College and Research Libraries Electrifying 1976-1977 PICK'S CURRENCY YEARBOOK* 21st Edition. 8lh" x 11". Cloth. 800 pages. ISBN 0-87551-276-3. This annual is the most complete single source of current moRetary in- formation in print. Contains a compre- hensive description and appraisal of 112 major currencies and accessory units, a supplementary review of 40 minor monies, and latest develop- ments in International gold markets including monthly bar and coin prices for ten years. There is also a complete survey of official exchange rate struc- tures as well as a ten-year record of monetary depreciation. Resident and nonresident transferability regulations and domestic currency restrictions are discussed. PRICE .. $150.00 o 1955-197 4 (19 volumes) available on micro- film (16mm, 20:1 reduction-positive image). Postpaid price: $350.00. ALL THE MONIES OF THE WORLD* A Chronicle of Currency Values 6" % 9". Cloth. 620 page1. ISBN 0-87551-610-6. Historical dictionary of money values. Fulfills the need for a standard refer- ence work for students and profes- sionals alike. Recommended by U- brary Journal for business, financial and economics libraries. The volume is a complete chronology of kinds and values of currencies used since man's first experiments with a medium of exchange. PRICE . . $10.00 0 Also available on seven, 1 05mm x 148 mm microfiche cards. Postpaid price: $24.95. 21 WEST STREET • NEW YORK, N.Y. 10006 much economic data and have organized them in a presentable fashion. They have not analyzed the data in a rigorous fashion, though they make no claim for having done so. For the most part, then, they have ac- complished their first objective. Apart from the observations that librar- ies, publishers, and authors should be subsi- dized, probably by the federal government, and that continuing research be conducted to establish continuing dialog, the reviewer found little to indicate that the authors had "developed the data into proposed joint ac- tions." Accomplishment of their second ob- jective, then, is less apparent. The authors include an impressive list of project contributors: an advisory commit- tee, consultants, and panel of reactors, im- parting the impression of credibility and authority. An interesting table on alterna- tive methods for disseminating scientific articles was authored by Joseph Becker. The reviewer does not wish to demean the importance of this book on the basis of its methodological limitations. It is the first of its kind on a serious economic problem. Its conclusions, whether methodologically justified or not, are intelligently drawn with considerable insight and provide us with much to ponder. It is a useful book- William E. McGrath, Director of Libraries, University of Southwestern Louisiana, La- fayette. National Information Policy. Report to the President of the United States. Submitted by the Staff of the Domestic Council Committee on the Right of Privacy. Hon- orable Nelson A. Rockefeller, Chairman. Published by the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, Washington, D.C.: Govt. Print. Off., 1976. 233p. $4.65. This is a landmark document in the na- tion's evolution to a post-industrial society. This report is the product of a committee charged by former president Gerald Ford in March 1976 to review and define infor- mation policy issues, to determine the status of various information policy studies under- way in executive branch agencies, and to report on how the federal government should organize itself to deal with informa- tion policy issues. The major recommenda- tions of the committee were: that there should be as a national goal the develop- ment of a coordinated National Informa- tion Policy; that · there should be in the Executive Office of the President an Office of Information Policy (either by creating a new entity or by refocusing and/ or re- structuring one or more existing entities) ; that there should be created an interagency Council on Information Policy chaired by the director of the Office of Information Policy; that the Office of Information Pol- icy should be assisted by a representative advisory committee. The Committee on the Right of Privacy began its study taking a narrow view of in- formation (i.e., data about individuals col- lected and maintained by federal agencies). It became evident early on that this view was inadequate, so a meeting was arranged by the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) in July 1976 between members of the committee and representatives of various types of li- braries and information services and public and private agencies. Given its charge and the deadline of Sep- tember 1976, it is clear that the committee could have done little more than catalog the issues. This it has done with admirable clarity, arranging fifteen issues into five clusters: government information; informa- tion in commerce; interaction between tech- nology and government; international impli- cations; preparing for the information age. As we move toward the White House Conference, our mails will bring and our desks will be covered by an unequaled avalanche of "Reports from Washington," brought to us with the compliments of NC~IS. This document will not win a writ- ing award, but we will see none in the ava- lanche of more importance.-C. ]ames Schmidt, Director of Libraries, State Uni- versity of New York at Albany. Wright, Louis B. Of Books and Men. Co- lumbia, S.C.: Univ. of South Carolina Pr., 1976. 180p. $7.95. LC 76-26493. ISBN 0-87249-344-X. Louis Booker Wright is one of the few remaining eminent research scholar-librari- ans in the tradition of Reuben Gold Thwaites. Research associate virtually in charge of the Huntington Library for six- teen years and director of the Folger Li- Recent Publications I 531 brary for twenty, he was connected with a galaxy of intellectual enterprises, organi- zations, and institutions. For these activities he has been heaped with honors, including twenty-eight honorary doctorates. This is the second brief autobiographical book he has written since 197 4. Wright's accounts of the conversion of both the Huntington and the Folger, pre- eminent among our private research librar- ies, are of considerable interest, since he participated in both developments almost from the beginning. To convert even a great private library to research strength requires a great deal of thought and effort. When Indiana University was given the Lilly Library, Cecil Byrd (one of the finest bookmen in this profession) observed to me that to fill in the gaps between the great books and solidify it into a research collec- tion would take about thirty years. Indiana is still working on that very process. At the Huntington, Wright tqok a strictly pragmatic approach, including the acquisi- tion of microfilm, to solidify the fields of strength in Huntington's collection and ac- quire the ordinary books and reference books necessary to allow academic scholars to work fruitfully with the original collec- tion. Converting Huntington's original staff, infused with the collector's attitudes and values, to an outgoing, service-minded library staff, equipped to cope with the sometimes brutally utilitarian, self-centered demands of university scholars, was even more difficult. When he came to the Folger in 1948, it was in disrepute, disrepair, and disarray, with service denied to many qualified scholars, books biblio-piled but not cata- loged, and guards over the collection wear- ing guns. The same process used at the Huntington was applied to the Folger with success. The emergence of both libraries into the intellectual world was greatly facil- itated by programs of permanent research scholars and rotating research fellowships to encourage the development and use of the library. Wright correctly states that the importance of private research libraries will loom more important as the strength of the university research libraries dwindles. In- deed, in the 1980s, we all may tend to re- vert to the conditions of the Folger when Wright took it over-collections unsolidi-