College and Research Libraries


BOOK REVIEWS 
Mexico's Library and Information Ser-

vices; A Study of Present Conditions 
and Needs. By Carl M. White. Totowa, 
N.J.: Bedminster Press, 1969. 106p. $5.50. 

This slender volume is more than a 
simple recounting of current library condi-
tions and needs in Mexico; it is also the au-
thor's apologia pro vita sua, and a fine one 
it is. Indeed, helpful though the book may 
be to the agency that commissioned it and 
to the nation that is its subject, its value 
may be even greater as a succinct and 
rational position paper on the essential role 
of libraries in national growth. The wealth 
of Dr. White's extensive experience in the 
activities of libraries in developing lands 
assures a level of credibility to the volume 
that is unlikely soon to be matched in an-
other. 

The first chapter, a general essay en-
titled "Libraries in the Building of a N a-
tion," really carries one of the two major 
burdens of the book. In this reviewer's judg-
ment, it deserves to be reprinted separate-
ly-it is capable of standing by itself-and 
distributed widely among advisors, civil 
servants, opinion leaders, industrialists, and 
others who find themselves involved in 
planning and implementing programs of na-
tional growth. The conceptualization of a 
rational plan for library development in a 
country, Dr. White argues logically, is pos-
sible only as an integral segment of gen-
eral national planning. 

"Nation-Building in Mexico" is the sec-
ond chapter, and the second theme of the 
book begins here. In it the author examines 
the changing educational, professional, tech-
nical, and economic composition of Mexican 
society; speculates as to their future; and 
considers the role of libraries as both causes 
and effects of the changes. In Chapter 3, 
"Mexico's Library Capability," he appraises 
current levels of library service and exam-
ines critically the reasons usually given for 
their not having developed more fully. 

Recent Publications 
Chapter 4 describes "Modern Library 

Service for Modern Mexico." Herein Dr. 
White outlines the characteristics of library 
service he feels are necessary fully to sup-
port present and future stages of Mexico's 
social development. In the fifth chapter he 
described "The Federal Government's Part" 
in library development, especially the es-
tablishment of a statutory body with both 
responsibility and authority to effect appro-
priate library services. The sixth and final 
chapter concerns "Manpower for an Emerg-
ing Profession." 

The present study, together with Paul 
Bixler's Mexican Library (Scarecrow Press, 
1968), was done for the Ford Foundation 
in October 1966. In the library community, 
it will be of considerable interest to Latin 
Americanists, to librarians concerned for the 
international aspects of their work, and to 
students of comparative librarianship. Most 
of all, however, it should stand for a long 
time as a model for librarians who find 
themselves involved in the development of 
library plans for other nations in the world 
where similar conditions and circumstances 
prevaiL-David Kaser, Cornell University. 

Caxton and His World. By N. F. Blake. 
New York: London House and Maxwell, 
1969. 256p. $7.95. 

William Caxton, the earliest English 
printer, has been the subject of numerous 
literary, bibliographical, and historical stud-
ies. Surprisingly, there has not been a ma-
jor reassessment of his career since William 
Blades' The Life and Typography of Wil-
liam Caxton, a landmark work published 
in 1861-63. And so it is with special plea-
sure that we receive the excellent synthesis 
provided by N. F. Blake of Liverpool Uni-
versity, an accomplished Caxton scholar 
who has been writing significant articles for 
over a decade. Caxton and His World is 
both an exploration in biography and an 
evaluation of his literary attainments. 

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