College and Research Libraries


432 I College & Research Libraries • September 1977 

Public Library on the Occasion of the 
Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Estab-
lishment of the Jewish Division of the 
New York Public Library. Selected and 
with a preface by Charles Berlin. New 
York: New York Public Library and Ktav 
Publishing House, 1976. 518p. $35.00. 
LC 72-12075. ISBN 0-87068-204-0; 
0-87104-515-X, NYPL. 
The expanded title gives-in a nutshell 

-all the important facts of this publica-
tion. All of the reprinted articles and works 
have some bearing on the Jewish Division, 
by authorship, subject matter, or source, the 
majority having been reprinted from the 
New York Public Library Bulletin. 

Among the articles selected are such 
classics in Hebrew printing history as 
Joshua Bloch's "Early Hebrew Printing in 
Spain and Portugal," "Venetian Printers of 
Hebrew Books," "Hebrew Printing in Riva 
di Trento," "Hebrew Printing in Naples," 
and "The Library's Roman Hebrew In-
cunabula." 

Other authors represented are Isaiah 
Sonne with his article on the nonconverted 
Jews behind the expurgation of Hebrew 
books, Abraham Berger ·with his account 
of the Jewish Division and its work, and 
Aron Freimann with the "Gazetteer of He-
brew Printing," now very much in need of 
revision. The omissions and outdated in-
formation m·e most felt in this tatter item. 
Not only must the list of places which used 
Hebrew printing be expanded (it is hardly 
conceivable that Jewish communities in, let 
us say, a city of the size and importance of 
Marseilles have not utilised Hebrew type, 
even up to 1946 when the gazetteer was 
first revised and published separately), but 
also the information furnished can stand 
correction, sometimes with little effort. 
Thus, a brief examination of the editions 
of Bernhard von Breydenbach Peregrina-
tiones in T erram Sanctam proves that the 
earliest date of a Speyer edition to contain 
a Hebrew alphabet is not November 24, 
1502, but rather July 29, 1490. Similarly, 
examination of early cognate materials of-
ten leads to unsuspected Hebrew printing. 
Thus in Spey' s Epistola Pauli ad Galatas 
(Heidelberg: M ylius, 1583) one finds Rab-
binic type used on title page and passim, 
which documents the usage of Hebrew type 

in Heidelberg four years before the Biblia 
Sacra Hebraice, Graece, et Latine of 1587, 
which in the author's own words was "prob-
ably non-existent." Other statements, such 
as "probably contains Hebrew type as in 
later editions," are in need of attention. It 
should not be too difficult with the aid of 
the readily available short title catalog films 
to clear up questionable entries for this 
period. 

Mention should also be made of the re-
production in this work of the exhibition 
catalog, "The People and the Book," on 
Jewish life in America, the illustrations of 
which are poorly reproduced, and Joshua 
Bloch's classification schedule peculiar to 
the New York Public Library which may 
be of interest to the user. 

In general, the work is valuable because 
it brings together in one volume materials 
of interest to the bibliographer and other 
interested individuals who may not have 
easy access to it otherwise. It is a fitting 
memorial to the library and its staff, espe-
cially Joshua Bloch, who headed the Jewish 
Division for more than a quarter of a cen-
tury.-Miroslav Krek, Brandeis University 
Library. 

Marchant, Maurice P. Participative Man-
agement in Academic Libraries. Contri-
butions in Librarianship and Information 
Science, Number 16. Westport, Conn.: 
Greenwood Press, 1976. 260p. $17.50. 
LC 76-8740. ISBN 0-8371-8935-7. 

Maurice P. Marchant identifies two spe-
cific objectives for this book. First, it at-
tempts to "test the application of participa-
tive management theory to academic 
libraries." Second, it is "a pioneer work in 
the construction of a mathematical model 
of an academic library [which] can be used 
for future decision-making and planning." 

With regard to Professor Marchant's first 
objective, one may legitimately turn to 
chapters 6-10, which Edward Holley's 
foreword describes as "the heart of the 
book." In two of these chapters (those deal-
ing with planning and circulation) Profes-
sor Marchant concludes that no relationship 
can be found between management style 
and effectiveness in either activity. His 
analysis of staff satisfaction concludes that 
it is "a function of many things," including 



management style-"provided the relations 
are really causal." With regard to uniform-
ity of evaluation, he notes that "support 
was found for the hypothesis that partici-
pative management helps to unify staff ap-
praisal of the library, but the evidence is 
weak." In the extended analysis of "library 
evaluation," a relationship is found-par-
ticularly in the perception of library staff-
between library effectiveness and staff satis-
faction (e.g., participation). After eigh~y­
one pages of analysis and explanation, all 
based upon data collected by questionnaires 
from librarians, faculty, and library admin-
istrators at twenty-two universities, one is 
inclined to wonder as to just what has been 
proved. 

To a reader such as myself, who is un-
versed in mathematical analysis and model 
building, the analytical model that is de-
veloped in the book seems certainly com-
plex and possibly impressive. When 
evaluated against the author's findings, 
however, one wonders again. Do we really 
need control variables, profiles of organiza-
tional characteristics, systems scales, inter-

Recent. Publications I 433 

vals, causal interference rationale, and 
correlation and regression analysis to tell 
us that staff morale is important for an ef-
fective and productive academic library 
or that the involvement of librarians in the 
professional decisions that are made within 
such a library is going to produce better 
decisions? If these principles aren't evident 
from our experience, they are exceedingly 
well presented in at least a score of con-
temporary management texts which are 
readily available in any academic library. 

The problem of applying such concepts 
within a practical library situation is not the 
need to establish their validity, but the high 
degree of skill that is required to utilize 
them most effectively within an extremely 
complex environment. Quite frankly, Partic-
ipative Management in Academic Libraries 
is little help here. Indeed, the view of the 
academic library that underlies this book 
is oversimplified and grossly distorted. 
There are the "good guys" (the oppressed 
staff) and the "bad guys" (the adminis-
trators). If the former can be freed from 
their bonds and the latter enlightened, the 

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434 I College & Research Libraries • September 1977 

library will generate trust, confidence, and 
high productivity and disagreements will be 
"openly and candidly discussed without 
rancor." Such a vision is consonant with 
analysis that confuses delegation-a basic 
hierarchical mechanism-with group de-
cision making and professional collegiality 
with participatory management. It is also 
consonant with a vocabulary filled with "in-
puts," "outputs," "throughputs," and "feed-
back," as well as one which utilizes the des-
ignation "professional librarian." 

Participative Management in Academic 
Libraries has a strong messianic tone, as 
though its author had accepted the mission 
of leading us out of darkness and into light. 
Alas, its result is to add to the darkness by 
muddling and distorting the situation it at-
tempts to analyze and explain.-Eldred 
Smith, Director of Libraries, University of 
Minnesota. 

Robinson, Thomas E. The Teacher: Key to 
Library-Centered Instruction. Learning 
for Living Series. Norman, Okla.: The 
Library-College Associates, Inc., 1976. 
104p. $5.00. LC 76-40059. ISBN 0-
9177706-01-3. 

Schuster, Marie. The Library-Centered Ap-
proach to Learning. Palm Springs, Calif.: 
ETC Publications, 1977. 112p. $8.95. LC 
76-54328. ISBN 0-88280-047-7. 

While both of these books espouse the 
concept of the library-college, they are sig-
nificantly different in coverage. The Robin-
son book is the first of a series to be pub-
lished twice annually by the Library Col-
lege Associates, so after a very brief discus-
sion of the library-college concept and its 
jargon it concentrates on the "teacher." 
"Teacher" in this case is defined broadly 
and encompasses both classroom teachers 
at all levels and librarians at all levels. The 
Schuster book on the other hand tries to 
cover the whole library-college concept and 
its application especially at the elementary 
and junior high level. 
_ The Teacher, while philosophically ded-

icated to the importance of the library in 
any educational system, admits that the li-
brary cannot on its own initiative forcibly 
penetrate and invade the teacher's planned 
procedures. This is a fact of life to which 
any librarian who has tried can attest. 

Without the support and cooperation of the 
classroom teacher, any program of library-
college, library instruction, or bibliographic 
instruction will achieve only marginal suc-
cesses. While libraries or librarians cannot 
forcibly penetrate the classroom, many have 
taken leadership roles and have implement-
ed successful programs both in and out of 
the classroom. 

Unfortunately, this book does not discuss 
any strategies or tactics for libraries to fol-
low if they want to help implement the li-
brary-college concept. A full half of tlie· 
book discusses ways of carrying out the 
concept, but it begins with several class-
room teachers already convinced of the · 
worth of the .idea. For librarians with access 
to receptive teaching departments this sec-
tion does contain many useful methods of 
incorporating the library into the classroom, 
but for the librarian struggling with a re-
calcitrant teaching faculty it is of little use. 

The Schuster book comes very close to 
the genre of inspirational writing. The big-
gest flaw of the book is its failure to recog- · 
nize the multiplicity of ways the library-
college concept can be carried out. It 
presents independent study as the modus 
operandi. We are told that learners respond 
differently to different forms of media and 
that all forms of media should be made 
available to the learners. What we are not 
told in this book-but research is showing 
-is that not every learner can cope with 
independent study. Studies of PSI (Person-
al Systems of Instruction) have shown that -
some students want and need a very rigid, 
highly structured method of instruction. 
This book would have been of more use 
had it gone beyond just one teaching meth-
od.-Benedict La Bue, Reference/ Bibliog-
rapher, University of Colorado, Boul.der. 

Eighteenth-Century English Books, Con-
sidered by Librarians and Booksellers, 
Bibliographers and Collectors. Proceed-
ings of a Conference Held at San Fran-
cisco, June 25-28, 1975. Chicago:· Associ-
ation of College and Research Libraries, 
1976. 97p. $5.00 (payment must accom-
pany order) . 

As a participant in the conference record-
ed in these Proceedings, I am delighted to 
have this record of the ten papers there