College and Research Libraries


the principles which w i l l guide the college 
librarian in administering such a service. In 
the chapter entitled " T h e L i b e r a l A r t s Func-
tions of the University L i b r a r y , " Stanley E . 
G w y n n occupies himself almost entirely w i t h 
t w o m a t t e r s : first, w i t h the importance of 
giving students instruction in the role of the 
library and librarian in society and in the 
methods of using library m a t e r i a l s ; and, 
second, w i t h the admonition that w e l l - q u a l i -
fied librarians can be more influential in en-
couraging the reading habit among students 
than "luxuriously furnished reading-rooms and 
the invitingly arranged shelves." I am sure 
he would agree that it w o u l d be nice to have 
both. W y m a n W . P a r k e r of the University 
of Cincinnati presents in " C o l l e g e - L i b r a r y 
Personnel" an informed and lively discussion 
of one of our most pressing problems in 
library w o r k today and makes several promis-
ing suggestions f o r bringing new recruits into 
the profession. I w o u l d like to think that our 
profession " o f f e r s g r e a t variety and prestige 
to its members," and I bless P a r k e r f o r saying 
it, but it is a deplorably w e l l - k n o w n fact that 
our lack of prestige is one of the principal 
deterrents to encouraging young people of 
ability and personality to become librarians. 
T h e r e are many problems in the theory and 
practice of book selection, and for those w h o 
w a n t a fresh look at how these may be solved 
f o r the liberal arts college library, D r . N e w -
ton F . M c K e o n ' s g r a c e f u l l y w r i t t e n chapter 
on " T h e N a t u r e of the C o l l e g e - L i b r a r y Book 
C o l l e c t i o n " can be w a r m l y recommended. 

T h e author of the chapter on "Finance and 
the C o l l e g e L i b r a r y , " Reubin Frodin, execu-
tive dean, f o u r - y e a r and professional colleges, 
State University of N e w Y o r k , may be a 
newcomer to many of us librarians of the com-
mon species, but he has had an interesting and 
varied library career which he describes at 
the beginning of his chapter. In v i e w of his 
background, associations, and obvious w i t , 
it is little bewildering how in this contribution 
he could w r i t e so much in the manner of a 
dilettante. H i s treatment is a breezy ramble 
through the byways of college library finance. 
H e says nothing about the how, why, or 
w h e r e f o r e of college library financial problems 
that has not been better said in the library 
writings to which he refers so contemptuously. 
W h e r e sincerity and fundamental seriousness 
are called for, notes of smugness and falsity 
are perpetually intruding. T h e only construc-

tive point in the chapter is the proposal of the 
N e w Y o r k State Regents' Committee (of 
which M r . Frodin is an important member) 
for linking up the college libraries in the 
state in a system of mutual help. Presumably 
many of the college libraries are deficient in 
support, book collections, and space, and need 
more help than can be secured in a liberal 
system of interlibrary loans. T h e Regents' 
Committee feels that college library service 
could be improved by strengthening the N e w 
Y o r k State L i b r a r y as a kind of "library's 
l i b r a r y , " to which the college libraries should 
be able to look for the supply of those rarer 
and more costly sets and journal files which 
they cannot provide themselves. 

T h e value of a liberal arts education, the 
importance of books and libraries in the provi-
sion of a liberal education, the necessity f o r 
appraising the college library in humanistic 
terms, the uncertainty about the position of 
the library and librarian in the college, and 
the necessity for better communication be-
tween library and faculty and library and ad-
ministration; these, I believe, are the funda-
mental principles of the annual conference 
proceedings which H e r m a n Fussier summa-
rizes and interprets in the final chapter of this 
book. W h i l e he states there is nothing " d r a -
matically n e w " in the ideas expressed in the 
conference meetings, he and his colleagues 
have taken, as I am sure D e a n Asheim and 
the G r a d u a t e School intended them to take, 
a wide and high view of the college library 
task. T h e y have endeavored to establish the 
position which it ought to hold as one of the 
most p o w e r f u l means of enabling the college 
to fulfill its p u r p o s e . — G u y R. Lyle, Emory 
University Library. 

Book Collecting 
Book Collecting and Scholarship. Essays by 

T h e o d o r e C . Blegen, James F o r d Bell, 
Stanley Pargellis, Colton Storm, and L o u i s 
B . W r i g h t . M i n n e a p o l i s : University of 
M i n n e s o t a Press, 1954. 67 p. $5.00. 
T h i s handsome little book—designed by 

Jane M c C a r t h y of the University of M i n -
nesota Press, crisply printed by the L u n d 
Press, and tastefully, as w e l l as durably 
bound, by the A . J. D a h l C o m p a n y — w i l l itself 
be sought by private collectors, librarians and 
scholars. T h e collection of essays derives 
f r o m the program papers read on the occasion 

314 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



of dedicating, in October, 1953, the James 
Ford Bell Room of the University of M i n n e -
sota L i b r a r y which houses the great Bell 
Collection of rare books and maps on discovery 
and exploration. 

T h e five essays, all brief, contribute facets 
to the general theme of scholarship's debt to 
discriminating collectors. T h e first paper 
by T h e o d o r e Blegen, dean of Minnesota's 
G r a d u a t e School, nicely introduces the theme, 
puinting out the distinguished American com-
pany of great collectors with whom M r . Bell's 
name is linked: Huntington, Folger, M o r g a n , 
M c C o r m i c k , N e w b e r r y , Clements, A y e r s , 
Lenox, Chapin, John C a r t e r B r o w n , C l a r k , 
Arents, John G . W h i t e , C o e . M r . Blegen 
gives us a thumbnail sketch of M r . Bell, the 
man, f o l l o w i n g with some detail on the 
genesis of the Bell Collection and its final 
scope. James F o r d Bell's own remarks, en-
titled " B o u n d Fragments of T i m e , " state his 
credo as a collector and reveal the w a y in 
which his deep interest in trade provided him 
the key to collecting. T h i s happy choice of a 
theme led him to the search f o r records which 
reveal the evolution of W e s t e r n institutions 
during their spread and interplay w i t h other 
civilizations throughout the world, especially 
the western hemisphere, as it w a s discovered 
and explored. 

In the third essay Stanley Pargellis neatly 
analyzes the rare book in terms of the essen-
tial factors—importance, demand, scarcity. 

W i t h the force and conviction which has en-
deared M r . Pargellis to his colleagues in re-
search libraries, he insists upon the scholarly 
value of the genuine article, the rare book 
itself as contrasted with the reprint or fac-
simile. Colton Storm, in " T h e Specialized 
Collection" and L o u i s B. W r i g h t , in " A m e r i -
can Book C o l l e c t o r s " return, in specific terms, 
to the theme of the scholar's debt to the great 
American book collectors—those whose collec-
tions have been added as integrated special 
collections to important research libraries, and 
those whose collections have been established 
as separately housed libraries for the use of 
the public. 

T h e little volume, Book Collecting and 
Scholarship, is much like the one called Rare 
Books and Research which w a s published by 
the U C L A L i b r a r y in 1951, and there have 
been others recently. T h e one before us is 
not a monograph reporting new discoveries; 
it is not a handbook to guide library c u r a t o r s ; 
it really has in it little that is new, except as 
it places a description of the James F o r d Bell 
Collection into the setting of which is it 
w o r t h y . O n the other hand, it is always good 
to listen to men w h o know w h a t they are 
talking about and w h o talk about important 
matters. M a n y of us w i l l appreciate the 
trouble which the University of Minnesota has 
taken to include us in the audience.—Andrew 
H. Horn, University of North Carolina 
Library. 

R e c e n t Foreign Books on the Graphic A r t s , Bibliography, and 
Library Science 

Joseph G r e g o r , f o r many years curator of 
the noteworthy theatre collection of the 
A u s t r i a n N a t i o n a l L i b r a r y , is the editor of a 
new w o r k that w i l l be unusually useful in all 
reference collections. It is entitled Der Scliau-
spielfuhrer, and, like Der Romanfiihrer, is 
being published by the Hiersemann V e r l a g of 
Stuttgart. T h e first volume ( 1 9 5 3 ; 375 
pages) deals with G e r m a n drama f r o m the 
M i d d l e A g e s to about 1930 and contains me-
ticulous and thoughtful resumes of 274 plays, 
ranging f r o m the Tropus von Bamberg (tenth 
century) and ending with C a r l Sternheim's 
Der Snob (1920). T h e second volume ( 1 9 5 4 ; 
355 pages) covers modern G e r m a n drama and 
the first part of the section on drama in the 

Romance literatures. In the second volume, 
there are resumes of 89 modern G e r m a n 
plays, of which the great m a j o r i t y w e r e 
written since W o r l d W a r I ; 41 Italian plays 
from the M i d d l e A g e s to P i r a n d e l l o ; 60 Span-
ish, Portuguese and South American plays, 
ranging from R o j a s ' La Celestina to the 
middle of the nineteenth century, with only 
one twentieth-century title; and French drama 
f r o m the M i d d l e A g e s to around 1910. T h e 
third volume, which is scheduled for the 
spring of 1955, w i l l include modern French 
drama, G r e e k , Roman, Scandinavian and 
D u t c h drama, and the older English and 
American drama. T h e fourth volume w i l l 
cover recent English and American drama. 

JULY, 1955 315