College and Research Libraries


tural Marketing Administration, the Agricul-
tural Marketing Service, the Foreign Mar-
kets Division, the Marketing and Marketing 
Agreements Division, the Marketing Services 
Office, and the Surplus Marketing Admini-
stration. Which of these shall have Market-
ing as the entry word, and in which shall the 
preceding adjective be considered of primary 
significance? All these agencies deal with 
agricultural matters, but only the first two 
have any indication of that in their titles. 
Under direct entry, the subordinate functions 
of the Department of Agriculture will be 
scattered throughout the alphabet. I hold 
no brief for the Superintendent of Documents 
classification, and my objections are on record, 
but it seems to me ·that to abandon arrange-
ment by major agency is likely to result in 
confusion worse confounded. The fact that 
under this system the entry word must in 
numerous cases be a matter of the classifier's 
choice is an added hazard, recognized indi-
rectly in Miss Markley's comments on one 
of the notation systems she describes. 

In treating of the recording procedures to 
be followed , Miss Markley describes an "all-
weather" file, devised by Dr. Raynard Swank, 
designed to include not only the customary 
bibliographical information, but to serve also 
as a serials control and binding record. Hav-
ing observed such a file in use, I am led to the 
conclusion that it is better to specialize a bit, 
in records as in provisions for the weather. 
My observation has been that the time neces-
sary to set up a separate checking file for 
currently and frequently received serials and 
a separate binding record is abundantly repaid 
in increased efficiency and time saved in lo-
cating cards for the daily routines of entering 
new acquisitions, and in the specialized pro-
cedures of binding. 

Space does not permit an adequate descrip-
tion of the very fine bibliographies that con-
clude this study, and add much to its value in 
any consideration of the difficult problems of 
organizing and servicing a collection of gov-
ernment publications. 

Miss Markley states that her study is a 
synthesis of the opinions and practices recom-
mended by numerous documents librarians. 
She has d<?ne the profession a great service in 
organizing and presenting this material, with 
a clearly stated and practical attack upon the 
problems presented. Many problems remain 

APRIL, 1952 

to be solved, and it is to be hoped that we may 
soon see more of such signs of progress as 
this one.-Ellen 1 ackson, University of 
Colorado Libraries. 

Library History 
Charles Coffin Jewett. By Joseph A. Eo-

rome. Chicago, American Library Associa-
tion, 1951, I88p. $3.50. 

The Librarians' Conference of 1853: A Chap-
ter in American Library · History. By 
George Burwell Utley. Edited by Gilbert 
H. Doane. Chicago, American Library 
Association, 1951. 18gp. $3.00. 

A profession which merits the dignity of 
being called a "profession" must have an 
abiding interest in its own past. No one need 
demonstrate that what has been is the con-
dition of the present as vitally as the present, 
in turn, provides the matrix of future develop-
ment. A doctor, a lawyer, a scientist in any 
field, or a librarian who believes that he is 
shaping knowledge or practice single-handedly 
out of amorphous present stuff has delusions 
of divine power. Few librarians so delude 
themselves; yet fewer make a conscious prac-
tice of acknowledging their debts to profes-
sional precursors. 

The American Library Association has hap-
pily taken upon itself the task of reminding 
its membership at appropriate intervals that 
history merits attention. The seventy-fifth 
birthday of the Association, celebrated last 
year, is such a reminder. The publishing of 
a Library Pioneer series as well as of other 
volumes bearing on the history of libraries 
and librarianship serves the same purpose 
well. The American Library Association de-
serves special commendation for encouraging 
the study and writing of history in a period 
like ours when doing threatens to drive learn-
ing underground; when "where does it get 
you" is so much more important than "how 
did you get that way." 

Still another welcome sign is the growing 
emphasis on writing library history from 
broad source materials rather than from a 
compound of reminiscence as has been too 
often the woeful approach in this field. 
Library "science" is presently struggling, in 
this and in many other respects, to strengthen 
its scientific foundations. One reason for this 

177 



late awakening is that education for the pro-
fession has been, and still is, largely voca-
tional; moreover, the satisfactions and re-
wards offered for such research and writing 
have been slight. Hence the neglect of a 
deeper inquiry into social and historical foun-
dations. However, were all professional 
factors favorable, there would still remain tall 
barriers standing in the way of thorough re-
search in library history and biography by 
reason of the fact that source materials are 
generally elusive and unavailable. Too few 
of our forebears, it seems, engaged in exten-
sive correspondence of the informative sort; 
very few indeed took pains to preserve such 
materials for posterity. In short, librarians 
have exhibited an abnormal collecting pro-
pensity for everything but that which per-
tains to themselves. 

Circumscribed by limiting factors like these, 
history-minded librarians up to recent times 
were inclined to venerate library heroes and 
their accomplishments rather than to describe 
the professional past accurately. Both the 
Utley and Borome books strive mightily to 
write really adequate history. Utley's 
strength is in his use of contemporary press 
accounts along with the papers of Seth Hast-
ings Grant, secretary of the 1853 conference. 
Dr. Borome, who is an historian by profes-
sion, is somewhat more successful in getting 
inside his subject via the study of personal 
and official sources, drawing also on the full 
range of materials generally depended upon 
by students of history. It is obvious that he 
has wrung his sources dry-perhaps, on occa-
sion, too dry. 

But the reader will find little cause for 
complaint in that. For Borome's Jewett 
emerges, for all his wondrous bibliothecal 
accomplishments, a man rather than a saint or 
a superman of the Wagnerian variety. 
Charles Coffin Jewett ( I8I6-I868) came to 
librarianship through the usual indirect path-
way of his time. A full, leisurely education, 
some school teaching, plus graduate study for 
the ministry at Andover Theological Seminary 
were excellent equipment for bibliographical 
pursuits. Moreover, he had on more than 
one occasion had "library" contact with books. 
As an undergraduate he had collaborated in 
the classification and cataloging of his college 
literary society's collection. At Andover, he 
was for over a year the librarian (the practice 

being to have a professor in charge of the 
library and a student to perform actual library 
functions) . 

When Brown University hired the twenty-
five year old Jewett as its first full time 
librarian at $6oo per annum, it got a capable, 
learned man whose limited experience in 
libraries rather enhanced than hindered his 
fresh, experimental approach to the profession. 
Within a few years, Brown reverted to its 
former policy of having a combination profes-
sor-librarian. Jewett was given the newly 
established chair in modern foreign languages. 
Opportunities for professional growth in this 
job were tremendous. Working under Francis 
Wayland, a college president whose library 
consciousness was of highest order, Jewett 
traveled widely on book collecting expeditions, 
visiting libraries and librarians, learning of a 
great variety of library practice while he built 
up Brown University's bibliographical re-
sources. 

This meteoric career in teaching and li-
brarianship, this fame as a bookman, a reputa-
tion for inventiveness in the manufacture of 
library catalogs-these accomplishments plus 
the friendship of several highly influential 
Washington statesmen won Jewett an invita-
tion to head the library of the newly estab-
lished Smithsonian Institution. Life in Wash-
ington was not nearly as charmed as it had 
been in Providence. Jewett had accepte.d 
the title of Assistant Secretary of the Smith-
sonian believing that, as its librarian, he 
would be an autonomous officer with a free 
hand to develop a national library. He dis-
covered to his dismay that not only was his 
position subordinate to that of the Secretary, 
Joseph Henry, but that political forces were 
shattering the dream of a national biblio-
graphical center. Jewett was not one to 
yield easily. He marshalled his forces and 
gathered his weapons-which were not always 
the cleanest-and joined battle. 

Coincidentally with the fiercest stages of the 
Smithsonian war, plans were being made by 
scholars, educators, librarians and other inter-
ested parties for a co

1

nference to discuss mat-
ters of common import to all bibliophiles. 
Jewett, then acknowledged leader of biblio-
graphical America, was, of course, consulted 
as to plans and program. His interest was 
keen. He had much to contribute. He was 
eager to "sell" his ideas on I) a union catalog, 

178 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



and 2) his stereotype process (from an entry 
established according to accepted rules) for 
keeping library catalogs up to date. More-
over, such a conference promised much by 
way of mending his shattered ego. There 
was also the possibility that the conference 
might add public support to the national 

. library idea. 
The Conference of Librarians was held in 

New York City on September 15, 16, and 17, 
1853. 1 ewett was one of eighty-two men who 
came from thirteen states to represent forty-
seven libraries and a wide variety of profes-
sions. The calibre of this meeting may be 
estimated from the fact that, as Utley points 
out, thirty of the eighty-two appear in the 
Dictionary of American Biography. A fur-
ther note of interest is that only eight of the 
thirty are listed as librarians in the occupa-
tional index of the D. A. B. It is a tribute 
to this group of the nation's literary elite that 
the promotion of popular libraries in villages, 
towns, and cities was given serious considera-
tion a hundred years ago. The word "popu-
lar," as defined for the Conference by the 
Reverend Edward Everett Hale, has retained . 
to this day the sense and standard of real u~e 
to the whole people. 

The Conference set the long term flavor 
of librarianship in several fortunate ways; 
but it also advertised a stereotype which has 
rested unfortunately on the bowed back of 
the profession. 1 ewett and his confreres 
certainly made too much of their characteriza-
tion of librarians as a quiet, unobtrusive, 
undemanding lot. This emphasis on negative 
qualities has encouraged budgeteers to disre-
gard the just claims of librarians; it has 
permitted the rest of the professional world 
to admit librarians to a family position of mere 
half brothers and half sisters; it has habitu-
ated librarians themselves to low status aspira-
tions and niggardly self esteem. 

In 1 ewett's case, these protestations of un-
aggressiveness were partly camouflage for a 
very aggressive fight he was currently waging 
against Professor Henry for a high place in 
the Smithsonian sun. Although neither Eo-
rome nor Utley presents evidence of an all 
over prepared strategy ( Borome does indicate 
that the avowedly impromptu 1 ewett came to 
the conference with a couple of well prepared 
addresses) the conference was by some strange 
force raised to a tall pitch of enthusiasm for 

APRIL, 1952 

the idea of making the Smithsonian America's 
national library. It also endorsed 1 ewett's 
·several bibliographical proposals. If com·en-
tion resolutions could steer the course of 
history, things would have gone well for 
1 ewett. The Conference added a final stroke 
to the design when it resolved to reconvene 
as a permanent body in 1854, this time in 
Washington, D.C. itself. Conceivably it was 
thought that the army of bibliographers would 
strengthen the cause by marching into the very 
battle field. 

As it happened, the second conference was 
never held. 1 ewett's troubles were at their 
peak in the summer of 1854 and the nation's 
capital was obviously too "hot" a site for a 
library convention in which 1 ewett would play 
the leading role. Luckily, the Boston Public 
Library was currently in need of a superin-
tendent to guide its expanding enterprise. 
New England stepped forward to rescue its 
son from .ignominy and temporary unemploy-
ment. Professor 1 ewett was chosen for the 
superintendency and he retired quietly, though 
not altogether gracefully, to Boston in 1855. 
A permanent library association did not come 
into being until 1876. The reasons ascribed 
by Utley and Borome are similar. 1 ewett' s 
defeat and dismissal from the Smithsonian 
deprived the librarians of leadership for a 
while; the pre-war depression was discourag-
ing to cultural activities; the Civil War left no 
disposition f.or unessential preoccupations; and 
then the confusion of the reconstruction period 
further delayed the formation of a national 
association of librarians. 

In a real sense, these two books add up to 
a significant slice of progress in librarianship 
in a period a century removed from us. In 
the realm we are now pleased to call "biblio-
graphical controls," the Conference of 1853 
discussed . the promotion of Poole's infant 
periodical index and even heard the proposal 
to index the serial publications of learned 
societies. One enterprising bibliographer felt 
that a 125-year file of leading American news-
papers could be indexed by some five workers 
in two years. 1 ewett alone, it would appear 
from Borome's story, either initiated, assimi-
lated, or built from vague beginnings the ideas 
of a dictionary catalog, of branch libraries, of 
union catalogs, and cooperative cataloging. 
He was moreover the architect of a useable 
charging system, of a code of rules for cata-

179 



loging, of principles of accurate bibliographical 
transcription, and more. Certainly it will 
enrich today's librarians to learn of some of the 
steps through which professional notions and 
practices evolved. 

Again, on the profit side, the reader will 
find in these two works much quotation of 
source materials which give depth to history 
and suggest possible lines for new research. 
The Utley work, because it was edited and 
enlarged posthumously, is open to charges of 
"padding." For instance, Jewett's presidential 
address to the conference ( p. 40-4.5) and the 
Reverend Samuel Osgood's speech on popular 
libraries (p. 50-53) both appear twice in the 
volume-once as quoted by Utley in his own 
text, and once as they appear in the proceed-
ings of the convention which the publisher 
(ALA) decided to reprint in full as an ap-
pendix (p. 131-76) .-Sidney DitzionJ College 
of the City of N ew York Library. 

Montana Survey 
Report of a Survey of the Library of M on-

tana State University for Montana State 
UniversityJ 1 anuary-M ayJ I9S I. By 
Maurice F. Tauber and Eugene H. Wil-
son. Chicago, American Library Associa-
tion, 1951. 174 p. $2.00. 
This survey,. following more or less stand-

ardized and well proven methods, is an ex-
cellent addition to a growing body of survey 
literature that has, in the past two decades, 
played an important part in strengthening . 
and improving the college and university li-
braries of America. The libraries, large and 
small, endowed and state supported, which 
have, in this way, sat for their portrait and 
undergone expert analysis and diagnosis have 
themselves been improved and bettered, in 
varying degree, but it is safe to say that the 
considerable number of surveys of recent 
years · have had influence and value far be-
yond the libraries surveyed. Through these 
studies libraries in similar categories have 
been able to see elements and factors of their 
own situation, and to profit, both from the 
comparative statistics included and the vari-
ous recommendations made. 

The Survey here under review is par-
ticularly welcome since it is the first to deal 
with the library of a smaller state university. 
It reflects, as is to be expected, both the 
peculiar problems and the dilemma of the 

libraries of these institutions. The dilemma, 
at least in the opinion of this reviewer, arises 
fr~m the fact that the average smaller state 
university spreads a relatively limited budget 
over a wide range of undergraduate and 
graduate offerings and also over professional 
schools as numerous or almost as numerous 
as in the larger and better budgeted institu-
tions. Thus Montana State University, with 
a total budget of $1,638,550 in 1950, main-
tains a · College of Arts and Sciences, and 
Schools of Pharmacy, Business, Education, 
Forestry, Journalism, Law, and Music and 
offers graduate work, at the Master's level, 
in at least twenty-four different departments. 
Obviously the library implications of this ex-
tensive program approach those of larger 
universities. 

The data gathered by the surveyors empha-
size the financial problems of the smaller 
university libraries. Over a period of twenty-
eight years the money that Montana State 
University has devoted to support of its Li-
brary has ranged from a high of 6.6 per cent 
of its tot_al funds to a low of 4.0 per cent, 
with a median of 5·3 per cent. These per-
centages are considerably above the percent-
age library expenditures in colleges and uni-
versities generally, as published in earlier 
surveys and elsewhere. The larger university 
libraries have been able -to develop strong 
library programs with lower budget percent-
ages than this. Yet the surveyors find, and 
rightly, that the Montana percentages have 
not, over the years, been sufficient to support 
the Library adequately. What this actually 
means, this reviewer believes, is that the 
standards and norms of library support, such 
as budget percentages,. and expenditures per 
student and faculty member need to be higher 
for the smaller universities than they do for 
the larger ones. Corollary to this the smaller 
institutions could be stronger and better and 
their library needs would be less burdensome 
if they would restrict themselves to fewer 
professional schools. This the western states, 
for the most part sparsely settled, have now 
recognized through the Western Governor's 
Regional Compact, cited by the Surveyors, 
for the cooperative maintenance of education 
for several of the professions. 

This reviewer has been particularly im-
pressed by- the careful and detailed analysis of 
the resources of the Library made by the sur-
veyors and their recommendations for im-

180 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES