College and Research Libraries Systems," by Stephen P. Harter; "Freedom of the Visual Arts: The Role of Govern- ments," by Yvonne Linsert Morse; "Biblio- graphical Control of Erotica," by Rebecca Dixon; "Censorship and the Performing Arts: A Review of Issues," by Barbara Con- nally Kaplan; "Censorship and the Contem- porary Cinema," by Gail Linda Robinson; and, "Censorship Research: Its Strengths, Weaknesses, Uses, and Misuses," by Richard E. McKee. As is indicated in these titles, the major portion of the hook is concerned with free- dom in the various arts. The editor's intro- duction is well worth a careful reading as is his introductory article, which provides a valuable discussion of the development of freedoms in the United States. Stephen Harter's discussion of the preservation of the privacy of the individual citizen in a world of automated data systems is a co- gent, well-written, and important chapter. The chapter on "Censorship Research" points out that insufficient scientific re- search has been done in this area. The au- thors says, "Anyone interested in under- standing the complex issue of censorship should rely only upon facts derived from careful studies. While reliance upon per- sonal convictions or opinions may he more self-satisfying, in the long run the only per- son deceived will he the one who has not closely examined the conclusions of carefully conducted studies." There is variation in the writing style in the various ,chapters, as one would expect from the different authors. However, all chapters indicate that the authors have done considerable reading and studying before they began to write. Each has given numer- ous examples and illustmtions as well as quotations from court decisions, and each has provided extensive footnotes and cita- tions from the literature. As the editor says in his introduction, the "contributors make no claims of presenting unbiased views of disputes between censors and anti-censors or between the forces of in- tolerance and the forces of freedom. The writers who have contributed to this book are resolute in their commitment to princi- ples of intellectual freedom and offer no apologies for their partiality." In the opinion of the reviewer, the book is a valuable and Recent Publications I 155 informative collection of articles. It should he helpful to librarians, to library educators, and to students who are interested in intel- lectual freedom.-Martha Boaz, Dean, School of Library Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Studies in Micropublishing, 1853-1976. Documentary Sources. Edited by Allen B. Veaner. Microform Review Series in Library Micrographics Management, no. 2. Westport, Conn.: Microform Review, Inc., 1977. 489p. $22.50. LC 77-6720. ISBN 0-913672-07-6. The aim of this anthology, as stated in the preface, is to trace the evolution of the in- tellectual aspects of micropublishing while the scope of the collection is defined by its title. In it the word "micropublishing" is used by the editor as a generic term cover- ing both original and retrospective mi- cropublishing activities, sometimes also re- ferred to as "micropublishing" and "mi- crorepublishing." Studies in Micropublishing contains fifty- one essays grouped in ten chapters, to- gether covering a time span of 123 years. Four of the articles were published origi- nally in the nineteenth century (three of them in 1850); the others, with the excep- tion of two papers published in the early 1900s, have originally appeared in print he- tween 1930 and 1970. The largest cluster of reprints was published in the 1950s (four- teen articles). The most often reprinted au- thors are Herman H. Fussier and Allen B. Veaner, each having four articles in the col- lection, and Eugene Power with three re- prints. By editorial flat, excluded from compila- tions are annual reviews of the state of the art in the micropublishing world, technical articles, reports, evaluations of equipment, and essays already included in Albert Died compilation, Microforms in Libraries: A Reader (1975). The volume is not conceived as an exclu- sive bibliography, nor is it "expected that this work will be read as a continuous chronicle; it is ,therefore hoped that repetition" -a frequent phenomenon in a collection of this kind-"will serve to rein- force" major themes developed in the vol- ume (p.xiv-xv). 156 I College & Research Libraries • March 1978 The book starts with a forword by Frances Spigai, followed by essays survey- ing the field of microforms and mi- cropublishing. Separate chapters are dedi- cated to the history of micropublishing, or- ganization, storage, durability, and use of microformats, their role in library collec- tions, national microform services, and mi- cropublishing of newspapers. The last in the collection is a group of articles that have forecast for the last forty years the future of microphotography. The collection is an important contribu- tion to library literature, and it comes to us from a truly authoritative guru in the "mi- cro" world . The list of contributors reads like a page from the who's who in the field. Names such as Maurice Tauber, Verner W. Clapp, Robert Jordan, Ralph R. Shaw, and Charles G. LaHood-to add just a few au- thors to those already mentioned in the review-are all widely recognized leaders in this emerging discipline: The editor himself is a well-known expert on the subject of mi- crographics, with experience ranging from supervision of a major university photodup- lication department many years ago to a re- cent appointment as director of a university research library. Allen Veaner is also char- ter editor of the Microform Review , an out- standing periodical in the field. The typography of the volume is attrac- tive and practically free of misprints ; this is, by now, a well-established trademark of ex- cellence of Microform Review , Inc. , the publisher of this book. The present collec- tion is part of the publisher's recently estab- lished series in library micrographics man- agement , which has already listed half a dozen other titles in this field. The price of the volume is reasonable, especially when compared with prices of other similar books published nowadays. Micropublishing ought to be of special interest to librarians. In addition to being a staple in the library, it is, as pointed out in this study, the first new medium that has been developed with direct help from li- brarians, while at the same time its continu- ing success depends heavily on the ac- ceptance of microforms by libraries. Of course, Studies in Micropublishing covers only one phase of the expanding field. Yet further studies will build on this compilation, complementing rather than re- placing it. However, micropublishing itself will not come of age until studies about it will not be just published, but micropublished. To the delight of many readers, the present an- thology can be read without the assistance of a still-clumsy microreader contraption.- Joseph Z. Nitecki, Temple University Li- braries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . Blumenthal, Joseph. The Printed Book in America. Boston, Mass. : David R. Godine, in association with the Dartmouth College Library, 1977. 250p. $30.00 LC 77-79004. ISBN 0-87923-210-2. The emphasis of this history is on printing as an art, illustrated by seventy plates dup- licating pages from books chosen by the au- thor. Most of the examples were selected from books in the Dartmouth Library col- lections. Forty-eight of them represent books published since 1890. They deal ex- clusively with letter press and with typog- raphy. Illustration draws only incidental at- tention . This is a handsome book. The author himself, long the proprietor of the distin- guished Spiral Press, did the typography. The Stinehour Press, Lunenburg, Vermont, composed and printed the text. The Meri- den Gravure Company, Meriden, Connecti- cut, engraved and printed the plates- brilliantly. In many cases the reproductions seem to outshine the originals in brightness of ink and paper. To accommodate the for- mat, of course, reductions are inevitable for many books, but the legends include origi- nal measurements. The F'rinted Book in America invites comparison to the author's 1973 guide to an exhibit of 125 books in the Pierpont Morgan Library, published in hardcover by Godine (and in softcover by the library) as The Art of the Printed Book, 1455-1955. The text, which precedes the plates in both works, is longer and more detailed in The Printed Book in America. Shining through the text is the clear evidence of the author's own participation in many of the events he de- scribes and his personal association with many of the figures he discusses. This heightens the interest, but the book far transcends the limitations of personal re-