College and Research Libraries books makes a real contribution to our knowledge of this untrodden field, yet it is difficult to say just what that contribution is. It is easier to tell what the book is not than what the book is. It is not a reference book, although the well indexed mass of data which it presents will no doubt make it useful to many for reference purposes. It is not a bibliographical study-the person who attempts such a study will have to be a hardy soul, since schoolbooks are a biblio- graphical Slough of Despond-yet the book is laden with bibliographical detail. It is not a book trade history, lacking as it does al- most any reference to the publishing indus- try or its economic impact upon the Ameri- can scene. It is not even a good narrative history, since its attempt to enumerate as many as possible of the myriad nineteenth- century school texts reduces its interest for sustained reading. The book will, however, be a desideratum for almost any private or institutional col- lection that has orientation to the nineteenth century, whether it be to education, history, bibliography, culture, or sociology. Con- veniently grouping schoolbooks under the various disciplines they represented-prim- ers, elocution manuals, copybooks, rhetorics, general and mental science texts, etc.-the author briefly discusses progress in the writ- ing of each from its beginning in this coun- try to the early twentieth century, relating interesting facts and anecdotes about au- thors, book use, schoolbook adoption, and giving even occasional personal commen- tary upon the appropriateness of a particular volume or style, or speculating upon the pro- spective future of the genre. As was said earlier, the book defies categorization. Unfortunately the book is marred by poor editing. There are too many typographical errors in it, and this reader noted at least two occasions where a word or words ap- peared to be dropped from the text. Al- though it draws exclusively upon secondary sources for its information, the book repre- sents a wide range of study and is well documented. Its annotated bibliography fur- nishes a good guide to further reading, and its twenty-page, eight-point index is a thorough key to the text. It will no doubt be widely purchased and used.-D. K. SEPTEMBER 1964 The Future of the Research Library. By Verner W. Clapp. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1964. 114 pp. $4.50. (64- 10352). No research library today can acquire or house all of the recorded knowledge its users demand, and none can make what it receives accessible to scholars quickly enough to meet their needs. Although li- braries still strive for self -sufficiency, the impracticality of having everything imme- diately at hand has been accepted, and shar- ing of resources through a variety of de- vices such as interlibrary lending, coopera- tive acquisition, bibliographies, union cata- logs, and photocopying increasingly has been employed. But research libraries still fall short--even the ' largest of them--of performing their proper function of enabling scholars to identify the library materials relevant to their research and of providing immediate access to copies for their use. They will continue to fall short of maximum effectiveness unless self -sufficiency can be increased at lower costs and sharing of re- sources made comparable with local avail- ability. Verner Clapp, president of the Council on Library Resources, examines these in- adequancies and problems as well as the ob- stacles to their correction in this 1963 Windsor Lecture in Librarianship at the University of Illinois. Clapp is eminently quallfied to address himself to "the future of the research library." From 1922 to 1956 he was a member of the staff of the Library of Congress, the last nine years as chief as- sistant librarian. He has contributed to li- brary development around the world, and in 1960 received the Lippincott award for distinguished service in the profession of librarianship. Since assuming his present responsibility, President Clapp has approved the expenditure of several millions of dol- lars in search of solutions to the problems of libraries generally and of research li- braries in particular. For many years, there- fore, he has had a ringside seat from which to observe the multiplication of research library problems as the quantity of informa- tion increased and the urgency of research intensified demand for prompt access to it. Among the problems the author identi- 437 ties in this volume are the following: publi- cations are too numerous, and many are of such minimal value that stockpiling can- not be justified; lack of satisfactory micro- text reading devices for individual owner- ship and use; inadequacy and cost of bibli- ographic information; deteriorating paper; delays in cataloging; high costs in terms of time, money, and frustration of borrowing from other libraries. He then outlines twen- ty-one programs of research which he be- lieves will provide solutions to most of these current research library problems. Grants from the Council on Library Resources and financial assistance from other sources have already brought more than half of these problems under study. Many of the facili- ties that will be needed are already available in developmental stages: telefacsimile trans- mission, computer indexing, high ratio-re- duction photography, improved individual microtext reading devices, specialized in- formation centers, and computer controlled typesetting systems. . The Future of the Research Library ap- pnses us of the progress already made against problems that plague research li- braries and becomes a useful guide for future library research. It does not predict the early obsolescence of books, but it pro- poses a reasonable course that makes maxi- mum use of all devices, gadgets, and ideas that have possible implication for the ac- quisition, storage, and retrieval of knowl- edge. It gives comfort and hope to librarian- ship and the scholarly world and places all of us more in Verner Clapp's debt for imaginative leadership at a critical period in library history.-Benjamin E. Powell, Duke University. Scientific and Technical Libraries; Their Organization and Administration. By Lucille J. Strauss, Irene M. Strieby and Alberta L. Brown. (Library Science and Documentation, vol. 4) New York: In- terscience, 1964. 398p. $8.50. (64-15421). This is an extensive revision of the book Technical Libraries: Their Organization and Management, published in 1951, which was edited by the senior author of the present work. There is considerable similarity in the organization of the chapters, but the content has been brought up to date. Even parts which are quite similar to the previous text (because no basic change was needed) have been rewritten in a more readable style. Attention has been directed to the many changes in nomenclature, techniques, services, and functions which have taken place in science and technical libraries in the last fifteen years. As an example of the differences between the editions, the reviewer examined the chapter dealing with the filing and indexing of nonbook materials (called "miscellane- ous" in the 1951 edition). The earlier edi- tion has nine pages of text and thirty-two citations. The new edition has twenty-seven pages of text and eighty-seven citations. Only seventeen of the citations are dated prior to 1950, and many recent references through 1963 are included. Ten pages of material on "nonconventional indexing for information retrieval" are included in the new edition, and there are some details on technical reports, which were not men- tioned in the earlier edition . Writing about special libraries is difficult because of the wide range of subjects, size of staffs, diversity of functions, and other dissimilar factors. Librarians operating small libraries may find adequate details for their limited needs, whereas librarians of rather large libraries will consider some of the coverage rather skimpy. One book cannot satisfy all needs or all points of view. These authors are to be commended for undertak- ing this compilation, which must fall short of an encyclopedic treatment and yet in- clude ยท enough substance to satisfy most of its intended audience. The Preface indicates that this book, within the over-all concept of "an introduc- tion to the organizational procedures and essential functions," is directed toward four specific objectives: ( 1) to meet require- ments of practicing librarians in the fields covered; (2) to be a source of operational and bibliographical information for new members of the profession; ( 3) to serve as a text for library school students and others whose interests are in the literature of the physical and life sciences; ( 4) to present an over-all perspective to the management of an organization as to what is involved in the establishment of a library. All of these objectives seem to be met to some extent 438 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES