College and Research Libraries


and Vermont without deciding upon one 
of them, and completely ignores the ef-
forts during the American Revolution to 
bring Canada into the conflict as "the 
fourteenth colony." More striking, per-
haps, is the fact that the article on "Abo-
lition Movement" treats abolition and 
antislavery as if they were synonymous 
terms, while the one on "Antislavery 
Movement" does not even contain a cross-
reference to abolition. T h e article on 
"Abolitionist Literature" asserts that "the 
great number of antislavery newspapers 
began with Charles Osborn's Philanthro-
pist ( 1 8 2 0 ) and Benjamin Lundy's 
Genius of Universal Emancipation 
( 1 8 2 1 ) , both originating at M t . Pleasant, 
Ohio, and The Castigator ( 1 8 2 4 ) at 
Ripley, Ohio." T h e article on The 
Emancipator, of Jonesboro, Tenn., on the 
other hand, states that "it preceded the 
Genius of Universal Emancipation by 
seven months." Careful editing should 
have caught these inconsistencies. 

T h e presence of a few minor flaws, 
however, should not be permitted to ob-
scure the fact that because of the excel-
lence of the work as a whole it may be 
expected to rank with the Dictionary of 
American Biography as an indispensable 
reference aid for all students of American 
history.—William C. Binkley, Vanderbilt 
University, Nashville. 

The Library Survey: Problems and 
Methods. E . W . McDiarmid, J r . 
American Library Association, 1940. 
2 4 3 P - $ 3 - 5 0 . 

FOR MANY YEARS we have debated, 
among ourselves and with outsiders, our 
right to call the study of librarianship 
"library science." T h e word "science" is 
one of many which have come to mean 
so many things that they mean almost 

nothing. In this review the word "sci-
ence" means a method of study, a method 
to which no field or fields of knowledge 
may claim exclusive right, and "library 
science" is the application of that method 
to the problems of librarianship. While 
we have always had a library science, until 
a year ago we had not a single manual, 
textbook or handbook on its methodology. 
T h i s condition is undoubtedly both cause 
and effect of the very subordinate position 
heretofore occupied by the scientific as-
pects of the study of librarianship. In 
J u n e 1939 appeared a landmark in the 
literature of librarianship, Investigating 
Library Problems by Douglas Waples. 
Within less than a year has appeared a 
second library science manual: The Li-
brary Survey. 

The Library Survey is an important 
book. It does not pretend to be original 
or profound. It is a practical handbook 
for the student of library problems. It 
"attempts to combine within the covers of 
one volume a wide variety of survey meth-
ods and procedures, in the hope that it 
will result in a saving of time and effort 
for future surveys." T h e "methods and 
procedures" have been assembled, in gen-
eral, from actual surveys. " T h e author 
has essayed the role of reporter and com-
mentator, rather than that of authority." 
T h u s The Library Survey is essentially a 
survey of library surveys. 

By a "library survey" the author means 
a systematic and thorough evaluation of 
the work of a library, a division of a 
library, or a group of libraries, in relation 
to its, or their, objectives. T h e final 
objective of a library survey is always a 
program of action. M r . McDiarmid has 
given us a compendium of evaluative cri-
teria and techniques. He has done a 
thorough and workmanlike, if unimagina-

366 COLLEGE AND RES E ARC LI L I B R A R I E S 



tive job. It is possible that a more useful 
book might have resulted from more 
rigorous selection and exclusion of tech-
niques with greater emphasis on critical 
evaluation of those included. On the 
other hand, it may be that we are not yet 
ready to distinguish between wheat and 
chaff. Certainly a detailed appraisal of 
each survey technique presented would 
have resulted in a formidable volume. 

Perhaps the chief weakness of The Li-
brary Survey lies in the limitation of scope 
implied in the author's "role of reporter 
and commentator." Its emphasis on the 
collection of data and upon description of 
the conditions found, with comparative 
neglect of interpretation and synthesis, 
will distinctly limit the value of the book. 
Its failure to go far beyond the reporting 
of techniques which have been used in 
surveys also constitutes a definite limita-
tion. 

Almost every book on research method-
ology gives an impression of greater con-
fidence than the author feels in the efficacy 
of the methods described. M r . Mc-
Diarmid would be the first to deny the 
omnipotence of the survey as a device for 
curing all of our ills. He offers it only 
as one useful diagnostic technique, a tech-
nique whose value is distinctly limited by 
the absence of valid standards. T h e two 
books on methods of library research which 
we now have, Investigating Library Prob-
lems and The Library Survey, serve only 
to introduce us to the field. W e still have 
a long way to go in shaping the method 
of science to our ends. These two volumes 
provide us with a substantial foundation. 
—G. Flint Purdy, Wayne University, De-
troit. 

Practice of Book Selection: Papers Pre-
sented before the Library Institute at 

the University of Chicago, July 31-
August 31, 1939. Louis R . Wilson, ea. 
University of Chicago Press, 1940. 
368p. $2.50. 
T H I S V O L U M E comprises eighteen pa-

pers presented at the Fourth Library In-
stitute of the University of Chicago. 

Until a few years ago, the published 
guides to book selection consisted generally 
of selected lists of books, enumeration of 
book lists and journals of review, and 
some aphorisms designed to aid the li-
brarian in avoiding pitfalls which occa-
sionally engulf book selectors of varying 
degrees of experience. Recently, changes 
in trends of education and restatements 
of the objectives of the public library have 
encouraged more scientific investigations 
in the theory and practice of book 
selection, the results of which have 
been published in several significant 
treatises. 

T h e Practice of Book Selection, how-
ever, does not follow the pattern of any 
of these earlier volumes in the field. T h e 
contributors include professors, editors, li-
brarians, a college president, a bookseller, 
and a typographer; and the subject matter 
ranges from the selection of the manu-
script for publication to the distribution 
and use by the public of the published 
volume. 

T h e papers may be divided into six 
groups of uneven size and significance. 
Into three major groups may be placed 
fifteen of the papers: six on public, special, 
and high school and college libraries; five 
on literary criticism; and four on the 
publisher and designer as factors in selec-
tion. There is one paper each on distribu-
tion, as illustrated in the personal history 
of a book store; books and self-therapy; 
and the teaching of book selection. In 
the first group, Roden and Carnovsky dis-

SEPT EMBER, 1940 367