College and Research Libraries


on estimated incomes, occupations, and educa-
tion of the fathers of these sixteen individuals, 
their own exposure to "authoritative symbols 
of society," etc. It is a little disconcerting to 
find this slender base subjected to computa-
tions of percentages (to one and two deci-
mals) just as it is distressing to read some of 
the ad hoc interpretations of the career-lines 
of these "political communication specialists." 

Harold D . Lasswell, who, to the best of my 
knowledge, coined the now current term " c o n -
tent analysis," and who has contributed so 
largely to the development of this field, sets 
out the functions and the chief techniques f o r 
analyzing the content of communications. 
This compact and economical account, utiliz-
ing a series of concrete instances of content 
analysis should serve to acquaint the reader 
with the essential problems and procedures. 

T h e final introductory essay, also by P r o -
fessor Lasswell, deals with the "effects of 
communications." It is largely and inevitably 
devoted to a critical account of how the effects 
of communications might be studied since this 
division of the field contains strikingly few 
rigorous or systematic researches. 

Whatever its limitations, the fact remains 
that no other bibliographic guide to mass com-
munications approximates the value of the 
Smith-Lasswell-Casey volume. Since its ap-
pearance, the field has been growing at a rate 
considerably higher than that in the period 
covered by their book. Librarians, communi-
cations specialists, and interested laymen 
would all be benefited were the same team 
of authors to publish the third volume of their 
work in the near future.—Robert K. Merton, 
Columbia University. 

Modular Planning 
Modular Planning for College and Small 

University Libraries. By Donald E. Bean 
and Ralph E. Ellsworth. [ I o w a City, I o w a ] 
Privately printed by the authors, 1948. 
5 3 P -

So-called "modular" planning for libraries 
has been talked about, and written about to a 
lesser extent, f o r more than ten years. T h e 
idea has been given impetus since the end of 
the war by the deliberations of the Coopera-
tive Committee on Library Buildings, by the 
1946 Institute of the Graduate Library School 
of the University of Chicago, and by speeches 
and addresses at library meetings. T h e 
present volume, in its introduction and gen-
eral comments, and in the basic plans included, 
attempts to be of practical assistance to those 
librarians who have already become interested 
through the more theoretical discussions which 
have appeared in print. It succeeds very well. 
It is difficult to say much more than this about 
a volume of this character. 

It would be possible, of course, to produce 
here another essay on modular construction 
itself. Y o u r reviewer has been a more or less 
active proponent of the idea since about 1937, 
wThen Alfred M . Githens, the architect, called 
upon him at the University of Chicago with 
plans for a building of this type which, alas, 
was never built. But such an essay would be 
out of place here, since it could not but 

duplicate in essence what the authors of the 
present volume have said very well indeed. 
They have listed clearly the advantages of 
modular construction. If they have not 
pointed out its disadvantages, it is probably 
because they do not exist except in theory and 
in the minds of a few die-hard conservatives, 
or with those who have axes to grind, like the 
representative of a company which manufac-
tures multi-tier stacks who called upon me a 
few days ago. 

Attention should be called, however, to two 
points which the authors make which have 
nothing to do with modular construction 
itself. T h e first of these is the emphasis they 
place upon the necessity f o r understanding 
between the librarian and the architect which 
will make it possible f o r the librarian to 
explain what is needed clearly enough so that 
the architect can translate these needs into 
steel and stone. M r . Githens made this same 
point in his very admirable paper before the 
Graduate Library School Institute in 1946. 
It is one which needs constant emphasis. 
Proper use of the book under review will at 
least help the librarian to do this. 

T h e other point is much more specific, but 
not much less important. It is the warning 
the authors sound against rule-of-thumb 
methods of determining space needs. Their 
emphasis on the effect of room shape and 

OCTOBER, 1948 
35 7 



other factors than floor area alone on capacity 
is well taken and to be remembered. 

I am sure that not even the authors (neither 
of whom can be characterized properly as a 
modest man) would call this a great book. 
I will not even call it a good book, because 

that adjective is out of place when applied 
to a writing of this sort. But it is a useful 
book, and its usefulness, like that of the type 
of building it describes, is not of a temporary 
kind.—W i l l i a m M. Randall, U. S. Merchant 
Marine Academy, King's Point, N.Y. 

Names and Places in the N e w s 

World Words; Recommended Pronunciations. 
By William Cabell Greet. 2d ed. N e w 
Y o r k , Columbia University Press, 1948. 
6o8p. 
This new edition of Professor Greet's 

World Words has been revised and greatly 
enlarged. N o w listing about 25,000 entries, 
it contains more than twice as many as the 
1944 edition. T h e dictionary might be more 
precisely titled "names and places in the news" 
since more than 95 per cent of the entries are 

for personal and place names of current in-
terest. 

Phonetic and "spelled-out" pronunciations 
are given f o r each entry. W h e n there has 
been considerable disagreement over a certain 
pronunciation, Professor Greet inserts an ex-
planation for his particular choice. World 
Words is a highly useful compilation of pro-
nunciations, many of which are not to be 
found easily in other reference w o r k s . — C a r l 
Reed, Columbia University Libraries. 

I FOR SALE: 
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umes 1 through 53 (years 1893 to 
1 9 4 6 ) , and V o l u m e s I and II of 
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374 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH. LIBRARIES