College and Research Libraries


tive limitation. It is unlikely, however, 
that the excellent special collections on 
Lincoln, Napoleon I, or American poetry 
at B r o w n will be drastically reduced or 
that agreement on limitation of college 
and university libraries w i l l be soon or 
easily reached. 

Contradictory as it may seem, this very 
lack of definiteness and agreement makes 
the book of more than temporary interest 
and value. T h e library must be unsettled 
in a world of social confusion. T h e points 
of agreement reached independently indi-
cate possible avenues of advance. D i s -
agreement indicates more than one road 
to improvement. 

It w i l l not be popular to note that, 
while the potential social service of the 
library is well recognized, its necessary 
and often desirable limitation by general 
social conditions is not always as frankly 
admitted. F u t u r e depressions and dimin-
ishing interest in reading are quite possi-
ble. Plans for forced entrenchment 
should be in readiness by the most optimis-
tic librarian even if not publicized or 
acted upon until unavoidable. 

Librarians w h o do their own thinking 
will be ready to make these reservations. 
T h e y w i l l not mistake the occasional 
evangelistic outbursts for factual state-
ments. T h o s e w h o think by proxy w i l l 
for the most part find the excess optimism 
more profitably stimulating than a similar 
excess of even plausible p e s s i m i s m . — F r a n k 
K. Walter, University of Minnesota, Min-
neapolis. 

Vitalizing a College Library. B. Lamar 
Johnson. A m e r i c a n L i b r a r y Associa-
tion, 1 9 3 9 . I 2 2 p . $2. 

MORE AND more the college library 
must be regarded in its relationship to the 
other educational divisions on the campus. 

Librarians have recognized this, perhaps 
more keenly than professorial and adminis-
trative groups, and here and there a f e w 
bold spirits have, on occasions, made 
threatening gestures toward reform. A t 
Stephens College, the administration, the 
library staff, and the teachers, recognizing 
the essential unity of library w o r k and 
teaching, discarded conventional library 
practices for a program which w o u l d bring 
students, faculty, and books together and 
which would make it more nearly possible 
for the student to associate with books as 
in a private library. B y establishing the 
dual position of librarian and dean of in-
struction, by employing in this position a 
man whose training, experience, and inter-
est have been primarily in the field of 
teaching, and by securing a special founda-
tion grant to conduct an experimental 
library program, the Stephens College ad-
ministration set the stage for the library 
program described by D r . Johnson in 
Vitalizing a College Library. 

T h e library program described provides 
for decentralized service under centralized 
administration, for classroom libraries 
(languages and dramatics w i t h modifica-
tion of the plan in English and other hu-
manities), division libraries (social study 
and science departmental libraries adja-
cent to teaching quarters under supervi-
sion of subject-librarian specialists), the 
use of the general library for informal 
student-teacher conferences as well as for 
formal class instruction, joint library-
teacher responsibility in instructing stu-
dents in the use of books and libraries, 
book collections in residence halls and in 
the infirmary, and for the encouragement 
and building up of student private li-
braries. T h e range of services commonly 
thought of in college library w o r k has been 
expanded to include the circulation of 

MARCH, 1940 185 



phonograph records and music scores, the 

loan of f r a m e d pictures f o r students' 

rooms, and the establishment of a visual 

education service f o r the loan and 

p r e v i e w i n g of motion pictures f o r class 

w o r k . F u r t h e r elucidation of the pro-

g r a m is unnecessary since most librarians 

are already f a m i l i a r in a general w a y w i t h 

the Stephens l i b r a r y p r o g r a m as inter-

preted in more than a dozen articles in 

l i b r a r y and educational j o u r n a l s . 

T h e question n a t u r a l l y arises, since this 

is a case history of one particular l i b r a r y 

p r o g r a m , as to h o w useful the results of 

the study are to other librarians. T h e 

answer, in this r e v i e w e r ' s humble opinion, 

is that D r . J o h n s o n has made a v a l u a b l e 

contribution to the w h o l e subject of li-

brary-teaching relations. E v e r y college 

librarian w i l l find in it a stimulating, en-

lightening, and constructive analysis of 

one approach to a difficult and perplexing 

problem. T h e intellectual interests of 

students are, f o r the most part, a function 

of their mental development. I n most 

colleges, u n d e r g r a d u a t e students receive 

their sharpest stimulus to learning in the 

scientific l a b o r a t o r y . O n l y in a v e r y 

limited degree is there the same stimulat-

ing association in the humanities and social 

sciences to spark the interest of students. 

T h e physical provisions in most college 

libraries f o r j u s t such stimulation are 

l a r g e l y lacking. B u t there is every reason 

to believe that if an opportunity is pro-

vided, the results w i l l be e q u a l l y stimulat-

ing. T h i s is w h a t Stephens attempts to 

do. 

O n the other hand, the Stephens pro-

g r a m is not the only approach to b r i d g i n g 

the gap between the l i b r a r y and its rela-

tion to instruction, as D r . J o h n s o n w o u l d 

be the first to agree. H i s scheme of de-

c e n t r a l i z i n g the book collections in a small 

college l i b r a r y is c o n t r a r y to at least one 

l i b r a r i a n ' s notion that the u n i f y i n g f u n c -

tion of the college l i b r a r y should be an 

important f a c t in the interrelation of 

k n o w l e d g e . F u r t h e r m o r e it h a r d l y seems 

possible that advanced students could do 

any really serious investigation w h e n li-

b r a r y resources in the social sciences and 

humanities are so w i d e l y scattered and 

w h e n only a skeleton collection re-

mains in the main library. D r . J o h n -

son's slogan " B o o k s A l l A r o u n d T h e m " 

brings to mind the remark of a M a i n e 

coast native. A s k e d w h e t h e r he spent the 

l o n g w i n t e r evenings in reading, he re-

plied, " N o ! R e a d i n g is bad. T o o much 

reading rots the m i n d . " T o o much read-

ing of the quality singled out by Stephens' 

students as their first choice f o r recrea-

tional reading w o u l d probably rot the 

mind. 

I t is regrettable that the author should 

have adopted the methods of the c o m p a r a -

tive school in the chapter on " A d m i n i s t r a -

tion and R e c o r d s " w h e r e circulation and 

cost figures in the p a r t i c u l a r instance .cited 

cannot be accepted as true criteria f o r 

measuring the l i b r a r y effectiveness of these 

institutions. I n spite of these shortcom-

ings, minor to be sure and permissible only 

as cavil a m o n g friends, D r . J o h n s o n has, 

by combining his sound teaching and li-

b r a r y experience, succeeded in g i v i n g us a 

vastly suggestive and stimulating analysis 

of a successful college l i b r a r y experiment. 

—Guy R. Lyle, Woman's College Li-
brary of the University of North Caro-
lina, Greensboro. 

A Code for Classifiers. W i l l i a m Stetson 

M e r r i l l . 2 n d ed. A m e r i c a n L i b r a r y 

Association, 1 9 3 9 . i 7 7 p . $ 2 . 

M R . M E R R I L L ' S second edition of his 
Code for Classifiers is a bona fide n e w edi-

1 8 6 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES