College and Research Libraries


486 I College & Research Libraries • November 1971 

approach the references by author name, 
organization or cooperative project name, 
type of cooperative activity, or by group-
ings of types of libraries involved in coop-
erative projects. 

The annotations are well written, in the 
100-150-word range, and are indicative to 
informative in style. They give the reader 
enough information to determine if he 
needs to examine any given publication. 

A review of the literature prefaces the 
bibliography. Discussion of the content of 
the referenced articles is arranged by 
groupings of types of libraries involved in 
cooperative projects (e.g., academic-school-
public; academic-public; school-public). 
Interlibrary cooperative projects are wide-
ranging in scope and include such activi-
ties as bibliographical centers, catalog card 
exchanges, cooperative and centralized ac-
quisitions, cataloging and processing, coop-
erative and coordinated selection, duplicate 
exchanges, facsimile transmission, interli-
brary delivery service, last copy retention, 
library development plans, photoreproduc-
tion of library materials, statewide net-
works, storage libraries, teletype networks, 
union catalogs and lists, and wide area tele-
phone service. 

The bibliography should be in the per-
sonal library of any librarian interested in 
cooperation among types of libraries. It is 
a well-planned, well-done compilation 
which will prove very useful in sorting out 
the interlibrary cooperative projects from 
those which profess to include different 
types of libraries but all too often don't-
Lawrence E. Leonard, University of Illi-
nois, Urbana. 

For the Government and People of This 
State: A Histor·y of the New York State 
Library. Cecil R. Roseberry. Albany, 
N.Y.: The State Education Department, 
1970. 126p. 
Cecil Roseberry's brief volume is an "of-

ficial" history, published by the State Edu-
cation Department and written to commem-
orate the 150th anniversary of the founding 
of the New York State Library in 1818. It 
may be true that the genre is often eulogis-
tic and dull, but this one is a bright, spar-
kling exception. It is a delightfully bal-
anced combination of scholarly care and 
popularization. Few librarians will be able 

to put it down, in any sense of the term, 
and it is certain to become a best seller 
among state publications. 

The State Library at Albany was bmn 
in the same session of the legislature as the 
Erie Canal, and its nineteenth-century his-
tory seems to have been almost as turbulent 
as the canal's. Roseberry recounts the de-
velopment, from unpromising beginnings, 
of what was to become the most distin-
guished of the American state libraries in 
vignettes of the people who directed and 
influenced it, of the constantly changing po-
litical and social climate of the state, of the 
pervasive problems of proper quarters, and 
of the growth of the library's collections. 

Five absorbing chapters are devoted to 
the accomplishments of the most famous 
of the state librarians, Melvil Dewey, and 
his often zany career. The cast of charac-
ters, particularly in the early days of the li-
brary's existence when the part-time job of 
state librarian was part of a rampant spoils 
system, includes a brace of strange but en-
gaging upstate political types. Notable was 
James Maher, Irish immigrant, war hero, 
wholesale grocer, and boss of Albany's 
Fourth Ward, who, when he was appointed 
state librarian by Van Buren, could at least 
claim some prior subprofessional experience 
since he had had a hand in the pillaging of 
the town library in York, Ontario, during 
the War of 1812. Another early appointee 
as state librarian was referred to by an Al-
bany newspaper as "one of the greatest pot 
house brawlers and political blackguards 
in the federal ranks." 

The appointment of the nonpolitical 
Board of Regents as the trustees of the 
State Library in the 1840s, and their in-
sistence upon a full-time state librarian 
marked the beginning of a serious effort to 
develop the library. During the remainder 
of the nineteenth century, and especially 
during Dewey's tenure from 1888 to 1905, 
it became a model of efficient management 
for its day, even while the problem of suit-
able quarters was a persistent one. 

A suspenseful chapter describes the dis-
astrous fire of 1911 which destroyed large 
portions of the library's collection on the 
eve of a move into a new and safer build-
ing. Ironically, the near destruction of the 
collection brought attention and funds that, 
despite tragic losses of irreplaceable materi-



als , helped the library on the way to its 
present distinction. 

This absorbing volume is a fitting me-
morial for the ending of an era in Albany's 
library history as the State Library prepares 
to move again in the 1970s, this time to 
spectacular quarters in Governor Rockefel-
ler's controversial South Mall project. 

Some scholars (but not many) may be-
grudge Roseberry his decision to forego 
footnotes , and the magazine-size, double-
column format is probably unfortunate, but 
the illustrations are appropriate, generous, 
and contemporary, and the bibliography 
and index are adequate. The book is un-
copyrighted and is in a limited edition, so 
there is probably a reprint publisher count-
ing the pages right now. No library history 
collection anywhere can afford to miss this 
one, at any price.-]ohn Farley, State Uni-
v ersity of New York at Albany. 

The Function of the Library in a College 
of Advanced Education. Harrison Bryan 
and Evelyn Lorna Hean. Sydney, Aus-
tralia, 1970. 
Too often, and especially early in the 

planning stages, academic librarians in their 
zeal to establish new college or university 
libraries lose sight of the institution's pur-
pose and goals, frequently because they are 
misinformed or function exclusive of them. 
In their recent work, The Function of the 
Lib1·ary in a College of Advanced Educa-
tion, Harrison Bryan and Evelyn Lorna 
Hean have carefully presented a valuable 
and decidedly generic study which address-
es itself to the peculiar library needs of a 
college situation in Australia. The colleges 
of advanced education in Australia most 
nearly approximate American four-year col-
leges, such as normal schools and four-year 
state colleges, but are given over to more 
innovation in the preparation of graduates 
for employment in business, government, 
and the social services. 

This work is filled with statistical infor-
mation and is scrupulously documented, 
serving two important purposes. First, it 
provides, in somewhat lengthy detail, an 
account of the educational purposes, learn-
ing-teaching concepts, and other pedagogi-
cal methods that the colleges of advanced 
education must consider with regard to the 
development and use of appropriate library 

Recent Publications I 487 

resources and services. Second, the library 
attitudes, standards, and other evaluative 
devices employed by academic librarians 
in such a formative venture are cogently 
presented and critically discussed. While 
the work is basically a report that provides 
recommendations for the development of 
library resources and services, the investiga-
tions and careful thinking on the included 
topics provide several innovative approach-
es toward the role of a library in an aca-
demic setting. 

This combination of institutional goals, 
aggregation of quantified standards, and 
the interpretation of other planning ele-
ments contributes to a well-organized re-
port that should serve as a guide for either 
the development of a new academic library 
or the upgrading and/or evaluation of an 
existing one. While the study may be highly 
localized and peculiar to the Australian aca-
demic scene, the use and modification of 
standards such as the Clapp-Jordan ones, 
coupled to a very careful analysis and dis-
cussion of strengths and weaknesses related 
to these standards, provides a highly worth-
while applied approach too often lacking 
in the professional literature. Furthermore, 
the discussions on modified formulas, par-
ticularly with regard to staff size, presents 
some highly original thinking about the 
role and importance of librarians, especially 
in the reader services areas, that it would 
behoove many academic library administra-
tors to carefully consider. 

I would recommend that most academic 
libraries purchase this work, even though 
it may soon be dated, or its recommenda-
tions ignored. There are a few caveats how-
ever that should be known, such as some 
minor typographical errors, the format be-
ing less than inspiring and the writing often 
pedestrian and overdone in places; but es-
sentially, these minor irritants do not de-
tract from what is a highly interesting and 
valuable study. This work should serve to 
enlighten academic librarians about the 
planning process in developing appropriate 
academic library resources and services for 
institutions of higher learning dedicated to 
the preparation of a new breed of college 
graduate.-Robert J'. Haro, University of 
Maryland. 

Black Writing in the U.S.A., a Biblio-