College and Research Libraries 190 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979 Campus is great-why not let librarians and their libraries help?-Dorothy Hagen Kett- ner, Fergus Falls Community College, Fergus Falls , Minnesota. Brewer, J. Gordon. The Literature of Geog- raphy: A Guide to Its Organisation and Vse. 2d ed. London: Clive Bingley; Hamden, Conn.: Linnet Books, 1978. 264p. $15. LC 78-16852. ISBN 0-85157-280-4 Bingley; 0-208-01683-X Linnet. With, it is claimed, over 400 additional en- tries more than the first (1973) edition, this second edition does deserve its own review. The format and organization of both editions are the same, as is the purpose. Brewer at- tempts to provide the student of geography with a list of those publications that will be of value to the student. He assumes no prior knowledge-even oflibrary familiarity. While slanted toward geographic themes, the chap- ter on library use could be read with profit by anyone unfamiliar with library practices. This is a beginner's book. Brewer gives brief but concise descriptions of his listed titles , which include any changes Heritage on Microfilnt Rare and out-of-print titles and documents on 35mm silver halide microfilm. • French Books before 1601 • Scandinavian Culture • 18th Century English Literature • Victorian Fiction • Literature of Folklore • Hispanic Culture Send for catalog and title information today. GENEW\L C MICROFilM OMPft\JY 100 Inman St., Cambridge, MA 02139 Tel. (617) 864-2820 over time for serially published items, and often illustrates his discussion with sample pagesJrom the major works. These two points alone make the work notable. His flow chart for a literature search and his charts depicting the structure of geographical information communication and bibliography are clear and generally useful. There is an obvious English- language bias in the selection and a bit of a bias toward British editions, though there is an effort to be international in scope . Mter giving general chapters on geograph- . ical literature in libraries, bibliographies and reference works, periodicals , and mono- graphs/textbooks/collections, Brewer breaks the subject of geography into special areas and presents individual chapters on cartobibliog- raphy , sources of statistics, governmental and international organizations' publications, the history of geography and geographic thought, techniques and methodology, physical geog- raphy, human geography, and regional geog- raphy. The index is primarily of personal/ corporate names and titles. This work should be in the main library as \;Veil as any departmental library on campus. Geography is a vital field , and any printed survey of the literature is out of date before it can be published; but , as of this writing, Brewer is reasonably current, certainly to the point of being very useful in the next several years. And , because this is a beginner's book, students from other fields can use it easily. One hopes for new editions every five or six years.-]. B. Post , Free Library of Philadel- phia. Library Conservation: Preservation in Perspective. Edited by John P. Baker and Marguerite C. Soroka. Publications in the Information Sciences. Stroudsburg, Pa.: Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross , Inc. , 1978. 459p. $45. LC 78-16133. ISBN 0-87933- 332-4. (Distributed by Academic Press, Inc., New York.) The editors of this volume intended to pub- lish a collection of articles "for librarians and others who must grapple with the complex problems of preservation and who feel ill- prepared to do so" due to lack of training and limited access to conservation writings . They chose selections to deal with the "philosophi- cal and epistemological aspects of conservation of research library materials." Baker and Soroka set themselves a difficult task. There are few introductory articles on library conservation, still fewer that concen- trate on the philosophy of preservaton. Much of the best writing on conservation philosophy is in symposium reports or is embedded in articles describing specific preservation tech- niques. A successful textbook of conservation readings would need to e~cerpt these sources and provide for them an extensive framework of introduction and clarification. The resulting volume would be a cohesive structure for guid- ing the conservation neophyte. Library Conservation does resemble such a textbook for independent conservation study. The ten topical divisions include subjects from "The Nature of Library Materials" to "The Roles of the Conservator and the Scientist." Each division begins with a two- or three-page commentary that incorporates citations for additional reading. However, the commen- taries neither elucidate the articles nor draw the selections into a unit; they chiefly explain why particular articles were chosen. There are a total of thirty-four articles to introduce all aspects of the conservation of research library materials. Four articles prove to have little or nothing to do with library conservation.• Three excerpts are peripheral and do not have supporting material to show how they relate to books. 2 The presence of six articles on "preservation microrecording" . places undue emphasis on this method of con- servation. The five selections related to bind- ing do not discuss how and why a book should be bound for permanence and durability. There is no mention of conservation as it re- lates to regular library activities, including processing, storing, and handling procedures. The decision not to include methods of prese rvation , even on an introductory basis , will leave the reader unable to cope with basic conservation questions-what to do with a crumbling book that needs to be saved rather than microfilmed; how to decide between en- capsulating and laminating a document; how to discuss preservation techniques with a con- servator when the proposed methods are new to the librarian . Certainly, the editors have included some articles that are classics. It is tempting to con- sider purchasing these materials separately. Five entire volumes from which excerpts have been taken could be purchased for half the cost of Library Conseroation. 3 In fact , a research library is apt to have most of the selections Recent Publications I 191 already available. Of the 416 pages of repro- duced information, 179 are from periodicals such as Library journal, Special Libraries, and the Encyclopedia of Library and Informa- tion Science. Only 113 pages of material are unlikely to be found in most libraries or are ·published here for the first time. The printing and proofreading of this vol- ume are poor enough to irritate the reader. Pages are either overexposed and very dark or underexposed to the point of losing small punctuation marks. Sloppy printing has caused pages to be crooked, extra marks to appear on the page, and letters or entire words to be missing. Running heads switch from one location to another, and one heading appears on the wrong article . The value of this book will have to be judged by each library. If staff members are already acquainted with conservation theory and prac- tices , they may appreciate having these arti- cles in one volume. A newcomer to the field of conservation might be better served by acquir- ing Cunha, Horton, and Winger. 4 -Catherine Asher, Indiana University, Bloomington. REFERENCES 1. D . Cockerell, "How to Judge a Binding"; B. J. Dillon, "Binding Procedures and Programs in Libraries"; M. T. Roberts, "The Library Binder"; R. H . Land , "Defense of Archives Against Human Foes." 2. W. J. Barrow, " Inks"; J. W. Waterer, .:'The Na- ture of Leather" ; M. L. Ryder, "Parchment-Its History, Manufacture and Composition." 3. Library Quarterly, vol.40, no.1 ; William J. Bar- row, Manuscripts and Documents; A. B. Veaner, The Evaluation of Micropublication ; John H. Martin , The Corning Flood (for article 31); PLA Bulletin , Nov . 1973 . 4. George and Dorothy Cunha, Conservation of Library Materials; Carolyn Horton , Cleaning and Preserving Bindings and Related Materials; Howard W. Winger and Richard D. Smith, De- terioration and Preservation of Library Mate- rials (also published as Library Quarterly , vol.40, no.1) . Victorian Periodicals: A Guide to Research. By Scott Bennett and others . Edited by J. Don Vann and Rosemary T . VanArsdel. New York: Modern Language Association, 1978. 188p. $17 cloth, $8.50 paper. LC 77- 94918. ISBN 0-87352-256-7 cloth; 0-87352-257-5 paper. Designed for scholars and librarians, this guide covers both magazines and some news-