College and Research Libraries 184 College & Research Libraries anship. Frederic de Peyster, president of the society from 1864-1866 and 1873-1882, emphasized the broad educational role of the institution, while George Henry Moore, librarian from 1849-1866, viewed it as a professional library serving special- ized scholars. Under Moore's successors, William and Robert Kelby, the society be- came one of the city's chief centers of ge- nealogical research and hereditary patri- otic organizations. A solution to this issue was eventually facilitated by the depart- mentalization of the functions and pur- poses of the society by librarian (and later director) Alexander J. Wall in 1939. The li- brary continued to function as a scholarly resource while the new museum allowed the society to meet the popular educa- tional demands. Despite these difficulties, the New-York Historical Society managed to attract col- lections of major importance. Richards' account is peppered with descriptions of the manuscript and printed riches that came into the institution. Unrelated mate- rials were accepted as well. This "vacuum cleaner'' approach to acquisitions was eventually refined by director R. W. G. Vail, who established a policy of building to the strengths of the collection in 1959. Like his predecessor, Alexander J. Wall, Vail worked to achieve closer cooperation with other New York institutions. Richards brings her story up to the present with a discussion of the recatalog- ing and conservation projects of the soci- ety under director James D. Heslin and li- brarian James Gregory. The problems of escalating costs and a stagnating endow- ment fill the final pages of her study. Scholars and Gentlemen is a fine contribu- tion to the history of the cultural institu- tions of New York City and of the United States.-Marie Elena Korey, Free Library of Philadelphia. Library Technical Services: Operations and Management. Ed. by Irene P. God- den. (Library and Information Science series) Orlando, Fla.: Academic, 1984. 272p. $32. LC 83-15645. ISBN 0-12- 287040-9. The editor of Library Technical Seroices: Operations and Management says that the March 1985 text is intended to provide an overview of current technical services operations. It is also intimated that this work is for the pro- fessional reader. The operations described are mainly those found in academic and research libraries-but applicability in other types of libraries is assumed. The book attempts, therefore, to provide a comprehensive overview of current tech- nical services operations, including ad- ministration, automation, acquisitions, bibliographic control, preservation, and circulation. By current is meant not only recent, but developments since the publication of Maurice Tauber's classic text Technical Ser- vices in Libraries (New York: Columbia Univ. Pr ., 1954)-a period of thirty years. The emphasis, however, is not on a histor- ical overview but primarily on the current situation. Tauber's work originated with his teaching duties in Columbia's School of Library Service and came within a de- cade or two of the time in the library world when technical services as such were first conceived. As much as any other single event, the publication of Tauber's text her- alded the arrival of an organizational iden- tity for the library technical services unit or division. Ironically, this new work edited by Irene Godden appears at a time when that identity is undergoing serious re- thinking and when some are even predict- ing its demise. Library Technical Seroices contains only seven chapters, and one of those is the in- troduction. Other chapters are devoted to administration, automation, acquisitions, bibliographic control, preservation, and circulation. These are considered to be the functional areas of technical services, and the editor explains that discussions of spe- cific materials and operations are . covered in each functional chapter. Hence, for de- scriptions and discussions of specific top- ics (e.g., serials, government publica- tions, binding), it is essential that the reader refer to the index where treatment in the respective chapter is referenced. Each of the chapters is organized along similar lines. That is, the specialist author for the particular chapter provides an in- troduction, deals with the terminology, discusses major topics, issues, and special problems, and then documents the chap- ter with suggestions for keeping up to date and with references and a bibliogra- phy. In reading the chapters one must keep in mind that an overview is intended. The treatments are not in-depth; new informa- tion and new concepts are lacking. Never- theless, it is helpful to have leading practi- tioners document present operations in technical services. Two authors cover a broad range of topics in their respective chapters. In chapter 3, "Automation," Karen Horny covers topics such as inte- grated systems, standards, networks and cooperation, and downtime. Betty Bengt- son in chapter 5, ''Bibliographic Control,'' covers cataloging and classification, origi- nal and copy cataloging, serials, authority control, retrospective conversion, etc. The chapter on administration provides a very shallow discussion of organizational prac- tices for technical services-currently a hot topic for the profession. The chapter on preservation includes such diverse topics Recent Publications 185 as deacidification, weeding, shelving, and storage. In these and the other chapters the reader will find well-written descrip- tions of current technical service practice. The physical qualities of the book are ac- ceptable. The construction, type, page for- mat, and headings all contribute to mak- ing it very usable. And, one sees evidence of heavy editorial control-probably by both the editor of this particular volume and the series editor. A certain consistent editorial quality is maintained, but the result is, at times, a rather sterile and rigid narrative. The preface and introductory chapter offer the only unifying factor for the work. It may be that the increasingly complex and changing nature of technical services and current editorial practice for such series books have precluded the pos- sibility of a unified work (like Tauber's for example). In any case, some readers may prefer separate texts by specific functional areas that offer such unity. Acquisitions . Management and Collection Development in Libraries by Rose Mary Magrill ~nd Dora- Midwest Library Service You won't find more specialized service .. . anywhere College and university librarians: If there are gaps in services being rendered by your current library jobber, then Midwest Library Service may be what you're look- ing for . Midwest has specialized in service to college and university libraries for 24 years-so long that pro- viding books from even the most obscure publisher is standard practice. For prompt, efficient service on all orders, contact Midwest Library Service. Midwest Library Service 11443 St . Charles Rock Road Bridgeton, MO 63044 Call toll-free (800) 325-8833 Missouri librarians call toll-free (800) 392-5024 Canadian librarians call (800) 527-1659 186 College & Research Libraries lyn Hickey (Chicago: American Library Assn., 1984) is a very good example of one such work. The enduring contribution of Library Technical Services: Operations and Manage- ment will most likely be realized as users refer to its guidance on "keeping up" and to the references and bibliographies that document operations in the functional ar- eas of library technical services.-Don La- nier, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb. Leaders in American Academic Librarian- ship: 1925-1975. Ed. by Wayne A. Wiegand. (Beta Phi Mu Chapbook, no. 16) Pittsburgh: Beta Phi Mu, 1983. 419p. $50. LC 83-21448. ISBN 0-9102-3016-X. (Distributed by American Library Asso- ciation.) This book will be of value to all those in- terested in ascertaining the paths to influ- ence and renown in the American aca- demic world followed by academic librarians in the period surveyed. This vol- ume might, however, more accurately be entitled Leaders in American Libraries since the fifteen people included have all been library directors. The avowed goals of the editor are to: (1) increase academic librari- ans' awareness of their profession by re- viewing crucial events and the leaders who shaped or reacted to them, (2) recall a generation of leaders now being forgot- ten, and (3) generate more interest in aca- demic library history. While the collection of essays should do these things, as well as occasion speculation on how the ap- proaches discussed would apply to con- temporary situations in academic li- braries, the unfortunately high price of the book will effectively keep it out of the · hands of many potential readers and some libraries. The academic librarians included have been rather arbitrarily chosen: a commit- tee of six well-known librarians narrowed down an original list of twenty-five aca- demic librarians to fifteen on whose im- portance consensus could be reached. Secondary sources were not consulted in these deliberations, and the final group selected is not claimed as a definitive list of the greatest academic librarians of the pe- riod. Many readers will feel that omitted March 1985 librarians rate inclusion as much or more so than some of those selected, but this dissatisfaction is inherent in any brief se- lection, no matter how it is arrived at, and the editor is honest in his subjectivity. Some readers will feel that too heavy an emphasis has been placed on library direc- tors to the exclusion of other types of aca- . demic librarians. Once again, in an avow- edly subjective survey that does not claim representativeness, such an emphasis is harder to fault. This lack of any explicit ed- itorial focus does, however, result in a va- riety of unmediated viewpoints from which the reader must isolate and synthe- size those traits that contributed to effec- tive performance and leadership in the ac- ademic library context. Those librarians included are Charles H. Brown, W. S. Dix, Robert Downs, Ralph Ellsworth, Lillian B. Griggs, Guy Lyle, Stephen McCarthy, Blanche P. McCrum, Keyes DeWitt Metcalf, Jerrold Orne, Law- rence Powell, Ralph Shaw, Maurice Tauber, Robert Vosper, and Louis Round . Wilson. All are known primarily as library · directors except for Tauber and Wilson, best known for their activities in catalog- ing and library education, respectively. They, too, however, had directed li- braries. No member of the Library of Con- gress is included except for McCrum, who ended her career there as a specialist in documents and a bibliographer after de- cades as the director of two academic li- braries. The editor allowed considerable free- dom to his contributors as to style and or- ganization. While most articles summa- rize all facets of the subject's library activities, the one on Wilson is conceived as a supplement to his authorized biogra- phy. While most of the writers endorse the editorial committee's choice of sub- jects, the biographers of Dix and Lyle claim that their high reputations among contemporaneous librarians were more the result of luck and personal charisma than of vital contributions to, or innova- tions in, the field. The biographers of Griggs and McCrum, on the other hand, present the case that these librarians' ca- reers have been unjustly ignored because of the bias against female leadership in the