College and Research Libraries


Library Practice for Colleges of Educa-
tion. Ed. by Norman Furlong. London: 
The Library Association, 1966. 240p. 
illus. 56s. 

The recent phenomenal expansion of 
teachers' training colleges in Great Britain 
combined with the recognition of the more 

~ central position of libraries in the educa-
tional process has created staff shortages. 
The difficulties were accentuated in 1957 
with the decision to expand the two-year 
teachers' training course to three years; the 
transition was completed in 1960. In the 
coming period it is planned to expand fur-

~ . ther the college program to a four-year 
course leading to a BEd. The present three-
year training college curriculum combines 
the study and practice of education with a 
study in depth of one of the substantive 
subjects studied in school. To meet class-
room needs the libraries have to be rather 
comprehensive and also provide for special 
collections of children's books, including 
textbooks. They do not include research 

, collections in education. In 1959 there were 
only thirty-four chartered librarians in the 
one hundred thirty-one colleges. Two-thirds 
of the libraries were run by part-time li-
brarians; the demands upon their services 
left little energy for necessary administra-

~ tive work. The library inadequacies are re-
markably reminiscent of the substandard 
situation described by Helen R. Wheeler 
in The Community College Library. (Ham-
den, Conn.: The Shoe String Press, Inc., 
1965. ) To help solve the problem the Com-
mittee of the Training Colleges and Insti-
tutes of Education Sub-Section of the Uni-
versity and Research Section of the Library 
Association decided in January 1961 to 
produce an administrative manual for the 
librarian lacking professional training and 
for the less experienced librarian. Norman 
Furlong, former librarian of the city of 
Coventry College of Education, served as 
editor for the various contributors who were 

:.. invited to submit chapters dealing with 
planning and furnishing, finance and staff-
ing, book selection and stock, organization 
and routine, work with students, audio-vis-
ual aids, photocopying, and Jibrary cooper-

Book Reviews 
ation. The separate chapters were first pub-
lished in the Education Libraries Bulletin. 
Critical comments were solicited and con-
sidered before book form publication in 
1966. In a general sense the editors ac-
complished their purpose. 

The extended period of editorial prepara-
tion has left a residue of awkwardness, such 
as that in the section on library cooperation 
written in 1964, predicting some changes 
in 1965. These could well have been clari-
fied by the final publication date. There is 
also a certain amount of inevitable overlap 
in content when different authors touch 
upon the same subject. But this was antici-
pated by the editorial committee and re-
sulted in the desired representation of 
various points of view. An example of this 
may be found in the rather up-to-date 
"Audio-Visual Aids" chapter of D. J. Hay-
wood, the librarian of Shoreditch College, 
who believes that the library and the audio-
visual center should be developed in close 
relationship with each other. W. H. Sher-
cliff, the tutor-librarian of the Didsbury 
College of Education, who agrees that this 
would be ideal, also observes that "Whether 
soundproof rooms for the use of staff and 
students should be provided adjacent to the 
library is perhaps a matter of debate" (p. 
131). 

There is a genuine division, however, on 
the issue of who shall administer the train-
ing college library, the trained librarian or 
a person drawn from the academic staff. 
The Ministry of Education recognizes the 
existence of two points of view but ap-
parently prefers the lecturer. The Ministry 
recognized the professional librarian's view-
point in conceding that in larger colleges of 
over 800 students there may be room for 
two senior posts in the library, one occupied 
by a member of the -lecturing staff to 
" ... coordinate the work of the whole 
teaching staff in relation to the use of the 
library as an instrument of teaching . . ." 
(p. 29), the other filled by the professional 
librarian. The concession is neatly balanced 
by the Ministry's willingness to assign col-
lege lecturers to the London University or 
Sheffield University one-year Diploma 
Courses leading to associateship of the Li-

I 219 



220 I College & Research Libraries • May, 1967 

brary Association. The final decision of 
selection is left to the training college. 

The entire study communicates a general 
quality of conservatism and limitation of 
viewpoint that is surely not characteristic of 
British librarianship. It is certainly in con-
trast with the contemporary library philos-
ophy explicit in R. L. Collison's Progress in 
Library Science, 1965 (Washington, D.C.: 
Butterworth Inc., 1965). The only equiva-
lent to the Furlong work on this side of the 
ocean is G. R. Lyle's The Administration of 
The College Library (3d ed., New York: 
The H. W. Wilson Company, 1961). The 
training college staff will find much that is 
useful in Lyle, particularly his chapter on 
the "Interpretation of College Library Ser-
vice," and in his references to paperback 
books. Serious students of the college li-
brary should add Library Practice for Col-
leges of Education to their personal reading 
lists.-Sidney Forman, Teachers College, 
Columbia University. 
Bibliotheca Medica: Physician for Tomor-

row; Dedication of the Countway Li-
brary of Medicine, May 26 & 27, 1965. 
Ed. by David McCord. Boston: published 
for the Harvard Medical School, 1966. 
248 p. 
On the evidence of this book, the dedica-

tion of the Countway library of medicine 
in May 1965 was an enormously happy, 
wonderful, and rewarding occasion. Here 
we have the addresses on medical history 
and library technology, along with the dedi-
catory incantations, which graced the exer-
cises inaugurating the fine new library struc-
ture housing the combined collections of 
the Harvard medical library and the Boston 
medical library. 

This is, almost inevitably, a miscellany. 
What holds the whole thing together, beau-
tifully, is the underlying humane wisdom of 
all the participants, their wit, their urbanity, 
their learning worn so lightly. This is fur-
ther cemented, in the book, by the exem-
plary editorial efforts of David McCord, 
who furnishes continuity and gives the read-
er the sense of having heard the words 
spoken. Finally, the physical book here for 
once matches the feeling of its contents; 
the Anthoensen press has given us a fine 
piece of craftsmanship. 

Oswei Temkin, Dickinson W. Richards, 
George Corner, and Lloyd Stevenson discuss 
aspects of medical history; Herbert Menzell, 
Ralph Esterquest, Martin Cummings, Morti-
mer Taube, and Raynard Swank discuss as- 4 
pects of library technology. Menzel sets 
forth some tentative conclusions and some 
speculations which may be drawn from the 
user studies he has long been engaged in. 
Esterquest describes straightforwardly and 
honestly some of the hopes and beliefs and 
fears that were particularly his on this 
proud occasion. Cummings speaks of inter-
library cooperation, of the old days and of 
the present day, and gives some fascinating 
statistics on NLM services. The essay by 
Taube, of a somewhat metaphysical kind, 
is brilliant; it demonstrates again his powers 
of insight, and his capacity for clarity in 
description; there is a terrible poignancy 
in realizing that this was to be his last 
major public contribution prior to his un-
timely death a few months later. The fol-
lowing essay by Swank (with Robert M. 
Hayes) is excellent; in major part a re-
sponse to Taube's remarks, it proves that 
a constructive critique can be as interesting, 
and far more useful, than the intemperate 
arguments which unfortunately are more 
familiar to us. 

Archibald MacLeish sets the final runic 
stone in place, as he speaks of "man in 
his old condition as man, man with his 
wonder on him." These essays, and their 
embodiment in this book, fittingly exemplify 
the aspirations and auspicious rebirth of 
a great medical library.-Frank B. Rogers, 
M.D., University of Colorado. 

Conference on the Use of Printed and 
Audio-Visual Materials for Instruction-
al Purposes rFinal Report]. Prepared by 
Maurice F. Tauber and Irlene Roemer 
Stephens. New York: School of Library 
Service, Columbia University, 1966. xii, 
241 p. $3. 

On November 22 and 23, 1965, a con-
ference concerned with materials used for 
insb·uctional purposes, as indicated in the ' 
title above, was convened at the school of 
library service, Columbia University. Sup-
ported as Title VII project, B 546, through 
the Office of Education, U .S. Department of