College and Research Libraries


fession as a possible lifetime career will have 
a normal curiosity about salaries. It is too bacl 
that with an October 1959 publication date, 
the salary data given in Librarians Wanted 
refer to salaries received by library school 
graduates of 1957, and even so are stated on 
the low side. ALA is quoted as saying that 
1957 graduates without experience received 
an average of $3,900 to $4,200 in their first 
positions, and those having some experience 
an average salary of $4,500 to $4,800. Donald 
and Ruth Strout's careful analysis of the 1957 
salaries reported by the library schools, which 
appeared in the June 15, 1958 Library Jour-
nal gives an average of about $4,250 for 
graduates without experience and an aver-
age of about $5,000 for those with some ex-
perience. It is further regrettable that the 
publisher's deadline for page proof appar-
ently prevented the author from substituting 
the Strouts' June 15, 1959 figures for 1958: 
an average of $4,352 without experience, 
$5,418 on the average for new graduates with 
experience. At the other end of the scale, Mr. 
Paradis's statement that "Chief librarians of 
large libraries receive salaries of $7,000 to 
$12,000 or more" is oddly restrained, even 
as of 1957. In 1957, Edward G. Freehafer in 
Should You Be a Librarian?, his excellent 
contribution to the New York Life Insurance 
Company's series of advertisements on ca-
reers, referred to a $3,900-$4,200 salary range 
for new inexperienced graduates of 1956, 
and mentioned top salaries of $17,000 for 
chief librarians in major cities, $14,800 for 
federal governmental positions, and $25,000 
for librarians in industry. In this sensitive 
area of salaries Librarians Wanted was out 
of date, and surely unnecessarily so, the day 
it was published. This reduces still further 
its usefulness as a potential recruiting device, 
leaving librarians yet without an acceptable 
book-length account of their profession. 

Thus in several ways Librarians Wanted 
is a disappointment despite its praiseworthy 
motive and its imaginative approach to its 
subject. With only a little more restraint in 
style of writing and a little more effort on the 
author's part it could have been a most wel-
come addition to the profession's recruiting 
literature. As it stands, librarians will wish to 
use it in their recruiting efforts, or to buy it 
for their collections, only with considerable 
caution, and very possibly not at all.—Robert 
L. Talmadge, University of Kansas Libraries. 

Successful Exchange 
A Serviceable Reservoir; Report of a Survey 

of the United States Book Exchange. By 
Edwin E. Williams. Washington, D. C.: 
The United States Book Exchange, Inc., 
1959. 81 p. 

The survey, proposed by the USBE itself 
and financed by the Council on Library Re-
sources, Inc., was eminently worth under-
taking. Its success was practically assured by 
the Council's choice of Edwin E. Williams, 
assistant librarian, Harvard College Library, 
as director. Not only did Williams conduct a 
skillful and comprehensive examination, but 
(and in survey-making this does not neces-
sarily follow) he wrote a report that can be 
read. His usual clear prose, flavored with wit 
and never muddied by jargon, leaves the 
reader with a precise picture. 

The larger background against which this 
survey was made is one of declining exchange 
activities—particularly with regard to do-
mestic exchange—in American university li-
braries. In some libraries, once-flourishing 
exchange sections are now one-man shows. 
There is a suspicion abroad that exchange is 
more costly than had been realized. Even if 
a library receives "free" the material it sends 
out, there is always a bill somewhere which 
eventually must be justified. 

The surveyor flashes a bright light on one 
important aspect of this decline by his formu-
lation of Williams' law: "Exchange is stimu-
lated when personnel resources are relatively 
plentiful and acquisition funds are impover-
ished. It is inhibited by scarcity of personnel, 
particularly when relatively generous funds 
for purchase are available. Exchange is a 
means of converting manpower into ma-
terial." He further enriches our terminology 
and sharpens our thinking by giving names 
to what he calls surplusage exchange and 
publishing exchange. Although the latter is 
not escaping thoughtful scrutiny, it is of 
course surplusage exchange that has declined 
most markedly among university libraries. 

It is therefore pertinent to ask what the 
functions of USBE are and how well it is per-
forming them. Williams finds that the USBE 
is well managed, efficiently operated, and is 
usefully serving both its domestic and foreign 

328 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S 



members as a center for surplusage exchange. 
During 1958, for instance, it supplied 423,454 
items to libraries throughout the world. It 
performs a valuable service not performed 
by any other agency, and he foresees that this 
deserved success will continue. 

It would be even more successful but for 
two obstacles. T h e first is the difficulty of 
making its services known to potential users. 
The surveyor visited twenty-six non-member 
libraries and at least eighteen of these de-
cided to join. "This was not because he 
wished or attempted to do so, but simply 
because his visit brought the facts to their 
attention." There are at present over eight 
hundred member libraries in the United 
States and Canada; a certain dealer in peri-
odicals has more than five thousand libraries 
on his list of active accounts. Williams specu-
lates interestingly as to whether the name 
itself may not have been a hindrance be-
cause each of its four words is misleading. 
He concludes, however, that it should remain 
because of usage and the very fact that it is 
such an odd name. This reviewer, though, 
would be willing to have a go at a more de-
scriptive designation, on the o p t i m i s t i c 
grounds that the future will be longer than 
the past. 

T h e other obstacle is the requirement that 
libraries pay shipping costs on the material 
they contribute. He cites the fact that of the 
five million pieces supplied through 1957, 
two-fifths came from libraries in the District 
of Columbia. 

As to recommendations. Williams believes 
that the USBE should become the American 
national center for exchange of library sur-
plusage, giving first priority to filling gaps in 
serial files. It can do more in this field than 
in any other to supplement the services pro-
vided both by dealers and by other exchange 
organizations. As he says, correctly, this rec-
ommendation calls for continuation of what 
is substantially existing policy rather than 
for any change in policy. 

A large increase in membership, besides 
benefitting the newcomers, would enrich the 
reservoir and put the USBE on a secure 
financial base. Four-fifths of its current op-
erating income is received from federal ap-
propriations for foreign aid, and, while it 
would likely continue to exist on the do-
mestic front even if these federal funds were 
stopped, "exist" is probably the right word. 

T o bring about an increase in member-
ship, Williams first suggests the collaboration 
or affiliation of the USBE with existing ex-
change systems whereby members of the lat-
ter would automatically become members of 
the USBE. Each of these exchanges should 
continue to exist, but their usefulness would 
be enhanced. Each has a residue of material 
offered and of wants unfilled that might be 
passed on to the national reservoir. His Ap-
pendix B, "Organized Exchange Systems in 
the United States," is a helpful and probably 
unique directory of six national exchange 
systems containing regulations, names, ad-
dresses, and other useful data. 

He next proposes local and regional dupli-
cate clearinghouses. Surplusage from libraries 
of a metropolitan or larger region would be 
assembled in one place which would be 
visited regularly by a USBE representative 
who would sort out what was worth shipping 
to Washington. This would eliminate need-
less shipping and, carrying the plan one step 
further, would give local librarians a chance 
to fill their needs before the material left the 
region. These local clearinghouses, depend-
ing on the needs of their respective areas, 
might range in complexity from simple col-
lections of duplicates shelved chronologically 
as they arrived to something much more 
elaborate, such as branches of the USBE. 
Williams advocates trying out several possi-
bilities. 

Finally, he urges a comprehensive public 
relations program designed not only to at-
tract new members but to increase business 
with the old. He is fertile in ideas along 
these lines, but only two will be mentioned 
here. T h e reviewer applauds the suggestion 
that exchange "credit" should be de-empha-
sized to the extent that a member library "be 
asked to promise only that it will not throw 
out or pulp publications that are believed to 
be wanted by the USBE." T h e question of 
who should pay for shipments to Washing-
ton cannot be settled so easily. Williams be-
lieves that libraries willing to list material so 
that the USBE can make its own selection, as 
well as those willing to sort according to the 
USBE's specifications should be relieved of 
shipping costs. Sorting before shipping is 
more attractive than list-sending, but even 
with a greatly expanded public relations pro-
gram it might be difficult for the USBE to 
convey to its members the large and change-

J U L Y I 9 6 0 329 



able body of knowledge needed for precise 
sorting. No single reform, however, would do 
more to enhance the attractiveness of the 
USBE than the elimination of these shipping 
charges. 
T o finance experiments in the three broad 

areas of his proposals, Williams recommends 
that the USBE seek a foundation grant which 
would cover a period of not less than three 
years. He sees some indication that local 
foundations may be interested in starting 
local clearinghouses. 

It seems to this reviewer that to become 
effective the clearinghouses will have to over-
come two obstacles. One is the inherent trans-
itoriness of interest in local bibliographic 
undertakings. A few enthusiastic individuals 
can carry an enterprise for a time, but often 
the base is too small to supply successors. 
Local union catalogs and bibliographic cen-
ters have not always fulfilled early hopes, 
but the National Union Catalog goes from 
strength to strength. Linked with this, of 
course, is the problem of finances after foun-
dation help is ended. Aside from the need for 
a minimum of business, there might be com-
plexities in financial administration. Wil-
liams is of course quite aware that, "clearing-
houses will obviously have no chance without 
genuine and continued local support." On 
the positive side, he cites the interest of the 
Dallas Public Library when the idea was 
broached there; an interest so active that 
work was begun immediately setting up such 
an enterprise. The whole concept of course 
deserves the most serious consideration and 
the Dallas experiment and any others that 
get underway merit close attention. 

The eight useful appendixes include not 
only supporting information but also inter-
esting lesser recommendations. Appendix C, 
for instance, answers questions many of us 
had concerning internal operations but one 
is not reassured to find twenty-two items 
under the heading "Files and Ledgers." 
These may be justified, but an office manage-
ment analysis might be coupled with the cost 
analysis of each USBE operation which Wil-
liams wisely recommends. 

The USBE's achievement has been remark-
able. It is rather impressive to consider the 
heavy traffic in vast quantities of material of 
little or no commercial value. It is a li-
brarians' achievement. We are indebted to 
Williams for showing beyond doubt that the 

USBE is fulfilling a necessary function per-
formed by no other agency, and for showing 
ways in which that usefulness can be greatly 
expanded.—Ian W. Thorn, Princeton Uni-
versity Library. 

Academic Procession 
Academic Procession; Reflections of a Col-

lege President. By Henry M. Wriston. New 
York: Columbia University Press, 1959. 
222p. $4.00. 

Academic Procession provides a more pene-
trating insight into the college presidency 
than most books on that subject. It is au-
thoritative and articulate, written in an en-
gaging and readable style, and is based on 
the author's experiences and observations 
gleaned during more than thirty years as an 
extremely successful college teacher and 
administrator. The author's extensive knowl-
edge of all things academic, his understand-
ing of human nature, his dynamic personal-
ity, his vision and forcefulness are evident 
throughout the book. His story is that of a 
high-principled man who has the courage of 
his convictions and who would resign rather 
than compromise on an issue which he knows 
to be right. In reading this volume one 
readily understands why the author was so 
successful as a college and university presi-
dent. 

Dr. Wriston writes of his dealings with 
trustees, faculty, administrators, students, 
alumni, and the public. In working with 
these contacts he had many rewarding experi-
ences and he also encountered many trying 
problems. The manner in which he met and 
solved these issues has meaning for all col-
lege or university administrators. The li-
brarian has to work closely with many of 
these same groups and, by learning how the 
author dealt with the various situations, he 
can obtain ideas which will aid in the solu-
tion of some of his problems. For example, 
Dr. Wriston's experiences with the trustees 
provide points of view which may be of value 
in working with the library committee. 
Therefore, although this book was not writ-
ten expressly for librarians they can learn 
much from it. 

330 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S