College and Research Libraries formity in scholars' perceptions and use of information. There is nothing wrong with that reasoning, except that it deprives the book of a clear purpose or audience. Thus this book is not a guide for bibliographic neophytes on the order, say, of Carl White's Sources of Information in the Social Sci- ences because it does not consistently pre- sent the basic bibliographic materials. Nor is it an introduction to the core literature, in the style of Bert Hoselitz' Reader's Guide to the Social Sciences, because only a few of its subjects are approached in that way. It has considerable interest for information professionals as a critical evaluation of some aspects of the bibliographic apparatus of so- cial science, but this comes packaged with substantial quantities of familiar, and there- fore boring, basic description. Despite this, the book has a number of positive attributes. The division of the sub- ject matter departs from the conventional disciplinary structure to cover some areas that are generally not treated in detail in standard guides: political data archives, management research, environmental plan- ning, public administration. The British perspective offers American librarians a novel slant as well as some relatively un- familiar information. · The editor's introductory essay, "Com- munication and the Bibliographical System in the Social Sciences," starts with some stimulating observations concerning the harm done to communication by the prolif- eration of bibliographic aids and the pos- sibilities and requirements of a well- functioning bibliographic system, though it then drifts off, disappointingly, into a bland recital of the characteristics of existing pub- lications. As in this book as a whole, a chal- lenging premise falls short of fulfillment- Thelma Freides, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Sharma, Hari Krishnan. Organisation and Administration of CoUege Libraries. New Delhi: S. Chand & Co., 1977. 192p. $10.50. ISBN 0-8426-1011-1. (Distributed by Lawrence Verry, Inc., 16 Holmes Street, Mystic, CT 06355.) A manual on college librarianship in In- dia, one of few, this book deals not only with important aspects of organization and Recent Publications I 401 administration and the routines of reader and technical services but with continuing, serious problems-indigenous to India- which are discussed in some detail. To American librarians some problems, such as the lack of academic status and the difficulty of articulating library service with classroom instruction, will sound familiar. In India, however, where all too many li- brarians are still held personally accountable for book losses and where the "professor- in-charge" is still the nominal if not actual head of the college library, the librarian's struggle for recognition as a professional and for a significant measure of authority tends to compound these problems. His frank and generally effective treatment of these "tax- ing problems" suggests that Sharma is at- tempting to communicate with college ad- ministrative officials and faculty as well as practicing librarians and library science stu- dents. In one of the best chapters, the second, "Place of the Library in College Education" (p.B-23), the writer draws mainly upon comparatively recent Indian sources to make an especially lucid and convincing ar- gument for the educational role of the li- brary. "The success of the library," he writes, "is neither measured by its magni- ficent building nor by its richness . . . as by the extent and nature of exploitation of its resources" (p.14). When approaching the following chap- ters, it will be helpful to know that the usual college library in India is quite small in terms of collections, seating and work space, and staff. Collections are measured in thousands, annual expenditures for books might well be less than $2,500, and the size of the staff might range from a total of one to five or six persons. Indeed, the Univer- sity Grants Commission, which recom- mends to the government of India budget allocations for higher educational institu- tions, uses an annual book fund of 20,000 rupees (less than 2,400 U.S. dollars in June 1978) as the cut-off point for allocating staff. Among major subjects treated in the book are finance, staffing, planning, and equip- ping library buildings, book selection, tech- nical services, reference work, conservation and preservation, binding, and periodicals handling. Special emphasis is given to 408 I College & Research Libraries • September 1978 academic status and the educational pos- sibilities of the library. The tone of the writing, didactic and hor- tatory , is somewhat reminiscent of Ran- ganathan, but it is not unpleasant. One is struck by the author's serious effort-in the face of great obstacles-to improve college libraries and advance professional librar- ianship. He should be applauded . A realistic treatment of college librar- ianship in India, this book should be of interest to students and scholars of com- parative and international librarianship.- Morris A. Gelfand, Professor Emeritus , Queens College, Flushing, New York . Dibdin , Thomas Frognall . Thomas FrognaU Dibdin: Selections. Compiled and intro- duced by Victor E. Neuburg. The Great Bibliographers Series , no.3. Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow, 1978. 245p. $10. LC 77-18012. ISBN 0-8108-1077-8. Victor Neuburg's effort, "an attempt to provide an introduction to the work of a somewhat undervalued man of letters," is a commendable undertaking. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite come off. The reasons, how- ever, are not the fault of Neuburg-at least, not entirely. The problem lies with Dibdin himself, what he had to say and how he went about saying it. But Neuburg, too , cannot avoid some of the responsibility. After all , the se- ri e s of which this is the third volume is "The Great Bibliographers. " (One and two we re devoted toR. B. McKerrow and A. L. Pollard .) It appears thet the judgment of the past, which consistently has evidenced re- luctance to crown Dibdin with the mantle of greatness , has been accurate in its assess- me nt more often than not. Selections from seven of the almost two dozen bibliographical works that issued from the prolific pen of Dibdin between 1802 and 1838 are included. Few, if any, would serve to stimulate the kind of full- scale study ofT. F. D . that Neuburg hopes to encourage. The Bibliomania (1804) , perhaps his best-known work, is repre- sented, as is his Bibliophobia ( 1832), perhaps his least-known (reprinted for the first time) . So, too, is The ·Bibliographical Decameron , which, when issued originally in 1817 in three sumptuous volumes, is said to have represented the high point of Dib- din' s career. More than anything else , Dibdin was a man of and for his time-the golden age of bibliophily. He was less the biblio- grapher-not in the Fredson Bowers sense but compared with a contemporary, Brunet-and more consumed with biblio- graphical themes. His passion for books, as was that of many of his circle, was man- ifested in "large paper copies," "uncut copies, " " illustrated copies," "unique copies , " " copies printed upon vellum , " " first editions," "true editions," and "a gen- eral desire for the Black Letter." Dibdin chronicled this world. His writings both drew sustenance from it and helped to sus- tain it-although not indefinitely , as the Bibliophobia attests to. Did they do more? Did they, as Neuburg in his introduction holds, tie together the elements of book collecting, bibliography, and scholarship? Did Dibdin' s Roxburghe Club activities, his chronicling the bib- liophilic passions of the Douces and the Hebers , begin to address the uses to which rare books could be put? Perhaps. What is more likely, though , is that the Douces , the. Hebers , and others would have pursued their passions without the efforts of T. F. D. The fruits of their enthusiasm and the rewards being reaped by students and scholars of the twentieth century cannot be laid at the feet of the author of The Biblio- graphical Decameron. Dibdin reflected his times , he did not create them. Dibdin' s real contributions to bibliogra- phy might be said to be confined to his In- troduction to . . . the ... Classics (four editions published between 1802 and 1827), his Bibliotheca Spenceriana/ Althorpe Catalogues (seven voluq1es, 1814-1923), and the magnificently printed edition of Ames' Typographical Antiquities (four volumes , 181~1819). Even here, though, as William A. Jackson has pointed out, Dibdin leaves much to be desired in terms of biblio- graphical accuracy. He was something less than the " great bibliographer" the pub- lisher's series title might imply. Dibdin does deserve a place in the his- tory of bibliography-taken in its broadest sense ~ I doubt , however , that place oc- cupies so prominent a position as Neuburg