College and Research Libraries


pers from Library History Seminar V. 
Edited by Harold Goldstein. Syracuse, 
N.Y.: Gaylord Professional Publications , 
1978. 306p. $15. LC 77-18992. ISBN 
0-915794-21-7. 
Here are fifteen fascinating essays-

originally presentations at the Fifth Library 
History Seminar , which took place in 
Philadelphia on October ~, 1976, almost 
exactly 100 years after the historic first 
meeting there of the ALA. The seminar was 
financially sponsored by Beta Phi Mu , 
which also partially funded this publication. 
Harold Goldstein of the Florida State Uni-
versity School of Library Science chaired a 
committee that planned the seminar. The 
American Library History Roundtable was 
also of assistance. 

This collection is led off by Dan Lacy's 
provocative and well-written " Liberty and 
Knowledge-Then and Now: 1776-1876-
1976," in which he presents an overview of 
the communication system of the United 
States in relation to equality and freedom in 
American society. 

C&RL readers would also be especially 
interested in Edward G . Holley's "Scholars , 
Gentle Ladies and Entrepreneurs: American 
Library Leaders, 1876-1976," David Kaser' s 
"Coffee House to Stock Exchange: A Natu-
ral History of the Reading Room ," and John 
Y. Cole's "Herbert Putnam and the National 
Library." 

Of interest also would be Doris Cruger 
Dale's "ALA and Its First 100 Years , 1876-
1976," Roger Michener's "The Contempla-
tion of the Library in America," Donald E. 
Oehlerts' " American Library Architecture 
and the World's Columbian Exposition," 
and Laurel Grotzinger's " Dewey's 'Splendid 
Women' and Their Impact on Library Edu-
cation." 

The remaining essays deal primarily with 
public libraries: Sharon C. Bonk's "Temples 
of Knowledge: A Study of H. H. Richardson 
and His Times and Small Public Library 
Architecture in Massachusetts, 186~1890," 
Raymund F. Wood's " Public Libraries in 
California: 1850-1920," John CalVin Colson's 
"The Rise of the Public Library in Wiscon-
sin, 185~1920," Robert E. Cazden's "Li-
braries in the German-American Commu-
nity and the Rise of the Public Library 
Movement," Michael Harris' "The Intellec~ 

Recent Publications I 511 

tual History of American Public Librar-
ianship," and Phyllis Dain' s " Outreach Pro-
grams in Public Libraries-How New? With 
Specific Reference to the New York Public 
Library." 

There are critical commentaries following 
the essays of Bonk, Cole, Grotzinger, Caz-
den , and Dain by William L. Williamson, 
Wayne A. Wiegand , Ellen Gay Detlefsen, 
Ellen Fain, and David L. Reich in the same 
order. 

This uniformly excellent collection of es-
says by well-known scholars is a welcome 
addition to the growing field of American li-
brary history. It belongs in every library 
that has even a modest library science col-
lection among its holdings. This handsome 
volume should also be read by librarians as 
a sampler of the rich historical heritage of 
our profession .-George S. Bobinski, State 
University of New York at Buffalo . 

"Publishing in the Third World." Philip G. 
Altbach and Keith Smith, issue editors . 
Library Trends , V.26 , no.4:449-600 
(Spring 1978). $4. (Available from: Univ . 
of Illinois Pr., Urbana, IL 61801.) 
A report of this type of publishing in the 

countries of the Third World is bound to be 
broad because of the very nature of the ge-
ographical spread inherent in the subject. 
The essays in this volume attempt to pre-
sent an up-to-date view of scholarly and 
popular publishing, production , bookselling, 
and distribution practices. One senses there 
are overriding problems facing most of the 
countries in their publishing endeavors: 
economics, technical know-how, distribution 
and marketing, literacy, and lack of demand 
for print meaia. 

The most serious problem is that of liter-
acy. However, literacy must be discussed in 
light of the question: literate in what lan-
guage(s)? Most of the publishing being done 
in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean is in the 
languages of the former colonial powers. 
But, increasingly , minority and vernacular 

. languages are being used in publishing. 
India is a good example of this ; 40 percent 
of books annually are in English. 

A key consideration in any discussion of 
publishing today is to look at other com-
munications media as a whole. Peter Gold-
ing does just this in his paper and concludes 



512 I College & Research Libraries • November 1978 

that publishing in the Third World, like 
broadcasting, "is largely run by and caters 
to urban elites whose tastes and values are 
shaped by European or American mate-
rials." 

Keith Smith and Heriberto Schiro in their 
essays probe ~ong the same vein as Golding 
when they look at publishing in Mrica and 
Latin America. They both see the situation 
mostly as discouraging, presenting a chal-
lenge to inventiveness of authors and good-
will of governments. However, the use of 
books · is basically a problem of the wider 
context of a country's cultural, political , 
economic, and social problems. 

Papers by Altback , Oyeoku , Rizk, Al-
leyne, and Mordecai are concerned with 
scholarly and educational publishing in 
Southeast Asia , Africa, Egypt, and the 
Caribbean. They conclude that much needs 
to be done to right the "lopsided develop-
ment'' in publishing scholarly and educa-
tional materials. What is called for is estab-
lishment of nation~ book councils made up 
of librarians, publishers, and booksellers to 
guide , encourage, and oversee national book 
publishing. But what is lacking is a good 
model for establishing such councils. 

G. P . M. Walker concludes in his article 
that publishing in the USSR has taken a 
slightly different turn in the past decade . 
Where national publishing is tied in with 
the ideological and economic goals of that 
nation , there is movement away from dictat-
ing "what ought to be read ." 

At best one gets glimpses of a broad sub-
ject from this work. But what is written is 
well done and goes to some extent to pre-
sent an accurate picture of the publishing 
scene . The commentaries are thoughtful and 
provide substanti~ documentation . What is 
needed is a comprehensive survey of Third 
World publishing.-Miles M. Jackson , Uni-
versity of Hawaii at Manoa , Honolulu. 

Harris , Michael H. , and Davis , Donald G. , 
Jr. American Library History: A Bibli-
ography. Foreword by Edward G. Hol-
ley. Austin: Univ. of Texas, 1978. 260p. 
$18. LC 77-25499. ISBN 0-292-70332-5. 
Michael Harris and Don~d Davis, Jr. , al-

ready well known as library historians and 
editors , have done librarianship a further 
service in producing American Library His-

tory: A Bibliography. There is no doubt 
that it will fulfill their hope of providing "li-
brarians with some guidance in their exam-
ination of the history of American librar-
ianship , while at the same time pointing the 
way for those scholars in other disciplines 
who would like to investigate one aspect or 
another of the history of library develop-
ment in this country as part of broader 
studies of American social or intellectual 
history" (p. ix). 

Indeed the book will be, by its compre-
hensiveness, the standard bibliography in its 
field, going as it does beyond books, pam-
phlets, and periodical articles to encompass 
the numerous master's and doctoral theses 
in library history and parts of larger works 
such as festschriften. Though the editors 
aimed to list only those works "written con-
sciously as library history" (p.x), they have, 
in including material from the nineteenth 
century and earlier, as well as autobiog-
raphies , bibliographies, and various other 
original works, also incidentally provided 
access to a good deal of primary source ma-
~ri~. . 

Given the 3,260 entries, it would have 
been impossible to supply annotations and 
critical comments for each, but an attempt 
to combine the enumerative with the selec-
tive approach was made in the introductions 
to the chapters. There the chapter topics 
are elucidated , major works in the field 
pointed out, and references made to 
supplementary bibliographies and other 
sources. Still, there is. the unavoidable prob-
lem for users to sort out for themselves and 
for their own purposes the useful from the 
not so useful, the good from the indifferent. 
And, given the omissions that are also in-
evitable in a work of such scope (as Edward 
Holley notes in his thoughtful "Foreword"), 
serious researchers will, as always, have to 
go beyond it to search out additional mate-
rials on their particular topics. 

The cutoff dates for the entries is 1976, 
but we are promised that access to sig-
nificant post-1976 writings will be provided 
by the continuation in the Journal of Li-
brary History of its feature " The Year's 
Work in American Library History," out of 
which this volume grew. 

The arrangement of entries into thirteen 
chapters,_ covering both general subjects and