College and Research Libraries 66 I College & R.esearch Libraries • January 1972 ately priced (about .8 mill per entry) book in two handy volumes, the format of which is a delight to the experienced librarian and the scholar-connoisseur of books, does much more. It not only adds to the 39,162 titles in Evans the 10,035 that have since been located; it incorporates "the tens of thou- sands of bibliographical corrections of the Evans entries turned up by the staff of the [American Antiquarian] Society in the course of fifty years of work." Even more important, it greatly assists the researcher in locating and examining the full text of every book, pamphlet, and broadside listed here as available in the United States or foreign countries. The work of the Society in making this possible has stretched over a century and a half. The work of its li- brruy staff has covered fifty years. A col- laboration of almost twenty years with Al- bert Bani and the Readex Microprint Cor- poration has produced the microprint edi- tion of the texts, now in the collections of almost two hundred institutions (and prob- ably more) in the United States and abroad. Here indeed is God's plenty for the scholar working in early American materi- als. For work on such materials Constance Evans in her 8th edition labeled the four- teen-volume Evans "indispensable in the large reference or special library." The Short-Title Evans, along with the Readex Microprint Corporation edition of Early American Imprints, would seem to open doors to an even wider range of library pa- trons than Winchell had in mind. One of the serious Haws in undergraduate instruc- tion is the overreliance of students at ev- ery level on secondruy source material. Through the Short- Title Evans and the Readex edition, students could have easy access to original rna terial on topics rele- vant to a number of undergraduate courses. For example, even a cursory examination of the entries f~r Noah Webster, Jr., sends the student to information in Evans' 1790 volume on the teaching of the language arts in the United States prior to 1800 or on the state laws of Connecticut which forbade for a time free trade in spelling books across state lines. From here he can easily go to the original texts in Readex Microprint. Just how easily? Consider this example. The library of the four-year college in which the reviewer teaches has both the fourteen- volume Evans and the Short-Title Evans under review. Within a radius of forty miles are four university collections which hold the microprint texts. One is a mile away, accessible by free transportation on the Consortium mini-bus. True, the Short-Title Evans is, as its ve1y capable and scholarly editors point out, "a tool for making defini- tive bibliographies," and a valuable one. It is, however, much more. The realization of that "more" sets one dreaming of what microforms-an exciting topic even now-can mean in the future; of the wealth of materials, otherwise un- available, that the scholar-professor, the graduate student, the undergraduate can also have access to through microfilm, microfiche, microcard, and microprint, and through the ever smaller, ever less expen- sive readers that are being produced and the reader-p1}.nters that t~e advertisements assure us are on the way. The appearance of the Short-Title Evans, then, is a significant event in reference pub- lication history. In an eminently successful manner it fulfills the purpose of the Ameri- can Antiquarian Society "to preserve, de- scribe, and publish the materials of Ameri- can history." Moreover in this adroit union of old material with the most recent of techniques, the Society's members, staff, di- rectors, and editors prove that they are an- tiquarian in their interests but, in the very best sense of the word, modern in their per- formance.-Sr. Hilda Bonham, I.H.M., Marygrove College. A Guide to the Manuscripts in the Eleutherian Mills Historical Library: Accessions through the Year 1965. John Beverley Riggs. Greenville, Del.: Eleuth- erian Mills Historical Library, 1970. 1205p. $15.00. Here is a remarkable testament to the power of one family-Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and his descendants- the main source and continuing financial bulwark (via the Longwood Foundation) of the manuscript library of 2,500,000 items described in this exhaustive Guide. A most unusual collecting instinct by many of the family has preserved records spanning their history as far back as the fifteenth century. The bulk of the manu- scripts date from the nineteenth century, with the chief emphasis on American eco- nomic history in the Middle Atlantic States, the natural result of Du Pont involvement with the business and industrial life of the young Republic. The company records of E. I. duPont de Nemours & Co. are an im- portant group, supplemented by later acces- sions representing many additional firms. The scope of the collections spreads out from this focus to encompass places, peri- ods, persons, and subjects of unexpected variety, reflecting the political and intellec- tual activities of the Du Fonts and their collecting interests, as well as accessions from other donors, notably, e.g., the papers of John J. Raskob, personal, business, and political. Unfortunately, the organization of the Guide does not provide easy access to the wealth of materials. The main arrangement follows the pattern of the collections, main- tained largely according to provenance, as received from their various donors. The pa- pers of the major early family figures are therefore broken into several groups, by donor. To help in location, extensive cross- referencing is used throughout the text, plus a detailed 200-page index to names, places, and a few subjects. In many ways, however, the compilation is a scholar's dream. Lengthy personal and company chronologies and bibliographical notes provide valuable information on each of the leading individuals and firms whose records are described; suggestions are made for needed research; references are given to earlier research in these collections; and items in the collections that fall outside the general area of the library's specialization are mentioned specifically. Printing, proof- reading, spelling, alphabetization, and ac- curacy of page references have been main- tained at a high level. A few shortcomings are regrettable, be- cause avoidable. The uniformity of type face used, and the failure to vary inden- tions to indicate subdivisions in the lists sometimes obscures the transition from on~ collection to the next. Time is consumed in searching double-column pages for item ref- erences from the index and appendices, giv- en by page number only. A genealogical chart would have been a useful addition to a volume so dependent on complicated Recent Publications I 67 family relationships. The cut-off date of this Guide necessarily excludes the 360 acces- sions, totaling nearly a million manuscripts , received by the library in the five years just preceding publication of the volume. Supplements to describe later accessions are anticipated. This is not a work easily used for quick reference. In fact, it is as useful for seren- dipitous information, as for that located in direct search, and is likely to make brows- ers of reference librarians, as well as to cre- ate new devotees of Du Pont history.- Miriam I. Crawford, Temple University. OTHER BOOKS OF INTEREST TO ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS Abrahams , Harold J., and Savin, Marion B., eds. Selections from the Scientific Corre- spondence of Elihu Thomson. Cambridge, , Mass.: MIT Press, 1971. 569p. $17.50. (74-14,8976). (ISBN 0-262-01-034-8). Advena, Jean Cameron, comp. Drug Abuse Bibliography for 1970. Troy, N.Y.: The Whitston Publishing Company, 1971. 198p. $10.00. (79-116588). (ISBN 0-87875-016-9). Alexander, Gerard L. Guide to Atlases: World, Regional, National, Thematic~ An International Listing of Atlnses Pub- lished Since 1950. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1971. 671p. $17.50. (70-157728). ( 0-8108-0414-X). Anderson, Frank J., comp. Sandor Teszler Library: Special Collections Checklist Number Seven; Sixteenth Century Im- prints. Spartanburg, S.C.: Wofford Li- brary Press, 1971. 36p. Association for Asian Studies, Inc. Bibliog- vaphy of Asian Studies: :Pilot Project, March 1971. New Haven, Conn.: The Author/Office of Information Systems/ Human Relations Area Files, 1971. 103p. Bahm, Archie J. The World's Living Re- ligions. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1971. 384p. $2.85. (ISBN 0-8093-0529-1). Baker Library Graduate School of Business Administration. Core Collection: An Au- thor and Sub;ect Guide/ 1971-72. Bos- ton: The Author, 1971. 278p. $6.00. Batty, C. D. An Introduction to the Eight- eenth Edition of the Dewey Decimal