College and Research Libraries - ~ Yale's Selective Book Retirement Pro- gram. By Lee Ash. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1963. xii, 94p. $4. (63- 17389). This is the interesting report of a three- year study that was financed by a grant of $150,000 from the Council on Library Re- sources. There is a Preface by James T. Babb; a Foreword by John H. Ottemiller, who directed the project; and a Concluding Statement by Professor Raymond D. Mor- ris. The working papers and the longer re- port by Mr. Ash from which this printed volume was abstracted are available at Yale for consultation. The difficulties of selective retirement are not minimized, and the claims made for it are modest. Mr. Babb writes, "Although we believe that our Selective Book Retirement offers a palliative to the increasing space problem in research libraries, we recognize that it is not a solution." Professor Morris observes that the selection of books for retirement "is time-consuming, requiring the best judgment that we can muster, which means that it is an expensive program. It could very well turn out that it will prove so expensive in exec,ution that (as with microreproduction) there will be a point be- yond which it will not be feasible in terms of economy." In view of this economic question, it might have been desirable to include a more rigorous analysis of costs. During the course of the project, 74,648 volumes were trans- ferred from the main stacks to storage by size, 28,443 were discarded, 17,259 were transferred to other libraries (2,572 of these to libraries outside the university), and 14,188 new acquisitions were sent directly to storage. Adding these, and dividing their total of 134,538 into the $81 ,936.60 spent for salaries of the processing staff for the project, the report concludes that processing cost 61¢ per volume. The 14,188 new acqui- sitions, however (except for some of the new theses), were not handled by this staff, and the cost that is reported includes noth- ing for materials, for 95,777 photoclerk ex- MAY 1964 Review Articles posures, for space occupied by the project staff, or, · apparently, for refiling cards. Space in the main stack is calculated to be worth $1.68 per volume; space in storage comes to 42¢ per volume. On this basis, the library saves $1.26 on space for each vol- ume transferred to storage; but, if processing takes 61 ¢ or more, then selection, requiring consideration by faculty or high level pro- fessional personnel, might indeed cut the total saving to a minute sum. The report notes that it is easy at the beginning of such a program to deal with subjects of little in- terest to the university's teaching and re- search, but, "As those subjects are complet- ed, the selecting becomes more time consum- ing and difficult; and, as the staff moves to subjects that are heavily used, hours of work produce but meager results." When one con- siders what it costs to store a book by size (42¢ for space, plus 61¢ or more for process- ing, plus high priced time for selection), one begins to wonder if a book worth that much is not worth the whole $1.68 that it is now taking on accessible and classified shelves. Obviously, then, this is a significant chap- ter in the story of storage, but no means the last one.-Edwin E. Williams, Harvard Uni- versity. Methods of Information Handling. By Charles P. Bourne. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1963. xiv, 241p. $12.95. (63-20628). It is difficult for a textbook writer to re- view the work of a colleague who has writ- ten a text in the same field. If there is over- lap, it can be said that the overlap is un- necessary; if different material is presented, it can be said that there is unnecessary de- tail; if material has been omitted, that can also be criticized. Obviously, the reviewer has used his best judgment in his own work, and therefore his review might tend to be overly critical. But try as I might, it was not possible to be anything but glowing 'about this excellent book. The Bourne book is a good one; it 229 adds substantially to those existing in the field in the following ways: 1. The information storage and retrieval . field is viewed broadly-going beyond the traditional libr~ry and even beyond the specialized information or documentation center. Rather, the information that is considered covers . the broad spectrum, ranging from numerical to nonnumerical information; the systems considered range from the manual to the computer-ori- ented. 2. The organization of the field is pleasing: starting with fundamental filing problems; continuing with organization of informa- tion; then on to coding (called "the in- .dexing shorthand"); going on to machine language representation; punched card systems; computer systems; and finally to microfilm and image handling equipment. The book is interspersed with cost esti- mates and practical words of caution. The author has obviously made a special attempt to illustrate the book exhaustively, since there are no less than ·1 7 6 figures and 23 tables in the numbered sequences, and more of them unnumbered. Their production is rather uniformly good. From rags to riches is the situation we now have with regard to textbooks in the information storage and retrieval field. Only eighteen months ago there were none, and now there are three. Of course, there are overlaps, but not unhealthy ones. The in- structor who now wishes to use a text for an introductory course in the information sci- ences can use parts of each text, or he can follow closely any one of them.-Allen Kent, University of Pittsburgh. The Place of a Research Library in a Lib- er~l Arts College, Proceedings of a Symposium Held at Bowdoin College, February 21-22, 1963. Brunswick, Maine: Bowdoin College, 1963. 84p. $2. ( 63- 25194). The achievements of the brilliantly con- ceived and admirably carried out Bowdoin College conference on The Place of Re- search in a Liberal Arts College held in February 1963 are now available to a wider audience. Frederick Wagman, graduate of a liberal arts college and the director of a 230 large university library, was in an excellent position to make comparisons. He was fret- ful about junior colleges and the new "uni- versities" with inadequate resources, to say nothing about faculty and student research needs. The task of selecting materials for a college library is more difficult than se- lecting materials for a large university. Co- ordination of the teaching and research pro- grams is essential in both colleges and uni- versities. Mr. Wagman suggested that the resources, staffs, and buildings have to be generous if the prestige colleges are to main- tain their status in the years to come. The second speaker, Eileen Thornton, is responsible for directing the library of Ober- lin, a prestige college. With smaller facul- ties and a more compact curriculum, the college nevertheless has marked problems of recruitment and retention of faculty mem- bers as specialized interests emerge that may . change the variety of materials demanded. The increased number of periodicals and serials required to support teaching pro- grams and to meet faculty and student needs, means ever increasing budgets, staff, and buildings. Good basic collections plus . staff members prepared and able to identify suitable topics for student specialization are essential. An increase in independent work may reduce the faculty load but will in- crease the library staff load and will affect li- brary staff budgets. Bowdoin was represented among the speakers by Professor Athern Daggett, Pro- fessor Emeritus Edward C. Kirkland, and Librarian Richard Harwell. They commend- ed Bowdoin for its library resources as- sembled over a long span of years. Mr. Har- well suggested that faculty-library relations are a two-way street. Professor Kirkland reminded the conference that the library is a central fact larger than architectural terms but extending to basic policy, library staff, and faculty appointments, promotions, and replacements. What counts is students and professors at work together in class- rooms and the library. The conference closed with an address by Verner W. Clapp, president of t~e Coun- cil on Library Resources. He defined a re- search library as a place in which one can go to the sources and trace a footnote back home. The possibility of assembling a mil- lion-volume library in microform will not