
brary staff member turned out to be no 
more capable in using the catalog than was 
the average patron! The ensuing recom-
mendation is, naturally, that "librarians 
serving the public at the catalog should be 
trained specifically in the use of that cat-
alog." But this does not dispose of the bas-
ic question which must arise in the minds 
of administrators, librarians, and educators 
alike: why weren't the formal schooling, the 
on-the-job training, and the working expe-
rience sufficient to give the library staff 
member a clear edge over the average user? 

A number of shortcomings in the research 
methodology employed are discussed in a 
frank chapter entitled "Problems of Meth-
od." In particular, the non-random nature 
of the sample, both in terms of libraries and 
patrons, is pointed out, but the feeling is 
that the great number of interviews ob-
tained will compensate for it somewhat. 
Other weaknesses would include the use of 
library staff members as interviewers, and 
having these interviewers consciously select 
their respondents according to their own in-
dividual judgments as to the representative-
ness of the sample being obtained. Several 
improvements to remove weaknesses and in-
consistencies in the interview questionnaire, 
which consisted of forty-five check-off or 
short-answer items, were suggested. A chrono-
logical, or open-ended, type of interview 
form was rejected early in the study, but is 
worthy of further consideration if other 
studies of this type are conducted. Evidence 
for this is presented in the six "case studies" 
included in Appendix D of the report; these 
analyses were based on comments written on 
the backs of the questionnaires by the inter-
viewers, and provide a richness and depth of 
understanding which often eclipse that of 
the statistically-tabulated data. 

The authors state that an outside group 
would still not be able to surmount these 
herent in the nature of the study. This view 
methodological difficulties believed to be in-
becomes untenable when we stop to con-

sider the complex studies pursued by mark-
et researchers, pooling and sampling survey-
ors, and other sociological investigators. As 
long as we keep insisting that our problems 
are somehow "different" from those being 
successfully attacked by such specialists, the 
quality of our research will be kept inferior 
to what it otherwise might become. 

Nevertheless, the Catalog Use Study rep-
resents a monumental effort to improve the 
card catalog by considering the needs and 
habits of its users. Those who subscribe to 
this sensible approach will profit from a 
careful reading of the report.—Robert S. 
Meyer, University of California. 

F o r Every College Librarian 
A Study of Factors Influencing College Stu-

dents to Become Librarians. By Agnes Lyt-
ton Reagan. Chicago: Association of Col-
lege and Research Libraries, 1958. viii 
11 Op. (ACRL Monographs, Number 21). 

This monograph should be read by every 
college librarian who has a genuine interest 
in students and a manifest belief in the 
worth of librarianship. Since every college 
librarian should have these two qualities, 
this would mean a wider reading than this 
monograph probably will receive. Conse-
quently, it is also recommended for reading 
by every librarian—school, public, or spe-
cial—who is interested in securing new and 
excellent personnel for the library profes-
sion. 

The study by Dr. Reagan, submitted in 
partial fulfillment of the requirements for 
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Li-
brary Science at the University of Illinois, 
is a well-organized and scholarly attempt 
to identify and study factors in institutions 
of higher education which may influence 
students in their choice of librarianship as 
a career. 

The background, description, and meth-
odology of the study are presented in com-
pact form. A review of the literature on the 
subject of recruiting as related to librarians 
covers some seventy-five publications. Steps 
in the procedure followed in the collection 
and treatment of data included: (1) the com-
pilation of information on the educational 
backgrounds of recent graduates and stu-

JANUARY 1959 85 



dents of library schools; (2) the selection of 
a group of colleges and universities for pre-
liminary study; (3) the preparation and dis-
tribution of a questionnaire to the library 
school graduates and students who had at-
tended these institutions; (4) the exclusion 
of certain institutions in the group from 
further consideration; (5) the identification 
and treatment of factors which influenced 
students in the remaining institutions to 
become librarians. 

The educational backgrounds of 8,459 
persons were examined, 1,491 pretested 
questionnaires were mailed and replies were 
received from approximately two-thirds of 
this group, fifty-one colleges and universities 
were selected for study, and five major fac-
tors were identified which had influenced 
respondents for certain institutions to enter 
the library profession. These factors were: 
(1) the influence of individuals; (2) the 
influence of publicity; (3) the influence of 
use of libraries; (4) the influence of work 
experience in libraries; (5) the influence of 
library education. 

Four chapters are devoted to the discus-
sion of these five influences, use of libraries 
and work experience in libraries being com-
bined into one chapter. Extensive and per-
tinent use of quotations taken from the re-
turned questionnaires is an effective and 
interesting feature of these chapters. The 
final chapter summarizes the relative im-
portance of the major factors, their positive 
and negative influences, the major factors 
in combination, the findings as they relate 
to the findings of previous investigations, 
general conclusions of the study, and the 
author's suggestions of further problems for 
investigation. 

Since this reviewer recommends that this 
study be read in its entirety, he is taking 
the liberty of recommending another brief 
monograph which could be read with profit 
by any librarian interested in the problem 
studied by Dr. Reagan. " T h e Pursuit of 
Excellence; Education and the Future of 
America," Panel Report V of the Special 
Studies Project, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, 
published at about the same time, and writ-
ten principally by John W. Gardner, presi-
dent, Carnegie Corporation of New York, 
president, Carnegie Foundation for the Ad-
vancement of Teaching, and a friend of 

libraries, is a study dealing with a broad 
question of which the library profession is 
an integral part. 

If a more effective program of recruiting 
of librarians is to occur, with an emphasis 
on excellence, the Reagan and Gardner 
studies appear to offer the bases for such 
a program.—Eugene H. Wilson, Dean of the 
Faculties, University of Colorado. 

T w o Books About Books 
The Illuminated Book: Its History and Pro-

duction. By David Diringer. New York: 
Philosophical Library, 1958. 524p. illus. 
$25.00. 

History of the Book. By Svend Dahl. New 
York: The Scarecrow Press, 1958. 279p. 
illus. $6.00. 

Dr. Diringer's work is the third volume in 
his series dealing with early bookmaking, 
its predecessors being The Alphabet (1948) 
and The Hand-Produced Book (1953). The 
present work treats of illumination in the 
Near East and Europe, beginning with an 
illustrated (not illuminated) Egyptian papy-
rus roll of the twentieth century B.C. and 
ending with the death of illumination at 
the beginning of the sixteenth century. 

The book is divided into seven long sec-
tions: Chapter I deals with manuscripts 
of the ancient world but also discusses copies 
of ancient authors made throughout the 
medieval period; Chapter II treats of By-
zantine illumination which the author says 
"from the standpoint of the history of civ-
ilization" is "one of the most important of 
the present book"; Chapter III covers Hi-
berno-Saxon, Carolingian, and Ottonian il-
lumination; Chapter IV digresses into Is-
lamic and Hebrew painting; Chapter V, the 
shortest (forty pages), is titled " T h e Golden 
Age of Illumination" but deals with Eng-
land only, in the twelfth-fifteenth centuries 
(not mentioned are the splendid English 
drawings of the tenth and eleventh centuries 
since they are not illuminations); Chapter 
VI is devoted to Italy, tenth-sixteenth cen-
turies, and Chapter VII covers French and 
Flemish work of the same period, in the 
longest section of the book (ninety pages). 
Each chapter is followed by a bibliography 
and accompanied by plates, ranging from 

86 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES