Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Abstract
Previous papers have discussed the various aspects of
science literature for general reading so presumably all previous
steps already have been taken into consideration when the
basic ingredients of the collection- -or components, as the term
appears in the title of this paper are analyzed. This phrase,
somewhat anticlimatic, lands the author somewhere on the circumference
of a circle --perhaps that vicious one containing the
chicken and the egg. Or to put it another way, some may feel
that we had the "cart before the horse "--that, for example, one
does not select until he knows what to select for whom, why,
when, how, and where.
Much time could be wasted on the question of priorities
but, since this is the last discussion in the second series, we
cannot turn back and start all over again. Let us proceed,
therefore, to think about the composition of the collection, built
or re-built, in the light of what the reading public wants, where
to get it and how, as well as of other types of materials the general
reader might use to advantage once he becomes aware of
their existence. In this paper some suggestions may, of necessity,
emphasize those made by previous speakers; in fact, they
may be repetitive in spots. On the other hand there may be
some difference of opinion. By this time one gathers that the
general reader is a person of ordinary intelligence who has not
had recent training nor, up to now, specific knowledge of the
subject in which he has indicated an interest.published or submitted for publicatio
