reviews


 

 

198 College & Research Libraries March 1996 

my own memories of what I think was a 
period of incredible change in our field 
and our society.

 I got what I wanted from 
Eshelman—and more. It was more in­
teresting and more accessible than 
other memoirs with which I have 
struggled. Indeed, this one was fun. I 
again was exhilarated by the battles: for 
racially integrated libraries and library 
service (there were still segregated li­
braries in our lifetime!), for a more open 
and democratic ALA, for principle tem­
pered and hardened by ideological unity. 
I found the victories and defeats, plus a 
more mellow Bill Eshelman, still stand­
ing firm, still cranky, and still perturbed, 
still seeing every event of a lifetime 
through the lens of his stalwart, un­
swerving adherence to a humane paci­
fism and progressive politics, but it is a 
quieter, more circumspect view than I 
expected. 

Insights are abundant. Get the true 
inside view of the struggle of academic 
libraries, those institutions within insti­
tutions, to deal with campus activism, 
dissent, and downright revolutionary 
upheaval in the now revised-beyond­
recognition 1960s. Review that earlier 
struggle between the then young turks 
of ALA’s social responsibility movement 
and the older purists of the intellectual 
freedom establishment over that nasty 
piece of work, the ALA film The Speaker. 
Read the story of the decline and tragic 
death of the Wilson Library Bulletin from 
its most angry editor, who was refused 
an editorial page in what may have been 
the worst compromise in his career (it 
was restored for all three of his succes­
sors, but no one knows the rules by 
which they were forced to abide). Then 
ponder the inside look at the workings 
of the H. W. Wilson Company during 
the long period when it was run by be­
nevolent despots. 

Equally revealing are the characters 
when viewed through the old editor’s 
eyes. See the young and mature Bob 

Wedgeworth, the mentors Eric Moon, 
Larry Powell and Bob Vosper. Enjoy, too, 
the friends—from the Drinnons to Ward 
Ritchie to Ben Bagdikian, Zoia Horn, and 
many more. You get a new look, an 
insider’s closeup of many of the people 
who shaped modern librarianship, and 
you can tell the good guys from the bad, 
though sometimes even their absence 
is an obvious comment. 

There is rich historic ore to be mined 
in Eshelman’s memoir. He tells it mod­
estly, albeit with an occasional boast, 
and more quietly than I would have ex­
pected. He tells it truthfully too, and that 
makes the memoir a must read for any 
library historian of the period. Despite 
the shallow review you may have seen 
in the June 15 Library Journal, Eshelman’s 
book deserves a far better critique than 
to be written off as “nostalgic.” It gives 
you a living view of the people and 
events of the last half century of 
librarianship, a period in which, as Eric 
Moon puts it in the work’s foreword, the 
“principles and philosophies of the pro­
fession” were tempered and hardened. 
Eshelman, who was a major participant 
in that work, provides a unique memoir 
of that work, and the people who made 
it happen.—John Berry, Library Journal. 

Kaser, David. The Evolution of the Ameri­
can Academic Library Building. Lanham, 
Md.: Scarecrow, 1997. 208p. $36 alk. 
paper (ISBN 0-8108-3219-4). LC 96­
36032. 

One of the foremost authorities on plan­
ning and building academic libraries has 
provided us with a concise, lucid, and 
well-researched history of the way that 
American academic libraries have 
evolved from the one-room facilities of 
the eighteenth and early nineteenth 
centuries to the large and complex 
structures characteristic of the twenti­
eth century. In doing so, he offers a use­
ful antidote to the nostalgia for certain 
styles by reminding us why they are 
less practical than contemporary modu­



Book Reviews 199 

lar designs. 
Drawing on a wealth of sources, 

Kaser begins with some background in­
formation about the earliest means of 
housing college library collections (a 
bedroom in the house of the University 
of North Carolina’s president is one of 
the more intriguing) and then traces the 
development of academic library build­
ings from 1840, when the first academic 
library building was opened at South 
Carolina College (now the University of 
South Carolina), to the present. He di­
vides the evolution of academic library 
buildings into four periods: 1840–1875 
(single-function book halls), 1875–1910 
(multipartitioned structures), 1910–1945 
(fixed-function buildings with multitier 
stacks), and 1945–present (modular inte­
gration of book and reader spaces). This 
analysis offers an interesting and more 
detailed division than previous ones by 
Helen Reynolds and Jerrold Orne. Writ­
ing in College & Research Libraries in April 
1953, Reynolds identified three periods 
based on campuswide architectural 
planning: the Romanesque period, the 
eclectic, and the modern. Her survey 
did not include anything after 1939. 
Orne’s division appeared in College & 
Research Libraries in July 1976 and was 
based on library planning alone. He re­
ferred to the period before 1900 as 
“primitive” and that of 1900–1945 as 
“evolutionary.” Orne did not attach a 
label to the post-1945 era but stated that 
“most developments in library planning 
have resulted more from increased 
numbers and size, than from changes 
in function.” For Kaser, however, what 
is most important in the contemporary 
period is the development of the modu­
lar academic library building design, a 
design that has proven admirably suited 
to dealing with both increasing size and 
changing functions. Thus, for Kaser, the 
modular library building is the high-wa­
ter mark of American academic library 
building design. 

The concept of modular library space 

dates back to the pioneering work of 
stack manufacturer Angus Snead 
Macdonald in the 1930s. Kaser argues 
that despite the success of modular li­
braries, after about 1960 many archi­
tects and university administrators be­
gan turning away from the boxlike 
structures that had proven to be so cost-
effective and efficient in function: Con­
torted shapes, unusual textures, artis­
tic license, emphasis on effect, revul­
sion against constraint and discipline, 
return to tradition (or what was per­
ceived as traditional) or to nature (or 
what was perceived as natural) all be­
gan showing up with increasing fre­
quency in new library buildings. As a 
result, the simple modular planning so 
consistent with classic theories of de­
sign, and so much appreciated by librar­
ians, became unfashionable. These ro­
mantic elements also were partially re­
sponsible for the rapid increase in build­
ing costs during the period. Boxes were, 
and are, simply cheaper to build than 
more complex containers. Modular 
buildings may be boring, but they also 
are functionally flexible and better 
suited to adapting to unforeseen new 
services, technologies and user expec­
tations than are their more imaginative 
counterparts. Perhaps the modular de­
sign will therefore be the dominant ap­
proach to creating new academic librar­
ies in the twenty-first century. Although 
Kaser does not draw such an unequivo­
cal conclusion, it is clear that he sees 
nothing on the horizon likely to be more 
suitable. In his concluding chapter, he 
touches on various means by which in­
stitutions have tried to address library 
storage challenges besides erecting 
new buildings, such as adding to exist­
ing libraries, compaction of materials, 
cooperative collecting and lending 
agreements, and the use of non-Codex 
formats such as microforms and elec­
tronic texts. For the most part, this sec­
tion is descriptive and in keeping with 
the overall approach of the book—it is 



 

200 College & Research Libraries March 1996 

only in Kaser ’s discussion of modular 
versus other academic library building 
designs that he adopts a prescriptive 
stance. In an appendix, he has listed 
chronologically all the American aca­
demic library buildings constructed 
since 1840 that he has been able to iden­
tify. Several plates and drawings illus­
trate various typical internal and exter­
nal designs. There is a good index, and 
because Kaser’s use of technical archi­
tectural terms is rare and always in a 
context enabling the reader to discern 
their meaning, the lack of a glossary is 
not a problem. Recommended for librar­
ies with architecture or library history 
collections.—W. Bede Mitchell, Appala­
chian State University, Boone, North Caro­
lina. 

Libraries & Philanthropy: Proceedings 
of Library History Seminar IX. Ed. 
Donald G. Davis Jr. Austin, Tex.: 
Graduate School of Library and In­
formation Science, Univ. of Texas, 
1996. 548p. $27.50 acid-free paper 
(ISBN 0-938729-03-09). LC 96-078192. 

This work contains a collection of pa­
pers presented at the Library History 
Seminar IX, “Libraries and Philan­
thropy,” held at the University of Ala­
bama in the spring of 1995. This com­
prehensive collection covers topics on 
library philanthropy from the times of 
Ancient Greece and Rome to modern 
Europe, India, and the United States. 
Greatest emphasis is given to the indi­
viduals, communities, and organiza­
tions responsible for the birth and evo­
lution of library philanthropy. The 
authors of the papers presented during 
the plenary sessions provide a histori­
cal overview of public libraries as play­
ing a key role in the development of 
American civil society. They also ex­
plore the origins and implications of pub­
lic funding in which nonprofit, nongov­
ernmental, and philanthropic agencies 
played a significant part in the develop­
ment of libraries. 

In addition to funding library build­
ings and library collections, many bene­
factors offered funding for library ser­
vices and research. Groups committed 
to addressing the problems of libraries, 
such as the Council on Library Re­
sources, were funded by the Ford Foun­
dation. In the 1950s, the Ford Founda­
tion became the sponsor of the Massa­
chusetts Institute of Technology’s 
Project INTREX. Even though INTREX 
became a project for developing ap­
plied technology rather than focusing 
on information research to help librar­
ies, it produced motivated staff and stu­
dents who influenced trends in the li­
brary world. A majority of authors such 
as Mary B. Haskell, Ann Curry, Paula D. 
Watson, Maxine K. Rochester, Nicoletta 
M. Hary, Wayne A. Wiegand, Nancy 
Becker Johnson, Peggy Sullivan, Rob­
ert Sidney Martin, and Orvin Lee Shiflett 
focused on private benefactors. 

The philosophical issues that moti­
vated private benefactors to donate 
money to libraries varied: Andrew 
Carnegie saw his library program as a 
gift to all society for improvement and 
enlightenment; Phoebe Hearst, on the 
other hand, considered her library phi­
lanthropies as gifts returned to the com­
munities; and the Rockefellers were able 
to see “the big picture” of which librar­
ies were a part along with other institu­
tions and museums. They also contrib­
uted to library buildings and collections 
abroad such as in Japan and Switzer­
land with the incentive to promote bet­
ter relations between the United States 
and these countries. Although many of 
the women philanthropists were un­
likely to have had formal education, 
their strong interests in reading and lit­
erature motivated them to contribute 
to libraries. Their commitment to library 
philanthropy also was related to those 
other aspects of their lives that contrib­
uted to their progress toward financial, 
political, and social independence. In 
her essay “ALA Youth Services Librar­