College and Research Libraries


76 College & Research Libraries 

ter fighting equipment than a thorough 
knowledge of the history and the reasons 
for the defense of freedom of the mind, 
and equally full knowledge of the dark 
purposes and deleterious activities which 
make up the history of censorship 
through the ages" (p.104). Purchase of 
this volume is recommended for library 
science collections and academic libraries 
wishing Oboler articles. 

"Censorship in the Eighties," Drexel Li-
brary Quarterly, should be purchased by 
academic libraries. The articles address a 
variety of current issues that affect our 
freedom to read, even though they are 
fairly traditional in their approach. 
Busha's introduction paints a broad pic-
ture of intellectual freedom issues (most of 
it said before) and successfully encapsu-
lates the essence of the articles that follow. 
Busha blames the New Right for most of 
the recent problems, while overlooking a 
growing tendency by the Left to reject me-
dia perceived as racially or sexually stereo-
typed. Many of the articles focus on the 
Moral Majority's role in the suppression 
of our right to read. Murray and Wood's 
article discusses the New Christian Right 
and its relationship to what the authors 
feel is an inhibition that has been inflicted 
upon our freedom of expression. By sum-
marizing agendas, methods, groups, and 
programs, the authors attempt to evaluate 
and relate the New Christian Right to cur-
rent censorship activities. Schuman con-
tinues by focusing on the Moral Majority 
and what he perceives as politically moti-
vated censorship. His thesis is that Moral 
Majority tactics obstruct the ability of pub-
lic institutions to facilitate the right of free 
inquiry and, more specifically, the right to 
read. Serebnick' s article looks at censor-
ship surveys that have been used and 
comes to the conclusion that improve-
ments need to be made and more atten-
tion paid .to the conceptualization of the 
checklist survey and how it is constructed 
and used in censorship research. 
Berninghausen' s rather scholarly ap-
proach to the history and theory behind 
intellectual freedom contrasts the policies 
and practices that have developed in our 
public libraries with library operations in 
authoritarian countries. He briefly 

January 1984 

touches upon the censorship activities of 
groups such as the Council on Interracial 
Books for Children. However, his state-
ments on ALA documents are traditional 
and outdated and can be found else-
where. Eleanore Richardson lays some 
theoretical groundwork for the upsurge of 
textbook censorship and explains why 
many people feel that this is one of the few 
places they can exert local control over the 
lives of their children. She pinpoints ob-
jectionable material found in recent text-
books and mentions several states that 
.have applied pressure on textbook pub-
lishers. Oboler briefly summarizes how 
intellectual freedom is viewed interna-
tionally. The issue concludes with yet an-
other bibliography that lists already well 
known sources, most of which were pub-
lished in the 1970s.-Susan L. Heath, Nico-
let College, Rhinelander, Wisconsin. 

Archival Forms Manual. Comp. by the 
Society of American Archivists. Chi-
cago: Society of American Archivists, 
1982. 145p. $7 to members, $10 to oth-
ers. LC 82-61142. ISBN 0-931828-53-8. 

Archives & Manuscripts: Reprography. By 
Carolyn Hoover Sung. Chicago: Society 
of American Archivists, 1982. Basic 
Manual series. 68p. $5 members/$7 oth-
ers. LC 82-50454. ISBN 0-931828-51-1. 

Evaluation of Archival Institutions. 
Comp. by Report of the Task Force on 
Institutional Evaluation. Chicago: Soci-
ety of American Archivists. 1982. 43p . 
$4 members/$5 others. ISBN 0-931828-
55-4. 
Here are three publications from the So-

ciety of American Archivists (SAA). The 
first was compiled by tDe SAA Forms 
Manual Task Force, with Patrick M. 
Quinn of Northwestern University as 
chair. In 1973 the SAA's College and Uni-
versity Archives Committee compiled a 
Forms Manual designed to be used by col-
lege and university archivists. Accord-
ingly, this Manual reproduces forms deal-
ing with (1) appraisal and disposition, (2) 
accessioning, (3) arrangement and de-
scription, (4) use, and (5) specialized items 
such as loan agreements, oral history, so-
licitation, and conservation. The forms 
come from many divergent institutions: 



Department of Archives and History, At-
lanta, Georgia; University Archives, Uni-
versity of Illinois; Records Center, Church 
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; John 
Deere and Company Archives; Nebraska 
State Archives; Weyerhaeuser Archives; 
University of Michigan, Bentley Historical 
Library; and many other institutions. 

It hardly needs to be pointed out that 
one does not have to be an archivist to find 
this Archival Fonns Manual of value. Any-
one working with manuscripts will have 
reason to use it from time to time. It is 
highly recommended to special collec-
tions and rare book librarians. 

The second item similarly will appeal to 
a wider audience. It is by Carolyn Hoover 
Sung and is titled Archives & Manuscripts: 
Reprography. By way of background, in 
1977 the National Historical Publications 
and Records Commission supported 
SAA' s publication of five manuals dealing 
with archival functions. A second series, 
also supported by NHPRC, was begun in 

· 1980; this volume is the fifth of that SAA 
Basic Manual .Series. 

Carolyn Hoover Sung was assistant 
chief of the Photoduplication Service· at 
the Library of Congress when this volume 
was written and is an acknowledged au-
thority on the subject of "reprography." 
She defines reprography as ''a wide vari-
ety of processes whose purpose is to repli-
cate documents by optical or photome-
chanical means.'' The book is divided into 
nine chapters: (1) ''Copying in Archives,'' 
(2) "Choosing a Reprographic Process," 
(3) "Microphotography," (4) "Source 
Document Microfilming,'' (5) ''Using Mi-
croforms," (6) "Photocopying," (7) 
''Photography,'' (8) ''Managing a Repro-
graphic Service," and (9) "Additional 
Sources.'' 

Clearly an authoritative work, it is rec-
ommended to anyone involved in or con-
cerned about the copying and reproduc-
tion of manuscripts. 

The third item is the Report of the Task 
Force on Institutional Evaluation of the 
SAA, titled Evaluation of Archival Institu-
tions: Services, Principles, and Guide to Self-
Study. The Council on Library Resources' 
support made possible the testing and 
publication of this report. Briefly, the SAA 

Recent Publications 77 

''offers a variety of services to assist archi-
val institutions in evaluating and improv-
ing archival programs." This publication 
''describes the constituent services of the 
program of institutional evaluation-data 
collection, self-assessment and peer re-
view.'' Included is detailed information 
on how to conduct a comprehensive self-
study, how to prepare the self-study re-
port, and how to prepare for and conduct 
a site visit. If one wishes to do an evalua-
tion of an archival operation, this publica-
tion tells one how to do it. 

One can do nothing but admire the high 
quality of the materials published by SAA 
of which the three noted above ar.e excel-
lent examples.-Clyde C. Walton, Univer-
sity of Colorado, Boulder. 

Books and Society in History. Ed. by Ken-
neth E. Carpenter .. Papers of the Associ-
ation of College and Research Libraries 
Rare Books and Manuscripts Precon-
ference, 24-28 June, 1980. New York: 
Bowker, 1983. 254p. $29.95. LC 82-
20565. ISBN 0-8352-1675-6. 
Historical studies have frequently been 

subject to fluctuations in fashion. During 
the past few decades, we have seen the 
rise and assimilation of such subdisci-
plines as family and demographic history, 
psychohistory, the history of popular cul-
ture, women's studies, quantitative 
social-scientific history, and a host of oth-
ers. Some have been attacked for their 
imaginative or speculative leaps; others 
have dealt only with the quantifiable facts 
in a quest for scientific history. All pave 
provided new perspectives on our past 
and our psyches. 

In his fascinating introduction to this 
collection of papers from the 1980 Boston 
RBMS preconference, Robert Darnton 
places histoire du livre as the present front-
runner of historical studies, "one of the 
few sectors in the human sciences where 
there is a mood of expansion and a flurry 
of fresh ideas." Happily, Kenneth Car-
penter's volume Books and Society in His-
tory provides a useful guidepost and 
weather vane to the diversity and direc-
tions of this burgeoning discipline. One 
might argue with Darn ton's claim that the 
history of the book is likely to find a place