College and Research Libraries


two pages of text. Mr. Hawken and the 
LTP have followed their Photocopying From 
Bound Volumes with a worthy successor.-
Hubbard W. Ballou, Columbia University 
Libraries. 

Engineering Data Microreproduction Stand-
ards and Specifications. By the United 
States Department of Defense. (Informa-
tional Monograph No. 1) Annapolis, Md.: 
National Microfilm Association, 1963. 
15lp. $3. 

A phrase that occurs many times in vari-
ant forms in William Hawken's recent book 
on enlarged prints from microforms is: 
"This machine was never designed to repro-
duce the diverse sizes and types of docu-
ments which make up library collections of 
microforms." In his summary chapter he 
throws down his gage before the equipment 
manufacturers challenging them to: " ... 
take another look at the library world, its 
vast holdings of microforms, and its needs." 
We can say "Hear, hear!" to this, but in all 
honesty can we not grant the manufactur-
ers a valid counter-challenge to us to do 
something about standardizing the produc-
tion of our library microforms, so that they 
may design us simplified and inexpensive 
models? 

A field which was faced with a similar 
problem was that of engineering drawing 
files. The Department of Defense wanted 
to simplify the storage, dissemination, and 
reproduction of these bulky items through 
use of microfilm. These drawings occur in 
multifarious sizes and of indescribably vary-
ing qualities of legibility. The only way to 
make the system work was by standardiza-
tion all along the line: production of the 
original drawing, filming, processing, mount-
ing the film in tab cards, and reproduction 
through numerous generations to the final 
paper print output. 

The National Microfilm Association has 
been active in the progress of the Engineer-
ing Data Microreproduction System since 
serious work began on it about 1956. The 
association, at its San Francisco convention 
in April 1963, reprinted the many scattered 
specifications that were the outgrowth of 
this program. Though available as twelve 
separate specifications from the various 

agencies involved, this package publication 
is the easiest and cheapest way to acquire 
the series. Written as federal specifications 
are, they are not designed as light reading 
matter; but there is much food for thought 
buried beneath the official jargon. Libraries 
can learn by analogy from problems faced 
by the DOD EDMS program, and get what 
cheer they can from knowing that other 
users of microreproductions have met the 
same problems. One warning is necessary, 
however, and that is that the two problems 
are similar but not replicas of each other. 
We must pick and choose those points of 
similarity with care, and not try to specify 
all items from the DOD specs every time we 
place an order for microfilming.-Hub-
bard W. Ballou, Columbia University Li-
braries. 

Latin American Directory 
Guia de Bibliotecas de la America Latina. 

Edici6n provisional. (Pan American U n-
i6n, Columbus Memorial Library. Biblio-
graphic Series, no. 51) Washington: Un-
ion Panamericana, 1963. viii 165p. $5. 

For some time the lack of a guide to 
Latin American libraries-similar to the 
American Library Directory-has hampered 
persons needing information about such in-
stitutions. The many changes in the library 
picture there since 1942 have, of course, ren-
dered Rodolfo 0. Rivera's Preliminary List 
of Libraries in the Other American Repub-
lics inadequate for most purposes. The pres-
ent compilation, prepared by the Pan-Amer-
ican Union's Library Development Program, 
while not fully comparable to the Bowker 
list, represents a step in the right direction. 

Although the compilers have not at-
tempted to include all Latin American li-
braries, their aim was to present all uni-
versity and special libraries, public libraries 
of more than two thousand volumes, and 
school libraries of more than one thousand 
volumes; they recognize that, even with these 
limits, they have probably missed some in-
stitutions. Nevertheless, the user finds ap-
proximately twenty-two hundred libraries 
(vs. five thousand in the less selective Ri-
vera list); there is a section for each of the 
twenty Latin American republics and Puer-

434 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 

\