College and Research Libraries


228 I College & Research Libraries • May 1973 

ject heading list." Such condensed state-
ments imply an awareness of procedures 
and techniques not normally common to the 
graduate student. 

Nevertheless, for these very reasons, i.e., 
scope, technical complexity, and variety, 
this volume should have wide application. 
The cases present admirable organizing 
centers for instruction. The studies could 
be particularly valuable for in-service train-
ing. A staff engrossed in its own particu-
lar problems might well profit from en-
gaging in problem-solving techniques using 
one or more of these cases. Discussion of 
hypothetical situations and development of 
model solutions by the staff could be a 
managerial tool in devising methods for 
problem-solving in the real world by the 
same staff members. 

The worker in the field can profit by 
reading the studies, if only for reassurance 
that his or her particularly pressing prob-
lems are shared on a large scale by all sec-
tors of the profession.-Gloria Terwilliger, 
Northern Virginia Community College, Al-
exandria Campus. 

Tebbe!, John. A History of Book Publish-
ing in the United States; Volume I: The 
Creation of an Industry, 1603-1865. 
New York: R. R. Bowker, 1972. 646p. 
$29.95. 
When Bowker made its rather low-keyed 

announcement that they would publish a 
multivolume history of American publish-
ing written by John Tebbe!, the well known 
popularizer, we were skeptical and not a 
little alarmed at the audacity of both au-
thor and publisher. However, it now ap-
pears, if the first volume can be considered 
typical of those to come, that our skepti-
cism was unjustified; for Tebbel has writ-
ten a clear, well organized, and detailed 
synthesis of American publishing history to 
the Civil War, and while the whole project 
still strikes us as audacious, we feel com-
pelled to compliment both the author and 
publisher for the remarkable success they 
have achieved with this first volume. Teb-
bel has presented an enormous amount of 
specialized information on the subject in a 
readable fashion, and happily has broadly 
defined "American publishing" to include 
the history of bookselling, copyright, chil-

dren's books, and a multitude of other sub-
jects. Some scholars will be critical of the 
lack of a bibliography in this volume, and 
yet, the recent publication of Tanselle's 
Guide to the Study of United States Im-
prints, really makes such pedantry super-
fluous in a work of this kind. Scholars who 
have worked the major maimscript collec-
tions relating to this period, ·such as the 
Carey, Thomas, and McCarty-Davis pa-
pers at the American Antiquarian Society, 
will doubtless find fault · with various as-
pects of this work, and it is lightly sprinkled 
throughout with those factual errors and 
stylistic slips which are to be expected in 
a work of this magnitude, but these mat-
ters really become mere quibbles when 
measured against the high quality of the 
whole work. Tebbel's History of- Book Pub-
lishing in the United States should be ac-
quired by all libraries, large or small, 
which profess any interest at all in the his-
tory of American publishing, and if the suc-
ceeding volumes (two more are projected) 
are of equal merit, this work should easily 
become the standard history of publishing 
in the United States for years to come.-
Michael H. Harris, Associate Professor, 
College of Library Science, University of 
Kentucky, Lexington. 

Trezza, Alphonse F., ed. Library Build-
ings: Innovation for Changing Needs. 
Proceedings of the Library Building In-
stitute conducted at San Francisco, Cal-
ifornia, June 22-24, 1967. Chicago: 
American Library Association, 1972. Pa-
per covers, photographs, floor plans, 
293p. $10.00. 
My initial response to this book was neg-

ative. I actually wrote a review which, if 
not truly scathing, was at least derogatory. 
Things I didn't like (and still don't): pa-
perbacks that cost $10.00, books that have 
no index (especially reference books), 
books that are five years out of date the day 
they are published, and books that are cre-
ated by direct transcription from tape re-
cordings. This volume commits all those 
sins, but it does have its virtues. 

Academic librarians about to embark on 
a new building program can find help here. 
Although only eight academic library build-
ings are analyzed they represent a wide 

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