College and Research Libraries


but continuous income. Finally, security 
"enables a scholar . . . to devote himself 
single-mindedly to the advancement of 
knowledge unharassed by one of the 
major anxieties of l i f e . " 

L i b r a r y workers may well ponder this 
analysis of the value of tenure in connec-
tion with their own jobs. W h i l e the li-
brarian apparently does not need the 
safeguard of tenure for freedom of 
thought, since his activities occur within 
the framework of institutional policy, it 
should be observed that, as he assumes 
broader interests and responsibilities of 
professional and community nature, he 
moves increasingly into the area of conflict 
with outside groups. T h e problem of 
censorship in libraries is an instance of 
such an area of conflict. If the library 
profession draws to itself people of broad 
interests and personal capacity, it must in 
time face this problem of conflict which 
has always confronted the scholar. A s 
for attractiveness of job and security to 
work wholeheartedly at the job, the li-
brarian is in a situation no different from 
that of the scholar. 

T h r o u g h o u t , often by implication, the 
report recognizes the positive need for ad-
ministration as an activity necessary in 
large and complex operations. " R e g r e t t a -
ble as it may be to those who prefer the 
tiaditional spirit of informality. . . . In 
a complex situation, informality gives rise 
to misunderstanding, conflict, irresponsi-
bility, and inefficiency." 

T h e report is an admirable case study 
of faculty organization, its problems, and 
certain solutions therefor. T h e course of 
scholarly advancement is formally simple, 
going as it does from the undergraduate 
by degrees to the top professor. T h i s 
formal simplicity, however, is attended by 
many real complications produced by en-

rolments, the tradition of tenure, academic 
freedom, the difficulty of defining and 
applying criteria for advancement, and 
the problem of securing adequate self 
administration by men whose primary con-
cern and thought lies along wholly differ-
ent lines.—Donald Coney, University of 
Texas, Austin. 

Administrative Ability; Its Discovery and 
Development. W a l t e r V a n D y k e 
Bingham. Society for Personnel A d -
ministration, P . O . B o x 2 6 6 , W a s h i n g -
ton, 1 9 3 9 . I 7 p . $ . 2 5 . (Pamphlet 
N o . 1 ) 

I N THE equipment of university li-
brarians emphasis has so often, even very 
recently, been placed on academic educa-
tion, on the scholarly mind, that there 
seems to be some danger of forgetting, as 
is sometimes done in reference to other 
university administrative positions, that 
administrative ability is something else 
again and must be sought out, cultivated, 
and used in certain places where it is 
perhaps entitled to be considered before 
scholarship, at least productive scholar-
ship. It is to be expected that university 
librarians, w h o generally stress the ad-
ministrative character of their work, 
might have contributed some ideas, some 
practice in their organizations for the de-
velopment of this particular ability, but 
such are not readily found and therefore 
w e are constrained to read general treatises 
and study how they may be applied to our 
particular organizations. Colonel Bing-
ham's little pamphlet is so vigorous, so 
specific, so pertinent even to libraries that 
I have already quoted from it rather ex-
tensively in my recent paper on " T h e 
T r a i n i n g of University L i b r a r i a n s . " 1 I 

1 College and Research Libraries 1122-29, Dec. 
1939. 

1 8 2 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



shall therefore meet the editor's request 
for a review of it largely by an attempt at 
a synopsis. 

In his introductory section the author 
refers to an alleged shortage of good ad-
ministrative material for government serv-
ice and asks if it is going to be necessary 
to turn again and again to the business 
world, to the legal profession and other 
places in the hope of locating capable ad-
ministrators. Librarians will not have 
any difficulty in transferring this question 
to their own sphere. T h e author then 
goes on to discuss the possibility of the 
government recruiting potential adminis-
trative talent for its own service, and pro-
ceeds to consider the conditions under 
which it can be brought to light and de-
veloped. F o l l o w i n g this is some discus-
sion of the functions of administration. 
Librarians will, I think, in the main, agree 
that this includes both policy making and 
the function of management. 

In section 2 he gives a vivid picture of 
the able administrator in action, a man 
" w h o has formulated a little nucleus of 
well-thought-out purposes and basic poli-
cies . . . so that every proposal . . . can 
be put to the test of these fundamental 
aims." H i s ideal administrator consults 
his staff to get real criticism and ideas; he 
does not merely go through the motions. 
T h i s section the reviewer especially com-
mends to young administrators still elastic 
enough to be affected by it. I wonder if 
the story of how one young assistant fath-
ered an idea on his chief in order to get 
it accepted could still be told of this gen-
eration. Section 3 defining the abilities 
desired in an administrator, is relatively 
slight, but section 4, dealing with two 
kinds of thinking desirable in an admin-
istrator, rational inference, that is j u d g -
ment based on the analysis of factual data, 

and the capacity for intuitive sound deci-
sions where the information is inadequate 
or there is little time for investigation, is 
admirable. Section 5, the last one, is 
short and in the main a summary, with 
the conclusions that administrative ability 
is a complicated pattern of many talents 
and that the desired abilities must, to a 
large extent, be learned. 

T h e failure of most of our large uni-
versity libraries to develop young ad-
ministrators to go out and head other 
scholarly libraries is marked in my time. 
It is to be hoped that the current and next 
generations will do better. T h i s pam-
phlet should help t h e m . — S y d n e y B. 
Mitchell, University of California, Berke-
ley. 

The Library of Tomorrow: a Sympo-
sium. E m i l y M i l l e r Danton, ed. 
American L i b r a r y Association, 1 9 3 9 . 
i g i p . $ 2 . 5 0 . 

I N HIS forecast of an ideal Israel the 
prophet J o e l predicted, " Y o u r old men 
shall dream dreams, your young men shall 
see visions." In this symposium M r s . 
Danton has accomplished more than J o e l 
anticipated. T h e twenty contributors in-
clude the librarian emeritus of Congress; 
four ex-presidents, the secretary and a 
division chief of the American L i b r a r y 
Association; a university president; a pro-
fessor of education; two professors in li-
brary schools; and the heads of public, 
university, children's, special and National 
Y o u t h Administration libraries. T w o 
outstanding non-librarian advocates of 
public libraries, M r s . Dorothy Canfield 
Fisher and W i l l i a m E . M a r c u s of the 
M o n t c l a i r ( N . J . ) Public L i b r a r y Board, 
complete the list. L i b r a r y users per se 
are not included. 

T h e s e contributors vary widely in their 

MARCH, 1940 183