College and Research Libraries the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Uni- versity of Illinois at Chicago. Hagerstrand, T. The Identification of Prog- ress in Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1985. 204p. $39.50. LC 84- 14277. ISBN 0-521-30087-8. This is a collection of papers presented at the European Science Foundation Col- loquium, held in Colmar, France, in March 1983. Because its purpose is to in- crease an understanding of knowledge, of the research process and of learning, it is central to the concerns of academic librari- anship. The collection consists of twelve essays by respected scientists and scholars in the fields of physics, mathematics, biol- ogy, medicine, sociology, linguistics, art history, history, and economics,· each ac- companied by the commentary of another scholar. Two general essays help to make of this diverse assembly of ideas a coher- ent contribution to the sociology of sci- ence. Each paper is a synthesis of consider- ations such as the criteria for the evalua- tion of knowledge in each field; identifica- tion of the significant discovery, breakthrough, or advancement; priorities within fields; and obstacles to advance- ment. Such syntheses are more important now than ever before because of the rapid movement toward specialization and in- terdisciplinary research, rendering com- munication among scientists and scholars more complex, and an understanding of the growth of knowledge more difficult for anyone involved. The undersigned is not competent to judge the merits of indi- vidual contributions to this collection, but it is fairly clear that, overall, they provide stimulating insight into the fluid nature of the classification of knowledge, para- digms of theory, and changing method- ologies for advancement. Reference to the library appears only once in this book, yet a common thread that links concerns about the present and · future among the disciplines represented has to do very essentially with library and information science. That is the techno- logical control and, increasingly, the intel- lectual control of information in the broad- est sense. Briefly, significant advance- Recent Publications 183 mentis dependent upon the ability to deal selectively with the growing volume of compartmentalized information and to enhance cross-fertilization among disci- plines. The logic is as follows: knowledge is advanced by discovery, variously inter- preted among disciplines; discovery is de- fined as such within a context of knowl- edge accepted within each discipline; the better the organization of that knowledge is, the more readily identifiable will be the discovery that will advance the field; where discovery is both most likely and most fruitful is the region of overlap or po- tential overlap between fields. None of this is terribly new, of course, but it is focused particularly well in this collection of essays. And it underscores the important pivotal function that librari- ans could perform in the evolving schol- arly communication system. Based on the logic of the advancement of knowledge outlined above, it appears that it falls to our profession to become more active in the intellectual organization of informa- tion (in the broadest sense) and to direct Heritage on Microfilnt Rare and out-of-print titles and documents on 35mm silver halide microfilm. • French Books before 1601 • Scandinavian Culture • 18th Century English Literature • Victorian Fiction • Literature of Folklore • Hispanic Culture Send for catalog and title information today. ~~t:~[M ~COv\PfNY 70 Coolidge Hill Road Watertown, MA 02172 (617) 926-5557 184 College & Research Libraries special attention to making compatible that organization from one discipline to another.-Charles B. Osburn, University of Cincinnati Libraries, Ohio. Stern, Madeleine B. Antiquarian Booksell- ing in the United States: A History from the Origins to the 1940s. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1985. 246p. $29.95. LC 84- 19273. ISBN 0-313-24729-3. The epigraph of this book is a quotation from Sir Stanley Unwin to the effect that while writing, printing, and reading books are difficult tasks, "the most diffi- cult task that a mortal man can embark on is to sell a book." At the risk of dignifying Sir Stanley's hyperbole, one might re- mark that it would seem even more diffi- cult to write a history of those who sell books. Underscoring the problems inher- ent in such a history, Stem remarks in her introduction: ''That this book represents the first formal attempt to record the his- tory of antiquarian bookselling in the United States should cause no undue sur- prise . . . the bookseller has always been a ghost, whose transactions as intermediary between source and market are seldom preserved." Working from what she ad- mits are meager sources, she has at- tempted to "reanimate those ghosts and trace the history of their fascinating trade . . . to restore their tastes and tempera- ments, their trials, their struggles, and their achievements, to clothe once again in flesh and blood the purveyors of antiquar- ian books." The book is di~ided into a series of chap- ters that outline the history of antiquarian bookselling in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and "Cities to the South"- Annapolis/Baltimore, Washington, Rich- mond, Charleston, and New Orleans. A final chapter covers what Stern calls ''lone stars,'' booksellers such as Henry Stevens of Vermont, who don't fit into the geo- graphical framework of her book but who cannot be ignored. Each chapter is ade- quately footnoted, and there is a short bib- liographical essay at the end of the vol- ume, as well as an index. Although she covers some ground al- March 1986 ready familiar to those acquainted with the biographies and autobiographies of A. S. W. Rosenbach, Henry Stevens, Fred Rosenstock, and others, Stern has rescued any number of interesting ''ghosts'' from oblivion. Herself an antiquarian booksel- ler of no small distinction, she presents sympathetic and informative portraits of the men and women whose careers she chronicles. If she ocassionally lapses into biblio-cliches and all too readily quotes some of the more gongoristic language of earlier writers, her understanding of the nature of the business saves her from some of the pitfalls awaiting a less sympa- thetic historian. Unfortunately, this book is less a history than a. collection of essays, many of which originally appeared in AB Bookman's Weekly. While she does attempt to place the history of bookselling in each city cov- ered within a larger framework of regional history, her book lacks any overall per- spective on the development of the trade itself, or even a unifying sense of inquiry that might have melded her chapters into a connected narrative. Disavowing any at- tempt to define antiquarian books or booksellers, and ·evading many of the questions and problems surrounding what must appear to the uninitiated as es- sentially a luxury trade, she has limited the audience for her book to the true be- lievers of bibliophily. In the one instance where she raises an interesting question- why has the South fostered so few anti- quarian booksellers and collectors?-she avoids answering it by saying that it is a ''strange anomaly'' caused by the superfi- cial intellectual and aesthetic culture of the region. It as she asserts, the antiquarian trade "created a demand, and then sup- plied that demand . . . helped to shape taste, and so has been an educative force," why didn't it prove educative in this place? Stern believes that the antiquarian bookseller has been an "arbiter of learn- ing" and a "dispenser of knowledge," but frankly one gets little sense of this from her history. The role of the book in our culture has only recently come under serious study, and certainly the role of the specialized antiquarian bookseller must