College and Research Libraries 446 I College & Research Libraries • November 1967 Studies, many of which had previously ap- peared in the pages of the African Studies Bulletin, an organ of the Mrican Studies Association. While acknowledgely incom- plete, it is a start in the right direction, and, hopefully, we may look for a near-complete record in the future. Gathered largely by responses to questionnaires, the Handbook describes the African resources of 95 library and manuscript collections, 180 church and missionary libraries and archives, 95 art and ethnographic collections, and 4 business archives. Entries range from a laconic line- and-a-half to a very extensive description (40 pages) of the holdings of the National Archives compiled by Morris Rieger, di- rector of the National African Guide Project, which will appear later as a separate mono- graph, and by E. J. Algoa of the National Archive·s of Nigeria. Americans-particular- ly those new to African Studies-will be surprised at the extent of American involve- ment in Mrica prior to the Civil War. There is a very extensive index which will be a big help to reference and interlibrary loan libraries. A correction needs to be made. On page 125 the Handbook states "Stanford Univer- sity is a member of the Association for Research Libraries which maintains the Center for Research Libraries (formerly the Midwest Interlibrary Center at Chicago.)" Not so! The Center is, and has been all along, a private corporation maintained by a number of important libraries. It has co- operated with the ARL in many important collecting projects and recently all ARL members were urged to become members of the Center. Interestingly enough this typographically pleasing volume was printed in Hong Kong by the Cathay Press.-David Jolly, North- western University. Metropolitan Public Library Planning Throughout the World. By H. C. Camp- bell. Oxford: The Pergamon Press. 1967. xi, 168p. $8 ( 66-29370). Harry C. Camp bell has performed yoe- man's service for the profession in compil- ing such a substantial body of information concerning a number of metropolitan public library systems throughout the world. He has also identified and described many at- tendant problems. As chief librarian of the Toronto public library, one of the most progressive on the North American conti- nent, the author is in an enviable position to b·eat this subject authoritatively. He has not only first hand experience in a metro- politan public library system; he has traveled extensively to observe many of the specific situations he has included in his book and to discuss them with those re- sponsible for their planning and implemen- tation. Because one of the major problems facing the profession in general and public library administrators in particular at this period in library history relates to metro- politan and suburban problems, it is es- pecially helpful to have this information so well organized and presented. The metro- politan problem is widespread and involves jurisdictional, economic, political, adminis- trative, and sociological factors. All have been discussed in this treatise. Mr. Campbell makes it clear that there are a wide variety of organizational patterns and structures which have evolved through the years. The early chapters describe them and the role and function of public library systems in the metropolitan areas, as well as background information. The remainder of the book is devoted to a description of li- brary planning in nineteen metropolitan areas and to the future of metropolitan li- brary planning. The relationship to public library systems of state, national, academic, and school libraries is placed in proper per- spective. Growing concern on the part of responsible librarians everywhere as to pat- terns of use of libraries is apparent. We must know more about how people use books and information if we are to develop effective libraries. Mention is made con- cerning the need to extend the system con- cept of library organization to academic and school libraries in urban areas. As one studies the metropolitan problem this fact becomes increasingly obvious. It is en.couraging to see more in print about the interdependence of the various types of libraries, and emphasis being placed on the fact that there is not a great difference between large public library sys- tems and academic, business, and research libraries, with respect to their collections. While each library serves a particular func- tion, Mr. Campbell points out that intelli- gent planning dictates the · establishment of meaningful relationships among them. Each library comprises a segment of the total re- sources of a community or metropolitan area and they should be available to all serious users on some kind of mutually agreeable basis. In several instances, the large public library in a metropolitan area is a special- ized research collection as well as a source for popular recreational reading. At the other end of the scale, we see the need to reach the large segment of the population that does not use a library at all. Special approaches developed by many large public libraries, such as those in New York City and Los Angeles, need evaluation and further experimentation since this phenome- non is apparently to be with us for some time. The book will be of interest to govern- ment officials, educators, planners, librarians and others concerned with metropolitan problems. If there is any critical comment on the presentation, it may have to do with the fact that not enough emphasis has been placed on the role of the states (govern- mental units between national and local levels) and national governments with re- spect to metropolitan library planning. For example, the description of the Eastern Massachusetts Regional Public Library System makes no mention of the guiding and directing role of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Bureau of Library Extension in implement- ing the state-supported plan for regional library service. States are and should be ex- pected to participate financially and in planning to find solutions to metropolitan library problems. Federal and national governments must contribute further toward the staggering costs of municipal services, including libraries. Lasting solutions to the problem lie in the successful cooperative efforts of municipal, metropolitan, state, and national authorities. Mr. Campbell has paved the way with this information to further study of the situations and problems he describes so well. Let's hope that he and other authori- ties continue to investigate and report to the profession.-John A. Humphry, New York State Education Department. Book Reviews I 447 Printing, Selling and Reading 1450-1550. By Rudolph Hirsch. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1967. 165p. This book is an important example of the complex and vital relationship which can exist between bibliographical scholar- ship and the social and intellectual history of a period. Dr. Hirsch, who is associate librarian at the University of Pennsylvania, is to be admired for his labors and ap- plauded for this contribution to our knowl- edge and understanding of social and in- tellectual developments not only during the first one hundred years of the mass-pro- duced book but also of much of the subse- quent history of printing, publishing, book- selling, and the problems of literacy. Dr. Hirsch's own introductory note to his book is the best indication of the scope of his work and of what he has succesfully completed: "The first chapter deals in gen- eral terms with elements which connect or separate the manuscript produced in single copies and the mass-produced printed book; it provides a background for all that follows. In the second chapter the invention of print- ing, the background and the personality of printers, and a number of related problems are discussed. Chapters III-V deal with the economics of printing, publishing and sell- ing. The sixth chapter is devoted to legal and political implications, while the two final chapters try to solve some of the ques- tions which might tell us for what groups of readers texts were produced in different parts of Europe, and for what purpose." The reader of Printing, Selling and Read- ing 1450-1550 will quickly learn from Dr. Hirsch's survey of the problems which fol- lowed in the wake of the invention of printing that, as he puts it, "most of the blessings and the curses of printing and literacy have their roots in this early period." All of its conclusions are of in- terest, but it is particularly in its statements concerning the spread of literacy as a re- sult of the printed book that this work merits close attention. Unlike the earlier and well-known point of view as expressed by Arno Schirokauer, whose essay "Der Anteil des Buchdrucks an der Bildung des Gemeindeutschen" is often referred to, that " ·new lay readers belonged very frequently to the economically favored classes,' " Dr.