College and Research Libraries


for Sinclair Lewis' peregrinations from Har-
per to Holt to Harcourt to Doubleday to 
Random House. In those few instances 
where there is, in fact, a seemingly unjusti-
fiable lack of balance, it appears to have 
been a matter of Madison's not wanting to 
waste material at hand. 

The decline from the gentleman-publish-
er of the nineteenth century, who charac-
teristically represented to the author both 
patron, business manager, confidant, and 
artistic midwife, to today' s seven-figure ma-
neuvering of conglomerate and literary 
agent is roundly regretted by Madison. This 
the reader may regard as rather gratuitous 
moralizing. It is, however, easy-and val-
uable-to see in the case of any number of 
the writers Madison treats-most notably 
Fitzgerald and Wolfe, both of whom had 
highly personal problems that demanded 
an editor with the perception and stamina 
of a Maxwell Perkins-that the final shape 
of the literary product depended to a 
greater degree than we might otherwise re-
alize on the quality of the author-publisher 
relationship. In documenting this point, 
Irving to Irving offers its own modest con-
tribution to literary criticism as well as to 
publishing history. 

While there is a substantial, and unfor-
tunately unfootnoted, reliance on other 
published materials, the use of much pre-
viously unpublished correspondence and 
Madison's own recollections from fifty years 
in the publishing trade make this clearly 
more than a cut-and-paste history. One 
might wish it were less selective: the names 
of Faulkner, Hemingway, and Whitman, 
for example, do not even appear in the 
book. Withal, however, Irving to Irving is 
a fascinating work and well worth any li-
brary's acquisition.-Charles Helzer, Uni-
versity of Chicago Library, Chicago, Illi-
nois. 

Beeler, M. G. Fancher; Grim, Jerry; Her-
ling, John P.; James, Stephen; Martin, 
Miles W.; and Naylor, Alice. Measuring 
the Quality of Library Service: A Hamd-
book. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1974. 
208p. $6.50. 

The compilers were some of the members 
of the Ohio Library Association Library 
Development Committee in 1972. They be-

Recent Publications / 2:37 

gan with this definition: "Total Library 
Service meets the needs of people for 
knowledge and ideas through access to or-
ganized collections of all media; develops 
an awareness among all people of their 
need for research, informational, recreation-
al and educational resources, utilizes a sys-
tem of acquisition, storage, and transmis-
sion of information." On that basis, the 
group points to the undoubted need of per-
formance evaluation that calls upon the 
user, present and potential, to have input 
to library management. 

Documents dated 1966-72 representing 
nineteen measuring techniques, some with 
comments by the compilers, are followed 
by ten documents which are recommenda-
tions for action based on research. Eight of 
these are conclusions from the earlier tech-
niques. For the ten, criteria for inclusion 
include "creativeness, non-standard nature 
of content, or pointing in new direction." 
The third section is a seventeen-item, brief-
ly annotated, background bibliography. As 
one can see from the index, there are se-
lections for all types of libraries, but not for 
all types of users; e.g., children, as the 
January 1974 Library Trends did. There 
are no indexed notations for such known 
measuring techniques as MBO, operations 
research, or even systems analysis. 

Section I presents ''a survey of some of 
the methods currently in use to measure the 
quality of library service . . . applicable in 
a variety of kinds of libraries and situa-
tions." Hard criteria are lacking for selec-
tions in this and the bibliography. One 
wonders, for example, why R. W. Trueswell 
and M. K. Buckland were excluded. 

Necessary printing techniques make the 
text hard to follow; compilers' comments 
are difficult to differentiate. Nevertheless, 
the compilers and publisher are to be com-
mended for adding impetus to the difficult 
task that faces all libraries. This handbook 
may give some of us a place to start in find-
ing ways to allow our users (and our po-
tential users through community surveys) 
to keep our service institutions viable. With 
continuing application, and necessary feed-
back, there will be further editions. One 
hopes these editions will correct the failure 
of not telling us why particular items were 
selected or suggesting which technique 



238 j College & Research Libraries • May 1975 

might be best used in particular circum-
stances.-Robert K. Bruce, Carleton Col-
lege, Northfield, Minnesota. 

Farber, Evan Ira, and Walling, Ruth, eds. 
The Academic Library: Essays in H01l0f' 
of Guy R. Lyle. Metuchen, N.J.: Scare-
crow, 1974. 171p. $6.00. 
This gift to Guy Lyle of twelve essays 

that describe the academic library scene 
serves several purposes. First, of course, it 
is a beautiful tribute that reflects the 
warmth and respect of Mr. Lyle's col-
leagues and friends. But beyond that, ~e 
volume serves as an exact and accurate rrn-
age of where academic libraries are in 
1975. Some librarians will be surprised, 
perhaps, that the library "establishment" 
is concerned and aware of the problems 
that they confront daily. But administrators 
will be heartened by this confirmation that 
their problems are universal academic li-
brary problems. 

So this volume becomes both handbook 
and inventory as written by members of the 
academic community. Service, recently re-
discovered as the academic library problem 
of the seventies, is highlighted in Evan Ira 
Farber's "College Librarians and the Uni-
versity Library Syndrome" and in Ruth 
Walling's survey of attempts at " ... Quan-
titative Reference Standards." Eldred 
Smith's "Impact of the Subject Specialist 
Librarian . . ." does not directly address the 
service problems but acknowledges that as 
collections grow, some direct and personal 
way must be found to link the user with 
the complexities of collection development. 

Academic library administrative prob-
lems are addressed in David Kaser's "Dia-
lectic for Planning in Academic Libraries" 
and Jerrold Orne's "Future Academic Li-
brary Administration." Four other essays 
reflect concern with interlibrary cooperation 
and faculty-library relationships. The ever 
present problem of the library and the 1!-
brary school is described in Jack Dalton s 
essay. 

The "Core Collection" concept is exam-
ined carefully by Paul Bixler. His article, 
while it may not solve the problem of the 
undergraduate library that has become a 
small research library, does refocus on ob-
jectives and goals and becomes an incisive 

outline for those who may wish to rethink 
Core Collection implementation. 

The Academic Library may have raised 
more issues than it settles. One feels the 
tension of being on the edge of "break-
through" without a sense that resolution 
will follow quickly. 

An example is the article by Irwin Simp-
kins, "The National Collection: Its Growth 
and Accessibility," which strongly defends 
a fee system for interlibrary loan. (This 
kind of move toward corporate thinking 
and "self-sustaining" service units could 
lead, in the extreme, to catalog depart-
ments selling catalog cards to the reference 
department.) Mr. Simpkins suggests that 
a fee system will help libraries limit the de-
mand for interlibrary lending. Is there a 
"proper" quantity of interlibrary lending 
beyond which libraries should not respond? 
Who will determine a "right" price for ser-
vice or a "proper" quantity of service? 

Questions are raised, also, in the discus-
sion of the "university library syndrome." 
Will we ever be in a position to question 
the validity of that syndrome in the univer-
sity library? It isn't difficult to follow Far-
ber to his conclusion that the university li-
brary syndrome has eroded the mission of 
the college library. The "breakthrough" 
may come when we can recognize that 
what Farber describes is also destructive 
to the university library. 

It would seem that these and other is-
sues must be addressed with a commitment 
to conclude that change is both desirable 
and urgent. The Academic Library is the 
place from which we can start.-Nina Co-
hen, Associate Director, University of 
Washington Libraries, Seattle. 

Harmon, Gary L., and Harmon, Susanna 
M. Scholar's Market: An International 
Directory of Periodicals Publishing Lit-
erary Scholarship. Columbus, Ohio: 
Publications Committee, The Ohio State 
University Libraries, 1974. 703p. (73-
620216). (ISBN 0-88215-033-2). 

After a literary scholar has written a 
piece of criticism, he or she faces the hurdle 
of deciding where to submit it for publica-
tion. Beyond PMLA and a few other well-
known general journals, and after exhaust-
ing certain specialized titles concentrating