College and Research Libraries psychological forces affecting the careers of American academic librarians. A. P. Marshall, in an article attempting to describe the role of bibliographic instruction in the academic library, has produced an in- teresting survey of the highlights of that field . If this reviewer had to make a simple, straightforward guess as to which is the most important of the articles in the book, it would have to be William Welsh's call for a fully national bibliographic data base. It is a shame that it is printed here rather than in one of the widely circulated library journals. Perhaps it can be reprinted, but it may be the basis for the emerging national biblio- graphic network. The parameters of that network will no doubt change from those hinted at by Welsh, but the fundamental question of a national and on-line and de- centralized system will most certainly be that of the future. Lester Asheim, writing about library per- sonnel in the clear and concise style that he always does, has again demonstrated both the expertise and commitment for which he is justly renowned. The conclusions he draws about the education needed for the future librarian are sound and provide an interesting delineation of three components from which one may well be able to con- struct an adequate library school cur- riculum. In an article on operations research in the academic library, Herbert Poole and Thomas Mott provide an approach to that technique of industrial engineering which seems to promise so much and delivers so little. Would that the creativity and consid- erable learning demonstrated by the authors be applied to the very basic and human problems that are the most serious in academic libraries. There is a smattering of other articles on such topics as women in academic libraries, bibliographic standards, collection develop- ment, and instructional technology that show a workmanlike approach to the prob- lems but suffer that common failure of arti- cles in festchriften-they are a little too contrived and a little too lackluster. All in all the book is not a bad one. It has some very good articles in it, and it is recom- mended to all who are interested in Recent Publications I 317 ·academic libraries.-Hugh C. Atkinson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . Basic Manual Series. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1977. 5v. $16.00. Brichford, Maynard J. Archives & Manu- scripts: Appraisal & Accessioning. 24p. LC 77-14523. Fleckner, John A. Archives & Manuscripts: Surveys. 28p. LC 77-14554. Gracy , David B., II. Archives & Manu- scripts: Arrangement & Description. 49p. LC 77-13527. Holbert, Sue E. Archives & Manuscripts: Reference & Access. 30p. LC 77-21004. Walch, Timothy G. Archives & Manu- scripts: Security. 30p. LC 77-15117. For the past forty years practitioners of the American archival craft have been en- gaged in a sustained effort to locate and define their endeavor in the broader context of establishing a distinct profession, recog- nized and accepted as such by their col- leagues in related disciplines. Caught be- tween the now firmly established profession of librarianship and the realm of academic professors of history, archivists have collec- tively suffered from both an identity crisis and an inferiority complex as they went about their quest for professional legitimacy. Despite the generation of a considerable corpus of admittedly uneven archival litera- ture, this quest has been continually con- founded by a paucity of standardized meth- odology, practice, procedure, and ter- minology-in short, precisely those attrib- utes that help serve to delineate and delimit the essence and parameters of any profes- sion. With the recent publication by the Soci- ety of American Archivists (assisted by a grant from the National Historical Publica- tions and Records Commission) of the Basic Manual Series, the still essentially em- bryonic American archival profession has taken a modest but important step toward achieving the sort of professional status that has hitherto proved to be so elusive. On a more practical plane, the five manu- als that comprise this series provide a wealth of introductory and advanced how-to information for anyone interested in the theory and practice of administering ar- 318 I College & Research Libraries • july 1978 chives and manuscripts. Professional ar- chivists and manuscripts curators, part-time and paraprofessional staff, librarians, amateurs, and novices alike will find these · manuals invaluable for acquiring knowledge of the rudiments and substance of most basic archival functions . . In each of the manuals the authors skill- fully synthesize the salient literature of the field in eminently readable prose. The re- sults should not be viewed as dogma or ab- solute truth, but rather as guidelines for practice, or theoretical frameworks for adop- tion or adaptation as warranted by each in- dividual application or special circumstance. Two manuals in the series stand out for their more universal applicability al)d par- ticularly competent authorship: Archives and Manuscripts: Appraisal and Accessioning, by Maynard J. Brichford, uni- versity archivist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is an especially well-written synthesis ,of the most important ' considerations illY0'1ved in determining which records ought to be permanently pre- served. Noting that "appraisal is the area of the great~st professional challenge to the ar- chivist" because "in an existential context the archivist bears responsibility for decid- ing which aspects of society and which spe- cific activities shall be documented in the records retained for future use," Brichford systematically elaborates upon this theme, amassing an impressive array of historical context, carefully explained evaluative criteria, clearly formulated guidelines and procedures, concrete and understandable examples, and other useful jnformation. The manual is well documented, arranged logi- cally in a meaningful sequence, and accom- panied by an excellent bibliography. Archives and Manuscripts: Arrangement and Description, by David B. Gracy II, state archivist of Texas, is the keystone of the · series, for it is only through the process of arrangement and description (the archival equivalent of classification and cataloging) that archives and manuscripts can be made accessible to a broader audience. Gracy de- signed the manual "to impart an under- standing of archival endeavor, not to pro- vide a garden path down which the naive are led in follow-the-leader style." Moreover, he suggests that the "manual will have succeeded if it clearly and concisely lays before the reader the tenets of ar- rangement and description, marks the bounds of possibility in applying those tenets, and suggests the options open for meeting the needs of archivists and archival institutions for sound, workable systems of arrangement and description." On the whole, Gracy's manual succeeds remarkably well in meeting these rather rigorously self- imposed goals. The value of this manual is further enhanced by the inclusion of a com- prehensive index that, unfortunately , the other manuals lack. One important area in which one might take issue with Gracy is his insistence upon including a rather catholic representation of various systems of arrangement and descrip- tion, rather than emphasizing one or two as more useful than others. Possibly motivated in part by a reluctance to precipitate criti- cism that might be occasioned by bruised egos, Gracy rather agnostically explains that "to promote one or two systems as being satisfactory for all situations would doom this manual to failure from the onset and would ill serve the goal of methodological harmony in our relatively young and grow- ing profession." Perhaps. But if the archival profession is to continue to mature, the de- velopment of methodological harmony is a desirable and even mandatory (if for some archivists painful and distasteful) goal that must eventually be realized. I would have preferred that Gracy had assigned more emphasis to such clearly successful and readily adaptable systems of arrangement and description as the one developed over many years of application at the State His- torical Society of Wisconsin. Such an en- dorsement, while undeniably controversial,_ would have provided a much-needed and long-overdue stimulus to the development of more standardized arrangement schemes and descriptive formats. Archives and Manuscripts: Reference and Access, by Sue E. Holbert of the State His- torical Society of Minnesota, is a straight- forward, no-nonsense, well-written, infor- mation-packed primer that deals with virtually every conceivable aspect of refer- ence service and most problems concerning access to holdings as well. In a very clear, succinct narrative Holbert addresses almost '· every possible question that those charged with providing reference service might ask. Especially helpful are those sections of her manual that pertain to the right to know and the right to privacy, restrictions, guides and finding aids, and ethics. The section devoted to copyright considerations is par- ticularly valuable. Also useful are two ap- pendixes: the Society of American Ar- chivists' "Standards for Access to Research Materials in Archival and Manuscript Re- positories" and the SAA' s "Statement on the Reproduction of Manuscripts and Archives for Reference Use." Archives and Manuscripts: Surveys, by John A. Fleckner of the State Historical So- ciety of Wisconsin, is more specialized than the other manuals. According to the author, "it examines the several uses of record sur- veys and offers instruction in carrying out a survey. Its central theme is that the records survey is a tool that enlarges the archivist's view beyond the walls of the archivist's own institution." Fleckner meticulously traces the historical evolution of the use of records surveys, defines the terms associated with such activities, enumerates the various pur- poses of surveys, pays careful attention to both planning surveys and selecting appro- priate methodologies, and summarizes the various procedures utilized in conducting surveys. Several representative forms and other helpful examples are ipcluded. Con- cise and to the point, Fleckner' s contribu- tion is. an original and definitive contribu- tion to the rather sparse and wanting litera- ture on this important archival function. Archives and Manuscripts: Security, by Timothy G. Walch, director for special pro- grams at the Society of American Archivists, contains a thorough and informative treat- ment of a matter of paramount concern to all archivists: how to deter the increasing number of rip-offs of archives and manu- scripts. Walch discusses such topics as plan- ning and implementing a security program, security and the law, and security against fires and floods. His manual, like Fleck- ner' s, represents an important contribution to the literature in ·an area in which ar- chivists have long l>een seeking substantive assistance. In summary, this five-volume basic man- ual series, available in an easily accessible Recent Publications I 319 81h-by-ll-inch format at a relatively inex- pensive price, constitutes a most welcome and valuable addition to archiv~ literature. At once it represents a progressive step in the professionalization of the archival disci- pline while serving as an invaluable tool for all those who work with archives ~d manu- scripts. As such, the volumes in this series belong on the reference shelves of all librar- ies and other institutions, organizations, governmental units, or individuals con- cerned even in the most remote or marginal manner with the administration of archives and manuscripts.-Patrick M. Quinn, Northwestern University, Evanston , Illinois. • Smith, Jessie Carney. Black Academic Li- braries and Research Collections: An His- torical Survey. Contributions in Afro- American Studies, no.34. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977. 303p. $15.00. LC 77-71857. ISBN 0-8371- 9546-2. Black institutions of higher education in America have, for the most part, been in- visible when intellectual histories have been written. Even more invisible than the col- leges and universities have been the librar- ies serving these institutions. McGrath in his 1965 study of the predominantly black colleges and universities states that the sit- ins and civil unrest of the early 1960s gave these institutions visibility. Between 1917 and 1971, studies and re- search findings relating to black academic libraries have been made available through three major surveys that were published in 1917 and 1942, a number of similar studies, and more recently surveys conducted be- tween 1965 and 1970. Jessie Carney Smith, university librarian of Nashville's Fisk Uni- versity, has written the present survey. Smith was the recipient of a Council on Library Resources "mid-career fellowship" in 1968 to undertake a detailed, in-depth analysis of library programs, facilities, and services in black colleges and universities. This study is one of the few that have dealt with the history of black institutions of higher learning and the growth, develop- ment, and status of their libraries. The news had been circulating for years that the "Smith study" was to be published, and finally it is out. It is a welcome addition to