College and Research Libraries Health, Education, and Welfare, this con- clave focused primarily upon two questions which may be stated generally: ( 1) what media are used for instruction by whom, for what reasons, and with what results, as revealed through the literature and re- search; and (2) what research is needed to provide more definitive answers to ques- tion one? Fourteen participants, expertly conversant with and knowledgeable of communication ~ materials and techniques, educational prac- tice, and research methodology, converge ~· upon the questions through as many papers. These analytical and evaluative discourses comprise the major portion of the volume. A preliminary summary of recommenda- tions, more or less general in nature, is aug- ~ mented by a concluding enumeration of 112 recommendations, specifically cited in the texts of the presentations, which sug- gest pertinent research of varying scope and depth. Through the individual topics explored l by the participants, the use of materials for instructional purposes is surveyed from the standpoints of educational level, type of rna- . terial, and related influences. The first three papers cover the areas of elementary edu- cation, secondary education, and college and university education respectively, and are written by two professional educators and a university librarian. The next six con- tributors consider numerous types of ma- terials used for instruction. These include general books, textbooks, encyclopedias, and bibliographies; reference books; periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, etc.; audio-visual materials; exhibits, models, and other graphic materials; and motion pictures. A professor of librarianship, a practicing li- brarian, two professional educators, a re- search director, and a journal editor review the instructional uses of these materials. The impact of various media upon com- munication and social structure; instruction in the use of the library and library use by students; the use of trade books, chil- dren's books, and paperbounds as instruc- tional media; implications of curriculum ; trends, methodology, and content for edu- cational publishing; and possible application of documentation and information retrieval Book Reviews I 221 for instructional purposes; are the topics treated by the five remaining participants. Authors of these papers include two pro- fessors of librarianship, a museum director, and two representatives of the publishing industry. The volume supplies a much needed over- view of what is known as a result of re- search with respect to the uses of many kinds of printed and nonprinted materials as instructional vehicles. It is a treasure trove of ideas from which research aspirants and, indeed, seasoned investigators may draw when initiating future studies relative to the instructional efficacy of contemporary media or to conditions influencing their use.-Marion B. Grady, Ball State Univer- sity. Documentation and the Organization of Knowledge. By Jesse H. Shera. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1966. xxi, 185p. $6.50. This is a volume of fourteen essays by Dean Shera, and it follows its companion volume entitled "Libraries and the Organi- zation of Knowledge" by less than a year. The essays were written between 1950 and 1965 and with the exception of one essay, have been previously published. They deal in whole or in part with the history of clas- sification systems and of documentation, in- formation gathering habit studies, coordi- nate indexes in general and the machine- searched coordinate indexes developed at Western Reserve in particular, automation of various library operations, education for librarianship, recruiting of technical infor- mation specialists, and the role of the library in society. There are several recurring themes in the essays: the argument for the essential unity of librarianship ( Shera be- lieves that librarianship and documentation are or at least should be one), the need for librarians to be more involved with biblio- graphic organization, and the large poten- tial benefits of automation in libraries. In the introduction of Libraries and the Organization of Knowledge he notes that " ... one's writings set forth in vulnerable array [are] an invitation to the slings and arrows of the outrageous critic." The slings and arrows have found some but only small 222 I College & Research Libraries • May, 1967 targets in this particular review. Reference to the history of classification systems is certainly appropriate in several of the in- dividual essays but the reader might tire (and be tempted to skip) reading about Dewey and his classification system, par- ticularly when the explanation is intended for nonlibrarians. There is perhaps too much optimism about machine-searched indexes in one essay written in 1961. Shera lists examples of searches on pages 90 and 91 that can be done by machine "as child's play" (his words) and it may be just such a fantasy unless we learn to overcome prob- lems in the selection of documents to be indexed, in indexing, in formulation of search strategy, and in evaluation of search results. But this particular essay was writ- ten during our years of innocence in ma- chine searching; we can point to other ex- amples of machine literature searching with few documents included in the index and with extrapolation of results based on too small a sample. It is interesting to speculate why most of Shera's essays are still fresh and to the point. Is it because of his wisdom in choice and/ or treatment of topic, or is it because librarian- ship has been slow in changing? My guess is that it is a combination of these factors. Jesse Shera has suggested a number of changes that made sense at the time of writing and make sense now . There is still much to be done to achieve standardization among bibliographic services, there is still insufficient cooperation among professional societies in our field, and there is still need for an increased pace of fundamental and applied research in librarianship. Shera's words on automation in the library deserve special attention. He warns us not to close our eyes to automation-it will not go away. Automation has stimulated systematic analy- sis of library operations and offers the hope of a better understanding of what we are doing. Automation also offers the promise of library service on a higher level to be provided by librarians, if we are prepared to meet the challenge. Dean Shera writes wisely and well, and, what is rare in our field, with considerable humor. Librarians in research libraries should read or reread what he has to say.- G. ]ahoda, Florida State University. Resources of Missouri Libraries. Ed. by Robert B. Downs. Jefferson City: Mis- souri State Library, 1966. 190p. ~ The origins of this study lie in the de- sire of college librarians for a study com- plementary to the survey of Missouri pub- lic library resources made by Gretchen Schenk in 1962. This study, however, re- ports again on public libraries and on school and special libraries as well as two-year, four-year, and graduate institutions of high- 1 er learning. It, like the Schenk report and the Community Studies, Inc., survey of ~ .. public library service in metropolitan St. Louis and Kansas City released a year ago, has been sponsored by the Missouri State Library. Although Robert Downs lists a survey ~ staff of ten librarians, the materials for this study seem to have come primarily from a lengthy questionnaire submitted to approximately one hundred and twenty-five libraries. Librarians submitted a quantita- tive breakdown of collections in various sub- ject areas along with the kind of informa- tion submitted recently to HEW. They also checked their holdings against a list of one hundred currently published periodicals and Choice's "Opening Day Collection" of basic ' reference books. There were opportunities in the questionnaire also for librarians to make qualitative judgments on their own libraries. The over-all picture shows that while 1 Missouri librarians have been working for a long time to establish county-and, now in more recent years, regional-library sys- tems, there are still far too many small li- braries with inadequate tax bases. Most of the private institutions of higher education have financial problems which are shown in the support of their libraries. Its public in- stitutions reflect the fact that Missouri, in terms of its per capita income, has not sup- ported higher education well. A Robert Downs is needed to show Missouri how its libraries look to an experienced eye from the outside. ' Wisely, the work begins with his "Goals for the Future: Summary of Recommenda- ~ tions" because much of the subsequent chapters comprise raw material from the questionnaires analyzed by means of cur-