College and Research Libraries vices pay a profit, and a number of rather dubious organizations are exploiting this. Government departments too, are setting up costly documentation services in parallel with libraries, in order to minister to special needs where existing libraries cannot under- take the job. Perhaps this is an acceptable solution where the economic situation per- mits, but one sympathizes with the problem in England where it is ruinously wasteful to set up information services divorced from the depositories of that information. Fos- kett's tart remarks on costly American re- trieval schemes and their relative inefficien- cy doubtless reflect his frustration at the lack of funds for documentation purposes in England. If the "two cultures" split cleaves librari- anship it will not be Mr. _ Foskett's fault.- Francis A. Johns, Rutgers University. American State Archives. By Ernst Pos- ner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964. xiv, 397p. Appendices, bib- liography, index: $7.50. (64-23425). In this volume Ernst Posner, dean of American archivists, has done for the archi- val profession what many librarians have been hoping for from the Survey of Li- brary Functions in the States. Here is a solid, meaty, succinct, and searching analysis of the development of state ar- chival agencies, their present status, and their future prospects. The volume is based, in the large sense, on Dr. Posner's long and distinguished experience in the archival pro- fession both here and abroad, and more specifically on a twenty-month study which took him to archival institutions in forty- nine of the fifty states, and also to Puerto Rico. The survey was conducted under sponsorship of the Society of American Archivists and financed by a grant from the Council on Library Resources. The first thirty pages of American State Archives are devoted to a general survey of the origins and growth of state record-keep- ing practices in this country, beginning with the colonial period. The legislative estab- lishment of official archival agencies is shown to have begun in 1901 with the es- tablishment of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. In short succession other southern states followed suit. Missis- sippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ten- Book Reviews 1 529 nessee, Arkansas, Delaware, and Maryland all followed the pattern of establishing an agency with responsibilities for historical and archival matters. Within a short time state libraries undertook archival programs in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas, Iowa, and Indiana; and historical societies established archival departments in Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma. More than thirty years would elapse, Dr. Posner points out, before the federal government followed these precedents with establishment of the National Archives. Dr. Posner devotes the major portion of his book to a state-by-state analysis of the development of archival agencies. He pro- vides the reader with a great deal of spe- cific and useful information on each and successfully meets the great challenge of doing so without the reader feeling over- whelmed with details and statistics. He demonstrates a keen understanding of the reasons for the great variety of administra- tive structures in the archival field and properly attributes this disparity to those individuals whose leadership in their states and in the nation has helped make archives a true profession rather than a file-keeping function. Especially valuable in these state summaries are Dr. Posner's candid com- ments on the existing shortcomings of each agency. These are judicious and temperate and rest on the fundamental premise that while certain archival functions are essen- tial to good record-keeping, there are a variety of legitimate ways ·in which these functions may be administered. The concluding portion of the book con- sists of a summary of findings, a discus- sion of current trends in archival programs, and most important of all a · set of standards for state archival agencies. These are a model of their kind. The standards were developed by Dr. Posner and the survey committee and have been approved by the Society of American Archivists. There are also appendices giving a glossary of archival terms, comparative statistical data on budg- ets and professional salaries in the states, a basic bibliography of writings on public archives administration in the United States, and a useful index. This is a first-rate book in every respect. It is a welcome reminder that real contribu- tions to know ledge rest on thorough re- search, objective appraisal, and mature 530 1 College & Research Libraries • November, 1965 judgement. These qualities Dr. Posner has demonstrated in abundance.-William T. Alderson, American Association for State and Local History. The School Library. By Ralph E. Ells- worth. New York: The Center for Applied Research in Education, Inc., 1965. xi, 116p. $3.95. (65-15520). · In 1963, Ralph E. Ellsworth, with the collaboration of Hobart D. Wagener, pro- duced an excellent little book which the Educational Facilities Laboratories issued under the title, The School Library; Fa- cilities for Independent Study in the Sec- ondary School. This 1963 publication was a landmark in school library literature. Now Mr. Ellsworth has produced a second vol- ume by a new publisher but, unfortunately for the student, with a title identical to the main title of his first book. The new School Library is, in other ways, a less happy book than the previous en- deavor. Admittedly, its purpose is differ- ent, for it attempts to present to school ad- ministrators a picture of school library needs in the rapidly-changing schools of our day, while the first School Library was primarily concerned with "architectural aspects of the -school library." Yet the first book pro- vided a more comprehensive outline of what a good school library ought to be than does the new one. There is much of value in the new vol- ume, however. Ellsworth says some things that have not been said before and some that cannot be said too frequently. One statement which shows especially profound insight into the shortcomings of school li- braries appears on page 4. A strong and able librarian can sometimes im- prove a mediocre library situation, but unless she can change the philosophy of education and the teaching procedures and schedules which prevail in the school, her impact will not be noticeable. A proper understanding of who is responsible for the quality of school library service will not be reached until it is under- stood that the status, use, and operation of a school library are the result of the nature and character of the total instructional program of the school. Though it has been said before, it is good that it is now being said again to the read- ers this book will reach. In general, the book is comprehensive in its treatment of the secondary school li- brary, but it provides no indication that the author is aware of the many exciting elementary school libraries that can be identified in various parts of the country. Except for a paragraph devoted to the Knapp School Libraries Project, he seems unaware of the extent of school libraries in elementary schools. In his chapter on the program of the library he suggests that "the librarian should be wise in the ways of teen- agers," valuable wisdom for a high school librarian, but not so helpful for an ele- mentary school librarian whose six hundred pupils only aspire to adolescence. Librari- ans will regret that a book purporting to present The School Library, in fact relates only to libraries in schools of one level, the senior high school. Even in the few places where he men- tions elementary school libraries, the author shows little knowledge of their status in 1965. In the p·aragraph referred to above, he states that the old controversy concern- ing classroom versus centralized libraries is still vigorously alive, a statement he would have great difficulty in documenting. On page 90 he reports, on the basis of hearsay, that the librarians who attended a confer- ence in June 1964 called by the Educa- tional Facilities Laboratories, relating to elementary school libraries, "had less to offer that was fresh and interesting than did some of the administrators ." Other ob- servers, perhaps less impartial than Ells- worth's, have provided a different report. Unfortunately, Educational Facilities Lab- oratories has issued no conference report. Like the earlier book, this one is excellent in its treatment of facilities for high school libraries. His discussion of the nature and elements of a school library should have special value in justifying areas of adequate size for essential service functions. This sec- tion provides one statement that is sure to go into the rare literature of the highly quotable (pp. 61-62). The body of a high school student at work is a wondrous thing, full of aches and pains and jerks and spasms and twists and contor- tions and almost never in complete repose. . . . (One might wonder if the Creator had study- ing in mind at all as an expected activity for youth.) While applauding the spirit with which