College and Research Libraries 594 College & Research Libraries • we debated whether to have children before our Ph.D.s, after our Ph.D.s, or not at all. • we earned tenure but burned out trying to balance our academic career and fam- ily responsibilities. • we earned tenure but sacrificed per- sonal relationships for job mobility and remained single. September 1989 • we failed to get tenure and became inde- pendent scholars. We have not "got it all." But we haven't given up, and thanks to this fine group of new titles, the odds of having it all are improving.-Susan Klingberg, Head of the Education and Social Science Library and As- sociate Professor of Library Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. BOOK REVIEWS Metcalf, Keyes DeWitt. My Harvard Li- brary Years, 1937-1955: A Sequel to Ran- dom Recollections of an Anachronism. Ed. by Edwin E. Williams. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard College Library, 1988. 285p. $25 (ISBN 0-074-59600-5). This is a year of momentous anniversa- ries: ACRL and this journal reached fifty and in Cincinnati we celebrated a century of progress. The year 1989 also marks the centennial of Keyes Metcalf's birth. Born in Elyria and educated on the playing fields of Oberlin (and in the library), this son of Ohio made an indelible mark on the profession literally throughout the coun- try. By his own reckoning, Metcalf trav- eled the equivalent of eighty times around the globe (p.206) on more than 550 con- sulting assignments after his ''retirement'' in 1955. Now, five years after his death, Metcalf is known chiefly for his work with library buildings which he distilled into his magisterial Planning Academic and Re- search Library Buildings (1965). But he was very far from one-dimensional; with the publication of My Harvard Library Years, we can appreciate more fully this indefati- gable giant of the profession. In Random Recollections of an Anachronism (1980), the first of a projected three vol- umes, Metcalf described his background and activities to 1937 when he left the New York Public Library to become director of the Harvard University Library and librar- ian of Harvard College . Related more ''quietly and plainly'' -as President Pu- sey observed of Metcalf's style (p.269)- than the sometimes rollicking first vol- ume, My Harvard Library Years stands well independently as an account of Metcalf's activities during 18 years at our largest university library. Metcalf had strong views about library administration. He believed that-all things being equal-a librarian in most cases better administers a library (p.267), and he tried to advance the preparation of librarians for administration. In explain- ing his interactions with "Three Librari- ans of Congress" (Archibald MacLeish, Luther Evans, and L. Quincy Mumford) and his own successor at Harvard, Paul Buck (former provost and dean of the fac- ulty of arts and sciences), Metcalf makes clear that for him, the correct test is that of effectiveness in particular circumstances: the right things have to be done at the right time and sometimes the person to do them is not a trained librarian. This issue still exercises us and Metcalf's admoni- tions should be considered seriously. Metcalf himself began his administra- tion by learning and then using the aca- demic context of the Harvard libraries at both personal and structural levels, and then, of course, by assembling an excep- tional staff. To meet increasing demands by users and make the most of limited fi- nances and space, Metcalf sought solu- tions chiefly through cooperation with other libraries. The theme of cooperation pervades this volume, in fact. At Harvard he feliciously labeled this ''coordinated decentralization" (p.112), a philosophy and mode of action he extended to the re- gion and nation (first by creating the New ACQUISITION PERSPECTIVES 5. Monographs in continuation and standing orders are given special atten- tion. Your first volume required and all future volumes will be delivered as soon as they become available. Write or caD lor details about our reliable standing order service to li- braries. CALL TOLL-FREE TODAY 1-800-248-1146 In Canada & Michigan CALL COLLECT (517) 849-2117 OCLC Vendor No . 17397 SAN 169-3859 ·the BBOK H USE JOBBERS SERVING UBAAAIES WITH ANY BOOK IN PAINT SINCE 1112 208 WEST CHICAGO STREET JON~SVILLE . MICHIGAN 49250 596 College & Research Libraries England Deposit Library), always trying to reduce unnecessary duplication and thereby saving money which could be used to increase the number and variety of research materials held by libraries in the United States and thus accessible to scholars. He sweated the details and cared about users, from world-renowned pro- fessors to undergraduates unable to see in the dimness of Widener Library and for whom he developed the undergraduate li- brary, Lamont. Metcalf's recollections constitute a re- source for further study of many aspects and developments in academic and re- search librarianship, ranging from men- toring and the academic context to photo- copying and building design. Conven- iently, some of these issues receive sepa- rate treatment in distinct chapters such as "Acquisitions," "The Lamont Library," ''Peru,'' and ''Library Association As- signments." One sometimes loses the thread of chronology, but this is no real obstacle. Appropriate cross-references to chapters in this volume and Random Recol- September 1989 lections prove helpful and an adequate in- dex is provided. The lack of illustrations is a disappointment; at least a map of Har- vard might have been provided in this otherwise handsome volume for which we must thank the Harvard College Li- brary. In his preface to My Harvard Library Years, Metcalf's longtime assistant and ed- itor Edwin E. Williams notes that ''there will be no third volume of recollections" (p.iv). Many of us-especially those inter- ested in administration and planning of buildings-are sorry for that. The third volume was to have covered Metcalf's years as consultant extraordinaire. How- ever, the effect of ending Metcalf's recol- lections with My Harvard Library Years is to balance and increase our appreciation of Metcalf as a complete librarian who dedi- cated his long life to serving contemporary and future scholars, building collections and facilities to house them, and forward- ing the profession. That we can all be proud of the past century of progress is due in no small part to Keyes Metcalf's ef- Let Wise-Ware Help Your Students With Biology, or Math, or Physics, or ... Choose from more than 170 MS DOS-based instructional software programs in the Wise-Ware catalog. Wise-Ware enables your campus to locate and distribute software in almost every field of study. Many packages run as Windows applications. Over 80 major institutions now belong to Wise-Ware, a primary distributor of the latest research and instructional software available for MS DOS-based microcom- puters. Campus, Individual and Class License options exist for your institution. A demonstration center with copies of each product is also available for your library or micro lab. Call 800-543-3201 For a FREE Membership Guide Wise-Ware University of Wisconsin-Madison Bitnet: wiscware@wiscmacc forts and leadership. His example is one to carry with us as we build the future.- Jonathan LeBreton, Albin 0. Kuhn Library and Gallery, University of Maryland, Balti- more County. 41"'8pecial Collections in College and Univer- sity Libraries. Comp. by Modoc Press, Inc.; with an introduction by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine B. Stern. New York: Macmillan, 1989. 639p. $90 to 12/15/89; $100 after (ISBN 0-02- 921651-6). LC 88-36849. The special collections department of any academic library is not unlike that of other divisions in its search for new ways to make its holdings better known to all readers. This is so basic a rule that it comes as somewhat of a shock to read the banal justifications and hyperbolic claims by the Macmillan editors who brought Special Collections in College and University Libraries into print. No one should deny the good purpose of such a work as this one. One suspects, however, that had the compilers been bet- ter informed of the field they were tilling, of indeed a genre of such literature previ- ously established, they would have cre- ated a basic, even classic tool, not merely the useful, if disappointing, effort in hand. In its scope statement, the claim is made that ''This volume differs from others that sail similar waters." How? Continuing, "It is not a directory of special libraries" [one would venture, however, it is], "Nor is it a listing by subject of a library's hold- ings" [although, it does just that], " ... rather, it is a compilation of detailed, de- scriptive information concerning special collections, rare books, and manuscripts to be found in the libraries of colleges and universities throughout the United States." The book, in spite of its relative length, is neither detailed, nor compre- hensive. The truly disappointing thing about this production is not so much that its claimed intentions do not hold up to scrutiny; rather, it is that the work missed a fine op- portunity in building on similar works in its area. Lee Ash's Subject Collections has now gone through many editions over a Recent Publications 597 generation, each more comprehensive than the last. Alice Schreyer's Rare Books, 1983-84, Trends, Collections, Sources is es- sential after five years. Are the National Union Catalogue, RLIN, OCLC, and the National Union Catalogue of Manuscript Col- lections so unknown to conscientious ''col- lectors, booksellers, designers, typogra- phers" to say nothing of the reference librarians and researchers, all for whom Special Collections was intended, as to ren- der them inefficient in locating institu- tional strengths? I think not. What the rare book world of ''special collections" needs today is a frequently updated-preferably annual-source of information on all libraries capable of sup- porting sustained research in the subject fields such institutions have chosen to link themselves with. The sheer size of the book world must be seriously reckoned with-it is arbitrary to consider simply col- lege and university libraries without tak- ing into account independent research li- braries such as the Newberry or the Huntington, museum library collections, natural history, technology, art, or early American historical society collections, great and humble. All of these ''public'' collections along with academic library collections form a stronger framework on which truly de- tailed, thorough scholarship necessarily depends. It is not reasonable to believe otherwise. A single volume which makes the effort to accommodate the deeper range of institutional collections will be, accordingly, a prized book. Special Collections is not without its pluses. When Macmillan creates a refer- ence source, the standard of readability is almost certainly assured. This book is no exception. One suspects that the most oft- consulted section will be the subject in- dex, and many of the descriptions are in- deed quite detailed. The fact that institutions are allowed to hold forth for pages, such as the Houghton Library at Harvard or the Beinecke at Yale, should be encouraged, but a maximum length should be estab- lished to give the work a better flow. Other institutions such as the University of Michigan in future editions should be