College and Research Libraries


ed from the pages of professional journals like 
Science. Payment for writing would have to ex-
ceed the literary quarterlies by at least fivefold. 
None of the reviewers would have to be put in 
the position of being "regulars," lest they stag-
nate, nor must they be overworked, lest they 
come to view writing for the magazine as a 
chore. The orientation of the whole enterprise 
must by no means be exclusively literary, and 
its commitment should always be to the life of 
the mind, its sole raison d'etre. 

Have we set our sights too low? 
But-and here is the kicker-Mr. Hol-

lander then notes: "At a casual estimate, 
this would cost at least $750,000 a year." 
-Richard Harwell, Bowdoin College. 

Indexing Theory, Indexing Methods, and 
Search Devices. By Frederick Jonker. 
New York: Scarecrow Press, 1964. 124p. 
$4. (64-11785). 

Indexing is not a new subject to the li-
brarian. It is taught extensively in library 
schools, and the professional literature 
abounds with definitive works and ·treatises 
on methods and practice. With the growth 
·of scientific and technical literature and the 
advent of automation, deeper studies have 
been made to increase knowledge and 
understanding of the weaknesses and 
strengths of conventional techniques. Docu-
mentalists have explored unconventional 
avenues of research. The field is therefore in 
a receptive mood to welcome a solid book 
on indexing which sets forth the general 
principles of the science. In this respect, the ' 
text under review falls nowhere near the 
target. 

Rather than advancing a major theory, or 
even evaluating current methods, the book 
only verbalizes some unsteady personal ob-
servations of its author. This alone is con-
fusing because th~ text is couched in the 
author's private, technical vocabulary. He 

. speaks of the "terminological continuum," 
"access guides," "living language," "unper-
muted multiple-criterion classification," "sys-
tematicity," etc. Not one of these words and 
phrases is explained in terms of their rela-
tionship to established definitions or doc-
trine. The bibliography reflects a shallow ap-
preciation of standard source material. 

Evidently only slight attention was given 

NOVEMBER 1964 

to page makeup and editorial organization. 
Several of the illustrations are too small to 
decipher, and some graphs are either partial-
ly or completely unlabeled. A misspelled 
word appears on the table of contents page, 
and others are conspicuous through the 
book. An entire section listed in the table 
of contents is missing from the text.-Jo-
seph Becker, Washington, D.C. 

Library Administration: Theory and 
Practice. By R. L. Mittal. Delhi: Metro-
politan Book Company, 1964. xiv, 514p. 
$5.50 . . 

Believing as he does that the standard 
works in library administration, foreign and 
domestic, have an "alien background" and 
fail to meet the needs of Indian students and 
librarians, the deputy librarian of Panjab 
University library has written this book "to 
present in a compendious form various prin-
ciples and practices concerning [the] ad-
ministration of libraries." 

Mr. Mittal's compendium opens with 
three chapters on the "Philosophy of Li-
brarianship," "Library in Education," and 
"Library Administration: Function and 
Principles." These are followed by a dis-
cussion of principles of personnel admin-
istration and library finance. Some later 
chapters outline in great detail the activities 
and operations of libraries in the manner 
of a staff manual: "Processing Work," 
"Maintenance Work," "Stacking and Shelv-
ing Methods," "Care and Repair of Books," 
"Periodicals Work," "Library Rules and 
Regulations," and "Charging and Discharg-
ing Methods." Toward the middle of the 
book there is a chapter on reference service 
in which the author offers his Odyssey of 
reference books. This change in menu is a 
welcome relief but, in view of the author's 
stated purpose, it is surprising to find his 
annotated list of reference works so heavily 
slanted toward American publications. There 
is an index but no separate bibliography. 

This book, I am sure, will prove a useful 
contribution to Indian librarians and Indian 
students of librarianship. In a sense it is a 
kind of reference work and it suffers some 
of the weaknesses of a reference book which 
was not designed as such. Quotations, for-
mulae, statistics, names, and footnotes shu£-

519 



fie ubiquitously throughout the book, avoid-
ing one another most of the time, but gen-
erally adding to our state of confusion. Mr. 
Mittal has delved widely into the -writings 
of American librarianship-journals, books, 
and even obscure PhD dissertations-and 
the results jam the pages in long quotations: 
"Miss X has rightly pointed out .... " "Dr. 
Y. has remarked .... " "Mary Doe opines . 
. . . "etc. Oliver Goldsmith's method in writ-
ing history was to· r-C~d Hume, Kennet, Ra-
pin, and Carte in the morning, spend the 
afternoon at coffeehouses, and then, after a 
good dinner, write down what remained in 
his head in his own words. The result may 
not reflect the trappings of scholarship but 
it makes for wonderful reading and I heart-
ily commend the method to Mr. Mittal. 

The author does not feel, I am sure, in 
spite of the exaggerated claims on the book 
jacket, that this book will be useful to 
American librarians. It probably would not 
have accomplished its author's purpose if it 
were. I would suggest that, in a revision, 
Mr. Mittal lean less heavily on quotations, 
particularly from American sources; empha-
size principles more and procedures less; ask 
an expert in English to read the manuscript 
before it is released; and insist on a thorough 
job of editing by the publisher. Composition, 
presswork, and binding leave much to be de-
sired.-Guy R. Lyle, Emory University. 

Problems in Planning Library Facilities; 
Consultants, Architects, Plans and Cri-
tiques: Proceedings of the Library 
Buildings Institute, Chicago, July 12-
13, 1963. Edited by William A. Katz and 
Roderick G. Swartz. Chicago: ALA, 
1964. 208p. $4.25. (64-19851). 

This volume presents the proceedings of 
the Library Buildings Institute conducted in 
Chicago, July 12-13, 1963. The foreword 
notes that "ten building or equipment in-
stitutes have been held in the last twelve 
years" and comments further that "interest 
still seems to be high." The recent article by 
Theodore Samore entitled "Academic Li-
brary Buildings: Needs, Legislation, Inven-
tory" in CRL, July 1964, provides ample 
evidence of the reason for this continuing 
interest. Where else can the amateur, faced 
with building problems, find such ready ad-

vice and criticism from architects, building 
consultants, and others recently experienced 
through having survived a building pro-
gram? 

Appropriately, the opening paper is one 
entitled "The Library Building Consultant" 
by Keyes Metcalf. Mr. Metcalf bases his 
discussion on five questions: ( 1) Why have 
a consultant, (2) How do you select him, 
( 3) At what stage in the planning should 
he be selected, ( 4) What do you pay him, 
(5) What should he do? This, along with 
the panel discussion following, provides val-
uable information for the librarian and the 
administrator faced with the prospect of a 
new building. 

The section on college and university li-
braries includes the presentation of plans 
for the following institutions: Harvard Med-
ical School, San Diego State College, Uni-
versity of Waterloo (Canada), University 
of Illinois (Chicago campus) , State College 
of Iowa (Cedar Falls), Bluffton College 
(Ohio), Western Kentucky State College, 
Asbury Theological Seminary (Kentucky), 
University of Notre Dame, and University 
of California (Riverside). The plans range 
in size from the 429,780 square feet for 
Notre Dame to the 19, 112 square feet for 
an addition to an existing building at Bluff-
ton. There is considerable variance in the 
quality of reproduction of plans, but gen-
erally the photographs, drawings, and build-
ing plans give an idea of what is being dis-
cussed in the text. 

In addition to the college and university 
libraries section, there is a public libraries 
section, one on school libraries, and another 
on hospital and institution libraries. 

The public libraries section starts with 
"Programing Before Planning" by Hurst 
John, with Harold Roth, Clarence Paine, 
and Frances Flanders as a panel to discuss 
Mr. John's paper. A later panel discussion, 
moderated by Frederick Wezeman, deals 
with the "Role of the Architect, Engineer, 
and Librarian in Library Planning." 

The school libraries section opens with a 
paper by an architect, Charles J. Benda, Jr., 
on the things an architect should know 
about the library and the information which 
should be supplied to him. This is followed 
by "The School Library Program: What the 
Architect Needs to Know" by John L. Cam-

520 C 0 L L E G E A N D R ESE AR C H L I B R A R IE S