College and Research Libraries 60 I College & Research Libraries • January 1977 Ross, Murray G. The University: The Anatomy of Academe, reviewed by John P. McDonald 80 Young, Harold Chester. Planning, Programming, Budgeting Systems in Academic Libraries, reviewed by Irene Braden Hoadley . 81 A Plan for Cooperative Action, reviewed by Ronda Glikin 82 Abstracts 85 Other Publications of Interest to Academic Librarians . 88 BOOK REVIEWS Bentinck-Smith, William. Building a Great Library: the Coolidge Years at Harvard. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Library, 1976. 218p. $17.50. (LC 75- 27901) (ISBN 0-674-08578-7) ("Reprint- ed, with additions, from the Harvard Li- brary Bulletin, volumes XXI ( 1973) and XXII (1974).") When Archibald Cary Coolidge became the first director in 1910, the Harvard Li- brary had 1,500,000 volumes crowded into Gore Hall and several storage areas, annual expenditures of $31,500 and additions of 36,500 volumes, an antiquated classification system, no single catalog of the books avail- able, and a number of determinedly auton- omous departmental libraries and collec- tions. By the end of his tenure in 1928, the collection had grown to 2,800,000 volumes, Widener Library was completed, annual ex- penditures were $100,000 and forty-seven new book funds worth $839,000 had been acquired, annual growth had reached 152,000 volumes, classification and catalog- ing were standardized to a degree, and a loose confederation if not a system of li- braries was emerging. It would surely be stretching the truth to think of Coolidge as one of our profes- sional academic library colleagues. A paper on "The Objects of Cataloging" given at the 1921 ALA Conference was his only record- ed appearance at a library meeting. "Don't call me libwaywian!" he once snapped to his nephew in an uncharacteristic outburst. What was he, then? He was a Harvard man, A.B. 1887, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, a member of a Harvard family with many Harvard connections. He studied at l'Ecole des Sciences Politiques, Paris, took his Ph.D. at Freiburg under von Holst, and wrote The United States as a World Power ( 1908), Origins of the Triple Alliance ( 1917) , and Ten Years of War and Peace ( 1927). He was professor of history at Harvard from 1893 to 1928, despite a vexing speech impediment. He was the first editor of Foreign Affairs, a member of "The Inquiry" (a study group of specialists or- ganized in 1917-19 to prepare background information for the peace conference), Spe- cial Assistant to the Secretary of War and the War Trade Board in 1918, and chief of liaison for the American Relief Administra- tion in Russia in 1921-22. But his life was a "life of books," Ben- tinck-Smith notes, and the decision of Pres- ident Lowell to give Coolidge full authority and responsibility for the library was a wise one for the university at that particular time. There were problems for the new di- rector. The relationship with William Coo- lidge Lane, whose responsibilities as librari- an since 1881 were sharply reduced, and with assistant librarian Alfred Claghorn Potter called for unusual tact and mutual respect. The selection of assistant librarians Thomas Franklin Currier for cataloging and Walter Benjamin Briggs for reference and circulation and of George Parker Winship to be responsible for the rare book collec- tions provided his corps of senior staff members. Preparing a useful catalog of the collections called for heroic measures. The 5-by-2 inch catalog cards in use since 1861 were gradually replaced, complete sets of Library of Congress and John Crerar cards were acquired, and the task of comparing the Harvard catalogs against them was completed by November 1912. More than 85,000 books that were listed only in the official catalog and 25,000 more that were not listed anywhere had to be incorporated into a public catalog, and the remnants of Justin Winsor's fixed-shelf location had to be converted to a relative classification. By 1914-15 cataloging was essentially up-to- date. These tasks were spurred on by the im- pending gift from Eleanor Wilkins Wid- ener of a building in memory of her son, Harry Elkins Widener. The development of the building through careful negotiations with Mrs. Widener, who President Lowell noted had "decided architectural opinions" and with her architect, Horace Trombauer, who was dedicated to the grandiose style, is told in excerpts from letters and other documents which are amusing in retrospect, although no doubt painful at the time. Much of Coolidge's energies was spent in urging gifts from alumni and friends, but often the additional funds needed to buy a special collection, to supp01t an agent in Europe or South America, or to underwrite unusual operating expenses came from his own pocket. Coolidge's role was more than that of a fund raiser; his view of collecting for a university library is given in a 1925 letter: I have always believed in quality and quantity, accepting cheerfully everything that comes our way but doing my best to guide carefully the expenditure of what- ever funds I control or when I have any influence on the purchases of others .... A collection of a single author, no matter how splendid, cannot be understood with- out knowledge of his sources, of the in- fluences which surrounded him and af- fected him and the results he produced on the minds of others. Bentinck-Smith's knowledge of the Har- vard scene comes from his years as editor of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and as as- sistant to the President of Harvard. I doubt that anyone else could have produced the same note of affection tempered by gently poking fun at the eccentricities of the peri- od. The book has been handsomely printed by the Stinehour Press, composed by the Harvard University Printing Office, and bound in blue cloth with crimson endpa- pers and the Harvard crest in gold on the front cover.-]oe W. Kraus, Illinois State University Library, Normal, Illinois. Brewster, Beverly J. American Overseas Li- brary Technical Assistance, 1940-1970. Metuchen, N.J., Scarecrow, 1976. 434p. Recent Publications I 61 $17.50. (LC 75-23006) (ISBN 0-8108- 0827-7) In this book, based on her Ph.D. disser- tation (University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Library and Information Sci- ences), the author discusses patterns of li- brary technical assistance of public and pri- vate agencies in the U.S. to other nations. These contributions include visits of experts and technicians; receiving fellowship re- cipients; organizing courses and seminars; exchanging or disseminating information or documents; and supplying materials, equip- ment, and, occasionally, financial support. The history of U.S. library technical as- sistance from 1940 to 1970 through its ma- jor sponsoring agencies is divided into three chapters. The first examines the activities and con- tributions of the U.S. Government, begun in 1938 with the inauguration of the cul- tural relations program. Although the govern- ment has supposedly funded the lar~est number of projects involving library advi- sors until the 1960s, the analysis of these ac- tivities is not so detailed and informative as the treatment of the private sector. This imbalance may be explained by the author's statement that "there is no lack of primary documents in this area, although the ma- jority of these reports are still publicly un- available" ( p.5) . The references used in the first chapter clearly show the lack of pri- mary material. The second chapter on the activities of private voluntary agencies gives special em- phasis to the activities of the Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Asia Foundations. For each of these agencies the author describes program goals, geographical area of concern, sup- port to university library developments, and suooort to library educators. Documents and reports from these foundations and in- terviews and private correspondence with responsible individuals result in a well- written, authenticated chapter. The third chapter, equally well-written, describes the activities of the ALA during the same period, 1940-1970. The associa- tion's international relationships vis-a-vis the sponsoring agencies are examined to de- termine the role it has played in this area of international involvement.