College and Research Libraries BOOK REVIEWS Index to Festschriften in Librarianship. By J. Periam Danton with the assistance of Ottilia C. Anderson. N.Y.: R. R. Bow- ker Company, 1970, 461p. $13.50. The library profession has come to expect solid books from the pen of J. Periam Dan- ton, Professor of Librarianship at the Uni- versity of California, Berkeley. In this latest volume it will not be disappointed, even though indexing, like bibliography, is scarcely the pleasant nighttime reading of many. Yet most practitioners will read his introductory essay on the literature of festschriften with interest and profit, while subsequent users of the volume will save themselves a good deal of time in chasing down such elusive articles as the one by J. C. M. Hanson on the history of the new LC catalog which they are sure appeared in some homage volume. The field of the festschrift has been peculiarly immune to bibliographical control, containing as it does a great deal of chaff along with a sub- stantial amount of wheat. Often the indi- vidual essays, particularly those honoring a distinguished librarian, are solid, scholar- ly studies offered as a major tribute to one's mentor in the field. Danton's introduction also contains valuable information on bibli- ographical control of festchriften in other fields. Strangely enough these homage volumes, published on the occasion of a library's an- niversary or the retirement of a distin- guished librarian, have infrequently been picked up in other indexes. Library Litera- ture did not admit the subject heading FESTSCHRIFTEN to its canon until the 1958-60 volume when it began listing those which came to its editor's attention. Even now it does not analyze the individual ar- ticles in the respective homage volumes. Recent Publications Thus a more recent volume, the festschrift honoring the late Rudolph H. Gjelsness printed in 1966, the last year covered by Danton, is listed but not analyzed in Li- brary Literature. In terms of completeness, a brief checking of the festschrift titles in- cluded in Library Literature from 1958 to 1970 indicates that Professor Danton got all that were eligible for inclusion under his criteria. What criteria has Danton used for inclu- sion in his index? Only those festschriften have been included which deal strictly with "librarians, libraries, and library associa- tions," and therefore the user will not find works honoring printers, publishers, book dealers, archivists and the like. Nor will he find articles of a general bibliographical na- ture, such as Waldo Gifford Leland's "French Sources of American History" from the Putnam Festschrift, or Charles Eber- stadt's "On Colorado Guidebooks of '59" from the Lydenberg Festschrift. One may quarrel with Professor Danton's inclusion of such items and his assumption that such articles more properly should be picked up in an index to historical articles in fest- schriften. Still the author states his prin- ciple clearly in the "Guide to the User": "Articles in the volume indexed having nothing whatever to do with libraries, books, manuscripts, reading and so on have not been covered" (p. 12). Incidentally, the worldwide nature of the volume can be seen in the fact that the "Guide to the User" is printed in English, French, and German. In his twelve-year project Danton has found some 3,300 articles in 283 separate publications representing some twenty-two countries and sixteen languages. Of that number Germany is by far the most pro- lific publisher with ninety-eight titles, in- cluding the earliest one indexed, the 1864- 67 volume honoring Frederick Ritschl, Li- /413 414 I College & Research Libraries • November 1970 brarian of the University of Bonn. The United States is a poor second with thirty- two, Denmark third with eighteen, and It- aly, Sweden, and Switzerland with fifteen each. In his tables, Professor Danton indi- cates that there has been an almost unin- terrupted increase in the total number of festschriften (except in the depression and World War II years) . Not that he assumes he has secured them all; he is certain that some South American and Eastern Europe- an titles have escaped his net. No doubt the publication of this index will bring to light additional titles. In addition to the valuable introduction and the guide to the user, there is a code to abbreviations of the festschriften in- dexed, along with a biographical reference to each honoree where such a reference ex- ists, and a separate section listing reviews of the festschriften. The subject headings used are those of Library Literature with an assist from the Library of Congress, but also include some instances of desirable new headings. Extensive "see" and "see al- so" cross references have been included. The book has been put together in a good format by Bowker, though the index itself has been printed by offset from a typed copy. While a complete assessment of Danton's index must await the verdict of its users, research workers, especially in the field of library history, will definitely want access to this book-Edward G. Holley, Univer- sity of Houston. European Periodical Literature in the So- cial Sciences and the Humanities. By Paul E. Vesenyi. Metuchen, N.J.: Scare- crow Press, 1969. 226p. $5.00 This publication is a handbook to aid re- searchers in locating periodical literature published in Europe in the social sciences and the humanities. The types of materials included are indexing and abstracting ser- vices, bibliographies, directories and union lists. Reference books published in Europe make up the largest portion of the material although a few American publications are listed when they include a large number of European sources. Current and retrospec- tive publications are included. The material has been arranged by coun- try of origin, the items under each country are arranged in alphabetical order . Two ad- ditional indexes are provided to enable the user to locate materials by subject and ti- tle. The information for each entry is ar- ranged in outline form and includes the ti- tle of the publication, the authors or edi- tors, the scope, the publisher and place of publication, and the date of origin. Infor- mation concerning cumulations, indexes, supplements and frequency is often provid- ed. The language of the publication is noted. The two most informative portions of each entry are the "Coverage" and "Notes" sections. The "Coverage" section states the purposes and special features of the publication; the "Notes" section indi- cates arrangement, changes of title and new titles for superseded works. The "Scope" section of each entry, indicating the type of service offered by the publication, tends to repeat information found under the "Coverage" and "Notes" sections. Included in the area of the social sciences are the subjects of "sociology; economics; political science; public administration; in- ternational relations; economic and social history; human, economic and political ge- ography ; public, international and constitu- tional law and statistics." Coverage of each of these subjects is uneven. The subject in- dex lists four titles under "Anthropology" and two titles under "Management" while "Library Science and Documentation" con- tains nine titles. Under "Political Science" ten titles are suggested, and eleven titles are found under "Communism, Fascism, and National Socialism" and "Socialism." The subjects included in the humanities are: "religion, philosophy, linguistics , clas- sical studies , fine arts, literature, music and biographical materials." The "Name Bibli- ographies" listed in the appendix contain twenty-three individuals writing primarily in the humanities. Books contained here seem to have been selected b y virtue of the inclusion of periodical literature about the author. The questions of why and how these authors were selected remains unan- swered. Coverage by country varies from one ti- tle per country, as in the case of Ireland