College and Research Libraries


mentation; but to the historical eye no proof 
was needed of this fact. Hence die most im-
portant part of the first report was the evi-
dence that soaking in a bicarbonate solution 
may retard deterioration by increasing the 
alkalinity, if such an over-simplified phrase 
can be employed for describing the special-
ized chemical formulations. (See the review 
of the first report by H . H. Fussier in C R L , 
X X I (1960), 417-19 p.) 

T h e hope of most librarians, however, is 
that books should hereafter be printed on a 
non-deteriorating paper, since we now know 
the problem. T o this hope Mr. Barrow and 
his staff have addressed themselves for two 
years. Unless a completely new substance like 
soybeans or a petroleum-based plastic should 
become technologically feasible as the raw 
material for paper, the work must be based 
on wood-pulp. T h e result must be suitably 
opaque, adaptable to different thicknesses 
and finishes, able to take printer's ink (un-
less new developments make letter-press 
printing itself obsolete), and commercially 
competitive with the many existing grades 
of acid sulphite paper; the wood-pulp itself 
and the sizing must blend to produce the 
desired result. Many if not all research-
minded paper-makers have been concerned 
with the problem. With the co-operation of 
the manufacturers, Mr. Barrow has been able 
to specify commercially feasible alkaline-sized 
papers, using blends of wood-pulp prepared 
by the sulphite, sulphate, and soda processes, 
papers that can be priced competitively, 
hard-finished papers that ink adequately (or 
better than adequately) in letter-press and 
offset printing. T h e reports are printed on 
three of these papers, similar but not identi-
cal in specifications; to one of them the man-
ufacturer has assigned the trade-name "Per-
malife." Save for a slightly mottled effect, not 
a serious blemish and probably susceptible 
to improvement, these papers are qualita-
tively equal to, or better than, most good 
papers now in use, in addition to their 
strength and resistance to deterioration. 

T h e problem is not yet entirely mastered. 
Continued efforts by librarians and others 
will be needed to encourage manufacturers 
to continue experimenting, to produce per-
manent and attractive papers within several 
price ranges suitable for various uses. Mr. 
Barrow's studies have pointed to one but not 
the only such product; the book trade and 

paper-technologists can work consistently 
towards the development of such papers. 
ALA was instructed by the conference last 
September to take the lead in guiding public 
opinion to encourage continued effort.— 
A. T. Hazen, School of Library Service, 
Columbia University. 

A Second Edition 
Library Administration. By S. R. Rangana-

than. (Ranganathan Series in Library Sci-
ence, 3). New York: Asia Publishing House 
[1960, c. 1959]. 674p. 

This volume traces its origin to the Lon-
don School of Librarianship and to the lec-
tures on "Library Routine" given there in 
1924 by C. R. Sanderson. Mr. Ranganadian's 
experience was followed by observation of 
daily operations in more than a hundred 
libraries in the United Kingdom, by years 
of responsibility in the administration of the 
Madras University Library, and by diirty 
years of teaching library science. T h e first 
edition appeared in 1935 and "each chapter 
was tested by actual application in the day-
to-day work." 

" T h e book contained a forest of details 
. . . enjoyed an unusually good reception" 
and went out-of-print in two years. Its re-
publication has been deferred from time to 
time to permit the appearance of several 
volumes on the classification of books, a field 
in which the author has made a distinct con-
tribution. However, substantial library sub-
sidies from the government in India have 
recently emphasized the man-power shortage 
in librarianship and have lent urgency to 
the rewriting and republication of this book 
on library administration as a daily desk 
guide to management. 

Chief among the changes incorporated in 
this second edition are (1) the staff formula 
to determine the strength of staff; (2) the 
prescription of routine on book orders; (3) 
simplification of the three-card system in the 
administration of periodicals; (4) changing 
the book card to a pocketed form and the 
reader's ticket into a non-pocketed plain 
card; and (5) the introduction of the con-
science box. 

As the author says "this is not a book to 
be read through . . . It is, on the contrary, a 

J U L Y 1 9 6 1 311 



most prosaic manual full of details . . . 
[for] the work table of one who has to carry 
on the administration of a library from day 
to day . . ." This is not a book on theory. 
It "does not attempt either to discuss or 
even to state what the outlook of libraries 
should be." Despite this declaration by the 
author, Part I is called Theory of Admin-
istration and is divided into chapters dealing 
with planning, job analysis, routine, elimina-
tion of waste, correlation, time scheme, 
forms and registers, correspondence, files, 
and records; Part II, Distinctive Library 
Functions, deals with book selection, book 
orders, periodicals, concessions, circulation, 
reference, and maintenance; and Part III 
with General Office Functions. T h e latter 
heading includes committees, staff, and coun-
cil, publicity, finance, accounts, and records, 
binding, building and equipment, printing, 
stores, and statistics, the librarian and the 
library profession. 

This is a massive volume of 675 pages. 
T h e paragraphs throughout are short. Para-
graph headings are set in a variety of type-
faces as clear evidence of the outline and to 
each is prefixed a mnemonic faceted nota-
tion from the author's colon classification. 
T h e language is English, but much of the 
context will be foreign to American readers. 
Consider, for example, the Conscience Box: 

Near the entrance wicket-gate, there 
should be a Conscience Box—a locked 
box with a small slit in its lid as the one 
in a temple, to collect offerings. Into 
this box the members delaying the re-
turn of books beyond the due date may 
drop their overdue charges. It should 
have glass sides. After practising the 
Victoria method of formally collecting 
the overdue charges with formal notice, 
issue of formal receipt, and maintenance 
of separate accounts, libraries have 
learnt that: 

1. the game is not worth the candle, 
and 

2. a splendid opportunity for die de-
velopment of civic conscience is 
thereby being lost. 

T h e Conscience Box Method is now 
adopted even for the collection of bus-

fares in America. Our libraries should 
straightaway begin with trust in this 
manner. Trust will beget trust.—p. 275. 

By its very nature as a collection of proce-
dures and processes this book was compiled 
by many different hands, but all in all it is 
pure Ranganathan. There is, for example, 
a brief bibliography consisting of fifty-seven 
items, forty-three of which are citations to 
Ranganathan's own writings. T h e other 
works cited typically include Karston's Charts 
and Graphs (1925); McColvin's Library Ex-
tension Work (1927); McCord's Textbook of 
Filing; Cannon's Publicity for Small Li-
braries; Cockerell's Some Notes on Book-
Buying (all three 1929); Wyer's Reference 
Work (1930); and Headicar's Manual of 
Library Organization (1935). 

T h e bibliography appears not to have 
been revised, nor indeed any odier writings 
on this subject looked at since the publica-
tion of the first edition. Nowhere is there 
any mention of the basic contributions to li-
brary administration made by L. R . Wilson, 
E. W . McDiarmid, M. F. Tauber, or Guy 
Lyle, nor is there any mention of the wealth 
of supplementary material to be found in the 
many library periodicals published in Eng-
lish and in the languages of western Europe, 
such as Libri, The Library Quarterly, CRL, 
Library Resources fc Technical Services, Li-
brary Journal, The ALA Bulletin, the Li-
brary Association Record, and so on. One 
more conspicuous omission must be men-
tioned here. In the author's words "neither 
the size of libraries, nor the magnitude of 
their daily turnover, nor the cost of man-
power in India, would justify or demand the 
introduction of photography and other me-
chanical and electronic aids in library rou-
tine." 

This reviewer has long wondered how 
this one man could, as the book's jacket 
says, be the author of fifty books on library 
science, even during a thirty-year teaching 
career. Apparently the author lives and 
writes in a closely self-contained world of 
library practice. 

This book will be of interest to research 
libraries and to library schools as a some-
what unique contribution to comparative 
librariansliip. Beyond this its usefulness will 
have to be judged by the reader himelf.— 
Frank A. Lundy, University of Nebraska. 

312 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