College and Research Libraries Recent Publications BOOK REVIEWS COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES Jackson, Sidney L. Lib-raries and Librarianship in the West, reviewed by W. David Laird 75 Irvine, Betty Jo. Slide Libraries: A Guide fo1' Academic Institutions and Museums, reviewed by Wendell W. Simons 76 Downs, Robert Bingham, ed. Guide to Illinois Library Resources, reviewed by Margaret J. Oaksford 76 Anderson, A. J. Problems in Intellectual Freedom and Censorship, reviewed by Eli M. Oboler 77 Mumby, Frank Arthur, and Norrie, Ian. Publishing and Bookselling, 5th ed., reviewed by D. W. Davies 78 Thompson, Donald E. Indiana Authors and Their Books, 1917-1966, reviewed by David Kaser 79 Palmer, Richard Phillips. Case Studies in Library Computer Systems, reviewed by Frederick G. Kilgour . 79 Dougherty, Richard M., and Blomquist, Laura L. Improving Access to Library Resources, reviewed by Barbara Slanker . 80 Thompson, Lawrence S., comp. The New Sabin, reviewed by Doris Ann Sweet 81 Carter, Mary Duncan; Bonk, Wallace John; and Magrill, Rose Mary. Building Library Col- lections, 4th ed., reviewed by Karen Horny . 82 Schad, Jasper G., and Tanis, Norman E. Problems in Developing Academic Library Collec- tions, reviewed by W. Stuart Debenham, Jr. 82 Other Books of Interest to Academic Librarians . 83 Jackson, Sidney L. Libraries and Librarian- ship in the West: A Brief History. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974. 489p. $12.95. I think it would be possible to write a re- view of Libraries and Librarianship in the West which would not be openly hostile or negative. I found it impossible for me to write such a review. Dr. Jackson has bitten off more than any- one can chew. Question: How is it possible to cover the history of libraries and librari- anship prior to the Renaissance in less than 100 pages? Answer: It isn't, but that's what this book attempts to do. Question: If you are writing a history which theoretically stops at 1919, why provide a skimming summary of the next fifty years? Answer: I don't know! Imagine covering the ideas and events associated with the civil rights movement in libraries, the information ex- plosion, open stack libraries, and all the other problems of librarianship in the twen- tieth century in thirty pages: impossible! In the final analysis, Dr. Jackson doesn't really give us much library history that isn't already available in published sources (which he, himself, acknowledges in his preface), but he does squirm a lot giving us many bits and pieces in an attempt to put too much information in too little space. In its overall plan, the book badly needs a good editor, but it is clear that no good editor has been allowed near the manu- script. In the first eight pages I found five sentences that either mean nothing, are ambiguous, or don't say what they obvious- ly are intended to mean. At the end of those pages, I quit counting. For some un- specified reason, the book has an alphabet- ically arranged bibliography followed by a chapter-by-chapter listing of .. Additional References." Then it has a "Main Index" only three and one-half pages long followed by a separately alphabetized "Subject In- dex." And as if that weren't enough, it is I 75 76 I College & Research Libraries • January 1975 one of those paperback books doctored to have the appearance of a regular hardbound trade edition-presumably to help keep buyers from screaming at the outrageous $12.95 price. An acquaintance of mine, an anthropolo- gist, once said of a horrible book about the American Indian that, "In every library there should be a place for at least one truly bad book." I leave you with that thought.-W. David Laird, University Li- brarian, University of Arizona, Tucson. Irvine, Betty Jo. Slide Libraries: A Guide for Academic Institutions and Museums. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1974. 219p. $12.50. Slide Libraries is an ambitious under- taking. There has been no attempt before in the literature to create a complete guide to the establishment and management of slide libraries; this is a commendable first effort by Betty J o Irvine. It covers the breadth of the field-the historical devel- opment of photography and slidemaking, professional qualifications for slide library staffing, classification and cataloging of slides, use of standard "book library" tech- niques, acquisition and production meth- ods, storage systems, layout and planning of physical facilities, projection systems, equipment and supplies-but in 157 pages of text it cannot deal with most of these topics in enough depth to make it a defini- tive manual. The chapter on classification and cataloging, for instance, describes in only 20 pages the diverse classification sys- tems of seven different institutions. Such brief descriptions may confuse more than they enlighten unless the reader under- stands them as introductions to alternative solutions and follows up the leads to pri- mary sources for more detailed information. The book does present a broad overview and identifies the major organizational wa- tershed decisions that must be made in es- tablishing a new collection-what catalog- ing strategy to follow, whether to organize and file in fixed sets or by individual image, whether to store for maximum interfiling expandability or for maximum visual dis- play, etc. To these questions Ms. Irvine . does not offer dogmatic solutions, but sug- gests a variety of options as they might ap- ply in a variety of situations. Answers to the tough questions are, therefore, indecisive and may leave some readers dissatisfied. Part of the problem is that an all-encom- passing book on slide libraries must speak to museums, instructional media centers, and teaching departments in art and other academic subjects, as well as to libraries in the traditional mold. Perhaps the strongest feature of the book is the fifty-plus pages of source material following the text: a directory of distribu- tors and manufacturers of equipment and supplies, a directory of commercial slide sources, a directory of over 200 slide li- braries, and an extensive bibliography of books and articles dating for the most part from the 1960s and 1970s. The book will be generally useful to anyone in the throes of organization; the source features may prove useful to an established slide library. -Wendell W. Simons, Associate University Librarian, University of California, Santa Cruz. Downs, Robert Bingham, ed. Guide to n- linois Library Resources. Chicago: pub- lished in cooperation with the Illinois State Library by the American Library Assn., 1974. 565p. $10.00. Downs' Guide to Illinois Library Re- sources is a potpourri of information en- compassing a broad spectrum of subjects, types of materials, and individuals both local and historical, as well as an extensive bibliography of references to books, pamph- lets, etc., which list or describe library col- lections in Illinois. The impetus for this sur- vey of Illinois resources came from the Illi- nois Board of Higher Education but was es- sentially financed by the Illinois State Li- brary. The remaining forty-nine states would do well to follow the example set by the state of Illinois. The information for this guide was ob- tained by means of a questionnaire in which librarians were asked to provide de- tailed information about their collections. Four subject fields-American literature, medicine, law, and music-were surveyed by specialists. According to the introduction, the Guide has the broadest possible scope and is un- restricted as far as library collections are