College and Research Libraries


wntmg. A compiler is a program which 
equips the particular computer to accept 
programs in a problem-oriented language 
and to transform these into machine lan-
guage instructions. Again, the panel and 
the lecturer represent no unified opinion on 
this matter, and no synthesis is presented. 
With the widespread . international use of 
the computer for language processing, such 
programs should be made available widely. 
The book under review here represents an 
advance in that it is based on international 
cooperation; it is disappointing in that it 
yields so little evidence of a realization of 
this fact on the part of the participants. The 
nonprofessional user of the computer will 
find little comfort in the professional's atti-
tude towards him as revealed in the pages 
of the symposium report.-]ames W. March-
and) Vanderbilt University. 

General Bibliography on Information Stor-
age and Retrieval. By Marshal Spangler. 
[Phoenix, Ariz.]: General Electric Com-
puter Department, 1962. 390p. Apply. 

Literature on Information Retrieval and 
Machine Translation. By Charles F. Balz 
and Richard H. Stanwood. White Plains, 
N.Y.: IBM Processing Division, 1962. 117p. 
Apply. 

Permuted indexes are· falling upon us in 
profusion , but the two under review here 
are the first extensive ones to appear in the 
field of librarianship. Although IBM calls 
its process "Key Word in Context" (which 
shortens into the happy designation KWIC) 
whereas General Electric says "significant 
word in context," the two efforts use essen-
tially the same devices for controlling the 
same body of literature. Large libraries will 
want both of these bibliographies even 
though they are very similar in subject and 
scope. 

The General Electric bibliography lists 
alphabetically by main entry 1550 books 
and journal articles in the broad area of 
information storage and retrieval, including 
such tangential but related subjects as me-
chanical translation, character and pattern 
recognition, speech analysis and synthesis, 
self-organizing systems, and artificial intelli-
gence. Almost all references are to writings 
since 1949, although a few significant earlier 
works are included. 

The General Electric bibliography has an 
index to secondary authors and an index to 
source journals. (This latter index, for ex-
ample, shows that nine items are listed that 
had been published in College and Research 
Libraries. As would be expected, American 
Documentation furnished more items than 
any other journal with 329) . This is fol-
lowed by a chronological index, and the 
book closes with the permuted word index. 
Approximately 7,250 entries in this index 
indicate a ratio of not quite five per item. 

The IBM bibliography contains about 
twice as many main entries, again with each 
entry indexed under an average of five terms 
permuted from its title. There is an author 
index but no source nor chronological in-

. dexes. An interesting sophistication is a list 
of words not used in developing the per-
muted index. Among this homogeneous but 
useless lot of discarded terms are Don, Force, 
Poughkeepsie, September, and Versus. Al-
though more comprehensive than the Gen-
eral Electric list, the IBM compilation is 
printed at a reduction in size giving it a 
somewhat handier format. 

These are good practical examples of what 
the permuted index can do. It will be inter-
esting and indicative to observe how much 
we use them.-D.K. 

Statistics 
Library Statistics · of Colleges and Universi-

ties) 1959-60) Part 2: Analytic Report. 
Washington: U.S. Office of Education, Li-
brary Services Branch, Bureau of Educa-
tional Research and Development, 1962. 
45p. 40c. 

One of the problems which was never ade-
quately solved by the hardworking, deadline-
pushed ACRL Statistics Committee (now 
LAD LOMS Statistics Committee for College 
and University Libraries) was that of pro-
viding for academic librarians a useful or 
significant analysis of the raw data supplied 
in the tables formerly published in this · 
journal each January. When the collection 
and publication of statistics was turned over 
to the USOE Library Services Branch in 
1959, it was with the understanding that the 
data processing machinery of that agency 
would provide a more detailed statistical 
analysis as Part 2 of its yearly publication of 

340 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



the basic data. An advance analytic report 
which was published in July 1961 limited 
its coverage to data on library volumes, per-
sonnel and expenditures. After many un-
avoidable delays, the full report has now 
been issued, and plans are under way to 
issue the analytic part for succeeding years · 
during 1963 in order to catch up with the 
current compilations. 

The first section explains the usable cov-
erage of libraries represented in the data-
1854 institutions or 95 per cent of the total 
population. Institutions are divided into 
seven categories, one of which, "Other pro-
fessional schools," might be broken down in 
future compilations into medical, law, busi-
ness, etc. to be more useful. Further distinc-
tions, such as four-year and two-year colleges, 
public or private control, and enrollment 
ranges are maintained throughout the tables. 
The introductory section also contains tables 
showing a summary of management data, 
and median figures for all data according to 
enrollment, as well as totals for professional 
staff vacancies. While a first publication 
lacks naturally a basis for comparison, it is 
hoped that future reports will expand the 
description of. trends. 

The appendix contains eighty-seven tables 
which analyze more fully each of the items 
on the statistics questionnaire. The table of 
contents divides the tables into the two cor-
responding parts of the questionnaire: man-
agement data and salaries. It is a formidable 
listing chiefly because the table titles are 
lengthy, repetitious, and tend to hide the 
key words which would allow users to pro-
ceed directly to the desired type of data. A 
subdivision of the topics covered under each 
of these sections would improve this listing, 
as would a shortening of table titles. 

Each librarian can locate the standing of 
his library in relation to the high and low 
figures for each item, the median and the 
first and third quartiles. 

The first analysis marks an important mile-
stone in the development of a statistical pic-
ture of academic libraries. It will be useful 
to librarians and administrators in planning 
improvement of local libraries, and to all 
who seek to buttress legislation with convinc-
ing data. While there is room for improve-
ment in the selection and presentation of 
data, it must be remembered that the orig-
inal statistics questionnaire was changed, re-
fined, and amplified over a period of years 

JULY 1963 

in response to the suggeslions of users. This 
is the approach which guides the planning 
of the present Statistics Committee and the 
U.S. Office of Education.-Robert R. Hertel, 
Illinois State Normal University. 

Biography of a Library 
The Library of Bucknell University. By 

J. Orin Oliphant. Lewisburg, Pa.: Buck-
nell University Press, 1962. 154p. $3.00. 

~acking a satisfactory general history of 
American collegiate libraries, students and 
scholars must rely chiefly on individual ac-
counts. Fortunately, however, this approach 
can serve better than the casual reader may 
appreciate, particularly when, as in the pres-
ent book, the author brings to his task a 
substantial knowledge of developments in 
the larger social scene. A professional his-
torian specializing in American social and 
intellectual history, the author of several 
previous publications dealing with the his-
tory of Bucknell, and sometime chairman of 
the Bucknell faculty library committee, one 
may hope for, and here receive from Pro-
fessor Oliphant, an account which relates 
the library to contemporary Bucknell ;md to 
other institutions and forces in American 
life. Indeed, persons knowing the history of 
other · academic libraries are bound to en-
counter in the Bucknell library story much 
that is familiar: ambitious beginnings (1848-
59) followed by decline and neglect (1859-
79) ; the rise, fall, and eve ntual merging of 
student society librari es with the college col-
lection; the notable and salutary effort on 
collegiate library services of student demands 
nourished (circa 1880's and '90's) by reading 
student papers of other schools; increasing 
the hours the library was open from one or a 
few a week to something like present prac-
tice; opening of a reading room; regular 
employment as librarian of someone other 
than a full-time professor-custodian (1894) ; 
the employment of an experienced female 
assistant librarian to help create a card cata-
log (1896); separate study facilities for wom-
en students resulting from the unchivalrous 
objections of their male counterparts (1896/ 
97) ; a Carnegie building (1905) to accom-
modate growing collections and services; reg-
ular annual appropriations for books grow-
ing out of acceptance of appropriations for 
binding (I 906-16), etc. 

341