College and Research Libraries


Jackson, Miles M., Jr., ed. Comparative 
and International Librarianship: Essays 
on Themes and Problems. Westport, 
Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Corpora-
tion [c1970]. 307p. $13.50. Library of 
Congress Catalog Card No. 77-98710. 
SBN: 8371-3327-0. 
To the relatively small shelf of books 

on comparative librarianship one is glad to 
welcome another-and useful-addition. 
This volume, consisting of twelve essays 
edited by Miles M. Jackson, Jr., aims at 
giving us "a composite view of the prob-
lems, progress, and prospects for librarian-
ship" (p. vii), and it does offer some in-
teresting studies of certain aspects of the 
profession. Although the editor recognizes 
the difficulty of giving comprehensive 
treatment to the subject, he credits the 
compilation with a "worldwide basis," 
which, in the strict sense, it lacks. Accord-
ing to this reviewer's calculation ( re-
checked against the country entries in the 
index), none of the twelve studies deals 
with such important areas of the world 
as India, Southeast Asia, and the Far East; 
for Europe there is no mention of Italy 
(or of Sweden either) ; and all articles on 
the Western Hemisphere omit the British 
Caribbean. Granted the impossibility of full 
geographic coverage, it would have been 
interesting to see additional articles pro-
viding some discussion of these areas; per-
haps the editor planned for their inclusion, 
and they failed to materialize. 

The opening article is Louis Shores' es-
say "Comparative Librarianship: A Theo-
retical Approach," which presents some 
thoughtful reflections based on many years 
of experience. In it he offers the thesis that 
"librarianship as a profession can best im-
prove itself by comparative study" (p.4), 
but, perhaps more importantly, he pleads 
for qualitative as well as quantitative com-
parisons. The remaining eleven studies are 
distributed into four groups, corresponding 
to the traditional type-of-library division: 
public ( 3), academic ( 3), national ( 3), 
and special ( 2) (actually public and school 
libraries are grouped together in a section 
entitled "Public Libraries and Media Cen-
ters," and one of the three articles is de-
voted to the latter) . Although the authors 
hail from the Anglo-American world (eight 
from the U.S. and four from the British 

Recent Publications I 337 

Commonwealth), all have had wide ex-
perience with the areas on which they 
write, even though the lack of biographical 
information in the book prevents this from 
being clear. 

As far as range in geographic coverage 
goes, the national library fares by far the 
best, with Latin America, the U.S.S.R., and 
Africa each treated in a separate article. 
There is one essay (on classification and 
information retrieval) devoted to Europe 
and one (on special libraries and infor-
mation centers) to Southwest Asia; three 
on the U.S. and one each on Canada, Aus-
tralia, and West Africa compose the re-
maining six. Indeed the most homogeneous 
section consists of the three articles on na-
tional libraries and bibliography ( the one 
on Latin America excludes the latter topic) . 
For this reason the reader regrets the lack 
of additional essays about similar institu-
tions in Europe and Asia, especially since 
two basic sources, the Library Trends issue 
devoted to national libraries and Nation-
al Libraries: Their Problems and Prospects 
(the publication resulting from UNESCO-
sponsored symposium), appeared in 1955 
and 1960 respectively. 

While space limitations preclude the 
analysis here of individual articles, the 
three dealing with the American scene 
("Public Library Services in the Inner City," 
by Milton Byam; "School Libraries and 
Librarianship," by Carolyn Whitenack; and 
"Automation in the Academic Library in 
the United States," by Clayton Shepherd) 
-interesting essays in themselves-are, per-
haps understandably, the least internation-
al in their outlook; they make little or no 
reference to comparable situations over-
seas. 

Most articles are descriptive rather than 
evaluative or critical in tone; style natural-
ly varies from author to author, but on the 
whole is adequate, although several writers 
exhibit a tendency to throw in asides 
which, while often interesting, are not par-
ticularly germane to the topic on which 
they are writing. All studies have notes at 
the end, and most a bibliography as well. 
Although the book contains no illustrations, 
several essays present helpful statistical ta-
bles. In this connection one wonders why 
the three sets of figures drawn from The 
World of Learning and entitled "Books in 



338 I College & Research Libraries • July 1972 

the National Libraries of the U.S.S.R., La-
tin America, Africa" (p.291-93) appear 
as an Appendix; they would obviously be 
of greater utility placed with the respective 
articles. 

The index (p.295-307) appears to be 
more than adequate as far as entries under 
countries and names of specific institutions 
go, although there are a few problems-
e.g., entries under both Egypt and United 
Arab Republic, but not references to the 
same pages. The policy on entry for cities 
seems somewhat inconsistent, but the great-
est drawback, at least in this reader's view, 
lies in the topical entries. The heading for 
national libraries does not even record the 
pages for two of the three articles in the 
volume (granted that they also deal with 
bibliographies), nor does the cross refer-
ence "Special libraries. . . . See also Li-
brary and libraries; National libraries; Uni-
versity libraries" seem helpful. Moreover 
in a volume on librarianship one wonders 
what purpose the phrase "Library and li-
braries" serves. Random check of entries 
failed to disclose any blind references. 

The volume is well printed; this reviewer 
noted very few typographical errors, even 
in citations to foreign language publications. 
There were, however, a few minor incon-
sistencies of bibliographical style, probably 
due to slips in making entries submitted by 
twelve authors conform to house style. 

We are indebted to the compiler and 
publisher for making available a group of 
interesting essays-all of them worth read-
ing. And perhaps that is the best way to 
judge such a volume, for the difficulties in 
securing overall unity and comprehensive-
ness are almost insurmountable.-WiZliam 
Vernon Jackson, George Peabody College 
for Teachet·s and Vanderbilt University 

OTHER BOOKS OF INTEREST 
TO ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS 

AUen, Robert L. English Grammars and 
English Grammar. New York: Charles 
Scribner's Sons, 1972. 253p. $8.95. (74-
182808). 

Angle, Paul A., ed. The Collected Poetry 
of Abraham Lincoln. Carbondale, Ill.: 

Southern Illinois University Press, 1972. 
14p. $5.00. (76-142288). 

Arboleda-Sepulveda, and Galrao, Maria 
Jose. Directorio De Siglas En Ciencias 
Agricolas. Turrialba, Costa Rica: IICA-
CIDIA, 1971. 189p. $3.00. 

Baird, Violet M., ed. Texas Medical History 
in the Library of the University of Texas 
Southwestern Medical School. Dallas, 
TX.: University of Texas Southwestern 
Medical School, 1972. 91p. $10.00 (76-
187337). 

Basler, Roy P., comp. Lincoln's Gettysburg 
Address in Translation. Washington, 
D.C.: Library of Congress, 1972. 32p. 
$1.25. (78-39311). (ISBN 0-8444-0018-
1). 

Booz, Allen, and Hamilton, Inc. Organi-
zation and Staffing of the Libraries of 
Columbia University: A Summary of 
the Case Study. Washington, D.C.: As-
sociation of Research Libraries, 1972. 
27p. $3.00. 

The Carnegie Commission on Higher Edu-
cation. Institutional Aid; Federal Sup-
port to Colleges and Universities. New 
York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972. 
290p. $4.95. 

Covey, Alma A. Reviewing of Reference 
Books. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow 
Press, Inc., 1972. 142p. $5.00. (70-
182831). (ISBN 0-8108-0456-5). 

Dick Aliki Lafkidou. A Student's Guide 
to' British Literature. Littleton, Col.: Li-
braries Unlimited, Inc., 1972. 285p. 
$9.50. (77-189255). (ISBN 0-87287-
044-8). 

EL-HI Textbooks in :Print. New York: 
R. R. Bowker Company, 1972. 423p. 
(70-105104). (ISBN 0-8352-0513-4). 

Eyre, John, and Tonks, Peter. Computers 
& Systems: An Introduction for Librar-
ies. Hamden, Conn.: Linnet Books, 1971. 
127p. $5.75. (0-208-01073-4). 

Fielder, G., ed. Geology and Physics of 
the Moon: A Study of Some Funda-
mental Problems. New York: Elsevier 
Publishing Company, 1971. 159p. 
$25.00. (70-151736). (ISBN 0-444-
40924-6). 

From Now On . ... An Environmental Bib-
liography. St. Louis, Mo.: St. Louis 
University, 1972. 82p. 

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