College and Research Libraries


60 I College & Research Libraries • January, 1967 

state universities which Rockefeller and 
Gates thought was profound-another ex-
ample of telling too much yet not enough. 

Academic librarians will be further disap-
pointed at the lack of attention to the de-
velopment of the university libraries. Data 
certainly was available in the McMullen 
( 1949) and Archer ( 1954) dissertations 
for a few paragraphs on this topic. 

Storr does mention the fact that Melvil 
Dewey was offered the librarianship but 
turned it down. In a Hash of interpretation 
he adds, "Harper never did find a first-class 
university librarian-and this perhaps was 
his greatest and most puzzling failure as an 
academic organizer." Harper's failure may 
not be unrelated to the fact that money for 
books and equipment was often at a premi-
um. A central university library, named for 
Harper, had to wait until after his death. 

No doubt Chicago alumni will want this 
book, a~ will most university libraries. Col-
lege librarians and those with only a mild 
interest in the history of higher education 
can pass it up without much trauma.-Ed-
ward G. Holley, University of Houston. 

Library Co-operation. By G. Jefferson. 
New York: London House & Maxwell, 
1966. 160p. $4.95. (66-15264). 

Library cooperation, forever extending 
and developing, is the kind of topic on 
which a new book is always welcome. Mr. 
Jefferson himself remarks that since the 
War there has been probably more talk 
about library cooperation than about any-
thing else in librarianship. In a larger sense, 
of course, cooperation among libraries is 
all part of the current world mood; politi-
cally, economically, and socially, it seems a 
matter of enlightened fact that "United we 
stand, divided we fall." 

Quite apart from any of this, Mr. Jeffer-
son's admirable survey is welcome in its 
own right. Following a general history of 
library cooperation (in three parts: from 
the beginnings to 1931, from 1931 to 1945, 
and postwar developments), he describes 
the present British national network for in-
terlending, with its two-tiered pattern of 
national central library /regional library bu-
reaus· interlending, and direct lending 
through the national central library of uni-
versity and special libraries. His next group 
of chapters deals with cooperative acquisi-

tion, cooperative storage, and exchange and 
redistribution. He then turns his attention 
to scientific and technical literature, treat-
ing first the national schemes for its co-
operative provision, and then the local 
schemes. Mr. Jefferson is aware that in co-
operative ventures the needs and problems 
of the various types of library differ widely; 
hence he goes on to devote a chapter to 
special libraries, another to academic li-
braries, and finally one to public libraries. 
His remaining three chapters cover the 
tools of cooperation (such as bibliographies 
and union catalogs) ; international coopera-
tion; and, in conclusion, plans and prospects 
for the future of library cooperation. He 
supplies a bibliography, the sections of 
which parallel his arrangement of chapters, 
and an index. 

It is a pity that the American publishers 
of this book do not make clear in its title 
that Mr. Jefferson is really concerned only 
with British library cooperation. True 
enough, the Farmington Plan and the Scan-
dia Plan and the activities of the Deutsche 
Forschungsgemeinschaft are described in 
the chapter on cooperative acquisition, and 
US schemes for cooperative storage are 
fully treated in the subsequent chapter; but 
this is only because acquisition and storage 
are such important aspects of cooperation, 
and Mr. Jefferson would not have been able 
to find much to say regarding either of 
these if he had confined himself to Britain's 
less significant efforts. 

Nevertheless, this book is a most cre.dit-
able achievement. The material is succinct-
ly marshalled and agreeably presented. The 
author is not concerned with exhortation or 
high-Hying: just good sense, sound judg-
ment, and above all, a conviction that "the 
interlibrary loan, like patriotism" is not 
enough, but that library cooperation must 
be regarded as having an everwidening con-
notation.-]ames Thompson, University of 
Glasgow. 

Manual of Procedures for Private Law 
Libraries. By Elizabeth Finley. (2d ed. 
AALL Pub. Ser. no. 8.) South Hacken-
sack, N.J.: Fred B. Rothman, 1966. xl, 
176p. $8.50. (66-15518). 

This book is an introductory work for be-
ginners and those with a little experience 
working in private law libraries. The em-