College and Research Libraries


434 I College & Research Libraries • September 1977 

library will generate trust, confidence, and 
high productivity and disagreements will be 
"openly and candidly discussed without 
rancor." Such a vision is consonant with 
analysis that confuses delegation-a basic 
hierarchical mechanism-with group de-
cision making and professional collegiality 
with participatory management. It is also 
consonant with a vocabulary filled with "in-
puts," "outputs," "throughputs," and "feed-
back," as well as one which utilizes the des-
ignation "professional librarian." 

Participative Management in Academic 
Libraries has a strong messianic tone, as 
though its author had accepted the mission 
of leading us out of darkness and into light. 
Alas, its result is to add to the darkness by 
muddling and distorting the situation it at-
tempts to analyze and explain.-Eldred 
Smith, Director of Libraries, University of 
Minnesota. 

Robinson, Thomas E. The Teacher: Key to 
Library-Centered Instruction. Learning 
for Living Series. Norman, Okla.: The 
Library-College Associates, Inc., 1976. 
104p. $5.00. LC 76-40059. ISBN 0-
9177706-01-3. 

Schuster, Marie. The Library-Centered Ap-
proach to Learning. Palm Springs, Calif.: 
ETC Publications, 1977. 112p. $8.95. LC 
76-54328. ISBN 0-88280-047-7. 

While both of these books espouse the 
concept of the library-college, they are sig-
nificantly different in coverage. The Robin-
son book is the first of a series to be pub-
lished twice annually by the Library Col-
lege Associates, so after a very brief discus-
sion of the library-college concept and its 
jargon it concentrates on the "teacher." 
"Teacher" in this case is defined broadly 
and encompasses both classroom teachers 
at all levels and librarians at all levels. The 
Schuster book on the other hand tries to 
cover the whole library-college concept and 
its application especially at the elementary 
and junior high level. 
_ The Teacher, while philosophically ded-

icated to the importance of the library in 
any educational system, admits that the li-
brary cannot on its own initiative forcibly 
penetrate and invade the teacher's planned 
procedures. This is a fact of life to which 
any librarian who has tried can attest. 

Without the support and cooperation of the 
classroom teacher, any program of library-
college, library instruction, or bibliographic 
instruction will achieve only marginal suc-
cesses. While libraries or librarians cannot 
forcibly penetrate the classroom, many have 
taken leadership roles and have implement-
ed successful programs both in and out of 
the classroom. 

Unfortunately, this book does not discuss 
any strategies or tactics for libraries to fol-
low if they want to help implement the li-
brary-college concept. A full half of tlie· 
book discusses ways of carrying out the 
concept, but it begins with several class-
room teachers already convinced of the · 
worth of the .idea. For librarians with access 
to receptive teaching departments this sec-
tion does contain many useful methods of 
incorporating the library into the classroom, 
but for the librarian struggling with a re-
calcitrant teaching faculty it is of little use. 

The Schuster book comes very close to 
the genre of inspirational writing. The big-
gest flaw of the book is its failure to recog- · 
nize the multiplicity of ways the library-
college concept can be carried out. It 
presents independent study as the modus 
operandi. We are told that learners respond 
differently to different forms of media and 
that all forms of media should be made 
available to the learners. What we are not 
told in this book-but research is showing 
-is that not every learner can cope with 
independent study. Studies of PSI (Person-
al Systems of Instruction) have shown that -
some students want and need a very rigid, 
highly structured method of instruction. 
This book would have been of more use 
had it gone beyond just one teaching meth-
od.-Benedict La Bue, Reference/ Bibliog-
rapher, University of Colorado, Boul.der. 

Eighteenth-Century English Books, Con-
sidered by Librarians and Booksellers, 
Bibliographers and Collectors. Proceed-
ings of a Conference Held at San Fran-
cisco, June 25-28, 1975. Chicago:· Associ-
ation of College and Research Libraries, 
1976. 97p. $5.00 (payment must accom-
pany order) . 

As a participant in the conference record-
ed in these Proceedings, I am delighted to 
have this record of the ten papers there