College and Research Libraries added and improvements can be made.- Vasa D. Mihailovich, University of North Carolina. Reader in Research Methods for Librari- anship. Mary Lee Bundy and Paul Was- serman, eds. Reader Series in Library and Information Science. Washington, D.C.: NCR Microcard Editions, 1970. 363p. $10.95. This is a collection of eleven periodical articles and seventeen chapters of books from nine different subject fields on various aspects of research. Half were originally published in 1960 or later, and another 40 percent in the 1950's. There are several ap- pendices, including a long annotated "Bib- liography of Social Science Research Meth- odology," a short "Bibliography of Library Research" (including Price's Little Science, Big Science), and a sample interview schedule, attitude survey form, and mail questionnaire. In addition, the editors have written brief introductions to each . of six parts of the volume and to each of the twenty-eight selections. There is no subject index. "The fundamental purpose of this volume is to assist its readers to genuinely perceive the nature of scholarship and its relation- ship to the goals · of librarianship." (p.vii) The selections reprinted here succeed in general in fulfilling the first part of this goal, but not the second. Most of the selec- tions are by distinguished authors and so- cial scientists, e.g., Cohen and Nagle, Da- vid Riesman, Robert K. Merton, and Sam- uel A. Stouffer. Many of them are distinctly above the elementary level by deliberate intent of the editors (p. viii), and concern broad general developments (e.g. , the meaning of behavioralism) . Of the twenty- eight selections, 46 percent are from soci- ology, 18 percent from political science, 11 percent from library science, and the other 25 percent from six different fields ( includ- ing one each from history and communica- tions) . There are none from education, psy- chology, journalism, marketing, or econom- ics. It is clear that research methodology was meant to be de-emphasized, and only one Recent Publications I 419 of the six sections (with five articles) is de- voted to this topic. As a result, there is very little or nothing-anywhere in the book-on content analysis, preparation of questionnaires, interviewing (except for depth interviews in a disaster study proj- ect) , experimental design (other than three pages from a 1950 article), analysis of data, statistical methods (apart from one selec- tion on general principles), sampling, and other such topics. To judge from its title, this book was meant to do something spe· cifically for librarians. It would appear that the best parts of this volume would serve any of the social sciences; in this reviewer's experience, library school doctoral students, let alone library practitioners, need some- thing less advanced and more directly con- cerned with how to proceed. The most interesting section for this re- viewer was that on "Research in Action," consisting of personal reviews by social sci- entists of how they actually went about do- ing research they had completed earlier. The section which came off least well was that on "Conceptual Approaches." This was the single longest section of the text, about 20 percent, and presented attempts at the- ory construction. In their own comments, the editors repeatedly emphasize the desir- ability (indeed, the necessity) of theory to guide research in librarianship. But several of the articles they include make the point that both theory and data are needed, that neither is more important than the other, and that facts are the ultimate test of the- ory (pp. 26, 42, 43, 47, 65, 197). The content of these twenty-eight selec- tions has all been reset in two-column pages with unjustified right-hand margins and very few typographical errors. Not all the selections from books are identified by chapter number or paging. The names of the editors appear on the cover in reverse order from that on the title page.-H erbert Goldhor, University of Illinois. A History of Education for Librarianship in Colombia. By Richard Krzys and Gaston Litton. Metuchen, N.J.: Scare- crow, 1969. 203p. $5.00. This book is both more and less than its 420 j College & Research Libraries • November 1970 title indicates. More in that it contains a good deal of encyclopedic information about the economic, demographic, political, educational, and bibliothecal scene in Co- lombia, the influence of which on education for librarianship is not always specified. The work is something less than its title would lead one to expect in that the Escue- la Interamericana de Bibliotecologia is the main topic. This is probably justified inas- much as the Escuela far overshadows any previous efforts of the sort in Colombia. The Escuela began operation at Medel- lin, Colombia's second or third largest city in 1957. It has been a joint project of the Rockefeller Foundation (to the tune of a half-million dollars) and the Universidad de Antioquia with which it is affiliated. It has also had plenty of advice from UNESCO, ALA and the Pan American U n- ion. Given the vicissitudes that have befallen the School, the wonder is that it has sur- vived, let alone achieved some of the goals for which it was established. Every political change in Colombia has resulted in a new administration for the U niversidad and a major adjustment for the new library school. Student strikes and walkouts, en- demic in Latin America long before they became popular in the United States, closed it down for one period. Recruiting of suit- able students was not always successful, es- pecially from countries other than Colom- bia, with the result that the School has not lived up to the name "Interamerican." Turnover of teaching staff-particularly those from North America-has also ham- pered progress. A move from the area in which the main units of the University are located to the very pleasant, but biblio- graphically isolated, quarters now occupied has meant that the School must maintain a rather large library of its own-some 10,000 volumes as of 1965. Cutoff point for most data seems to be that year, although in revising the original doctoral disserta- tion the authors have supplied some infor- mation as late as 1967. Another reason for developing a large li- brary was that the curriculum of the School attempts to give a general collegiate educa- tion plus library training (including a the- sis) in three years. At first the School gave its own liberal arts courses, but more re- cently these have been given under the aus- pices of the University. To get all of this into so short a time, students are required to spend up to twenty-eight hours a week in class, plus four hours of laboratory. In short, grafting a Norte Americana style pro- fessional education onto the academic pat- terns of a typical Latin American university is a goal not easily achieved. Although they give obiter dicta on many topics, the authors speculate very sparingly on the future of the School after the Rocke- feller money runs out in 1970. They are certain, however, that the School already has substantial attainments to its credit. Furthermore, they somehow convince the reader that this is true without specifying these achievements in much detail. We are not even given a table showing the num- bers of students enrolled and subsequently graduated with the lkenciatura. The au- thors hope that, in time, this coveted paper will be worth something in terms of salary and of the appointment of graduates to re- sponsible library positions-instead of the distinguished poets or worse, political hacks now occupying such posts. Sometimes the authors give clues to the influence of the School in discussing other topics. For exam- ple, they have tacked on to the end of the book a section on a new library school that has been established at Cali. In the course of their rather uncertain prognosis for this institution, they mention casually that "the courses in library science ... are taught by members of the library staff of the Univer- sidad del Valle, all of whom are graduates of the MedelHn School." If that isn't a feather in MedelHn's cap, what is? Correspondence with the editors of CRL imply that the present reviewer was select- ed because of (rather than in spite of) his lack of knowledge of Latin American li- brarianship. For him, at least, this was a wise decision for he has learned a lot from this slim volume. In order to do this, how- ever, he has often had to work against the physical and intellectual grain of the book. The authors, one of whom (Litton) was once Director of the Escuela, have chopped up their material in such a way that the un- initiated must refer back and forth in order to get a reasonably complete account of such interesting topics as student unrest, political interference, influence of foreign professors, and even curriculum. Significant details are sometimes glossed over (or dropped out entirely) while other facts are repeated several times in a vain attempt to help the reader deal with the foreshadow- ings and flashbacks. The unjustified-line, cold-type format is legible but uninviting and the placement of running heads annoy- ing. The bibliography seems adequate and the index seems somewhat better than those found in other Scarecrow books. The carpings of reviewers must be dis- counted; this is an informative work and is worth every bit of the effort it takes to di- gest it.-Perry D. Morrison, University of Oregon. British University Libraries. By K. W. Neal. Published by the author at 7 Church Road, Wilmslow, Cheshire, En- gland, SK9 6HH, 1970, 149p. 35s. An Introduction to University Library Administration. By James Thompson. London, Clive Bingley, 1970. 136p. 35s. It is interesting that the spring of 1970 should produce two volumes on the subject of university library administration, treating the facets of the subject in almost the same order, quoting widely from many sources, much preoccupied with the "Parry report," filling about 140 5W' x 9" pages, and sell- ing for 35s. Yet these two are quite differ- ent works and a single review, I believe, is appropriate for proper comparison. The authors are well-known librarians; Neal, a Senior Lecturer at the Manchester School of Librarianship and Thompson, the Librarian of Reading University. Both au- thors attempt to compress the essence of university librarianship into about ·a hun- dred and fifty pages, which results in a cross between a library science course sylla- bus and a Reader's Digest Condensed Books version of Wilson and Tauber (to which, incidentally, Neal never refers). The order of topics treated is similar though not identical: general functions of a library system, library government, committees, de- partmental libraries and collection organiza- tion, finance, staff, selection procedures and Recent Publications I 421 policies, cataloging, binding, circulation, periodicals, public instruction in library use, library building planning, and library co- operation-an order reasonably dictated by logic, if not custom. Because of the shortness of the works, the chapters can only cover briefly the sa- lient features of the subject at hand. To remedy this, Neal gives a list of "Other Reading" at the end of each chapter. Thompson's bibliography would lead, of course, to more extensive discussions. The problems that are caused by this brevity are typified by the chapters on building design. Neal realizes the complexity of the subject and devotes rather more pages to the dis- cussion (twenty, to be exact) but is then seduced by this quantity of space into at- tempting to outline details of matters such as furniture, lighting, and air conditioning. Thompson is more general and contents himself with eleven pages, mostly consist- ing of a summary of Ralph Ellsworth's Planning the College and University Li- brary Building, but such a brief discussion is almost worthless from the standpoint of information. It was noted above that the authors quote widely, but both their method and, more interestingly, their sources vary. Nei- ther use footnotes, but Neal is quite pre- cise giving page numbers in parentheses in the text and a bibliographically complete citation to the article at the end of the chapter. Thompson gives enough informa- tion in the text to enable one to identify the cited work in the bibliography at the end of the book. Such minutiae aside, however, it is more interesting to note that of some- thing over two hundred citations in Neal, only fifteen were of U.S. origin, while of forty-five works cited by Thompson, thir- teen were U.S. And this points to the essen- tial difference in the two works as far as utility to an American student is concerned. Neal has limited himself to the British scene, discussing in much detail aspects of British librarianship and British libraries. Thompson tends to paint with a broader brush, discussing in more general terms the philosophic principles which pertain to li- brary policy and administration. That both are knowledgeable and experienced librari- ans is obvious, but one has a feeling that