College and Research Libraries cataloging for the college library. Frances L. Yocum, after examining her survey of ten college libraries, urges greater care in de- veloping and expanding the resources of the catalog and more attention to its interpreta- tion on the part of both library staff and faculty. She would be among the first to argue for the values inherent in this increas- ingly expensive index of the library's re- sources. In an effort to determine haw far simplified cataloging practices could con- tribute to the current demand for decreasing the cost of cataloging, Evelyn Hensel sur- veyed twenty college librari'es. She con- cludes, however, that there has been "too much attention to the problem of simplifica- tion of the details on catalog cards without having determined what simplication is de- sirable" ( p. 50). Finally Winifred A. John- son reverts to the age-old cry of the cataloger that "economies" in cataloging do not always result in economies elsewhere in the library system. The papers contributed to the Yearbook terminate with Robert B. Downs's cursory examination of the perplexing problems of library statistics, duplicate copies, pamphlets, and rare books, and Herman H. Henkle's report on the Library of Congress confer- ence on .cataloging held in Washington from Oct. 18 to Nov. 19, 1943. At these meetings there apparently was much agitation for a simpli_fication of cataloging processes that would result in a material reduction of costs, but little seems . to have been accomplished except a general expression of faith in pooling resources and intensifying cooperation. One perhaps can best summarize the cumu- lative impression of the symposium under review by saying that it is professionally wholesome to see catalogers and library ad- mm1strators alike alarmed by the increasing costs of the catalog, which are certain to in- crease if present-day procedure and meth- ods are maintained in the face of the growth and increasing complexity of book stocks. It is heartening to see this new awareness be- cause the recognition of any problem is an essential preliminary step to its solution. But these essays also testify to the degree to which the thinking of catalogers is still too strongly molded by tradition to admit of effective action in dealing with rising catalog costs. The real problem of the catalog is not one of costs but of values, and until we can view the catalog, especially the subject catalog, objectively and in its proper relation to the other bibliographical resources of the library and can say with certainty that it can accomplish with greater efficiency than any other bibliographical instrument the task which it purports to perform, then and then only can its mounting costs be justified. This is a problem which is certainly not impossible of solution, but it cannot be solved by con- ferences and armchair speculation. It is one that can be met adequately only through the united effort of practicing catalogers and the library schools; for only by research and experimentation, based on a sincere attempt , to examine all the factors involved, can the true answer be found. One scarcely needs labor the point that if libraries continue to grow as they have in the past the dictionary catalog in its present form cannot long sur- vive; and if a more effective substitute is not developed catalogers will soon discover that the house of cards which they have so pains- takingly built will come fluttering down about their ears.-] es-se H auk Sh era, chief, Prepa- rations D epartment, University of Chicago Library. Liberal Education in America Teacher in America. Jacques Barzun. Bos- ton, Little, Brown, 1945. (An Atlantic Monthly Press Book) vi, 321p. Better Colleges-Better Teachers. Russell M. Cooper, et al. [New York, Macmil- lan , 1945] viii, 167p. The Rebirth of Liberal Education. Fred B. Millett. New York, Harcourt, Brace, 1945· [xii] 179P· College librarians looking for a simple answer to all problems confronting teachers will not find it in any of these studies. There is no blueprint for the good life. Each of the books is pregnant with the complexities of our present-day culture. Recognition of these complexities should stimulate rather than frighten, should encourage rather than depress. The greatest ultimate strength of 3i2 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES a democracy might be that none of its mem- bers fits perfectly into a single rigid system, yet each man has the potentiality, latent at times, to make his own contribution. Mr. Barzun's book is many things: thoughtful, articulate, witty, and extraordi- narily readable. He turns from the "pha~­ tasmagoria of education" to concentrate upon teaching and particularly upon teaching as it is now practiced in American colleges. It is not a lost art, he says, but the regard for it is a lost tradition. You can teach subject matter. You can- not teach democracy or citizenship. This does not mean that these virtues and benefits are not connected with good teaching. "They come, not from a course, but from a teacher; not from a curriculum, but from a human soul." After discussing the benefits and faults apparent in various current teaching prac- tices-the classroom lecture, the discussion group, and the tutorial session-Mr. Barzun examines each major subject as it is now generally offered on American campuses. The book makes no claim to surveying Amer- ican education as a whole. It is concerned primarily with the author's personal experi- ence. But Mr. Bariun's experience is ex- tensive, his awareness impressive. He asks that science leave its ·ivory lab and states that the sciences are humanities and should be introduced into the curriculum as such. The classics, philosophy, and science are not only overlapping but complementary disci- plines. There are two excellent chapters on writ- ing and reading. He is continuously critical of jargon and suggests that the writer should know his own -meaning and then present it as forcibly as possible. As for the classics, he suggests that they be read before they are talked about and finds that "they are worth studying as examples of how to think, not of whdt to think." Other chapters discuss certain failings of college administrators, the dehumanizing ef- fects of the Ph.D. requirements, the educa- tion of women, adult education, Columbia College, grading systems, and "the human boy." Mr. Barzun modestly offers this book as a discussion of teaching, but his conception of teaching covers a wide range of responsi- SEPTEMBERJ 1945 bilities. The book gives us an insight into twentieth-century American culture. Accord- ing to it, an overemphasis on fact stands out as one of our difficulties. This characteristic comes close to the root of the cultural prob- lem. The inherent w~akness of all modern literacy is that it is half-baked and arrogant. "It trifles solemnly with the externals of things, neglecting even the surfaces or the handles by which a truth may be seized: it goes like a child for the false glint or striking triviality of detail." In a chapter titled "Too Little Money," ;M:r. Barzun examines the nature of bequests and the strings so frequently attached to them. Bequests should be invested in men, not in things or projects. It is this concen- tration on man, the individual, that runs through the entire volume like a leitmotiv. It offers the testament of a teacher truly conscious of his responsibility, of intelligent democratic man's awareness of the potential value of the young. There are latent poten- tialities for good in men, and the teacher worthy of his trust helps the student to recognize these potentialities and encourages him to continue making use of them in all his later life. After reading this book it is difficult not to agree with Mr. Barzun when he states that teaching in America is a twenty-four hou-r job, twelve months in the year, sabbatical leaves being provided so the teacher can have his coronary thrombosis off the campus. CooperJs Report Better Colleges-Better Teachers· is a study made by the Committee on Prepara- tion of High School Teachers in Liberal Arts Colleges of the North Central Asso- ciation of Colleges and Secondary Schools under the direction of Russell M. Cooper. The purpose of the study was to examine the curricula, instructional methods, and per- sonnel programs of the colleges in this group and then to recommend improvements. The committee studied the types of preparation afforded prospective teachers in twenty-eight representative member colleges. The report summarizes its findings. It sets forth "what individual colleges have done, how results have been achieved and especially the direc- tion in which they are moving." As the chairman, H. M. Gage, states, there is no 373 finality about the report. It is a description of an · on-going movement. The report is more than an analysis of teacher prepara- tion. In a broader sense it is a study of general college educational practices. It concerns itself with all aspects of the student's college life: the subject matter of his courses, student-teacher experiences, extracurricular opportunities, and the nature of the guidance available to the student. Methods of attacking these important problems are as numerous as the twenty- eight colleges involved. The committee made no effort to impose regulations from above. It se'rved· more as a clearinghouse for ideas, and stood ready with · suggestions and help when needed. It confined · its main effo·rts to encouraging an interested examination of present practices and in stimulating a desire for improvement in the minds of students, faculty, and , ·administrators. Its greatest contribution may be that it drew so many different colleges together for a free discus- sion of educational mores. . It i~ impossible, in a review, to describe the various activities of twenty-eight colleges in their attempts to bring added life and meaning to the student's college experience. Certain general statements are possible. The investigation shows clearly that most teachers and administrators attending the intercolle .:. giate conferences felt that personality and general edu~ational deficiencies are resp'on.:. sible for more teaching . failures than are scholarship deficiencies. It shows, too, a trend toward divisional groupings of the cur- riculum and a general movement ··away from strict departmental lines. This voluntary examination . of their edu- cational procedures by the cooperating col- leges stimulated investigations along many lines. Grading systems ,were analyzed, col- lege personnel programs reorganized, profes- sional work in teacher education reviewed, and extracurricular activities discussed and revalued. Instructional problems, frequently attacked with less zeal than that granted the curriculum, were re-examined. . Students, faculty, and graduates were given the oppor- tunity to ·offer ,criticisms and suggestions. The methods adopted to investigate these problems ·varied, but the majority of the · col- leges were pleased with ' the results. · The in- formation gathered by these colleges IS ··now analyzed and available to any interested group. The philosophy behind the committee's work makes -it clear that the new procedures in prospect are not to be allowed to faJI Into a rigid pattern resisting change. The in- v~stigatiori is intended to be a continuing effort. The fpllowing statement suggests that changes will be made as they are needed: It is ·not enough . to say that "education" is the hope of civilization. The problem is: what kind of education? Surely it must be an experi- ence specifically dedicated to the values of an eme.rging democratic society with a program clearly and effectively contributing to those ends. Millett~s Study Mr. Millett's study is based upon the as- sumption "that liberal education is being or may ' be reborn wherever the humanities ... are restored to the primary position in the college curriculum." The book resulted from an investigation suggested by David H. Stevens, director of the Humanities Division of the Rockefeller Foundation. It was Mr. Millett's purpose to examine a number of colleges and universities where experimenta- tion in the humanities· was in process. The author visited six colleges and ten universi- ties throughout the country and talked with administrators and faculty members at all of these institutions. The book is divided into five chapters. The first traces the de- cline of the humanities · in the American col- lege curriculum. Chapters two through four are concerned with experimental programs and courses now in operation, new instruc.:. tiona! techniques, and the personnel presently responsible for teaching the humanities. The final chapter discusses the fu'ture of the hu- manities and offers recommendations looking toward their vigorous rebirth. Professor Millett expresses the belief that the humanities must regain a primary place in the curriculum. Before this ·is possible those responsible for teaching them must clarify objectives. He ·realizes the complex- ity and . the obscurity of the problem but in- sists that there is one element common to the humanities-their concern with human values. There are values peculiar to the sciences and values common to the sciences and the hu- manities, but he states that "it is possible 374 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. 3.75