College and Research Libraries


496 I College & Research Libraries • November 1972 

sets forth the detailed method proposed by 
WICHE for evaluating existing library ca-
pacity and for projecting future library 
needs. The method, in each case, sets forth 
in outline form, logical order, and with fair-
ly mechanical precision, every consideration 
needed for planning. Sample forms are in-
cluded and the procedure is fully spelled 
out for a typical library example in an aca-
demic institution. The manual thus provides 
step by step guidance for anyone who 
might wish to apply the proposed standards 
to his own situation. There is accompany-
ing text which quite reasonably comments 
on the possible variations from these rather 
rigid lines of measurement and states other 
possibilities. The same general arrangement 
is then followed for projected requirements. 
This chapter may be very useful, at the 
least, as a checklist of elements which must 
be included. A final example develops the 
procedure applied to another example for 
both existing facilities and the projection 
of requirements for the future. There is a 
general effect of considerable repetition 
throughout the text for libraries, but per-
haps this is necessary. A final brief state-
ment of "Unit :Boor area criteria," consti-
tutes in effect a series of commonly used 
ranges of standard measures for stack 
space, reader space, and staff and service 
space. Also included here are the University 
of California criteria for similar functions. 

The comments on A/V, Radio, and TV 
facilities are general and meager, represent-
ing only four pages of text. Museum, Gal-
lery, and Other Exhibition facilities are giv-
en two pages and Data Processing and 
Computing Facilities just over two pages. 
This manual is obviously library oriented. 

There is very little, if anything to criti-
cize in the guidelines, criteria, or standards 
(as these terms may be variously defined) . 
Many alternate statements are referenced 
in the text, and there is no real innovation 
in the applications of the criteria. Everyone 
is now aware that arbitrary regulation by 
fixed criteria generally produces failure; 
similar application of the WICHE criteria 
without modification for local circumstance 
would surely have the same effect. It seems 
clear from the text that the authors were 
fully aware of this, and they have provided 
some useful measures in an organized and 
well-presented pattern. 

This manual will find a proper place in 
the working collections of any library plan-
ner, architect, and academic administrator. 
It will require judicious application and 
constant comparison with other sources of 
similar information, especially as new con-
cepts of education and educational methods 
become an increasingly large factor in our 
planning.-]errold Orne, University of 
North Carolina. 

Taylor, Robert S. The Making of a Li-
brary: The Academic Library in Tran-
sition. New York, Wiley (Becker-Hayes) 
1972, 250p. (Hampshire College Work-
ing Paper Number Two) $12.50. 
Change in college libraries for survival 

in anticipation of the future is what this 
book is about. Hampshire College is the 
recent experimental college (opened for 
students, September 1970) in Amherst, 
Massachusetts. Taylor describes in this 
book the design of the Hampshire College 
Library Center. 

This book is in large part a case study 
(with :Boor plans, diagrams, and other de-
tails) of what was and is involved in the 
design and planning of the Library at 
Hampshire. The problems and the objec-
tives are described fluently. Taylor's philos-
ophy of orienting the library to the user 
comes through eloquently. At this library 
the user is to be truly part of the picture. 
He is to be involved in the decision-making 
by the library. Also, the user's "costs" are 
to be considered in systems design and the 
provision of services. Extensive studies of 
what users do and do not do in the library 
are to be carried out. In sum, the Hamp-
shire College Library Center has been de-
signed to be unlike the traditional college 
library which, as Taylor says, is too con-
cerned with the handling of materials and 
not the needs of people. This library is to 
be far more than a supply depot or ware-
house with librarians as housekeepers. 

Here's what the library involves in one 
building; a conventional library but with 
multimedia integrated in the "book" collec-
tion, a display gallery, a bookstore, an 
INTRAN (information transfer) Center, 
integrating educational technology and 
computing support to instruction and learn-
ing, and duplication services. 

The design problems encountered are 



discussed candidly. It is stated that the 
changing budgetary pressures in today' s 
higher education have had a proscribing ef-
fect on much of what the library is planned 
to be. Because of the current economy a 
large share of the planned-for-functions, 
particularly the electronic, have yet to be 
realized. 

There is an admirable honesty in this 
volume. Mistakes in building and service 
design are admitted, e.g. "The (library) is 
laced with conduits, with outlets, where we 
do not want them and no outlets where we 
need them." 

The philosophy expounded is one meant 
to change the college library and to in-
crease its effectiveness. It deals with, "the 
renewal of a static if not moribund organi-
zation-the library-and of a profession 
that grows in numbers but dies in content 
and purpose." Although the author is cer-
tainly convincing in his argument for chan-
ges to improve on current library problems 
there are many promising indicators that 
the profession is trying to get with it and 
sometimes succeeding. In this vein, formal 
experiments (sponsored by the Council on 
Library Resources) with the use of student 
assistants for reference work have been set 
up with good results at Brown University, 
Wabash College and elsewhere. We will 
nevertheless learn much from the Hamp-
shire experience whether it's dramatically 
successful or not. 

One aspect not emphasized enough by 
Taylor is the problem of how to change the 
teaching faculty's attitude toward the li-
brary. Librarians can do much to help in-
dividual students with library instructional 
programs of all kinds as long as the student 
needs to know but the real long-lasting ef-
fect must come from the teaching faculty. 
This can only happen when they become 
knowledgeable and enthusiastic library 
users and begin to consider the effective use 
of the library by students as part of the 
course work. We librarians can repackage 
systems and products and try our utmost 
to interrupt the cycle of library misuse and 
nonuse by students but to little effect if the 
faculty are not really with us. If the faculty 
are "different" at Hampshire it is not so 
stated in the book. Indeed they appear to 
be similar to professors at conventional col-
leges when it comes to book selection: "The 

Recent Publications I 497 

faculty members were either not interested 
or not able to define and recommend a ba-
sic book collection in their field."-John 
Lubans, Jr., University of Colorado. 

lnternationale Bibliographie zur Soziol-
ogie und Psychologie des Lesens [Inter-
national Bibliography to the Sociology 
and Psychology of Reading]. Compiled 
by Eymar Fertig. Edited by Heinz Stein-
berg. Verlag Dokumentation, M unchen-
Pullach, Berlin. R. R. Bowker Co., New 
York, 1971. 230p. $12.95. 
This bibliography is the by-product of 

an educational meeting entitled "Research 
Subject: The Book," which was held at the 
American Memorial Library in Berlin dur-
ing February 19 and 20, 1969. The publi-
cation is intended to be a guide to literature 
explaining who reads what and why. 

Included in the list of 1,027 articles, 
pamphlets, and books are 347 titles in En-
glish. The bulk of the remainder are in 
German, with enough other languages rep-
resented to validate the use of the word 
"international" in the title. Brief annotations 
(in German) are supplied for the less de-
scriptively titled entries. Among the items 
listed are titles dealing with such questions 
as how television affects reading habits, 
what people read in various geographical 
areas, whether library usage increases dur-
ing election years, etc. 

Most of the items listed were published 
between 1945 and 1971. The exceptions are 
a few pre-1945 classics, chosen for their 
recognized importance to the topic. The 
editor cites as an example the works by 
Douglas Waples representing an "obvious 
pioneering feat" or setting an "indispensa-
ble precedent." 

The entries are listed alphabetically by 
author and divided into three broad subject 
categories: ( 1) Communication, ( 2) Book-
selling, and ( 3) Library. Each of these cat-
egories has the two subdivisions: ( 1) The-
ory and (2) Empirical observations. Be-
cause the wide variety of subjects covered 
do not all fit neatly into these categories, 
the organization seems a bit contrived; but 
the subject index and index of compilers, 
authors, and persons mentioned in titles 
and annotations alleviate this shortcoming 
to a certain degree. The subject index, how-
ever, is a rather unwieldy mixture of sub-