College and Research Libraries


and necessary ·to con~end that tbe disciplines 
represent a scale of values, and that the 
humanities are unequivocally at the top of. 
that scale." The humanities rank as the 
highest discipline because they are concerned 
not alone with physical or social values but 
with individual and humane ones. The con-
temporary loss ·by the humanities of their 
primary position in higher education is ex-
plained by the dominant scientific and ma-
terialistic climate of the modern world, by 
t.he competition the humanities face in the 
multiplication of subject matters and depart-
ments, with the .resulting obscuration of the 
objectives of liberal education and the appli-
cation of inappropriate scientific methods to 
humanistic material as a defense against 
scientific competitors. . 

Professor Millett has harsh words . for the 
present Ph.D. regimen, with its narro,w 
specialization and its unhealthy ability to 
drain the vitality from prospective teachers. 
College administrators are criticized. for their 
failure to furnish a far-sighted, vigorous 
leadership conscious of the functions and pur-
poses of the institutions over which they pre-
side. Liberal arts education should "teach 
men and women how to ·make, not better liv-
ings, but better lives. It achieves, or attempts 
to achieve, this objective by developing, not the 
student's mechanical or technical or even or-
ganizational and managedaf capacities, · but 

his intellectual, esthetic, and spiritual powers." 
All . three of these books ~r~ well worth 

reading. Those by Professors Barzun and 
Millett especially contain pertinent material 
of interest to librarians. They both discuss 
administrative problems, the weaknesses and 
dangers of 'the present Ph.D. program, the 
menace of overspecialization, overemphasis 
on the materialistic element, and the interest 
in facts, with the consequent loss . of interest . 
in human values. These problems, related 
as they are to both instruction and research, 
are of direct interest to librarians in. all areas 
of service. Professor Barzun offers a per-
sonal reaction to certain library practices, 
and the North Central Association study 
discloses an apparent trend toward broad 
divisional groupings in the curriculum as con-
trasted to :urangement along strict depart-
mental lihes. This m~vement might very 
easily bring· with it a greater centralization 
of readers' services. 

There is one thing that all of these studies 
suggest: closer understanding and . coopera-
tion among faculty, students, and librarians 
will become more; rather than less, necessary, 
if the job · to be done is to be done adequately. 
Certainly· the college librarian will need to 
keep abreast of ·new developments in ed,uca-
tional thought.-] ohn H. Berthel~ acting li-
brarian~ Columbia College Library, New 
York City. · 

Sources on Industrial .Hygiene 
U.S. Public Health Service. Bibliography of 

lndustr.ial Hygiene 1900-1943~ a Selected 
List. . Cor:npiled by Ellen F. · Bellingham, 
J. J. Bloomfield, and Waldemar C. Drees-
sen. Public Health Bulletin No. 289. 
Washington, . 1945. 95P. 
This is a small but welcome addition to the 

literature of public health in general and 
industrial hygiene in particular. Its limita-
tions as to scope and form of entry are freely 
admitted by the compilers, but the compact-
ness and the general organization of the 
bibliography make it valuable, both as a handy 
reference tool and as an introduction to the 

- entire field of industrial hygiene. 
The years co~ered, 1900-43, with a few 

citations of the more important contributions 

'SEPTEMBER~ 1945 

appe~ring in the early part of 1944, seem 
adequate to present a picture of the field of 
industrial hygiene as we · understand the term 
today. Although the antecedents of this 
brarich of public health go back much f-arther, 
the development has been most rapid since the 
turn of the century and the significance of 
the modern conception of the term lies · almost 
entirely withi.n . the period covered by .this 
volume. 

The general utility of the ·bibliog·raphy, 
from the librarian's standpoint, is enhanced 
by a fairly complete table of contents and a 
generous sprinkling of See arid See A !so 
references.-Seymour Robh~ libr:arian~ College 

· of Physicians and Surgeons~ Columbia Uni-
versity~ New York City. 

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