College and Research Libraries


of the research efforts of sociologist Peter 
H. Mann of the University of Sheffield. His 
earlier studies, Books and Reading (Lon­
don, 1969) and Books: Buyers and Bor­
rowers (London, 1971), had previously led 
to a pamphlet on "Books and Students" 
(London, 1973). Mann provided the 
framework for the sessions as the first 
spe~ker. He insisted that the lecturer is the 
key person in the communication network 
dealing with books on the campus and as 
such must be challenged to give more infor­
mation and cooperation. Mann suggested 
the need for sanctions against professors 
who do not send reading lists to the library, 
but in a more positive vein he stressed the 
need to give bibliographic instruction .and 
for librarians to work with lecturers in 
planning the syllabus of a course. 

The need of the student for guidance 
and the dependence of both the librarian 
and the local bookseller on the lecturer for 
information came up frequently in the talks 
and discussions. A discussion group that 
was asked to say how to persuade lecturers 
to give students useful information about 
books came up with three suggestions: bet­
ter training of faculty; seminars; and pres­
sure to be applied by librarians, booksellers, 
and, especially, students. These influences 
would move the faculty to give positive 
guidance in using the library in all courses, 
to provide annotated reading lists, and to 
be open to feedback on students' actual use 
of books in the library. 

This emphasis on change in faculty atti­
tudes and performance was challenged by 
a few lecturers present at the conference, 
but it offers perhaps the most important 
message of the conference to the academic 
world. A conference of this kind is itself an 
indication of a way to change attitudes, and 
this volume will be decidedly useful if it 
encourages librarians to take the initiative 
in organizing similar meetings on a single 
campus or perhaps in a metropolitan 
region. 

Although many of the specific comments 
by participants were more relevant to the 
U.K. than to the U.S., one comes away 
from the papers and questions with both 
new information and new incentives. One 
idea presented seemed especially valuable: 
a travelling workshop to assist colleges to 

Recent Publications I 347 

establish a program in bibliographic in­
struction integrated in subject courses 
(sponsored by Newcastle Polytechnic). A 
situation the conference did not explore 
that often complicates the communication 
in American universities is the presence of 
an undergraduate library and other sep­
arate units in the campus system. 

The proceedings of this excellent confer­
ence have fortunately been made available 
to us in a relatively inexpensive paperback 
volume, which, although it has no index, 
is easy to use and will undoubtedly be cov­
ered by marginal annotations by academic 
librarians wise enough to get their own 
copies.-Robert ]. Merikangas, Undergrad­
uate Library, University of Maryland, Col­
lege Park. 

A Century of Service: Librarianship in the 
United States and Canada. Edited by 
Sidney L. Jackson, Eleanor B. Herling, 
E. J. Josey. Chicago: American Library 
Assn., 1976. 354p. $25.00. LC 76-41815. 
ISBN 0-8389-0220-0. 

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348 I College & Research Libraries • July 1977 

The celebration of the American bicen­
tennial sparked a resurgence of interest in 
our national past, a search for national 
identity and viable values in a changing 
world. On a very much smaller scale, the 
commemoration of the centennial of the 
formal founding of the American library 
profession in that bibliothecally fertile year 
1876 stimulated American librarians, also 
groping for a renewed sense of purpose, to 
consider the evolution of their profession 
and the contexts in which it has been prac­
ticed. 

The resultant publications and meetings 
reflect this increased interest among librari­
ans in their collective professional past as 
well as the growing number of scholars 
among them who have been seriously arid 
critically probing that past. A Century of 
Service joins the list of centennial histories 
(among them the July 1976 Library Trends 
devoted to "American Library History: 
1876-1976" and the fine series of articles 
on the history of academic and research 
libraries and librarianship in the 1976 issues 
of College & Research Libraries) that will 
be referred to for information for some time 
to come. 

The editors of A Century of Service 
undertook an ambitious project-the com­
pilation of articles that would survey li­
brarianship in the United States and 
Canada over the past 100 years. It is 
ambitious, not only because the scope is 
large, but because the secondary historical 
literature in the field, while increasingly 
substantial, is not yet rich enough to form 
a wide and firm base for such a survey. At 
the same time, the authors of each article, 
unless they had been immersed in the his­
torical sources for years, could not possibly 
be expected to have done deep research in 
order to write a concise overview of a cen­
tury's history of a major aspect of American 
and Canadian librarianship, though many 
did gather the most significant articles and 
books that deal in a general way with the 
assigned subjects. 

The resulting book is predictably and 
probably unavoidably uneven. The articles 
-altogether eighteen by twenty-one au­
thors and arranged under four rubrics­
clienteles, personnel, facilities, and environ­
ment-range from several written from a 

strongly argued intellectual position to 
those which describe developments in terms 
of broad trends and key issues, to some 
that are mainly compilations of facts or 
weak expositions of complicated subjects. 

The most original pieces are Dee Garri­
son's on women in librarianship (actually 
public librarianship) and Peter Conmy and 
Caroline Coughlin's application of sociolog­
ical theory to the development of library 
associations. Some important topics, like li­
brary resources and bibliographical control, 
could have been thrown into bolder relief 
(though they are covered rather extensively 
in the Library Trends issue), and problems 
of library governance, financial support, 
and libraries in the political and legislative 
process receive not much more than passing 
attention. 

Highlighted are several subjects that 
have needed historical exploration, such as 
library technology in relation to reference 
and technical services and the history of 
services to ethnic minorities, Afro-Ameri­
cans, and the urban masses. Academic and 
research librarians will be especially inter­
ested in the several articles on technology 
and in Samuel Rothstein's survey of services 
to academia, Angelina Martinez' survey of 
services to special clienteles, and John 
Cole's article on the national libraries of the 
United States and Canada. 

On balance, A Century of Service is a 
positive contribution to the literature and 
serves to remind us once again of both the 
accomplishments and the problems of our 
profession. One hopes that historical schol­
arship in librarianship, already well 
launched, will mature to the point where 
book-length, integrated, intellectually pow­
erful syntheses can be written without the 
difficulties and pitfalls of collaborative work 
or the superhuman effort of one or two au­
thors.-Phyllis Dain, School of Library Ser­
vice, Columbia University. 

Fang, Josephine Riss, and Songe, Alice H. 
International Guide to Library, Archival, 
and Information Science Associations. 
New York: Bowker, 1976. 354p. $15.00. 
LC 76-2700. ISBN 0-8352-0847-8. 
This International Gui.de is an updated 

and expanded version of a preliminary edi­
tion published in 1973 under the title