Lemke, Antje B.

College and Research Libraries

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Readings in Library History (Book Review)

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bibliographical activities in Latin America is that it gives one the feeling that Dr. Irene Zimmerman has first-hand acquaint-ance with the state of these bibliographies and the people who are producing them. And indeed she does in most cases. As the notes indicate a considerable amount of the necessary information was gained through personal correspondence. This is no finding list of national bibliographies by countries but includes an account of the bibliograph-ical activities surrounding them. The relative brevity of the book can be explained by the fact that of the twenty-five countries considered, as of 1969 ten of them had no current national bibliogra-phies, and in several others, the bibliogra-phies were of only recent origin or were is-sued at irregular intervals. Much of Dr. Zimmerman's information is drawn from working papers presented by librarians from the respective countries at meetings of that truly remarkable institu-tion known as the Seminar on the Acquisi-tion of Latin American Library Materials ( SALALM) . For several years the annual meetings centered around the bibliograph-ical activities of the various countries of Latin America and the working papers pre-sented there often constitute the best de-scription of current bibliographies of these countries available in any literature. Al-though the geographical area involved is immense, the relatively small group of Lat-in American bibliographers form a group which is almost unique in its cohesiveness and devotion to purpose. An insight into the "state of the art" in several countries is provided by the author's statement that in some instances for the present at least, the best record of current publishing in some of the countries in Cen-tral America and the Caribbean exists in the published acquisitions lists of some of the institutions with Farmington plan re-sponsibilities for certain countries. She urges that additional such lists be provided. This statement, made as recently as 1969, by someone with as wide a knowl-edge of Latin American bibliography as has Miss Zimmerman, would seem to give those of us concerned with bibliographical control food for thought. This is a valuable book. There are chap-ters on each of the countries of South and Recent Publications I 77 Central America and Haiti and the Spanish-speaking countries of the Caribbean. The British West Indies are treated as a group. There is a very interesting section on the Caribbean as an emerging entity. This is Dr. Zimmerman's special field and it is not surprising that there is an excellent account of the efforts of the librarians of the Carib-bean to support the Caribbean Regional Li-brary in Puerto Rico and its Current Carib-bean Bibliography. The aim of the library (which is based on the former Caribbean Commission Collection) would be to collect all publications of this diverse group of is-land countries and to record the acquisi-tions in a computer based bibliography. Both the library and bibliography have led troubled lives. They are, however, so im-portant to the region that the reader cannot but hope that they will be placed on a sound footing. In fact, as one reviews this volume in his mind he becomes aware of the tenuousness of the national bibliogra-phies in many of the countries. So much needs to be done and there are so few to do it.-Stanley I. West, University of Ha-waii, Honolulu. Dunlap, Leslie W. Readings in Library History. New York: Bowker, 1972. 137 p. 9 illus. $10.95. At first glance, this is a pleasing book: Instead of presenting assorted essays, the author has connected his selections with a running commentary that turns the anthol-ogy into one coherent text. The large type on heavily coated paper can be read by tired eyes, and the blue linen covers seem sturdy enough to last for centuries. This, however, is all that is commend-able. The title (and there is no subtitle) does not reveal the scope, which is limited to the preprinting period of librarianship, from the seventh century B.c. to the fif-teenth century A.D. The selections, includ-ing the author's own essays, combine many familiar accounts from the general history of that period with some often repeated li-brary lore. We read about "the imagined charms of Helen of ancient Troy, her hya-cinth hair . . ." and are told that <'Greek civilization Hamed for a few centuries in Athens and distant Alexandria and Syra-cuse" but we learn hardly anything about 78 I College & Research Libraries • January 1973 libraries. The only worthwhile pages (three) are excerpts from Richard DeBury's famous Philobiblion. They give the flavor of DeBury' s times and convey his concern about books. In his essay on Alexandrian Libraries Dunlap mentions Callimachus' Pinakes, but he. neither describes them, nor do we learn about the contributions of the Alexandrian Librarians to the production and organiza-tion of documents, which are of such amaz-ing actuality today. About the Middle Ages we read at best some details of monastic book production, but the library development of the Caro-lingian period remains totally dark. The Petrac selection is taken from Mary Elton's The Great Book-Collections published in 1893, when much of the currently available Petrac material was not known. The obsolescence of the book is also re-flected in the bibliography: Of the twenty-six titles from which the author has taken his selections, twelve have been published prior to World War I. In addition, the bib-liography is incomplete, since it does not include the great number of sources which are quoted in the authors own essays and his commentary. Only one of the nine illustrations shows a library. The others show a few writing utensils and famous authors. Among the latter is a charming picture of a round-headed St. Jerome in his cell, nonauthentic, of course, and reproduced with a blur. For five pictures the sources are identified. I understand that a practicing and highly respected librarian retains a love for his-tory, and that he wants to share what he has collected in "innumerable hours of browsing and gleaning" in the "extensive collection of the University of Iowa." I do not understand a publisher who accepts a manuscript that shows neither adequate knowledge of the subject, nor the informa-tion currently available. The only purpose of this book is the setting of a sad example for what should not be perpetuated in li-brary literature.-Antfe B. Lemke, Syracuse University, School of Library Science. Palmer, Richard P. Computerizing the Card Catalog in the University Library; A Survey of User Requirements. Little-ton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.; 1972. $8.50. This book is the result of work done by Dr. Palmer on a dissertation for the Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Michigan. I think the title of the disserta-tion (User Requirements of a University Li-brary Card Catalog) more aptly describes the content of the book than does the title of the printed book. There are several typo-graphical errors in the text. Having made the negative comments, there is much posi-tive comment to make. Dr. Frederick H. Wagman, director of University Libraries, University of Michi-gan, requested Dr. Palmer to undertake a use study of the union catalog at the Uni-versity of Michigan for the purpose of de-termining what data elements now appear-ing on a catalog card would be necessary in a computer catalog in order to satisfy the users' requirements. Dr. Palmer proceeded to do the study by reviewing twenty card catalog use studies and two surveys of use studies. Each of these studies is listed and synthesized un-der the headings "Purpose," "Methodolo-gy," "Relevant Findings." This section of the book is very useful as a research tool for persons interested in the use of the card catalog studies that have been done. The remaining sections of the book con-sist of a report of methodology used by Pal-mer in his survey, the findings, and the con-clusion. Dr. Palmer has made a valuable contri-bution to the body of literature available on the use of the card catalog. Kenneth Shaffer, in his introduction to the book, states: "Dr. Palmer's findings ... , are startling. He learned that 84 percent of all users found what they were seeking in the cata-logue, and that a preponderance of cata-logue use was by graduate students. Again, the preponderance of use of the catalogue, 70 percent, was for known-item searches, a statistic which he points out is higher than was found in previous studies. But paramount to his principal objective, he found that 84 percent of those who used the card catalog during the survey period would have found a five-item computer cat-alogue sufficient. [The five-items looked for most frequently were title, author, call 

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