College and Research Libraries brary history.-Joe W. Kraus, Milner Li- brary, Illinois State University, Normal. Conference on Library Orientation, 6th, Eastern Michigan University, 1976. Li- brary Instruction in the Seventies: State of the Art. Papers Presented at the Sixth Annual Conference on Library Orienta- tion for Academic Libraries Held at East- ern Michigan University, May 13-14, 1976. Edited by Hannelore B. Rader. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Pierian Pr., 1977. 130p. $6.50. LC 77-75678. ISBN 0-87650-078-5. This slim volume contains eleven speeches presented at a 1976 conference on library instruction. Also included are brief guidelines for formulating and implementing instructional programs, an annotated review of the 1975 literature on library orientation and instruction (reprinted from Reference Services Review), and a list of conference participants. Following an introduction by Fred Blum, director of the Center of Educational Re- sources at Eastern Michigan University, Sheila M. Laidlaw of the University of To- ronto discusses library orientation and in- struction in Canadian academic libraries. Carolyn Kirkendahl then describes Project LOEX, the national clearinghouse for information about library orientation and in- struction programs. A. P. Marshall of East- ern Michigan University follows with re- marks about the involvement of librarians in the teaching/learning process. In the next speech, Thomas Kirk of Earl- ham College reviews course-related library instruction. Richard H. Dewey then pre- sents a report on library instruction in academic libraries of the Middle East and describes his experiences teaching students at Sir George Williams University, Montreal, and the American University, Cairo, including special instructional mate- rial he developed as an appendix. After Dewey's paper, UCLA's Miriam Dudley discusses library instruction credit courses and library skills workbooks. Next, Hannelore B. Rader evaluates Eastern Michigan University's library instruction program, and Susan Burton of the Univer- sity of Texas, Austin, analyzes the use of ob- jective testing in evaluation. In the last two Recent Publications I 65 speeches, Susan Edwards and Ben LaBue of the University of Colorado examine library use studies and faculty involvement in li- brary instruction, respectively. The publication of this book is question- able because it contains little in the way of new information. Better editing would have reduced the number of pages and elimi- nated typographical errors. The papers are generally mediocre in quality. The most in- teresting ones, including those by Laidlaw, Dewey, and Burton, could have appeared as individual journal articles.-Leonard Grundt, Professor and Chairperson, Li- brary Department, Nassau Community Col- lege, Garden City, New York. First Printings of American Authors: Con- tributions Toward Descriptive Checklists. V.I. Matthew J. Broccoli, series editor. C. E. Frazer Clark, Jr., managing editor. Richard Layman, project editor. Benja- min Franklin -V, associate editor. A Broc- coli Clark Book. Detroit: Gale, 1977. 432p. $140 for four-volume set: LC 74- 11756. ISBN 0-8103-0933-5. It is nothing short of a pleasure to review a work that has the chance of becoming the seminal statement on its subject. In First Printings of American Authors (FPAA), an impressive group of collaborators has pro- duced the first of a projected four-volume set that identifies and bibliographically de- scribes American and English printings of books by selected American authors. The selection of authors is, as the preface to FP AA notes, "admittedly impressionistic, re- flecting the editors' sense of collecting and scholarly interest-as well as the desire of a particular contributor to provide a list." Yet the coverage in this first volume includes 123 authors from James Agee to Richard Wright. In thirty-four "featured lists," full infor- mation, including a description and/or a· re- production of the title page as well as some ancillary information for collectors, such as colophons and dust-jacket and binding var- iants, is provided for both the American and the English first printings by that author. The "standard lists" vary from the featured only in that less descriptive information is provided for the English publications. Many entries provide a photograph of the subject. 66 I CoUege & Research Libraries: january 1978 The coverage for each author was not planned to replace a full checklist or bibli- ography. Such a decision makes good sense when one looks at such definitive works as Bowden's james Thurber: A Bibliography (Ohio State University Press, 1968) that are already available for many of the subjects. Yet, while the editors do note that "some lists are more detailed than others," there are a few items that might have been in- cluded. An extensive list for LeRoi Jones, for example, includes the broadside "April 13" published as Penny Poems #30 in 1959, but James Thurber's list begins with Oh My, Omar! published in 1921 by the Scarlet Mask Club rather than with his first printed piece, "The Third Bullet," published in Thurber's high school magazine, The X-Rays, in May 1913. Certain items, includ- ing play or movie scripts, offprints from journals, and private greetings, have been excluded by design. While each volume in the series is to be a complete alphabet in itself, an index to the set is planned for volume four. An overall descrip- MCGREGOR "PERSONALIZED SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE" Every customer Is assigned an experienced "Home Offk:e" representative. You comspond direct; any title nHds, changes, cancellations or problems can be handled promptly by letter or phone. This makes your job easier lfl.d_~ you abreast of your subscription needs at all uma. With over 45 years exper~Mce, McGregor has built a reputation of prompt and courteous service on bottl domestic and ln11mational titles. We prepay subscrip- tions ahead of time. Our customers. large and small, like the prompt attention we give them. We think you would tool Ask about McGregor's "Automatic Renewal" plan de- scribed In our new brochure. Wrltl today for your free copy. OUR 45th YEAR tion of the physical presentation of this work can be done in one word: excellent. Biologists, geologists, and chemists have had their field guides and handbooks for years. With the appearance of First Print- ings of American Authors, dealers, librari- ans, students, and collectors are now af- forded the tool that is as necessary for their work as the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics is for the scientist. The editors end with the traditional bibliographer's lament: "all bibliography is work in progress." There is no doubt, however, that this work will fill a need and stimulate bibliographical activ- ity. This series belongs on the desk of any serious collector and in any library that supports such a person.-Scott Bruntjen, Head of Public Services, Library, Ship- pensburg State College, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. Libraries and the Life of the Mind in America. Addresses Delivered at the Centennial Celebration of the American Library Association. Chicago: American Library Assn., 1977. 130p. $7.50. LC 77-3288. ISBN 0-8389-0238-3. Commemorative volumes, especially those devoted to centennials and bicenten- nials, should generally be approached with caution. This volume, alas, is not an excep- tion. It consists of six addresses, three given at the ALA Conference in San Francisco in 1975, three at Chicago in 1976. In descend- ing order of value they are reviewed below. "Libraries and the Development and Fu- ture of Tax Support" by R. Kathleen Molz is a sound, sensible, and thoroughly re- searched sketch of this subject. Useful to academic libraries is her description of the divided search for public funds-academic libraries seeking bibliographical control, public libraries seeking mass education. Her solution is the pursuit of policy research, probably leading to a client-centered rather than an institution-centered approach. Dan M. Lacy's "Libraries and the Free- dom of Access to Information" is lucid and eloquent and gets to the heart of the prob- lem of access. Those of us who have been in academic libraries during the thirty years since World War II will find ourselves nod- ding our heads in agreement with his knowledgeable depiction of the enormous