College and Research Libraries 406 I College & Research Libraries • September 1982 The legislative reference movement also had an important effect on the American li- brary profession, a point implied but not suf- ficiently emphasized by Casey. The bureaus were a major impetus to the special libraries movement and, in 1909, the creation of the Special Libraries Association. The SLA, with its focus on putting knowledge in all formats "to work," was itself a reform movement within American librarianship. McCarthy was indeed, as the author notes, "an early in- formation scientist." He was also, in effect, one of the founders of the special libraries movement. McCarthy was a historian by training. A student of Frederick Jackson Turner at Wis- consin, he received a Ph.D. in 1901. But a university position was not available to this unorthodox man who had both a working- class demeanor and a brogue. He was, how- ever, recommended for a position in the doc- uments office in the state capitol; it was this modest office that the ambitious, socially conscious "digger into truth" soon trans- formed into the Legislative Reference Li- brary. McCarthy's professional career was rela- tively short, apparently one reason why his contributions to the Progressive movement and to librarianship have been overlooked. After thirteen years in his library in Madison, McCarthy accepted a series of information- related positions outside librarianship: re- searcher for the Federal Commission on In- dustrial Relations, assistant to Herbert Hoover on the Food Commission, and assis- tant to Felix Frankfurter on the War Labor Policies Board. The jobs were information related because he made them so, insisting that the information he gathered and pre- sented could ultimately lead to an improved American society . His career ended with his death, at the age of forty-seven, in 1921. This is a clearly focused study of an in- triguing and influential personality. It also is a thoughtful exploration of the relationship between the Progressive movement and the roots of a specialized and important branch of American librarianship. It is unfortunate that it has been produced from camera-ready typescript; in my view, it deserves better treatment.-John Y. Cole, Stanford Univer- sity Libraries, Stanford, California. Shiflett, Orvin Lee. Origins of American Aca- demic Librarianship. Norwood, N.J. : Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1981. 308p. $22.50. LC 81-14969. ISBN 0- 89391-082-1. Here is a remarkable book. It is actually two stories in one, covering the roots of both the American academic tradition and the li- brary service that accompanies it. At first glance it appears to be a turgid ac- count; there are five very long chapters with no divisions. Furthermore, the first two chapters are devoted to long and slow-to- develop accounts of the formation of Ameri- can higher education at both the college and the university level. Shiflett, however, has done a remarkable job of sifting a great many sources to provide a thorough and highly readable text. In what is actually an abbrevi- ated presentation, his is by far one of the most thoughtful analyses available of the in- fluences that shaped American higher educa- tion. By the time one reaches the final three chapters on the scholar and the librarian, the professionalization of academic librarian- ship, and the status of the librarian, there is no doubt as to why we had the kind of aca- demic libraries we did in the days up to the 1930s. The thoroughness of Shiflett's scholar- ship sustains his sound analysis. Perhaps the writing could have been terser, but it is not offensive as is. In fact, for the academic his- tory buff it is fun to read. For one who has labored for over three decades in academic librarianship, it is sur- prising to realize how slowly the fundamen- tals of this sector of librarianship have grown. · Revealing, though somewhat de- pressing, are Shiflett's findings of the low sta- tus of librarians in their academic environ- ment through so many long years of development. Particularly distressing are the many bits of evidence he has found of the subjugation of women in the profession, al- though a great deal of what he says could be repeated about much of the American ·work force up to World War II. Furthermore, his notion that the status of early academic librarians as scholars can bet- ter be attributed to the fact that the library was merely a unit to be run by a professor with spare time than to the idea that librari- anship called for and demanded the mental- At Midwest Library Service, We Take The Team Approach To Assist Your Library A Pam Rodgers j \ Carl Dorr ¥ (SOUTHEAST) \Forrest E. Link Carol Lehmkuh)t ¥ (NORTHEAST) \Kevin P. Coyle Linda Market/ ¥ (MIDWEST) ;.;~~::;;. . . Glenda Ward/ fawrence D. Nagel Pat Hamil / ¥ (WEST) To best serve your needs, we have formed five problem-solving service teams to help take the hassle out of book-buying. Each team is composed of a Sales Representative in the field and a Customer Service Representative in our home office. Once alerted by your phone call made on our Toll-Free WATS Line, 1-800-325-8833, (Missouri customers, please call COLLECT 0-314-739-3100) your problem-solving team , geographically assigned to your library, goes into Midwest Library Service 11443 St. Charles Rock Road Bridgeton, Mo. 63044 action immediately. It is another facet of Midwest Library Service's tradition of excellence. May we have the privilege of serving your library? "23 Years of Service To College and University Libraries" 408 I College & Research Libraries • September 1982 ity of the scholar, is a hard thing to admit. Shiflett has more than adequate documenta- tion for this finding. It is also somewhat painful to have so clearly documented the fact that the kind of education that librarians and their academic institutions accepted" ... differed radically from that expected of faculty members. In- deed, the form of library education as it was begun by Dewey and promoted by his disci- ples was, in essence, a manifestation of the spirit of the public library movement." So much for the strength of the historical influ- ence as regards academic status for librari- ans. In Shiflett's words: "As a profession distin- guishable from that of members of the fac- ulty and from other types of librarians, it ( ac- ademic librarianship) has failed to become fully defined." Rather, I would say that, af- ter reading Shiflett, the definition might well be before us. Now all we have to do is admit it-academic librarians warrant status on their own account. Shiflett has provided us with plenty of food for thought.-Russell Shank, University of California at Los An- geles. College Librarianship. Ed. by William ·C. Miller and C. Stephen Rockwood. Metu- chen, N.J., and London: Scarecrow, 1981. 284p. $15. LC 80-25546 ISBN 0-8108- 1383-1. One of the many undercurrents of aca- demic librarianship is the persistent notion that small-college libraries have special problems which cannot be treated easily. Somehow the environment and limited re- sources of the typical host institution seem to impose peculiar restraints on the library's po- tential for achieving success. This perception is especially evident among those librarians who view the difference between college and university settings as basically a matter of scale. Fortunately, most of the people who contributed essays and studies to the publica- tion reviewed here recognize the unique and exciting challenges afforded by a venture into college librarianship. This is a modest book which offers the reader an opportunity to reflect on such vex- ing issues as "Collection Development from a College Perspective," "The Challenge of Cataloging in the College Environment," and "Equal Employment Opportunity and the College Library Administrator." Two of the eighteen articles were published earlier in C&RL, but the rest of them are fresh con- tributions to the relatively sparse literature on the subject. In all, they serve as a good in- troduction to a variety of topics handled by college librarians on a daily basis. The most refreshing articles are those that attempt to come to terms with the special characteristics of the subject in a general manner. Peter Dollard's overview, entitled "A Paradigm for College Libraries," is are- markably thoughtful attempt to delineate the special role of the college library. Susan Lee offers a superb planning strategy in "A Modest Management Approach," while Charles Maurer describes the underlying paradox of mixed responsibility for line and staff functions with "Close Encounters of Di- verse Kinds: A Management Panorama for the Director of the Smaller College Library." Other articles focus on topics such as faculty status, acquisitions, personnel, media re- sources, user instruction, government docu- ments, archives, and planning a library building. In all, the editors have assembled a serviceable treatment of the subject. This volume should be useful to library school students and others who may wish to obtain greater knowledge of the real issues faced by college librarians. It may also serve to identify some topics for research in an area of librarianship which some people feel has not received enough attention.-Richard A. Olsen, Rhode Island College, Providence. Slater, Margaret. Ratios of Staff to Users: Im- plications for Library-Information Work and the Potential for Automation. (Aslib Occasional Publication no.24.) London: Aslib, 1981. 123p. $17, U.K. ($14, Aslib members), $21.25, U.S. ($17.50, Aslib members). This report is the result of a study con- ducted by the Aslib Research and Consul- tancy Division and funded by the British Library Research and Development Depart- ment. The aim of the study was to provide ratios of library-information staff to users in the special sector (excluding public library and educational sectors). These ratios are in- tended to be of use in forecasting and plan- ning at both the national and organjzational