College and Research Libraries


vs. "modern" typography. 
In a number of instances Mr. Bennett has 

performed a service that should surely endear 
him to librarians especially, that of putting 
valuable material into more readily available 
form. To mention but one example of this, 
Edwin Grabhorn's "The Fine ·Art of Print-
ing" is an essay about paper, ink, . type, and 
also binding that did not deserve the oblivion 
of the fifty-copy edition in which it was pub-
lished nearly twenty years ago. 

A charming feature of Books and Printing 
and a technical problem well handled is the 
setting of the volume in some twenty different 
type faces. While the· majority of the essays 
are in Janson, others are in faces selected to _ 
carry the texts of their own creators or chosen 
because of an appropriateness to the subject 
matter. Bennett adds significance to this man-
ner of handling in the final essay, his "On 
Type Faces for Books," which includes speci-
mens of and notes on each of the types used. 

The editor's accomplishment in amassing a 
rich treasury for the typophile is admirably 
complimented by designer Joseph Trautwein's 
accomplishment in providing for it a fine and 
worthy format, this being attested by the vol-
ume's selection as one of the "Top Honor 
Books" in the Chicago and Midwestern Book-
making Show and as one of the "Fifty Books 
of the Year" of the American Institute of 
Graphic Arts. 

Books and Printing deserves high recom-
mendation for library shelves and also · for 
librarians' personal collections.-:-Edward Con-
nery LathemJ Dartmouth College Library. 

The Public Librarian 
The Public Librarian. A. Report of the Public 

Library Inquiry. By Alice I. Bryan. With 
a Section on the Education of Librarians by 
Robert D. Leigh. New York: Columbia 
University Press, 1952. 474P· $6.oo. 
Public librarians have had the stimulating 

experience over the last several years of look-
ing at themselves as others see them. The 
painstaking accumulation of data by the Public 
Library Inquiry staff has produced one after 
another facet of the image that could not 
otherwise be seen. Some will say that the 
mirror is so imperfect that the image is almost 
a caricature. Few will deny the value of all 
of its parts. The Public Librarian is likely 

to produce as little conflict Of opinion as to its 
worth, accuracy, or conclusions as any in the 
series. It is noteworthy that this should be 
so., as the volume is concerned with the public 
librarian himself, with the basic questions of 
personality, training, recruitment, personnel 
practices and organization, economic status 
and individual motivation of the individual 
librarian at all levels. Because the materials 
of the book are so basic, it can be read with 
profit and interest by all members of the 
library profession whether in the public library 
field or not. . 

It is fascinating, if not vital, to know that 
most of the librarians queried would again 
choose librarianship, that they went into li-
brary work because they liked books and 
people, that male librarians rate highest on the 
career potential scale as musicians, and that 
87% read for recreation. However, it is sur-
prising and important to learn that only 5 I% 
hold A.B. or B.S. degrees. 

Parts III and IV of the Bryan book are the 
sections most likely to absorb the interest of 
college and research librarians. Here are 
handled those knotty and controversial prob-
lems of recruitment and training, selection and 
morale that are common to all types of librar-
ies large and small. We all use the same 
training institutions and, therefore, are vitally 
concerned with the way the library schools are 
doing their job. 

Administrators of the smaller libraries 
might feel that the fundamental criticisms 
that are implicit in the description of personnel 
administration do not apply to them. How 
many of them could, however, take to heart 
and act upon the suggestions for improved 
methods of selection, of internal communica-
tions, of public and staff relations and record 
keeping, especially for performance evaluation. 
The larger libraries which face these prob-
lems in a more acute form have moved for-
ward at least haltingly in the direction of 
meeting them. Multiple and secret classifica-
tion pay plans, hit or miss training, and the 
mystified and bewildered staff are not limited 
to the large, complex institutions. 

Several needs fundamental to the profession 
as a whole emerge for the thoughtful reader 
as basic. The foremost is certainly improved 
economic status. Little progress can be made 
in recruiting for the profession until librarians 
can look forward to a reasonably adequate 

398 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 

' 



financial return. Others would be a vigorous 
and sustained effort to raise both the quality 
and number of those going into the profession, 
to make the teaching of librarianship more 
attractive to promising candidates, to provide 
job information and candidate information in 
order to assure better matching of jobs and 
people, to bring the principles of sound per-
sonnel administration into operation in all 
libraries. 

Criticisms of the book limit themselves 
rather well to criticisms of the method, since 
the results are interpreted with an honesty, 
objectivity, fidelity and restraint that are a 
credit to the author. The sampling method 
was in this case so intensive, if not extensive, 
in its operation that a great deal more of ex-
pressed opinion lies behind the results than is 
customary with the sampling method. The 
safeguard of anonymity in answering the 
questionnaire should insure a high degree of 
sincerity in the reply. I for one wonder how 
many yielded to the temptations of casualness 
or flippancy behind the veil of anonymity. Not 
many I think.-Bernard Van Horne, Detroit 
Public Library. 

History of Science 
A Guide to the History of Science,· a First 

Guide for the Study of the History of 
Science with Introductory Essays on Science 
and Tradition. By George Alfred Leon 
Sarton. Waltham, Mass., Chron:ca Bo-
tanica, N.Y., Stechert-Hafner, 1952. xvu, 
316p. $7.50. 
The history of science is being studied and 

consulted more frequently by contemporary 
historians and social scientists than at any time 
since the seventeenth century. The cry that 
the scientist must become socially conscious is 
matched by the cry that the social scientist 
must know what science has done in order to 
understand what it will do. Civilization to-
day affects scientific development and in turn 
is affected by it. Hence, the librarian whether 
in a science library or in a general library will 
find a demand for and a need to know the tools 
which serve as a key to unlock the storehouse 
of knowledge concerning the heritage of mod-
ern science. 

I sis and 0 sir is are by-words in the history . 
of science. To these we can now add Horus, 
the recommended citing title of Sarton's 

OCTOBER, 1952 

"Guide to the History of Science." This new 
publication will strengthen the arm of every 
scholar and more particularly every research 
librarian. It is gratifying to note the increase 
in the number of guides to the literature of 
various subjects in the sciences. Chemistry, 
Mathematics, Physics, Zoology, Entomology, 
Geology and now the History of Science are 
well provided with guides. 

Sarton's "Guide" is in two parts. The first 
contains three introductory lectures explaining 
the purpose and meaning of the history of 
science. These make fascinating read:ng. 
The second part, entitled; "A first guide for 
the study of the history of science," is a great 
amplification of the bibliography which was 
published as an appendix to the author's 
"Study of the History of Science," Cambridge, 
1936. It includes a critical bibliography of 
works on methodology, and various types of 
reference tools; a selective list of abstracting 
and review journals (by Claudius F. Mayer); 
a directory of societies, national and interna-
tional devoted to the history of science; criti-
cal bibliographies of works on the history of 
science arranged by country and some forty-
one special branches of science; a critical list-
ing of journals and serials concerning the h:s-
tory of science (with Claudius F. Mayer); a 
section on institutes, museums, libraries, and 
a special section devoted to international con-
gresses. The annotations which are given for 
most of the publications cited are written in a 
most interesting and entertaining manner. 
For example, in speaking of a pubEcation 
which contains· a style manual as an appendix, 
Dr. Sarton notes that of the principles enumer-
ated, every student "ought to know tqem as 
well as he knows how to spell and how to 
blow his nose." 

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" 
and it is always tempting for one on the 
fringes to seize triumphantly upon and to 
belabor some minor point which seemingly 
does not measure up, but Dr. Sarton charm-
ingly disarms the reviewer by his statement on 
page 71, "Every bibliography contains errors 
by omission or by commission and at best it is 
bound to be vitiated by an irreducible mini- · 
mum of accidental arbitrariness." I cannot 
refrain, however, from pointing out that the 
citing title "Horus" which appears only at the 
head of the title page is bound to cause some 
bibliographic confusion. Neither the publish-

399