College and Research Libraries


used alone as a textbook for materials selec-
tion classes, as too much is omitted or dealt 
with in summary fashion; used in conjunc-
tion with other materials, however, it could 
be a valuable contribution to the literature 
of library materials selection.-Cathleen C. 
Flanagan, University of Utah, Salt Lake 
City. 

The College Library: A Collection of Es-
says. Edited by George Jefferson and G . 
C. K. Smith-Burnett. London: Clive 
Bingley; Hamden , Conn .: Linnet Books, 
1978. 208p . $12.50. LC 78-5945. ISBN 
0-85157-252-9 Bingley; 0-208-01665-1 
Linnet. 
Is a "college" library a unique combina-

tion of resources and services, or is it like 
any other library of similar size forming part 
of an educational institution? The question 
is not posed by the authors of the nine es-
says in this volume, but the libraries they 
describe do belong to a special class. They 
are libraries in colleges of higher education, 
polytechnics, and junior colleges mainly in 
Great Britain . · 

Their closest counterparts on this conti-
nent are to be found in our community col-
leges and junior colleges. Most of these in-
stitutions offer a wide variety of programs to 
a heavy concentration of students who are 
served by a library of core materials, which-
usually contains a high proportion of au-
diovisual material in relation to its holdings 
of the more conventional book stock. 

Although the essays contain many refer-
ences to the North American situation, and 
the last essay is by a member of the staff of 
·a Canadian university library who discusses 
the cooperative programs made possible by 
automation-OCLC , BALLOTS, UTLAS, 
among others-most pages are devoted to 
the growth of the_ college library in Britain 
during the past two decades . 

There is a long essay on the history of the 
college library and others on financing, or-
ganizing, and staffing and on the services 
and training such libraries provide. The 
most interesting essays for the North 
American reader are those devoted to or-
ganizational structure and to staffing. Many 
of the problems defined have a familiar 
ring, and the solutions, though seldom new, 
are refreshingly stated. 

Recent Publications I 71 

The essays are consistent and well writ-
ten, and the emphasis on the British scene 
should present no serious problem for most 
North American readers. There is one an-
noying feature: the rather too g~nerous use 
of acronyms in some essays, which requires 
frequent scurrying to the list in the front of 
the book in order to identify the organiza-
tion or group being discussed. The problem 
is doubtless greater for the North American 
reader, since many of the organizations are 
British and Australian and not commonly re-
ferred to in our library literature. 

The book is essentially factual and de-
scriptive and does not invite much argu-
ment . Each essay is well documented and 
provides a useful bibliography that the 
editors have conveniently left at the end of 
each section. The work is carefully edited, 
only a few minor typographical errors hav-
ing been missed. 

In spite of its positive features , the book 
is not likely to command a wide readership 
in North America. It is mainly useful for the 
student of recent library history or of com-
parativt librarianship and for the beginning 
librarian in a community or junior college. 
-Dorothy F . Thomson , University of Ot-
tawa. 

Larsgaard, Mary . Map Librarianship: An 
Introduction. Library Science Text Se-
ries. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlim-
ited , 1978. 330p. $17.50 U . S . and 
Canada; $21 elsewhere. LC 77-28821. 
ISBN 0-87287-182-7. 
Mary Larsgaard's Map Librarianship is 

the first, and long awaited, North American 
textbook on map librarianship. Its predeces-
sor as the first textbook on the subject is 
Nichols ' Map Librarianship, reviewed in 
the January 1977 C&RL. The Nichols vol-
ume has a strong English bias and , there-
fore, more limited applications in the North 
American context. 

This new book is constructed in an un-
usual but very practical manner. It is basi-
cally a massive review of the literature, with 
footnote references in the form of author 
and date appearing directly after a state-
ment . For knowledgeable map librarians, 
this means that the sources selected as the 
basis for the theory or analysis of a topic are 
immediately apparent. For novices they