College and Research Libraries


By W I L L I A M H . C A R L S O N 

The Research Worker 
and the Library1 

TH E I N C R E A S E of books and print is an 
outstanding phenomenon of this strange 

and fearful world in which we live. Uni-
versity librarians do not, of course, need 
to have this development and problem, with 
which they constantly live and work, 
brought home to them. Nevertheless, it is 
germane to the purposes of this paper to 
reflect upon current and future trends of 
this growth, since it affects and will con-
tinue to affect all users of libraries. It is 
only yesterday, in geologic and anthropo-
logic time, that man discovered the magic 
of print from movable metal type. Y e t in 
this relatively brief period, from the time of 
Gutenberg to the present, civilization has 
moved rapidly forward (if it can be said to 
be forward) on a veritable and rising wave 
of printer's ink rolling over an ever-expand-
ing sea of paper. So enormous have become 
the piles and tons of hieroglyphics-covered 
paper, upon which our civilization rests, 
that one archivist has said, . . we are in-
extricably entangled in our ribbons and 
reams of paper and sometimes we hear 
complaints that it is slowly choking us to 
death, that our civilization built on this 
fragile substance will ultimately die of it."2 

Certainly the rising wave of printer's ink 
and our paper-filled library catacombs have 
carried us inexorably toward the steam 
engine, electricity, the telegraph, the gas 
engine, radio, television, radar, and now the 

1 Paper presented at the meeting of the Association 
of C o l l e g e a n d R e f e r e n c e L i b r a , ies, B u f f a l o , J u n e 18, 
1946. 

2 Wilson, W i l l i a m Jerome. " A n a l y s i s of G o v e r n -
ment Records, an E m e r g i n g P r o f e s s i o n . " Library 
Quarterly 1 6 : 1 - 1 9 , J a n u a r y 1946. 

nuclear fission of matter, all in constantly 
increasing tempo. It has carried us, too, 
toward libraries, as we all know, that can 
count their books more accurately in miles 
than volumes. Analysis of the physical 
growth of the Library of Congress, symbolic 
of the rapid increase of written records, 
will dramatize the surging flood. In 1944 
that great library added 481,733 books and 
pamphlets, bringing its total holdings to 
7,304,181 volumes. A t customary space 
calculations this amounts to 178 linear 
miles of books. W h a t is most significant 
in this growth is that 12 miles were added 
during 1944 alone, that on an average the 
library adds almost one book per minute 
the year round and, at its 1944 rate of 
growth, 1310 books every 24 hours. 
Twenty-five or 30 books will troop to their 
places on the shelves of the Library of 
Congress while this paper is in the process 
of reading. Approximately 8000 more 
books will be added during the period of 
this A . L . A . conference. 

Books definitely beget books, with each 
newcomer resting in some degree on its 
predecessor's back, ultimately to the begin-
ning of recorded thought and experience. 
T h i s writer is convinced that the increase 
of books is definitely in proportion to the 
convenience and economy with which men 
can set down in writing whatever seems 
to them important, and, as we all know, 
many things so recorded seem, and un-
doubtedly many actually are, very trivial 
indeed. W e already have evidence and 

291, 



some studies of many libraries doubling 

their size roughly every sixteen years. 

W h i l e this cannot go on continuously, it 

seems certain that the numerical increase of 

books on a unit basis w i l l continue to rise 

rapidly. Perhaps, some day, someone will 

work out ratios for this growth and estab-

lish a " l a w " of increase of books which will 

be duly set down in still another book. 

W h e n we contemplate increase, even at 

current rates, down through the years we 

get an awe-inspiring prospect. T h e Library 

of Congress, now adding books at the rate 

of 120 miles per decade, will add 360 

miles during the normal professional life-

time of a young librarian now entering its 

service or almost twice as many books as it 

now has altogether. It will add 180 miles 

or once again as many books as it now has 

during the remaining professional life ex-

pectancy of this writer. 

Place of Libraries 

These reflections contribute to a consider-

ation of the relationship of faculty members 

and research workers to libraries in this 

new atomic age because that relationship 

must necessarily be conditioned and largely 

determined by the vast and increasing mass 

of materials which our academic and re-

search libraries must encompass, organize, 

and digest to the point where it is readily 

and conveniently available for the use of 

the research worker. H o w this problem 

will be met and what directions our libraries 

will take under their mounting burden and 

obligations is indeed one of the important 

educational and cultural problems of the 

atomic age. One thing is certain. T h e prob-

lem transcends the facilities of any one li-

brary. It will require eventually the 

cooperation, or at least will involve the 

operation, of all libraries, large and small, 

on a world basis. 

It seems to this observer that two solu-

tions are most likely to result. T h e one 

would be the founding of a number of large 

superlibraries in the nature of huge reser-

voirs or storehouses located strategically 

throughout the nation and throughout the 

world and charged with the cooperative and 

integrated responsibility of collecting all 

the important written records of the past 

and future. T h e libraries of outlying aca-

demic institutions and research centers could 

then content themselves with a basic col-

lection of the most important and current 

literature with all the less frequently used 

material supplied from the central reser-

voirs by some rapid transit method such as 

telegraph or television photography, rocket 

tube, or some other of the fantastic gadgets 

which the inventive genius of mankind, 

resting directly upon the books in our li-

braries, is making not only possible but 

commonplace. 

Specialization 

T h e other possible solution will be the 

spreading of the burden by specialization 

among libraries, as already promoted by 

the Library of Congress, the Association of 

Research Libraries, and our bibliographic 

centers. For the immediate future this 

seems the most likely development. It is 

quite possible that a combination of the two 

solutions may be arrived at. A s we all 

know, there have been developments, not 

too satisfactory up to the present moment, 

which give promise of at least a workable 

solution of the physical problems of housing 

our mushrooming libraries. It is therefore 

not our miles of books, in terms of the 

present codex book, that needs to concern 

us so much as the ways in which this ma-

terial can be satisfactorily organized for 

use. A correlated problem of the cultural 

world is the ability of man to master and 

understand the records of his past, both in 

the physical and the social sciences. Van-

292 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



n e v a r Bush, t h e director of the Office of 
Scientific Research and D e v e l o p m e n t a n d 
one of the most b r i l l i a n t t h i n k e r s in m a t t e r s 
scientific in the w o r l d today and upon w h o m 
this paper leans heavily, says t h i s : 

There is a growing mountain of research. 
But there is increased evidence that we are 
being bogged down today as specialization ex-
tends. The investigator is staggered by the 
findings and conclusions of thousands of other 
workers—conclusions which he cannot find 
time to grasp much less to remember, as they 
appear. Yet specialization becomes increas-
ingly necessary for progress, and the effort 
to bridge between the disciplines is cor-
respondingly superficial. . . . If the aggregate 
time spent in writing scholarly works and in 
reading them could be evaluated, the ratio 
between these amounts of time might well be 
startling. Those who conscientiously attempt 
to keep abreast of current thought even in 
restricted fields by close and continuous read-
ing might well shy away from an examina-
tion calculated to show how much of the 
previous months' efforts could be produced 
on call. The difficulty seems to be not so 
much that we publish unduly in view of the 
extent and variety of present day interests, but 
rather that publication has been extended far 
beyond our present ability to make real use 
of the record.3 

C o m i n g directly to problems w i t h i n the 
province and concern of all bibliographers 
and all university librarians, M r . Bush says 
t h i s : 

Professionally our methods of transmitting 
and reviewing the results of - research are 
generations old and by now are totally in-
adequate for their purpose. . . . The sum-
mation of human experience is being expanded 
at a prodigious rate and the means we use 
for threading through the consequent maze 
to the momentarily important item is the same 
as was used in the days of square-rigged 
ships. . . . The real heart of the matter of 
selection, however, goes deeper than a lag 
in the adoption of mechanisms by libraries 
or a lack of development of devices for their 
use. Our ineptitude in getting at the record 

3 B u s h , V a n n e v a r . Endless Horizons. W a s h i n g t o n 
D . C . , P u b l i c A f f a i r s P r e s s , 1946, p. 17-

is largely caused by the artificiality of systems 
of indexing. When data of any sort are placed 
in storage they are filed alphabetically or 
numerically and the information is found 
(when it is) by tracing it down from sub-
class to subclass. It can be in only one place un-
less duplicates are used; one has to have rules 
as to which path will locate it and the rules 
are cumbersome. Having found one item 
moreover one has to emerge from the system 
and re-enter on a new path. The human 
mind does not work that way. It operates 
by association. With one item in its grasp it 
snaps instantly to the next that is suggested 
by the association of thoughts, in accordance 
with some intricate web of trails carried 
by the cells of the brain. It has other charac-
teristics of course; trails that are not fre-
quently followed are prone to fade, items 
are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. 
Y e t the speed of action, the intricacies of 
trails, the detail of mental pictures is awe-
inspiring beyond all else in nature. Man 
cannot hope fully to duplicate this mental 
process artificially but he certainly ought to 
be able to learn from it. In minor ways he 
may even improve, for his records have rela-
tive permanency. The first idea, however, to 
be drawn from the analogy concerns selection. 
Selection by association rather than indexing 
may yet be mechanized.4 

T h i s l a t t e r suggestion, f u l l of promise, 
is the first concept t h a t this w r i t e r has come 
across w h i c h offers any hope of really sim-
p l i f y i n g a n d m a k i n g m o r e easily usable o u r 
increasingly ponderous bibliographic m a -
chinery. 

O n e result of the recent ( o r should w e 
say p r e s e n t ) w a r and of the w a r y beach-
head civilization is establishing in the atomic 
w o r l d has been the i n t e n s i f y i n g of the gen-
eral awareness of the i m p o r t a n c e of o u r re-
search libraries in the scientific field, at least, 
and the establishment of official govern-
m e n t a l concern f o r the w e l f a r e and develop-
m e n t of scientific libraries. T h i s concern is 
given expression in Science, the Endless 
Frontier, the r e p o r t of the Office of Scien-
tific Research and D e v e l o p m e n t to P r e s i d e n t 

4 Ibid., p. 17-32. 

OCTOBER, 1946 293 



T r u m a n . T h i s report, released just about 

the time that the first atomic bomb was 

loosed on the world (and I say " w o r l d " ad-

visedly), devotes an appendix to "Library 

A i d s " which, under the three heads on inter-

library cooperation, abstracting and trans-

lating service, and bibliographic and 

reference service, emphasizes the problem of 

making scientific knowledge available to the 

scholar.5 

No Service Satisfactory 

T h e report says, as librarians well know, 

that none of these services is now entirely 

satisfactory, that even the largest libraries 

can no longer cover all materials. It pro-

poses the establishment of a national re-

search foundation and recommends that it 

use a part of its funds for a solution of the 

problem. It implies that really revolu-

tionary technical aids may become available 

which will help us solve our bibliographical 

complexities, but that until this happens 

comprehensive plans for interlibrary co-

operation are necessary. T h i s includes, the 

report says, the necessity of having some-

where in this country one copy of every 

needed publication, which presumably 

means every copy of any consequence pub-

lished. It is further suggested that sorting 

machinery and use of microfilm may "go 

far to improve" the searching of the litera-

ture and making bibliographies. It is 

recognized that this might require reclassi-

fication of science literature for at least the 

past several decades. " I n the future," says 

the report, "this problem could be met by 

arranging for the classification of every 

article prior to publication, according to 

some prearranged system." 

Here is an idea that has been voiced, 

time and again by librarians, only to fall 

by the wayside either because of the real 

5 B u s h , V a n n e v a r . Science, the Endless Frontier. 
W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . , U . S . G o v e r n m e n t P r i n t i n g Office, 
1945. P- 112-15. 

and very practical difficulties involved or 

because of the lack of sustained and cen-

tralized attention and financing. Perhaps, 

at long last, under official government 

sponsorship and support, such preclassifica-

tion will come. A general reclassification 

of the literature of the past several decades 

to mesh with such preclassification involves 

even greater problems and will be much 

less likely to be achieved. 

National Science Foundation Act 

Legislation is, as of June 1946, pending 

in Congress ( S . F . 1850), known as the 

National Science Foundation A c t of 1946, 

designed to put the recommendations of the 

Office of Scientific Research and Develop-

ment into effect. T h e present bill, the 

result of voluminous hearings before the 

Committee on M i l i t a r y Affairs, brings in 

opinions and ideas from the elite of our 

scientific and academic workers from all 

over the nation. A s at present written, it 

establishes a national science foundation to 

be managed by an administrator, by and 

with the advice of a national science board. 

It provides for eight divisions, including 

one of publications and information, and 

authorizes three more divisions as need may 

arise. 

T h i s writer has been pleased to note that 

the bill, as now written, provides for one 

section to be devoted to the social sciences, 

and this in spite of the fact that a group of 

important scientist's had testified that study 

of the social sciences could not be con-

veniently integrated into the work of the 

foundation and might better be handled 

separately. W h i l e there was no effort in 

this testimony to belittle the importance of 

the social sciences, we may take courage 

from the fact that young James Hummel, a 

science talent winner of 1945 and perhaps 

clearer of vision than his learned elders, 

testified before the committee that the so-

294 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



cial and cultural sciences have lagged behind 

the physical sciences because they cannot be 

studied as can the physical sciences, because 

"they are much deeper," and require re-

search on an extremely vast scale and 

should therefore receive more attention than 

the natural sciences.6 Dare we hope that 

our young high school graduates, in multi-

tude, are equally discerning? 

Use Existing Agencies 

It is not the intent of this pending legisla-

tion to set up new research agencies and 

machinery but insofar as possible to use the 

existing federal agencies and through con-

tractual arrangements, existing university, 

college, and industrial research facilities. 

Included in the hearings on this vitally im-

portant legislation is a considerable body 

of data on the library, indexing, abstracting, 

and research problems stressed in Science, 

the Endless Frontier. 

Albert F . Blakeslee, of Biological Ab-

stracts, told the committee that the greatest 

impediment to the advancement of science 

at present is the lack of effective means by 

which the findings of scientists, especially 

those of other nations, can be mobilized and 

put to work.7 H e said that the research 

literature of the biological sciences has now 

become so great that no scholar can follow 

it, even in his own field, without the most 

potent scholarly aids. Before the war there 

were at least 6,000 research periodicals in 

the biological fields alone, issued in more 

than 25 languages and publishing some 

60,000 to 70,000 articles annually. No-

where are all these journals available in 

their completeness, and no library is able 

to contain them all. M r . Blakeslee says: 

"Aside from perhaps forty or fifty of the 

larger universities the biological libraries in 

8 U . S . S e n a t e . 79th Congress, Subcommittee on 
M i l i t a r y A f f a i r s . " H e a r i n g s on S c i e n c e L e g i s l a t i o n , " p. 
1205. 

''Ibid., p. 1188-92. 

colleges, universities, and research establish-

ments are pitifully inadequate. Research 

published in the more difficult languages, 

such as Russian and even Italian and Portu-

guese, is rarely seen and still more rarely 

applied. T h e r e are countless small institu-

tions with very capable men who have at 

their disposal scarcely as many as a dozen 

of the research periodicals." Abstracting, 

microfilming, and borrowing is the best an-

swer to this situation, says M r . Blakeslee, 

thus giving each science a really effective 

clearing house of information. " T h e r e is 

probably no field of scientific activity in 

which the dollar applied can accomplish so 

much," he believes. 

Federal Funds Necessary 

But all this will cost money, more money, 

says M r . Blakeslee, than can be secured 

from subscriptions or other present known 

sources of income. Replacement of the 

present obsolete methods of publication and 

fact-finding by modern methods can be 

done, he maintains, only with the resources 

of the federal government. T h e cost of 

translating, abstracting, and publishing Rus-

sian research literature in the biological, 

agricultural, and medical fields alone he es-

timates at $165,000 annually. H e there-

fore recommends that the proposed legisla-

tion confer upon the science foundation 

powers adequate to deal with these problems 

in whatever way national welfare and the 

changing times in which we live may re-

quire. 

Harry Sobotka, of the M t . Sinai Hospi-

tal, also emphasized before the committee 

the need of governmental cooperation and 

concerted planning on a national and inter-

national scale for the abstracting and index-

ing of literature, which he characterizes as 

a public service.8 T o Germany's hegemony 

of scientific publication, D r . Sobotka as-

* Ibid., p. 1192-93-

OCTOBER, 1946 295 



cribes much of the "myth" of her scientific 
pre-eminence as well as a considerable scien-
tific handicap of the allied powers, in prose-
'cuting both World Wars I and II. In 
addition, he says (and this all university 
librarians will applaud), it allowed the 
Germans to "exact a disproportionate finan-
cial tribute to their publishing business from 
the libraries of other nations." 

It is neither possible nor desirable, says 
Dr. Sobotka, that Germany should resume 
her scientific publishing. Filling the vac-
uum left by her withdrawal therefore de-
volves on American and British science. 
Because of the size of the problem, this 
must be done on an accelerated basis. 

He further states: 

. . . Obsolete Continental methods must be 
supplanted with modern filing and indexing 
procedures developed through American in-
genuity, as well as new methods of dissemina-
tion of information by microprint, microfilm, 
etc. Finally, any fear of quantitative and 
qualitative lack of domestic manpower for 
this job is wholly unjustified; on the con-
trary, participation of hundreds of American 
graduate students adds new education and 
economical prospects for the postwar genera-
tion of scientists . . . an active service of 
abstracting and reference literature in the 
exact sciences as well as in the historic sciences 
is one of the most important tasks of any Na-
tional Science Foundation and must form an 
integral and properly organized part of its 
effort. 

Basic Freedom of Science 

Watson Davis, director of Science Serv-
ice, told the committee that government 
support of a program for prompt and com-
plete announcement of the results of re-
search is necessary not only to put knowl-
edge gained to work but to assure people of 
the world, as well as of the United States, 
of the basic freedom which science needs if 
it is to be effective and fruitful.9 Thus 
can ill will, created by keeping information 

9 Ibid., p. 161-68. 

secret, be neutralized. M r . Davis urges 
that essential knowledge be brought into a 
kind of "world brain." He says, and all 
librarians know how right he is, that ab-
stract journals have struggled with this 
problem with laudable success in some fields 
and almost complete neglect in others. W e 
have, therefore, a tremendous backlog of 
scientific knowledge, unpublished, unab-
stracted, unindexed, and untranslated, far 
beyond the ability of our present science 
organizations to handle. 

M r . Davis believes that if we are foolish 
enough to try to print all research in the 
traditional manner our presses (to say noth-
ing of our libraries) will be hopelessly 
clogged. He recommends as a substitute, 
auxiliary publication through the deposit 
of the manuscript in a central place, to be 
numbered and abstracted by the central 
agency without cost. This central agency 
can then send out film copies of any de-
posited manuscript, as required, through its 
abstracting service. This idea is already 
in operation in the Bibliography of Scientific 
and Industrial Reports prepared, rather 
curiously, it seems to this writer, by the 
Office of the Publication Board, Depart-
ment of Commerce, organized on June 8, 
!945> as an interdepartmental board to 
assist the director of war mobilization and 
reconversion by bringing scientific and tech-
nical information to his attention.10 

Provision of Act 

As a result of the concern over ways and 
means of making the results of research 
known, as indicated in Science, the Endless 
Frontier and by the foregoing and similar 
statements, Senate File 1850 makes the fol-
lowing provision: 

The Administrator shall record, collect, in-
dex, and promptly publish or cause to be pub-

10 U . S . S u p e r i n t e n d e n t of D o c u m e n t s . Monthly Cata-
log of U.S. Government Publications, M a r c h 1946, p. 
226. 

296 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



lished significant data on all inventions and 
discoveries and other findings produced in the 
course of federally financed research and de-
velopment activities, or arrange with other 
Government agencies for such publishing, re-
cording, collection, and indexing. In consulta-
tion and collaboration with the Library of 
Congress and other Government agencies, the 
Administrator shall take such steps as he may 
deem necessary to make such information and 
other available significant scientific and techni-
cal information accessible to the public includ-
ing the preparation and distribution of reports, 
periodic catalogs, inventories, abstracts, trans-
lations, bibliographies, and microfilm and 
other reproductions thereof; and for such pur-
poses the Administrator may utilize the 
facilities of Government agencies and other 
organizations to the extent that he deems 
necessary or desirable, and may contract for 
the expenditure of funds for such pur-
poses. . . . 

Since this proposed legislation, in some 
form or other, is certain to be passed, it 
seems that we are coming to the end of the 
era of rugged individualism and voluntary 
cooperation in the systematic organization 
of learned literature, an era characterized 
by Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, 
the Wilson indexes, the Union List of 
Serials, a variety of abstracting services, co-
operative cataloging, the importations pro-
gram of the Association of Research Li-
braries, self-supporting union catalogs, and 
similar aids and tools which librarians, 
learned societies, and commercial publishers 
have more or less haphazardly sweated out 
by themselves, often through the efforts of a 
few members of hard-working committees. 
F u r t h e r evidence that we can look for in-
creasing governmental concern in these 
matters is the fact that the Library of 
Congress is prepared to include, in its 
proposed budget, f u n d s for an exploration 
of the whole field of indexing and abstract-
ing.11 Plans are also afoot for U N E S C O 

1 1 Association of Research L i b r a r i e s . " M i n u t e s of 
24th M e e t i n g , Dec. 29-30, 1 9 4 5 , " p. 8-9. ( M i m e o . ) 

to lend practical assistance to the centraliza-
tion and coordination of bibliographical ac-
tivities on a world basis.12 T h e national 
science foundation and other government 
agencies will not, of course, immediately 
take over existing bibliographical agencies 
and tools but, with federal and, presumably, 
eventually international purse strings open, 
more and more governmental responsibility 
will be assumed in these fields, as it must 
be if the ever-increasing burden is to be 
satisfactorily handled. 

T h e result will undoubtedly be a more 
complete and efficient bibliographical re-
cording and service than the world has ever 
had—a service growing, under present tech-
niques, ever more ponderous and undoubt-
edly tending more and more to bureaucratic 
control and attitudes. T o the writer's 
horse-and-buggy eyes, the prospect for such 
tremendous progress which we all should, 
and undoubtedly do, applaud seems some-
how a little dismal and uninviting, requir-
ing, as it will, more, more, and ever more 
very small cogs in a huge machine—cogs that 
can never know the joys and satisfactions of 
the pioneers of Poole, Sabin, Evans, the W i l -
son indexes, Chemical Abstracts, biblio-
graphic centers, and similar enterprises. T h e 
haphazard 'pre-atomic bibliographical tools 
which we shall eventually look back upon 
from the push-button vantage point of a 
streamlined, mechanized atomic world were 
f a r from perfect, but they gave and are 
giving their originators all the f u l l satisfac-
tions of the creator and the pioneer, of the 
individualist standing on his own feet and 
sweating out the path toward achievement 
without governmental support. Of such 
is the cost of progress. I t is a sad commen-
tary on our civilization that all this prospec-
tive progress will finally come about as a 
measure of military defense. 

1 2 W h i t e , Carl M . " T h e Modern L i b r a r y : M o s t 
P o w e r f u l Non-commercial M e d i u m . " Library Journal 
71:435-38, A p r . 1, 1946. 

OCTOBER, 1946 297 



Attitude of Faculty 

W h a t of the relation of the f a c u l t y mem-
ber a n d research w o r k e r to his libraries 
u n d e r the streamlined i n t e g r a t e d efficiency 
of the atomic a g e ? I n an e f f o r t to assay the 
l i b r a r y a t t i t u d e s and opinions of our present 
generation of scholars w h o m a r c h w i t h us 
into this n e w atomic age, the w r i t e r has ad-
dressed some comments and a series of ques-
tions to eighteen f r i e n d s and colleagues, 
divided equally on t h r e e d i f f e r e n t campuses 
and equally between social scientists and 
physical scientists. A d m i t t e d l y this is a 
small s a m p l i n g of opinion and t h o u g h t , b u t 
it is a sampling, and an i n t e r e s t i n g one, 
w h i c h p e r m i t s some reasonably a u t h e n t i c 
generalizations about scholarly reactions to 
the probable l i b r a r y developments of the 
immediate f u t u r e . 

O n the basis of replies received it can 
be said t h a t the f a c u l t y m e m b e r of today 
and f o r the next decade at least w i l l w a n t , 
in his o w n i nst i tutional library, the largest 
a n d most comprehensive collection of codex 
books in his field w i t h i n the means of his 
i n s t i t u t i o n . H e w i l l c o n t i n u e to accept, b u t 
by no m e a n s enthusiastically, i n t e r l i b r a r y 
loans f o r l i t e r a t u r e not o w n e d by his l i b r a r y . 
H e w i l l r e l u c t a n t l y accept, if he m u s t , 
microfilm or m i c r o p r i n t b u t he w i l l m u c h 
p r e f e r the codex book. H e w i l l c o n t i n u e to 
be irked by the delay incidental to interli-
b r a r y loans. H e w i l l increasingly w a n t , as 
the m e t h o d s a n d innovations of the f u t u r e 
may p e r m i t , the requested m a t e r i a l the same 
day asked f o r or the day t h e r e a f t e r and n o t 
next week. H e r e he stands a good chance of 
being happier and b e t t e r satisfied in the 
atomic age t h a n in the years immediately 
past. 

T h e present f a c u l t y m e m b e r w o u l d defi-
nitely not be c o n t e n t w i t h a basic collection 
of some fifty or sixty t h o u s a n d volumes of 
the most i m p o r t a n t l i t e r a t u r e , supplemented 
by high-speed loans t h r o u g h p h o t o g r a p h i c 

service or otherwise, no m a t t e r h o w rapid, 
f r o m some l a r g e c e n t r a l l i b r a r y or reservoir. 
H e will c o n t i n u e to w a n t access to t h e 
stacks and to feel the need of h a v i n g the 
m o r e i m p o r t a n t l i t e r a t u r e of his field at 
his disposal. M o r e t h a n a n y t h i n g else 
f a c u l t y members questioned emphasized the 
i m p o r t a n c e of f r e e d o m to r o a m the stacks, 
p u l l i n g d o w n books at w i l l , not necessarily 
a l o n g the lines of the research in progress. 
T h i s f r e e d o m the " w o r l d b r a i n " suggested 
by W a t s o n D a v i s or the m i c r o c a r d s of 
F r e m o n t R i d e r c a n n o t possibly give. O n e 
scientist stressed the s t i m u l a t i n g effect of 
such r a n d o m reading, s t a t i n g as an example 
t h a t E . O . L a w r e n c e had g o t t e n the idea 
f o r the cyclotron w h i l e scanning a G e r m a n 
research article in w h i c h he had not been 
p a r t i c u l a r l y interested. A n o t h e r said, " I 
do n o t see h o w I could get a l o n g w i t h o u t 
being able to go i n t o the stacks and h u n t . 
I always h a t e d C r e r a r f o r t h a t r e a s o n . " 

T h e f a c u l t y m e m b e r of t h e present and 
immediate f u t u r e w i l l w e l c o m e the assist-
ance of a highly t r a i n e d and competent 
subject specialist l i b r a r i a n , b u t only as an 
aid in l o c a t i n g the l i t e r a t u r e . H e w i l l feel 
the need of himself k n o w i n g the indexing, 
bibliographical, and a b s t r a c t i n g aids in his 
field and will also feel t h a t he m u s t u n d e r -
stand their peculiarities and complexities 
r a t h e r t h a n leaving this t o the subject li-
b r a r i a n . T h i s m u c h he believes w i l l be 
necessary if he is to keep his feet on the 
g r o u n d and if his w o r k is to r e t a i n its 
validity. H e will feel t h a t a subject li-
b r a r i a n can do no m o r e t h a n some prelimi-
n a r y laborsaving w o r k f o r him. O n e 
historian queried stated, " I have yet to 
meet the r e f e r e n c e or research m a n t h a t has 
quite the same a n g l e on my research prob-
lems as I have m y s e l f . " A n o t h e r social 
scientist said, " B y the time I could get over 
complete instructions the l i b r a r i a n m i g h t as 
well w r i t e the b o o k . " 

298 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



Unnecessary 1Publication 

T h e r e is considerable agreement, in the 
group questioned, that there is unnecessary 
publication in the various subject fields. 
T o this writer it came as a considerable 
surprise that the physical scientists are more 
unanimous on this than the social scientists. 
One chemist stated simply, "Some people 
can work one day in the laboratory and 
publish half a dozen articles on the results." 
Another physical scientist said optimisti-
cally, " I n the future there will be more 
careful selection of research topics, less un-
important research undertaken, the worker 
will know more of what has been done, and 
there will be more careful editing, thus 
reducing the length of articles and duplica-
tion." T o this the librarians and all other 
scholars will add a prayerful Amen! 

Although admitting that there is un-
necessary publication, faculty members, as 
reflected by this small cross section of 
opinion, at least, are no more agreed than 
librarians as to the discarding of anything 
that has achieved the dignity of print. One 
scientist said, " I t would be difficult or im-
possible and perhaps even presumptuous for 
any person or persons to draw a line be-
tween that which should be retained and 
that which might be discarded." T h i s 
will strike a sympathetic note with all li-
brarians who have struggled with this 
knotty problem, even though, with the 
mounting flood of materials to be processed 
and indexed, we cannot permanently con-
tinue to evade it. Another scientist places 
the dilemma squarely back in our laps by 
logically saying, "Just as the library must 
constantly be planning additions in the 
light of the needs and finances of the in-
stitution it serves, so also it might well be 
planning deletions of materials no longer 
needed." 

O u r interest and enthusiasm in develop-
ing streamlined, centralized library tech-

niques, procedures, and research aids should 
perhaps be given pause by this observation 
of a historian: "Scholarship and research 
must not forget the benefits of decentraliza-
tion and should not elaborate the mechanics 
of research to the point that we burn up 
all our energy in procedures and machines 
and have but little left for the task itself." 

As to what the professor born into the 
atomic age will expect of his libraries, those 
of us conditioned by having lived most of 
our lives in the pre-atomic age can do no 
more than surmise. Perhaps this statement 
by Richard Lewontin, a high school senior 
and a finalist in the science talent search of 
I945> points the way. Says young Lewon-
tin, not realizing perhaps the full implica-
tions of his statement, ". . . if you want to 
do a piece of research, the first thing you do 
is go out and look up all the books that 
have been written on it and find out every-
thing that everybody else has found out, 
and only then can you do a successful piece 
of research."13 No promise here for relief 
for harried librarians, catalogers, bibliog-
raphers, and abstracters. No promise either 
for a pleasant life of leisure for M r . Lewon-
tin and other prospective research workers 
of the future. N o matter to what infinitesi-
mal degree the work week of the f u t u r e 
musician, coal miner, or railroad worker 
may be shrunk, the scholar of the future, if 
he is to retain his competence, must neces-
sarily be chained to his books and his labora-
tories. Even now one historian has said, 
"Keep up with my field? Not on twenty-
four hours a day!" 

Good and Bad Books 

As this writer surveys the uses to which 
books have been put, as he has come to un-
derstand that use through two decades as a 
practicing university librarian, he comes to 

13 U . S . S e n a t e . 79th Congress, Subcommittee on Mili-
tary A f f a i r s . " H e a r i n g s on S c i e n c e L e g i s l a t i o n , " p. 1208. 

OCTOBER, 1946 299 



the conclusion that we librarians have 

tended to have a naive faith in the value 

and power of our books. If only people 

would come to our libraries and read our 

books and if only we could get them all or-

ganized for easy use, w e have frequently 

said and more often implied, everything 

would be all right. In saying this and 

believing this, we have failed to realize that 

books reflect human experience and are 

therefore both good and evil and that, be-

cause man is the strange and unpredictable 

creature that he is, a book that is good for 

one person may be bad for another. M o r e 

and more we are impressed that in all our 

miles of books, carefully marshaled row on 

row, there are comparatively few books of 

wisdom and those that there are go largely 

unheeded and unread. O u r catacombs and 

corridors of books contain much knowledge, 

a tremendous store of facts, ideas, and tech-

nical know-how, a sorry story of greed, 

strife, and inhumanity as well as an inspir-

ing chronicle of noble and enlightened 

thinking and action, a brilliant record of 

the mastery or at least the plumbing of the 

mysteries of nature. T h e books of true 

wisdom, however, the books containing the 

philosophies of men concerned with spiritual 

values and the real significance of the 

human mind and soul, the books of Lao-tse, 

Buddha, Isaiah, Christ, and others, books 

which could yet save the world if they 

should be seriously read and applied, stand 

lonesome and neglected among the millions. 

T h e y still carry the same messages of hope, 

peace, and tranquility, should man choose 

to pause and heed, as when the spawning 

of our books of knowledge and the rapid 

and now frantic march to mastery over 

natural forces first began. 

Legendary man has always been seeking 

some object which would give him super-

natural power over material things and 

over his fellow beings and has frequently 

found it. Aladdin and his wonderful lamp, 

Jason with his fleece, Siegfried with his ring 

have had such objects, and in every case 

the power attained was greater than the 

wisdom to use it. So far this has been in 

the realm of legend and fantasy but now 

man, here and now, today, in 1946, living 

and breathing, has attained such power and 

stands frightened and bewildered, fearing 

he has achieved Inferno, desperately hoping 

that it may yet turn out to be Nirvana. 

Wisdom for Good 

It is largely through books that man has 

achieved his modern magic and the new 

terrible medicine of the atomic bomb. Can 

he also, through books, find the wisdom to 

use this new power for good and not for 

evil? L e t us hope and pray that the vast 

library resources and bibliographical aids 

of our nation and of all nations may yet, 

through the work and study of men of 

learning and goodwill, ourselves included, 

bring to men everywhere understanding, 

tolerance, humility, and, above all else, wis-

dom to use their God-like powers for the 

good of their fellow men. 

300 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES