ones—they are selected largely from notes The Rockefeller Foundation; a Review on Library of Congress cards, from the for 1939. Raymond B. Fosdick. The earlier printed lists mentioned above, and Foundation, New York, 1940. 507p. from the University of Washington and Distributed without charge. Stanford University files (but unfortu- Recent Trends in Higher Education in nately the source of each note is not the United States: With Special Refer- indicated). It would naturally follow ence to Financial Support for Private that they do not all have the same set Colleges and Universities. Trevor form, even the simplest ones. This may Arnett. General Education Board, be confusing to the beginner, who could New York, 1940. 8op. Distributed probably use the list more profitably and without charge. more easily, could learn note terminology Annual Report: 1939. General Education more readily, and follow one set form Board, New York, 1940. i7ip. Dis- more uniformly, if the notes in "Library tributed without charge. of- Congress form" were so marked. SOME MAY ask why reviews of the re- In order to reduce production cost, the ports of foundations such as those listed compiler's manuscript, instead of the above make their way into the columns of customary typed copy for planographing, College and Research Libraries. The was photographed. (It might be pointed answer would seem to be that college and out here that it was a little disappointing university librarians cannot intelligently to find that so few examples of notes administer their libraries without know- describing the various near-print processes ing the research and instructional objec- have been included.) O n examination, no tives of their institutions, which are at- typographical errors were noted in the tained in large part by the aid of the entire work. great foundations. The history of re- Miss McPherson states, in her Some search and higher education in the United Practical Problems in Cataloging, that States and elsewhere is to a considerable "notes on catalog cards present at one and extent the story of the vision behind the the same time some of the most difficult grants of a handful of foundations and features of cataloging, some of the. most corporations devoted to education and interesting problems in handling a book research. technically, and some of the greatest out- The Rockefeller Foundation report for lets for self-expression which a cataloger 1939 surveys the work of the Foundation may have the privilege of experiencing." in the five fields in which it concentrates Miss Swain's list should prove to be of its efforts: international health; the medi- decided value in all three regards, but cal sciences; the natural sciences; the social particularly in the last, both for the cata- sciences; and the humanities. There are loger for whom wording of notes is an un- at least four reasons why librarians and welcome opportunity for self-expression, others interested in higher education and for the cataloger who is inclined to be should be acquainted with this report. too wordy, or lacking in clarity, in his self- The first is the method of reporting. expression on catalog cards.—Irene M. Most librarians who have to write an Doyle, Library School, George Peabody account of their activities may study with College for Teachers, Nashville. profit the style of this report, which

70 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES makes the peregrinations of a malaria- interests of those members of its audience carrying mosquito as exciting as the latest who find more satisfaction in listening war communiques. than in reading. The second point of relevance to li- The sections on the claim of the social braries is the concentration of the Founda- sciences and the handicaps of the social tion upon a few problems in each of its sciences cannot be skipped by any librarian fields of interest. Although the Founda- interested in the widest implications of tion has made some grants for research his profession as a social science. and teaching in various fields of medicine, In Recent Trends in Higher Education, it has thrown most of its weight in the Mr. Arnett is interested in the financial medical division of its program into problems confronting privately supported psychiatric research. In the natural colleges and universities. His report con- sciences its support has been concentrated siders the implications of a series of behind research in experimental biology. statistical studies of the current receipts The theory behind this policy is that the and expenditures, receipts for capital pur- resources of even so large a Foundation poses, enrollments, and tuition fees of would be dissipated to little purpose were approximately two hundred representative they to be used for research in all parts institutions. From the data presented of even the five fields mentioned. O n the three trends stand out: other hand, because of the interconnections 1. Decreasing gifts to private institu- of all fields of knowledge, significant re- tions search in any restricted area is bound to 2. Decreasing returns on invested en- advance knowledge in related subjects. dowment That such a policy of concentration upon 3. Increasing competition for both a few fields might profitably be applied to funds and students from state institutions library programs was clearly stated by The study indicates a need for a com- Mr. Munn in his presidential address at prehensive study of the total resources Cincinnati. of the United States for higher education, The radio research financed by the and the subsequent need for intelligent Foundation is a third activity which coordination and cooperation. should be of great interest to librarians. The areas of interest to which the One study contrasts radio's present service General Education Board is now directing with that of the printed page. It was its attention in its program for Southern discovered that those who listen to the education are defined in the following radio least are those who most readily find headings: satisfaction in what they read, and that 1. The fuller development of the eco- the percentage of radio listeners is greater nomic and social resources of the South among high-school graduates than it is by means of educational and research among college graduates, and still greater contributions, especially in the fields of among those who did not reach high the social and the natural sciences. school. Yet this latter culture-level group 2. The development of selected college that listens most in point of time, listens and university centers, with particular least to radio's more serious offerings. attention to improvement of personnel, of Radio seems as yet not to be extending the library service, and of collaboration among

DECEMBER., 1940 71 institutions favorably located for coopera- show how serious a misstatement this is. tion in meeting regional needs. O n page 65, Dr. Thompson has mis- 3. Undertakings in elementary and translated from the great work of secondary education, chiefly in cooperation Manitius on Post-Classical Latin Litera- with state departments of education, ture. Manitius had written about teacher-education institutions, and agen- Paschasius Radbertus (i, 407) : "Sehr cies engaged in studies or experiments of seltene Kenntnisse sind bei ihm die region-wide import. Irenausiibersetzung und Tertullian de In its program in the field of general pudicitia." Misreading this sentence, education, the Board in recent years has Thompson makes Paschasius Radbertus a taken a special interest in efforts to im- translator of Irenaeus and of Tertullian. prove provisions for the care and educa- But Radbertus never translated Irenaeus, tion of young people aged twelve to and Tertullian wrote in the same lan- twenty. Out of studies and thinking guage as Radbertus did, so there was little generated by this interest has come a new need to translate him. conception of secondary education for a O n page 21, we are told that Tertullian new kind of secondary school student, "died ca. 200." Actually, he did most of namely the student who will become one his work after 200 A.D. of the great ordinary run of wage-earners O n page 127, Dr. Thompson quotes and housewives. The Report summarizes three prose lines from Bernard of the work towards these objectives through Chartres. His ear for verse misled him subsidies to such organizations as the here, as they are three hexameters. American Council on Education, Ameri- Usually, historians of culture deplore can Youth Commission, Association of the destruction of books which took place School Film Libraries and numerous oth- during the sixteenth century. It is some- ers.—Neil C. Van Deusen, Fisk Univer- what surprising, therefore, to read on page sity, Nashville. 371 in Dr. Thompson: The monasteries could not meet these new More About Thompson s Medieval Li- conditions and interests; nor, indeed, did brary they endeavor to compete with them. In- T o THE EDITOR stead they sank into sloth and lethargy, idly COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES living upon their properties and indifferent to the new ideas of a new age. ... In the SIR: end, the monasteries—and their libraries— 1 Your reviewer of James Westfall were doomed to spoliation and dissolution Thompson's book The Medieval Library for their sin against the light of the time. seems to have missed several errors in The retribution was deserved, however much that volume, which should be called to the one may regret the ruthless and senseless ivay in which it was inforced. attention of the prospective purchaser. O n page 21 we read: "Cyprian seems The italics are my own. I am grateful to have known little of books outside of to you, Mr. Editor, for your kindness in the Bible." The notes of Baluze on allowing me this space to dissent. Cyprian in the Migne edition would Sincerely yours, (Rev.) Joseph F. Cantillon, S.J., 1 College and Research Libraries 1:281-83, June 1940. Loyola School, New York City

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