College and Research Libraries


358 I College & Research Libraries • September 1970 

become increasingly culture-conscious. We 
may train ourselves to pass judgement upon 
the dominant traits of our own civilization. 
It is difficult enough for anyone brought up 
under their power to recognize them. It is 
still more difficult to discount, upon neces-
sity, our predilection for them. They are as 
familiar as an old loved homestead. Any 
world in which they do not appear seems 
to us cheerless and untenable." 

In his introductory chapters Mr. Benge 
describes a society certainly no less com-
plicated than that of the thirties, but per-
ceptibly changed by the processes of hu-
man communication. In them he deals ar-
ticulately and concisely with the principal 
doctr·ines of cultural change, citing such 
divergent views as those of Eliot, Huxley, 
Snow, Mills, Marcuse, and Fanon, and then 
with communication (with due regard for 
Marshall McLuhan), leisure, literacy, edu-
cation, censorship, and other social phe-
nomena by which libraries are affected and 
upon which we hope they have some con-
structive effect. His concluding chapters 
deal specifically with libraries' role in a 
changing society, with the education of li-
brarians, ending with advocacy of a more 
active and imaginative role for the profes-
sion. 

Although he assesses, in conventional 
terms, the functions of libraries (collection, 
preservation, organization, and dissemina-
tion) and some of the particular problems 
of selection and censorship, individual (as 
opposed to institutional) responsibilities, 
status, and the uses of authority, the con-
cluding chapters are rather suggestive than 
specific in presenting answers to questions 
posed in the earlier and more general es-
says. 

The questions which he poses, and the 
manner in which they are presented, how-
ever, are highly relevant to the current de-
bate which the American Library Associa-
tion is having about its own role and the 
role of the profession. The place of li-
braries in the general communication of in-
formation and ideas, the conception of so-
cial responsibility, the role of libraries in 
the educational process, all must be modi-
Red by the rapid changes in the structure 
of society as a whole. Professor Benge sus-
pects , with reason , that librarians may be 

somewhat conservative in criticizing cul-
tural traits-particularly in their own insti-
tutions-which are (in Benedict's words ) 
familiar as an old loved homestead. 

Does he go far enough in suggesting 
what we should do about it? 

Perhaps not. Although there is occasional 
mention of information science, automation, 
and some of the other intrusions of tech-
nique and technology upon the processes 
of human communication, these are not 
only scientific but cultural changes (in 
both the United States and Great Britain) 
of considerable magnitude, and Professor 
Benge touches upon them rather casually. 

Although he does deal at some length 
with the paperback revolution, he might be 
suspected of underestimating the cultural 
impact of reprinting and the lesser forms 
of reprography which, although not con-
ventional parts of the book trade, certain-
ly are having an effect upon it and upon 
the library as well. Although Professor 
Benge rationalizes the Two Cultures of 
C. P. Snow, he gives no acknowledgement 
of the Technological Society of Jacques El-
lul. This may, of course, simply represent 
a difference in British and American points 
of view (we must be considerably influ-
enced by the unrelenting persuasion of Xe-
rox and IBM). Nevertheless the theories 
and techniques of information science con-
stitute the most conspicuous current accul-
tural phenomenon on the library scene, 
and this is not conspicuously reflected in 
these essays. 

Libraries and Cultural Change is a val-
uable contribution to library literature. It is 
concise, readable, and deals with most of 
the problems which American libraries share 
with their sister institutions in Britain. If it 
deals somewhat briefly with some of the 
current preoccupations of academic librar-
ians in the United States, it makes up for it 
in the imaginative presentation of a num-
ber of provocative ideas.-David W. H eron, 
University of Kansas. 

Eighteenth Century Bibliographies. By 
Francesco Cordasco. Metuchen, N.J.: 
Scarecrow Press, 1970. 230p. $5.00. 

This volume collects under one cover 



thirteen previously published lists of ref-
erences. Three are concerned with the nov-
elist Tobias Smollett (with some repetition), 
and one each with Edmund Burke, Thomas 
Frognall Dibdin, Henry Fielding, Edward 
Gibbon, William Godwin, Samuel Richard-
son, Laurence Sterne, Edward Young, 
eighteenth century medicine, and eigh-
teenth century novels. As all the lists were 
prepared and published separately at least 
twenty years ago and the editor says: "In 
this reprinting, I have made no changes," 
the present volume is a kind of memorial 
to years gone by. It may have some use-
fulness while we await the promised second 
volume of the New Cambridge Bibliog-
raphy of English Literature. Interestingly, 
comparison of the Dibdin list with that in 
the already. published third volume of 
NCBEL finds Cordasco supplying some val-
uable references not in the Cambridge vol-
ume and showing that it does not do to be 
condescending towards anyone's labors , es-
pecially when it comes to reference bibliog-
raphy.-Henry Pettit, University of Colo-
rado. 

Libraries, Readers, and Book Selection. 
Ed. by Jean Spealman Kujoth. Metuchen, 
N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1969. 457p. 
$10.00. 

Book selection is generally acknowledged 
to play a vital role among the professional 
responsibilities of the librarian, but until 
recently there has been surprisingly little 
written about the subject. The only up-to-
date, substantial, monographic treatments 
that come to mind are Danton's Book Se-
lection and Collections; a Comparison of 
German and American University Libraries 
( 1963) and the Carter and Bonk textbook, 
Building Library Collections (3d ed., 1969). 

During the past few years, the subject 
has begun to receive more attention in the 
periodical literature of the profession. In 
Libraries, Readers and Book Selection, 
Jean Kujoth has endeavored to make some 
of this scattered material more readily 
available by gathering together forty-four 
recent journal articles which have some 
relevance for book selection in libraries. The 

Recent Publications I 359 

readings are arranged under the following 
categories: ( 1) Professional Reading (i.e., 
the reading ·of professionals) ; ( 2) Reading 
Interests and Needs of Special Groups; 
( 3) Communication and Reading Values; 
( 4) The Public Library's Collection; ( 5) 
The Academic Library's Collection; ( 6) 
Trends, Issues and Influences Affecting 
Book Selection; and ( 7) Censorship and 
Controversial Books. 

Most of the articles which appear in the 
first three sections, comprising more than 
half the book, are only indirectly concerned 
with book selection. These sections concen-
trate on describing characteristics of the di-
verse clientele which libraries serve and 
.discuss the role of books and reading in 
contemporary society. Sections four through 
seven contain articles which deal more di-
rectly with the subject. Academic libraries 
receive very limited coverage. Only four ar-
ticles are included in section five , and the 
total length of the section is less than thirty 
pages. 

The organization of Libraries, Readers 
and Book Selection suggests that it is the 
outgrowth of an introductory library school 
course in book selection. Its approach is 
comprehensive; the compiler attempts to 
provide relevant material for a wide range 
of potential interests. This unfortunately 
precludes the possibility of treating any 
facet of the subject in detail. This de-
ficiency in focus is aggravated by the lim-
itation of having to rely on a variety of 
previously published articles written by 
people with dissimilar points of view. The 
selections are presented without editorial 
comment, and it sometimes becomes some-
thing of a puzzle to determine why an ar-
ticle has been placed where it has, or, in 
a few cases, why it has been included at 
all. 

Every librarian with an interest in book 
selection and in the relationships which 
exist between the library's clienteles and 
its collections will find something of in-
terest in this book. The articles are usually 
of high quality, and the diverse topics and 
approaches may provide new frames of 
reference for the consideration of old prob-
lems. I suspect, however, that there is little 
in the collection that will be new to the 
experienced librarian who is a regular read-