College and Research Libraries forts and leadership. His example is one to carry with us as we build the future.- Jonathan LeBreton, Albin 0. Kuhn Library and Gallery, University of Maryland, Balti- more County. 41"'8pecial Collections in College and Univer- sity Libraries. Comp. by Modoc Press, Inc.; with an introduction by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine B. Stern. New York: Macmillan, 1989. 639p. $90 to 12/15/89; $100 after (ISBN 0-02- 921651-6). LC 88-36849. The special collections department of any academic library is not unlike that of other divisions in its search for new ways to make its holdings better known to all readers. This is so basic a rule that it comes as somewhat of a shock to read the banal justifications and hyperbolic claims by the Macmillan editors who brought Special Collections in College and University Libraries into print. No one should deny the good purpose of such a work as this one. One suspects, however, that had the compilers been bet- ter informed of the field they were tilling, of indeed a genre of such literature previ- ously established, they would have cre- ated a basic, even classic tool, not merely the useful, if disappointing, effort in hand. In its scope statement, the claim is made that ''This volume differs from others that sail similar waters." How? Continuing, "It is not a directory of special libraries" [one would venture, however, it is], "Nor is it a listing by subject of a library's hold- ings" [although, it does just that], " ... rather, it is a compilation of detailed, de- scriptive information concerning special collections, rare books, and manuscripts to be found in the libraries of colleges and universities throughout the United States." The book, in spite of its relative length, is neither detailed, nor compre- hensive. The truly disappointing thing about this production is not so much that its claimed intentions do not hold up to scrutiny; rather, it is that the work missed a fine op- portunity in building on similar works in its area. Lee Ash's Subject Collections has now gone through many editions over a Recent Publications 597 generation, each more comprehensive than the last. Alice Schreyer's Rare Books, 1983-84, Trends, Collections, Sources is es- sential after five years. Are the National Union Catalogue, RLIN, OCLC, and the National Union Catalogue of Manuscript Col- lections so unknown to conscientious ''col- lectors, booksellers, designers, typogra- phers" to say nothing of the reference librarians and researchers, all for whom Special Collections was intended, as to ren- der them inefficient in locating institu- tional strengths? I think not. What the rare book world of ''special collections" needs today is a frequently updated-preferably annual-source of information on all libraries capable of sup- porting sustained research in the subject fields such institutions have chosen to link themselves with. The sheer size of the book world must be seriously reckoned with-it is arbitrary to consider simply col- lege and university libraries without tak- ing into account independent research li- braries such as the Newberry or the Huntington, museum library collections, natural history, technology, art, or early American historical society collections, great and humble. All of these ''public'' collections along with academic library collections form a stronger framework on which truly de- tailed, thorough scholarship necessarily depends. It is not reasonable to believe otherwise. A single volume which makes the effort to accommodate the deeper range of institutional collections will be, accordingly, a prized book. Special Collections is not without its pluses. When Macmillan creates a refer- ence source, the standard of readability is almost certainly assured. This book is no exception. One suspects that the most oft- consulted section will be the subject in- dex, and many of the descriptions are in- deed quite detailed. The fact that institutions are allowed to hold forth for pages, such as the Houghton Library at Harvard or the Beinecke at Yale, should be encouraged, but a maximum length should be estab- lished to give the work a better flow. Other institutions such as the University of Michigan in future editions should be 598 College & Research Libraries less modest in their submissions. Thus, the William L. Clements Library is given six lines, The John Carter Brown Library, an integral collection on the campus of Brown University, and perhaps the single greatest glory of all academically hosted special collections in the Western Hemi- sphere, is not mentioned. For years the John Crerar Library, a premier special col- lection of scientific primary sources, ex- isted as a separate, nonacademic institu- tion in Chicago. When its collections were merged with the science collections of the University of Chicago, and its name placed on a campus building, it presum- ably then merited a phrase or two. Institu- tional brochures, guides, and other publi- cations such as generated exhibition catalogues need to be listed. Perhaps this unevenness in treatment is the most disturbing-even jolting-aspect of the book. The text cries out for editors who know a bit more· about special collec- tions nationwide, or more willingness to devote time to the needed surveying, be- fore entries can be rushed into print. Still, who in the rare book world can resist the preliminary piece by those grand ladies of that world, Leona Rostenberg and Mad- eleine B. Stem? Their introduction, how- ever, in spite of its fascinating anecdotes and perspective, coming as it does from two booksellers who have long aided in the creation of great college and university special collections, as good as it is, cannot be a substitute for a truly comprehensive survey of the resources that are available in special book and manuscript collections throughout the United States. Appar- ently, we will have to wait a bit longer for one source to do that.-]ohn Neal Hoover, St. Louis Mercantile Library Association. The Architecture Library of the Future: Complexity and Contradiction. Ed. by Peggy Ann Kusnerz. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1989. 197p. $27.95 (ISBN 0-472-10114-5). LC 89-5493. The year 2000 looms ominously in our future . . We presume that since we lived through 1000 the world shall pass through the next millenia! marker without apoca- lyptic conclusion, and so we plan for the September 1989 next century. The proliferation of pub- lished blueprints seems as inevitable as the retrospective surveys that will surely descend upon our bookshelves after Janu- ary 1, 2000. The Architecture Library of the Future in- tends to be such a blueprint. For it, Peggy Ann Kusnerz compiled and edited papers presented at a symposium held in 1987 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Thomas Monaghan, founder and presi- dent of Domino's Pizza and the National Center for the Study of Frank Lloyd Wright, sponsored the symposium, per- haps in hopes that the combined thoughts presented here might provide him with a template from which he might form a li- brary for his center in thirty minutes or less. Satire aside, the volume contains some useful and some puzzling thoughts. The contributors' think pieces all relate to li- braries which cater to the needs of special- ized professionals or professionals-in- training. Most relate to desires and predictions by patrons and providers, but the inclusion of some caused me some perplexity, since they contained only re- portage of current situations and implied no applications for the future. Perhaps the editor's statement that ''The ideal archi- tecture library of the year 2000 will be built upon the strengths of the past and en- riched by the anticipated demands and opportunities of the future'' should have been stated more boldly for both readers and presenters. Judith Holliday's piece on collection de- velopment adds little new thought. Her- bert Scherer's lament on the merging of his art (not architecture) library back into the central collection should not surprise most professionals. James Hodgson's de- scription of the Harvard experience may be of interest to some readers, but the idio- syncracies of the institution bear little rele- vance to the outside world. The same might be said of Stephanie Cormier Byrnes' description of the collection at the American Institute of Architecture. Marilyn Schmitt's summary of Getty Trust projects, Angela Giral' s report on the status of the A VIADOR Project (Avery Videodisc Index of Architectural Draw-