College and Research Libraries


tains few footnotes, no bib1iographies, and 
no conference discussions. 

This book is a useful contribution to in-
ternational library science but has no pre-
tention to being a comparative library sci-
ence study. Hopefully, useful and scholarly 
Japan-U.S. university library research will 
be carried on in the future. The book can 
be recommended for libraries interested in 
international library science, particularly in 
Japanese libraries. It updates existing En-
glish literature on the subject and is at-
tractively printed and durably bound.-
] ohn F. Harvey, Dean of Library Services, 
Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York. 

Szigethy, Marion C. Maurice Fawolm Tau-
ber, A Biobibliography, 1934-1973. 
Foreword by Jack Dalton. (Beta Phi Mu, 
Nu Chapter, Columbia University School 
of Library Service Publications, no.1) 
Metuchen, N.J.: Published for Beta Phi 
Mu, Nu Chapter, Columbia University 
School of Library Service, by Scarecrow, 
1974. 121p. 

This small book is an alternative form of 
a Festschrift. To honor Professor Tauber's 
long service as a teacher, colleagues, stu-
dents, and friends have put together an 
opus composed of five appreciations, a 
chapter by Tauber on his main claim to 
fame ("Survey Method Approach to Li-
brary Problems") and an extensive bibliog-
raphy. The appreciations take up twenty 
pages and, of course, are appreciative. The 
twenty-three-page survey chapter by Tau-
ber is an original contribution which sums 
up his philosophy and methodology. The 
bibliography of fifty-one pages is divided 
into nine parts: Papers; Monographs; Con-
tributions to Other Works; Forewords and 
Introductions to Other Works; Library Sur-
veys; Contributions to Conferences, In-
stitutes, and Meetings; Course Outlines; 
Journal Contributions; and a section "About 
Maurice Falcolm Tauber." The remainder 
of the book comprises data about the con-
tributors and an index which is interesting 
in itself. This review will be limited to the 
bibliography, since this is the main part of 
the book. 

The term "biobibliography" describing 

Recent Publications / 231 

Tauber's output is used in an archival sense 
in that the material listed includes a number 
of items to show the fullness of activity un-
dertaken by Tauber rather than being lim-
ited to that scholarly output which normal-
ly is found in a faculty member's bibliog-
raphy. For example, the first section notes 
an archive of 30,000 papers (1939-1965) 
given to the Columbia University Library. 
The thoroughness of the bibliography offers 
a field day to anyone interested in biblio-
metrics. 

The second section, "Monographs," for 
instance, consists of eight pamphlets, a 
dissertation, one long committee report, one 
circulated draft, twelve monographs in the 
standard definition of the term, and ninety-
four reviews of these monographs. Of the 
twelve monographs proper, eight were 
written and four were edited collections of 
the works of others. Of the written works, 
two were done alone and six with a collab-
orator or, in one case, with several. One of 
the joint efforts (Wilson and Tauber) went 
into a second edition and was also trans-
lated into Spanish. Of the edited items, one 
was done alone and three with collabora-
tors. One of the joint edited efforts (Book 
Catalogs) went into a second edition. Of 
the ninety-four reviews, forty-eight were of 
books by or about Louis Round Wilson. 

The section, "Library Surveys," includes 
surveys of all kinds of libraries: Australian, 
five (twenty-five reviews or news items); 
university and college, forty-six (eleven re-
views) ; public, five (three reviews) ; state, 
nine; and special, twelve. Of these, thirty-
two surveys were made by Tauber alone 
and forty-five jointly or in a team (his pre-
ferred method) . Also included are nine ar-
ticles about making library surveys. Tau-
ber's own chapter in the book, on the sub-
ject of survey-making, distills the experi-
ence of thirty years in evaluating libraries 
by this method. 

More sophisticated techniques may be 
applied to such an extended corpus of data. 
Not only will the future biographer of Tau-
ber be well served by this collection, but 
also the historian of the era covered by his 
work will find in it sources for a study of 
what was considered important and why 
it was thought to be so. Further studies by 



232 j College & Research Libraries • May 1975 

unobtrusive measures, such as citation 
studies and more refined methods yet to be 
discovered, will indicate both the inBu-
ence of Tauber upon his contemporaries 
and the status of library operations of vari-
ous types in the period covered. 

Finally, one trusts that his biobibliogra-
phy will not mean that Tauber's work has 
come to an end. There is still much to be 
done, particularly in the improvement of 
survey methods towards more objectivity, 
better measurement activity, and less ob-
trusiveness in the surveyors. Tauber's 
unique experience makes him an extremely 
valuable asset in aiding such future devel-
opment.-Phyllis A. Richmond, School of 
Library Science, Case Western Reserve 
University, Cleveland, Ohio. 

Maxwell, Margaret. Shaping a Library: 
William L. Clements as Collector. Am-
sterdam: Nico Israel, 1973. 364p. 
After reading Shaping a Library: William 

L. Clements as Collector by Margaret Max-
well, I decided to set it aside for a couple 
of weeks and see what came through after. 
I am afraid not a great deal, although I re-
call the physical format (and I am not look-
ing at it here) as rather ugly: the first part 
of the title in white not very clear against 
a light-tan jacket, the covers in a nonde-
script dark green, and the stitching showing 
in the pages throughout. So much for aes-
thetics. 

The book itself reads like a doctoral dis-
sertation, which I believe it was-with the 
usual earnest stance, mishmosh of purpose, 
etc. I think the problem here is a falling be-
tween several stools: biography, antiquarian 
book collecting, and room-at-the-top aca-
demic hanky-panky. I was interested to 
note that Clements was an all-American 
boy who sprouted via his father's firm and 
his own admitted industrial talent, into the 
manufacturing big-time of heavy machin-
ery. At the beginning of the book, biogra-
phy is heavy; thereafter it is spattered 
throughout, but with little relation to its 
subject as collector. 

To me, the academic jockeying over the 
true research value of the library-the col-
lector of Americana versus the "what-can-
it-do-for-my-research?'' boys in history and 

the trustee versus the university librarian 
(a very unfair match indeed) -was of con-
siderable interest. I am myself ambivalent 
in the matter of the obvious monetary and 
bibliographical value of rare books and 
manuscripts as contrasted to the evident re-
search worth of aesthetically drab and rela-
tively inexpensive photographic reproduc-
tions of such material. My own feeling is 
that any collector, and Clements was indis-
putably one of the greats, has the absolute 
right to spend his money as he pleases, just 
as he has a right to build what he fancies 
to house his collection. What the value of 
a collection of rare Americana as source 
material for research may be over the long 
haul is another matter. Maxwell speaks of 
rivers, I believe, of written research pour-
ing forth from the Clements Library, and 
I would have liked to see some current use, 
research, and acquisitions figures. That the 
Clements Library structure provides shelter 
and its contents titillation for visiting lu-
minaries and, I presume, eminent Michi-
ganders seems largely unrelated to scholar-
ly endeavor and perhaps a sign of the de-
cay of the times. 

I think Clements' insistence upon the 
proper use and treatment of his library is 
admirable, as is his creation of the kind of 
library housing that appears less and less 
frequently in this age of multimedia and 
hardware. But, then, I am not sure that the 
tone and ardor of his collecting really live 
in the book in hand. However, few great 
bookmen have been so fortunate in mem-
ory as Dr. Rosenbach, who buys, plots, and 
lives in every page of Wolf and Fleming's 
fine biography. 

What do we have if we ask the following 
routine questions: ( 1) What is the author 
trying to do? ( 2) How well does she do it? 
( 3) Is it worth doing? Certainly Clements 
as a collector and, really, librarian is worth 
study; and this is done passably. All in all, 
then, the book seems a not unworthwhile 
effort to treat a subject that commands 
some attention. Bibliographically, the pre-
sentation is not very sturdy; but the book 
itself is well researched. Biographically, the 
strokes at portrayal are determined but not 
particularly effective. However, the aca-
demic background which sets off collector