College and Research Libraries


and changed again. Six weeks after the close 
of the fiscal year the Librarian Emeritus was 
dead. It would be grandiose to say this Report 
marks the end of an era—daily some era ends 
—but there was a concatenation of events 
that made it no ordinary year. The ten-mil-
lionth book was unceremoniously received. 
Although appropriations were $43,000 greater 
than the previous year, failure to appropriate 
for certain within-grade increases, and other 
causes, led to a net loss: instead of fourteen 
more positions, fourteen less; the small divi-
sions of European Affairs and Aeronautics 
were abandoned. Book funds were 26 per cent 
less than in 1951, but cataloging still fell be-
hind. Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, ini-
tiator of the library's system of gifts and en-
dowments, died; and Dr. Hummel, for 22 
years chief of the Orientalia Division, retired. 

It would be easy, by selection of events, to 
construct a picture of decline and incipient 
decay. Such was not the case. Rather, the post-
war cycle had run its course: indeed, the 
changing of the guard seems natural in retro-
spect. The great collection (33 million books, 
maps, pictures, etc., etc.) was there, silently 
growing; the staff (2,402) was no more than 
normally changed; the budget ($13,000,000 
expended) was still impressive. The Library 
of Congress swung quietly at dead-center 
awaiting the appointment of a new librarian. 

In recent years the Reports have been nota-
ble for some special feature as in 1953, a 
summation of Luther Evans' work at the Li-
brary. The 1954 Report reviews the collection 
in its enormous variety on the occasion of the 
ten-millionth book through the twin lenses 
of history and mode of acquisition. As though 
in preparation for later action, the varied 
bibliographic and reference services provided 
under contract with the Department of De-
fense are described in a 15-page chapter im-
portant to an understanding of the role 
played by the federal government in scientific 
research during the post-war period.—Donald 
Coney, University of California Library (Ber-
keley ). 

Audio -Visual Instruction 
Audio-Visual Instruction in Library Educa-

tion. By Irving Lieberman. New York: 
School of Library Service, Columbia Uni-
versity, 1955. 213 p. Mimeographed. $2. 

This doctoral research study is based on an 
analysis of literature in the field, a survey of 
current practice, and an experimental pro-
gram of audio-visual education at the School 
of Librarianship of the University of Cali-
fornia, and is presented primarily as a report 
to library schools. The report has as much 
significance, however, for libraries as for 
training institutions, both in its survey of 
current opinion and practice and in its rec-
ommendations. 

Lieberman summarizes the 1952 ACRL 
study of "Audio-Visual Services in Colleges 
and Universities in the United States," as 
well as reporting his own questionnaire 
study of the audio-visual programs in 29 aca-
demic institutions. The ACRL study builds a 
good picture of the possibilities in an Audio-
Visual Service Center in an academic institu-
tion. At the same time, this study underscores 
the fact that the strong academic library A-V 
program still must surmount a high philo-
sophic hurdle to reach general acceptance. 
Lieberman does not discuss the alternatives to 
the academic library A-V service, and this re-
mains for future analysis elsewhere. 

Lieberman's opinion canvass among aca-
demic librarians centers on the qualifications 
in the A-V area which library schools should 
develop in the inexperienced library school 
student. Significant here is the stress the 29 
(unnamed) academic librarians have placed 
on the staff's knowledge of sources of ma-
terials, ability to select and evaluate, organ-
ize and administer collections of films, film-
strips, slides, and phonograph recordings. 
Marked as this emphasis is in the "profile of 
demand for training," the demand by aca-
demic librarians is reported here as consistent-
ly weaker than the similar demands by school 
librarians, whose faculty members are skilled 
in the use of A-V materials for classroom use. 
The close link between curriculum methods 
and library functions underscores the chal-
lenge to academic librarians to interpret to 
faculty the potential value of A-V materials, 
Lieberman says. 

Analysis of library education in the A-V 
field finds only four library schools in 1953-54 
doing a "good" or "excellent" program. The 
overwhelming number of schools, by Lieber-
man's standards, have a "fair" or "poor" pro-
gram that includes an introductory course 
available on campus and provision of "some 

NOVEMBER, 1956 521 



integration" of instruction in A-V materials 
and their use in the basic courses. Details on 
several excellent library school A-V programs 
provide a clear picture of the desirable cur-
ricular structure for A-V instruction: a strong 
audio-visual course structure plus a highly 
integrated instruction in A-V materials, their 
organization and use, throughout the library 
school curriculum. All this serves, in a sense, 
as preface to the full description of how this 
was achieved in the program at the School of 
Librarianship, University of California, as de-
veloped by Dr. Lieberman. The details of cur-
riculum, the program of in-service workshops 
for practicing librarians, and the wealth of 
classroom projects and materials included in 
the appendix of the report—all provide a 
sound picture of a full A-V program in li-
brary education. 

While recognizing the reluctance of a seg-
ment of the library profession to assume re-
sponsibilities in the uncharted waters of A-V, 
Dr. Lieberman's basic philosophy for academ-
ic, public, and school libraries includes as 
essential the responsibility for acquiring, or-
ganizing, administering, and stimulating use 
of all materials that record man's thought. He 
asks librarians to accept A-V materials as 
"normal" and to train library school students 
to provide and use them with an ease equal to 
that with which they serve readers with books. 

This study cannot, of course, provide final 
answers to many of the problems for which it 
proposes tentative solutions. But the wealth 
of suggestion for library education and the 
broad picture of current A-V practice in pub-
lic, school, and academic libraries makes this 
a valuable report for us now.—Margaret E. 
Monroe, Graduate School of Library Service, 
Rutgers University. 

Microrecording 
Microrecording: Industrial and Library Ap-

plications. By Chester M. Lewis and Wil-
liam H. Offenhauser. New York: Inter-
science Publishers [1956]. 456p. $8.50. 

It is now almost fifteen years since Herman 
H. Fussler's Photographic Reproduction for 
Libraries was published. A lot has been writ-
ten about microphotography in that period, 
but most of this has appeared as short articles 
in a widely scattered body of literature. It is 

high time that a book appeared which would 
try to pull together much of the information 
published since 1942. This volume by Chester 
Lewis, chief librarian of the New York Times 
and past president of the Special Libraries 
Association, and William Offenhauser, con-
sultant on photography and author of 16 mm 
Sound Motion Pictures, is such an attempt. 
Whereas Fussler's book is frankly aimed at 
administrative librarians, this volume is di-
rected primarily towards industrial users and 
only secondarily towards librarians. 

The first two chapters deal with the in-
creasingly important problem of record re-
tention. Libraries share with business and in-
dustry the threat of being smothered in a 
flood of paper records. After considering the 
business and legal requirements for record 
retention, the authors propose microrecord-
ing as one possible solution to the problem, 
realizing that it is not the only answer, and 
suggesting criteria for its choice. Then follow 
a review of the various forms which micro-
records have taken and a table of costs of 
microfilming operations. 

The chapters following cover the materials 
and equipment for microrecording. These in-
clude: film, cameras, processing, projection, 
enlargement and reading machines. There 
are a number of tables listing the equipment 
available at the time this book went to press. 
These are as complete as is possible with such 
a changeable subject. Generally speaking, 
these tables are perhaps a little easier to un-
derstand than those found in the F.I.D. 
Manual on Document Reproduction and Se-
lection, though they do not have the possi-
bility for frequent revision and supplementa-
tion of that publication. 

The last two chapters deal with informa-
tion classification and retrieval by micropho-
tography, and with storage. There are many 
illustrations throughout the book and numer-
ous instances where pertinent information 
has been abstracted and reprinted from other 
publications. Bibliographies follow each 
chapter. These could have been arranged a 
little better, and some items seem to have 
been pulled in without much thought of 
their relevance. 

The appendices to this volume are worth 
the price of the whole publication. The first 
deals with recommendations for record re-
tention and the legality of microfilmed rec-

522 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES