College and Research Libraries BOOK REVIEWS Bohdan S. Wynar. Research Methods in Library Science: A Bibliographic Guide with Topical Outlines. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1971. 153p. American librarians, harried by heavy work loads and influenced by their edu- cational backgrounds (humanities), have consistently chosen to rely on intuition and tradition as the best avenues to sound library management. The last several dec- ades, however, have ushered in a library scene at once so mammoth and complex that most contemporary adminisb·ators are beginning to doubt the efficacy of intui- tion, habit, and tradition as guides to li- brary management. Most librarians now appear to view "research" as an essential ingredient in the library administration for- mula. This growing interest in "research" -and few agree on the definition of that term- is illustrated by the establishment and con- comitant popularity of the Library Re- search Round Table of ALA. Further evi- dence of this new interest can be found in the appearance of a number of works designed to facilitate research in library science. Most of these works, such as the Bundy and Wasserman Reader in Research M eth- ods and Goldhor's Introduction to Scien- tific Research in Librarianship fell consid- erably short of their promise. Others like Bob Lee's Research in Librarianship: Course Outline and Bibliography proved to be useful and inexpensive guides to the literature. But, we still stand in need of an adequate guide to research methods in library science. Bohdan Wynar's Research Methods in Library Science will not answer that need. Indeed, Wynar' s book is poorly conceived and haphazardly executed. The book is in reality the compiler's course outline and bibliography for a research course taught over the years in various library schools. The topical outlines are so brief as to be useless, and the 700-odd items cited are 238/ Recent Publications neither the best works nor the most repre- sentative in their respective categories, i.e., history, experimental studies, surveys, con- tent analysis, etc. For instance, in the his- tory section, the compiler cites several pa- pers by Laurel Grotzinger while neglecting to note her excellent book length study on Katherine Anne Sharp, and he omits any reference at all to the important work of Haynes McMullen on nineteenth-century American librmies. These oversights could be duplicated in each section of the book. Wynar also appends brief annotations to about half of the works cited-annotations which are descriptive in nature and in many cases hardly justify the effort-i.e., "This is a good historical survey," or "a well documented work." Who could make use of such a book? Certainly not the professional librarian whose need is for a guide to methods rather than the literature. Mter having taught research methods for a number of years I also doubt whether this book would be of any real value to the master's can- didate in library science. The errors of omission and commission are numerous enough to make the bibliographies mis- leading. But, library school faculty will probably find an occasional item unknown to rthem, and perhaps the Ph.D. candidate studying for his qualifying exams might benefit from a survey of its contents. One wonders how a book so poorly planned and executed and with such a limited audience could justify publication in hard cover at a price of $8.50. Perhaps the fact that the compiler is president of Libraries Unlimited, Inc., is explanation enough.-Michael H. Harris, College of Li- ?rary Science, University of Kentucky, Lex- mgton. Research Librarianship, Essays in Honor of Robert B. Downs. Ed. by Jerrold Orne. New York and London: R. R. Bowker Company, 1971. xvii, 162p. $11.95. Ten librarians contributed to this vol- ume, edited by Jerrold Orne, as a token of professional respect for Robert B. Downs \ upon his retirement as dean of library ad- ministration at the University of Illinois. Downs has been one of the leading protagonists in the drama of research li- brary development for more than four dec- ades, as attested to by the positions he has held, his list of publications (compiled in this volume by Clarabelle Gunning), pro- fessional committee assignments, and by the demands for his services as consultant, nationally and internationally. When this man's career is viewed in totality, it is dif- ficult to avoid the use of such words as "giant," "committed," and "tenacious." He has devoted his talent and energy to the library profession since 1929. The essays in Research Librarianship, preceded by a short biography by RobeJ.t F. Delzell, have been selected to demon- strate the wide range of Downs' interests and contributions: intellectual freedom, academic status for librarians, interlibrary cooperation, library resources and bibliog- raphy, collection building and rare books, library education, and library surveys. These seven chapters appearing in the order giv- en were contributed by Everett T. Moore, Arthur M. McAnally, Robert H. Blackburn, William V. Jackson, Robert Vosper, and Jack Dalton. The concluding chapter was written jointly by Stephen A. McCarthy and Murray L. Howder. These essays are far from a potpourri hastily thrown together as a gesture to a retiring colleague. Th~y represent a distil- lation of contemporary thought on topics of essential and current concern to research librarianship. The contributors are know- ledgeable and articulate librarians. Everett Moore has described an impor- tant episode in the struggle for intellectual freedom, namely, the fright and furor gen- erated by the witch hunt of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy in the fifties; also the counter- attack launched by the book and library professions which led to the "Freedom to Read" statement and its endorsement by ALA. The essay by Arthur McAnally on "Stat- us of the University Librarian in the Aca- demic Community" is a topic of continuing concern to the profession. He traces the evolution of the movement for academic status and summarizes current develop- ments. Using as examples those few li- Recent Publications I 239 braries where librarians attempt govern- ances constituted as a faculty, McAnally suggests that the following pattern may evolve in large university libraries in the near future: rotating department heads, a special policy which will permit subject specialists to advance in rank and salary at the same pace as the library administra- tor, academic freedom and tenure, peer evaluation before appointment, a clearly defined promotion system, a workweek de- fined only in terms of getting the work done, no quotas for the various academic ranks, and opportunity for continuing edu- cation and professional growth (". . . a suitable workweek, nine-month contracts or educational leave with pay, and sab- baticalleaves."). Robert H. Blackburn discussed interli- brary cooperation under four general head- ings: physical access, bibliographic access, acquisition, and administration. Using these topics as a broad avenue of approach enabled him to comment briefly on most of the cooperative efforts in North Ameri- ca, Western Europe, and the United King- dom which seem viable. William Jackson described the various types of published guides to resources-national, regional, state, and local-and evaluated their scope and usefulness. Robert Vosper observed the rapid growth in size and quality of university libraries, and mentioned the various meth- ods used by select libraries to effect this growth. He concluded with a sober, not unduly pessimistic, statement on future prospects for continued growth and with his belief that national involvement is the hope for the next decade. Jack Dalton wrote on the state of library education, or rather, by his own admis- sion, reflected and asked questions for which he hoped there might be answers in the future. He ended with an exhortation for critical self-examination which may bring revolutionary changes in library edu- cation. Using the publications of Downs relat- ing to resources, catalogs, cataloging, sur- veys, individual libraries, and groups of libraries, Stephen McCarthy and Murray Howder appraise these as part of the lit- erature of librarianship in the United States today; also, they estimate their value in 240 f College & Research Libraries • May 1972 focusing attention upon problems which have beset college and university libraries. The authors believe that the general uni- versity library survey will be used less fre- quently in the future. It must indeed be gratifying to Robert Downs to have such a volume appear in his honor! All the essays contain useful ap- pended bibliographies. This reviewer was shocked at the price of the book, which seems exorbitant- $11.95 in the USA and Canada, and $13.15 elsewhere. While the volume is attractive and pleasing in format, the design and production posed no special problems to justify such cost.-Cecil K. Byrd, Indiana University, Bloomington. A Bibliography of Latin American Bibli- ographies; Supplement. By Arthur E. Gropp. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1971. $7.50. This supplement completes and extends the earlier volume which has long since become a necessary reference tool in a great number of libraries and private col- lections. The basic work, which appeared in 1968, included imprints through 1965. The supplement covers the years 1965- 1969. It also includes 432 citations for ma- terial previous to 1965 and for which data were not available for inclusion in the earlier volume. In addition sixty-four ad- ditional bibliographic journals are cited. The arrangement is the same in the sup- plement as in the basic work. Groupings are by subject with geographical subdivisions when necessary (e.g., Literature-Colom- bia) . The sources for the bibliographical in- formation are given unless the material was available at the Columbus Memorial Li- brary or at the Library of Congress. This is a particularly important feature because it indicates where many of the hard to locate items might be available. The work is not exhaustive. Basically it includes selected citations from forty of the principal bibliographical sources, plus bib- liographic data on items received by the Columbus Memorial Library and Library of Congress. Nevertheless it is a handy compilation and includes many items that would be almost impossible to find else- where. Apparently the author's policy has been to include any separately published item whether it be a book or pamphlet. Peri- odical items are not included nor unfor- tunately the many fine bibliographical pa- pers presented at the SALALM meetings. Perhaps a future edition might indicate the guidelines for inclusion plus covering the SALALM papers which are seldom covered in any bibliography. Apart from a few small typographical and indexing errors, this book is an at- tractive, well-done, and much needed ready reference source. As such, it should be on the shelves of all college and re- search libraries along with Geoghegan, Handbook of Latin American Studies, and Latin American Research Review.-]ohn G. Veenstra, School of Library Service, Co- lumbia University. Key Papers in Information, Science. Ar- thur W. Elias, ed. Washington, D.C.: American Society for Information, Sci- ence, 1971. 223p. $5.00 to students and ASIS members; $6.00 to nonmembers. The volume contains reprints of nine- teen articles that, according to the intro- duction, "are relatively easy to read for beginning students" and "are likely to be useful for a number of years." The ASIS Education Committee selected the titles in this volume of readings designed for use in introductory information science courses. Although the contents of the volume as a whole, combined with an instructor's guid- ance for evaluation, will be useful to stu- dents, it will also be useful to those li- brarians who are true professionals and continue to learn long after their years of formal education. The volume is organized into three sub- ject areas-"Background and History," "In- formation Needs and Systems," and "Or- ganization and Dissemination of Informa- tion," and concludes with "Other Areas of Interest." As seems to be inevitable, the headings of the subject areas include more than the subjects contained. The most satis- factory and best integrated section is "Or- ganization and Dissemination of Informa- tion" which embraces six articles, :five of which are classical papers on automatic abstracting and indexing, and on selective dissemination of information. The five pa- pers under "Information Needs and Sys-