College and Research Libraries JACK A. CLARKE and RICHARD M. COOKLOCK Book Selection- from Teachers College to University The transformation of a teachers college into a state university with the inevitable changes in educational aims and emphasis poses prob- lems for the librarians. Research facilities must be increased to meet the needs of expanding graduate programs. Simultaneously basic book and periodical collections must be built to form a sound foundation for improving the instructional program. In these circumstances~ it be- comes the librarian's re8ponsibility to formulate selection policies which will inform the faculty of his new objectives and invite their cooperation. A MAJOR DEVELOPMENT in higher edu- cation during the last decade or so has been the rapid change in status and ob- jectives of the teachers colleges. Begin- ning as normal schools, they have be- come successively multipurpose state colleges, and more recently state univer- sities. Larger enrollments, new curricula, and the emphasis on excellence in edu- cation inevitably require expanding fa- cilities for study and research. To meet this need, the librarians of these schools have been forced to re-examine their selection policies and to devise means for building up their meager resources as quickly as possible. Traditionally, instruction at teacher training institutions has been textbook oriented with the library often little more than an overgrown reserve reading room. On far too many campuses, the legacy of this kind of educational philos- ophy is a collection of multiple copies, textbooks, and worthwhile volumes all jumbled together indiscriminately in the Dr. Clarke is Assistant {)irector of the Wisconsin Graduate Library School. Mr. Cooklock is Director of Libraries at Wis- consin State University in River Falls. 222/ stacks. Under these circumstances, basic collection building must go on simul- taneously with, and even assume a cer- tain priority over, current selection. To avoid aimless and random purchasing, the administrative officers have encour- aged and in some cases even required their librarians to draw up a well-formu- lated acquisitions policy. To whom shall the librarian turn for suggestions of titles to improve the basic collection? In many colleges the senior professors who joined the faculty when the institution was still essentially a normal school have little interest in the library. Far too many of the younger men, brought in recently to teach the expanding list of academic courses, are subject specialists with a narrow view of their discipline. They specialized at graduate school and they know the iterp.s needed for their specialty, but these books may have no relevance to the courses they now teach. Moreover, they often lack the bibliographic knowledge and teaching experience necessary to analyze the library's holdings effectively, and if they botch the job of evaluating the book collection how can their sug- Book Selection-From Teachers College to University I 223 gestions for improving it have any value? Fortunately, we still find on nearly every campus a few real bookmen with broad intellectual interests and knowl- edge. Librarians cultivate and esteem these professors as rare but precious in- dividuals who can supply them with in- valuable bibliographic insights. The con- trolling and shaping influence on the col- lection, however, must be exercised by the librarian himself since the budgetary responsibility rests on his shouders. The faculty lays out the educational terrain and suggests guidelines as to which di- rection the curriculum will go. Using de- pendable printed bibliographic lists, the librarian then tries to build the roads and bridges for the students to follow. A search for valid "principles of book selection" that will stand up to the piti- less light of faculty criticism can be an unnerving experience. It seems axiomatic that the foundation for the library's ex- panding collections ought to be "the basic books that have stood the test of time and have helped to mold world opinion." The assumption here is that at certain times men of genius have dis- covered turning points in man's knowl- edge which increase his understanding through totally new concepts or through brilliant syntheses of existing knowl- edge. One thinks immediately of the pivotal influence of Thomas Malthus, John Stuart Mill, Emile Durkheim, Au- guste Comte, and others on the develop- ment of the social sciences. We feel that college students should be turning to their works spontaneously, either as a part of their course work or due to faculty recommendations. Without the historical approach to the social sciences, the student will feel trapped ten years hence by discovering that very little of what he learned in college is any longer applicable. Yet a recent survey of fifty social science "classics" in fifteen under- graduate libraries (both liberal arts schools and state colleges ) reveals that 18 per cent of these important titles were not held at all and 23 per cent did not circulate more than once in five years. The conclusion seems to be that much of the reading done by students in these disciplines is not in the field of the ' classics but in the many-faceted litera- ture of the present. An equally important explanation, perhaps, is the availability of paperback ''books of readings" which contain extracts from these writers. Many instructors prefer to assign this convenient type of material as supple- mentary reading for their large intro- ductory classes. In the field of literature, a basic de- siderata list should include the works of standard authors, critical studies, and literary histories-all in the best editions. These books are th·e foundations of our culture and the backbone of the library's collections. In most libraries new edi- tions of standard authors are selected al- most automatically without regard to student or faculty demand. Use studies again seem to indicate, however, that this may not be the wisest or most eco- nomical method of collection building. Even such respectable writers as Joseph Conrad, James Fenimore Cooper, and Robert Louis Stevenson are frequently uneven in quality; only a few of their works are still read these days. A book needs more than a famous author to at- tract readers. Current heavy usage is not, of course, the sole or even the principal considera- tion for book selection. These basic texts and primary works of literary criticism and literature merit a place on our shelves regardless of faculty or student interest. Patently, a student cannot be educated or enlightened by an important book he has not yet read. If we fail to select the "classics" in each discipline and neglect publicizing their presence in our library, they might as well not exist for him. To justify selecting large numbers of books on our own initiative 224 I College & Research Libraries • May, 1966 without regard to faculty demand, li- brarians can only emphasize their po- tential usefulness and continuing value for study and research. In many respects the most reliable de- viCe in basic collection building is the use of checklists and subject bibliog- raphies reviewed and supplemented by recommendations from faculty special- ists. There are a variety of such works ranging from "Shaw's List" and the "Lamont Catalog" to specialized bibliog- raphies prepared by authorities in the field. Particularly helpful for professional education has been Katharine Stokes' Book Resources for Teacher Education: a Study Toward the Compilation of a Core List ( 1959). This list should be supplemented by the annual bibliog- raphies in the N EA ] ouinal and School and Society. Of more recent vintage is W. W. Brickman's bibliographical chap- ter in Sources of Information in the Social Sciences (Bedminster Press, 1964), containing over two hundred carefully selected titles. Similar lists for undergraduate libraries exist in such diverse disciplines as mathematics, phys- ics, English literature, and American studies. Having assembled a strong foundation of standard works, the next step is to acquire the periodicals, society publica- tions, documents and manuscripts es- sential for the research needs of an ex- panding university. In this more ad- vanced state of library development, even the most knowledgeable librarian will need all the help and professional advice available from faculty and sub- ject specialists. He should act like a bibliographic sponge soaking up clues about educational goals, graduate stu- dent book needs, and faculty research interests wherever he can. Obviously, working closely with individual faculty members requires considerable time and patience from the librarian but the re- sults will prove well worth the effort. There is no gainsaying the fact that the only strong research collections with noted quality are those built in depth by faculty and librarians working to- gether as colleagues. A new program offering graduate in- struction and research in English lin- guistics for secondary school teachers illustrates the advantages of collabo- rating with a subject specialist. As a starting point the chapter references and notes can be checked in such standard textbooks as W. N. Francis' The Struc- ture of American English (Ronald Press, 1958 ), and Stuart Robertson's The De- velopment of Modern English (Prentice- Hall, 1954). Next the bibliographies might be checked in a number of sec- ondary works, including such introduc- tory guides as W. P. Lehmann, H istor- ical Linguistics (Holt, Rinehart, Wins- ton, 1962); Morton Bloomfield, A Lin- guistic Introduction to the History of English (Knopf, 1963); and more re- cently, Mario Pei, Invitation to Lin- guistics (Doubleday, 1965). Going still further, titles of books and periodicals of narrower scope can be gleaned from such specialized works as Paul Garvin, Natural Language and the Computer (McGraw-Hill, 1963); and Sol Sa porta, Psycho linguistics (Holt, Rinehart, Wins- ton, 1961). All titles selected from such bibliographies might be carefully screened by course instructors for con- tent and by the librarians for revisions and new editions. The collection can be kept current by checking the Lin- guistic Bibliography ( Heffer, 1950-), the annual lists in PMLA, and the book reviews in Language. Joint · responsibility for the develop- ment of the collection has proved most effective whenever subject comprehen- siveness is desired and funds are plenti- ful. The faculty's specialized knowledge and research experience provides inval- uable guidance for long-range planning (Continued on page 292 ) l 232 I College & Research Libraries • May, 1966 formation retrieval will come to the jun- ior college library as it will eventually come to all kinds of libraries. It is al- ready being used experimentally in all kinds of libraries. In many cases, the information system will use the college computer. The fact that automation . seems expensive should not retard its use. If library services are improved by automation, then the expense is worthwhile. Librarians have not always sought improved services as forcefully as they should. Of course, the sophisti- cation to use such devices successfully must be developed, but the trend among junior college librarians to adopt audio- visual aids suggests a readiness to con- sider other devices also. It seems clear that strong medicine is needed for these libraries. Perhaps this means strong federal support. Perhaps it means strong ACRL lobbying with college presidents. Perhaps it means a stronger breed of junior college librari- ans. At any rate, the future should be exciting. • • ACADEMIC STATUS (Continued from page !210) But .. faculty," as understood by the great German universities that arose concomitant to and following the rise ·of the last, Leibnizian, type of academy, was Fach, .. a discipline." To be a Fach- mann was not regarded as anything oth- er than to be a profess-or of a subject, a specialist. To what Fach then would the librarian belong except that of library science? But the librarian need not teach to be academic; indeed, to teach puts the librarian in a less secure academic position than to select or catalog books, etc. The library science faculty is no more proof against the charge of mere processing of students than any other teacher-less, in fact, due to the voca- tionalism of many such faculties. Thus, within the faculty (Fach) are found ranks, the ordinary means of self- preservation of the alienated. The F ach is alienated within the universitas except by academic communing, which places the Fachmann on a new level, outside his narrow specialistic professionalism: the status of academician. EPILOGUE Academic status then, as viewed in the transparency of the situation, is a qualification added to that (for teach- ers) of faculty rank or to that (for li- brarians ) of professional standing. It is not automatically predicated on either of these types of professional persons, but rather is a feature of the institution to which they belong. Like .. standing," status implies a level, but not the dis- crete ''I'm higher in rank than you," characteristic of faculty rank, but rather implies one level, the single plane of overt communing as determined by the nature and orientation of the institution. Such overt communing can take place only within the book environment which the librarian in a sense is. Without teaching, without even ever coming into personal contact with his fellow acade- micians, in an overt communing that can remain quite impersonal, the librarian- as selector, cataloger, and servicer of the library-is the typical academic. • • BOOK SELECTION ... (Continued /11om page 224) of graduate facilities and resources. They are less reliable, however, when it comes to agreeing on the basic works in their field. You can get as many state- ments of what is essential and con- sidered .. standard" in each discipline as individuals you might wish to consult. Under these circumstances, it becomes the librarian's responsibility to acquaint the faculty with sound principles of book selection and a clear understand- ing of his acquisition problems and budgetary limitations. Only then is real cooperation possible. • •