College and Research Libraries The A ge of the Scholar. By Nathan M. Pusey. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U ni- versity Press, 1963. 210p. $4.50 ( 63- 19146). Harvard's president would be among those who discount as a literary form the presidential address, a kind of Gebrauch- .smusik of the calling. Born of occasions as distant as the dedication of a children's hos- pital and a University of Delhi convocation, these addresses offer, in graceful, elegant language, an index to the major concerns of the universities of the times: complexity, size, the impact of the practical and of government, the relation of research to teaching, the competition of sciences with the humanities. Although, like his colleagues, President Pusey hints at an apprehensiveness about the size, complexity, and expense of main- taining libraries, his description of the val- ues of reading and books will comfort li- brarians and reinforce their belief in their vocation: Basic to all but the most elementary learning is reading. This is undoubtedly why it is prop- erly a matter of concern to teachers from the first grade throughout the whole of formal edu- cation. But what is not so widely recognized is that in most cases the quality or lack of quality in a mental life perhaps owes as much to what one customarily reads as to any other one thing. It is for this reason that, though the simplest kind of reading may be acceptable fare for children at certain stages of their development, it is certainly not a sufficient staple for the intellectual fare of adults. Nor are newspapers or the average run of magazines sufficient by themselves-that is, apart from the supple- mentary influence of major books. Despite all our antipathy to "bookishness," there is a dis- turbing truth here which we shall overlook at our peril. What we are depends in a very considerable measure on the intellectual experiences we have had, or have not had-on the meaning we have found in life or have not found. Such experi- ences do not necessarily have to be found in Book Reviews books, but it is chiefly in books, in the best books, that the most illuminating human experi- ences are apt to be found .... If this be true, then to live apart from books is not to turn toward life but deliberately to cut one's self off from significant understanding of it. And this is what will happen if we turn too far from the verbal, that is, from languages and literature, in our educational practices . Books, as another has said, are men thinking. They are also at their best the work of the men whose thoughts are most worth knowing. For their thoughts are the kind of thoughts that can both engender in us joy in new awareness and stretch our thinking ( p. 36-37) .-Donald Coney, University of California, Berke_ley. Collier's Ency clopedia. New York: Crowell- Collier Publishing Co., 1964. 24 vols. Annual. (64-10285). Any major encyclopedia is impressive in the sheer weight of statistics it can muster in its self-description, and Collier's is no ex- ception. A fact sheet distributed by the publishers, for example, reveals that the present revision contains more than eight- een thousand pages, twenty-one million words, and four hundred thousand entries in its index to twenty-six thousand articles. It presents more than seventeen thousand illustrations, sixteen hundred maps , and eleven thousand five hundred items in its bibliography. It was prepared by more than five thousand authors and editors. Without question, "monumental" is an appropriate adjective to apply to Collier's Encyclopedia; not many of its competitors can top these figures. More meaningful, however, in examining a particular edition of an encyclopedia are the numbers that can be used to describe its revision. No major encyclopedia, of course, can afford to prepare complete new editions more frequently than once in a lifetime, but a process of continuous updating .goes on in all of their editorial offices. The 1964 "edi- tion" of Collier's, we are told, contains eighty-one new articles, three hundred new I 61 62 I College & Research Libraries • january, 1965 illustrations, and eighty-four completely re- written articles; more than thirteen hundred articles have bee~ reviewed and updated, and more than three thousand pages have been changed. In applying these figures to Collier's, it must be borne in mind that this encyclopedia first appeared in 1950, so that even an article totally unrevised since its initial writing can be no more than fifteen or so years old. A sampling of the articles new- ly added or revised in the 1964 printing in- dicates that some of them occur where one would expect them to occur; such as the expanded article on "Space Science and Ex- ploration." Other new pieces, however, could hardly have been expected; such as the new treatments of "American Litera- ture," "Federalist Papers," and "Byzantine Empire." Earlier editions of Collier's Encyclopedia are well known to readers of CRL, so its basic structure does not need extensive ex- amination here. In summary, however, it could be pointed out that the articles-all but the most perfunctory of which are signed-have been prepared by recognized and unimpeachable authorities. Librarians have been much involved in the preparation of the encyclopedia. The names of no fewer than four ACRL members appear on the title and facing pages, and Dr. Louis Shores, of course, is editor-in-chief of the work. The stated purpose of Collier's is to pre- sent "information accurately and authori- tatively in a manner that is readily under- standable by the general reader." It is obvi- ous that great attention has been paid to this matter of the "general reader" and that family use as well as scholarly use has been much aspired to by its editors. In this re- viewer's opinion, these aspirations will be attained, as the election of terms throughout has been admirably untechnical. Where it has been impossible to avoid technical terms, they have been clearly explained. A subjectively determined impression of the relative simplicity of presentation among encyclopedias, however, is probably impos- sible to support on the basis of objective cri- teria. An attempt by this reviewer to de- velop statistics, for example, on the relative counts of one-, two-, and three-syllable words in articles on the same subjects in Collier's and in other major encyclopedias proved to be inconclusive; there was obvi- ously greater variation on this yardstick from author to author within a single en- cyclopedia than between two different en- cyclopedias. It will probably not be ques- tioned, however, that the larger type face, heavier leading, wider margins, and greater use of "white space" throughout Collier's than in many reference sets at least gives it the -appearance of being easier for the "general reader" to attack and to overcome. The larger page size and somewhat longer line length, as well as the extensive use of illustrations-including line, tone, four-color, map, and chart illustrations, together with some effective transparent color overlays for certain special purposes and effects- all contribute to the impression it gives of being clear and readable and readily under- standable. The apparatus for utilizing the text is deserving of comment. Volume 24 contains the bibliography, a study guide, and an ex- cellent index to the text, illustrations, maps, and bibliography. It is difficult for an aca- demic librarian to judge intelligently the value of, or the need for, the study guide. It would be an interesting and perhaps even useful exercise for the publisher to poll a sampling of Collier's owners to determine the amount and kind of use being made of the study guide. To this reviewer the study guide appears shallow. Almost any selective bibliography can be argued with, and the present one is not entirely an exception, although questions raised here must be of "exclusion" rather than of inclusion. The books listed are good books, leaving as the only allowable query: "Why include this title and not such-and- such another?" The bibliography is syste- matically arranged, and obvious efforts have been made to keep it current. Many purists, however, will continue to wish that the bibliographical notes appeared at the ends of the respective articles to which they per- tain rather than presented as a completely separate corpus. This is, of course, a funda - mental problem not possible of solution here. In short, Collier's continues to be one of · the major encyclopedic efforts available to the library community, and the revisions in the new printing make it clear that its pro- ducers intend that it remain so for a long time. As part of its responsibility to its home and family purchasers, the publisher of course makes available its yearbook, but librarians will probably be more pleased to observe the sustained attempts being mani- fest to keep the basic work revised and up- dated. We wish Collier's all success in this effort.-D.K. The Cornell Library Conference: Papers Read at the Dedication of the Central Libraries, October, 1962. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Library, 1964. xiv, 148p. (64-13711). This slender volume contains the ten pa- pers read at the Cornell dedication in the autumn of 1962. There are contributions by six librarians: Sir Frank Francis, Stephen A. McCarthy, Ralph E. Ellsworth, William S. Dix, Raynard C. Swank, George H. Healy; two professors: Lionel Trilling, and Steven Muller; one academic administrator: W. R. Keast, and one architect: Charles H. War- ner, Jr. The papers vary in length, quality, and content but have a unifying theme which is libraries and graduate and under- graduate education, libraries and interna- tional affairs, and library development in the future-topics that are seasonable as well as perennial. The paper by Sir Frank Francis, "Let the Past and Future Fire Thy Brain," is long, circuitous, and tranquilizing. Director Mc- Carthy, in "The Cornell Library System," briefly described the development of the Cornell library system and revealed plans and hopes for the future. Mr. Warner con- cisely related the agony and ecstasy experi- enced in designing the 0 lin library and re- designing the Uris library. W. R. Keast, in "The True University of These Days Is a Collection of Books," explored the sweeping educational potential of the- undergraduate library if use went beyond study hall and reserved reading functions. Professor Trill- ing, in "The Scholar's Caution and the Scholar's Courage," was critically concerned with the current quality of graduate studies in the humanities. Ellis Worth's "Libraries, Students, and Faculty," rebuked librarians for some current practices, universities for wasteful duplication of curriculums, and en- dorsed the humanities. Muller, in "Shrunken Globe, Swollen Curriculum," reviewed the internationalization of the American uni- versity curriculum and described the bur- Book Reviews I 63 dens and responsibilities this revolution has brought to the libraries. Dix, in "The Re- search Library and International Affairs Programs," spoke of library methods used to meet the challenge of the internationalized university. Swank, in "International Values in American Librarianship," defined librar- ianship as an "international affair in its own right" and discussed those aspects of Amer- ican library practice which he considered valuable for export to developing nations. George Healey, in "Yes, But What Does a Curator Do?" gave answer to the question in a clever and delightful manner. It is a significant event in the world of higher education when a most pressing educational problem is solved by large-scale investment in library buildings. It becomes more so when a private university with a strong tradition for academic excellence elects to demonstrate this evidence of long- range planning and faith in the value of quality education in this tangible manner. This book may be considered a memento of two pleasant days, or a reminder of the courage and foresight of the Cornell U ni- versity administration.-CeciZ K. Byrd, Indi- ana University. Library Buildings of Britain and Europe -An International Study, with Ex- amples Mainly from Britain and Some from Europe and Overseas. By Anthony Thompson. London: Butterworths, 1963. xii, 326p. $21. This is a comprehensive work on library buildings. Since they are so richly docu- mented, Anthony Thompson has successful- ly coordinated a large portion of the mass of available information and has presented it in a systematic and readable form. This reviewer agrees with the author when he says that he has tried to do the almost im- possible-to illustrate with plans and photo- graphs selected good examples of the main types of libraries, chiefly British, with a number from Europe, plus some notes on several outstanding exemplary buildings in the United States and British Common- wealth. He has produced "a systematic study of the whole subject, to serve not only as a reference book for students of li- brarianship, but also as a guide for librar- ians intending to build, and as a book on libraries for architects" (p. xi).