By CHARLES F. GOSNELL

Values and Dangers of Standard Book and Periodical Lists for College Libraries

Charles F. Gosnell organized and is li- tion of out-of-date titles which the col- brarian of Queens College Library, Flush- lege did not need and could not afford. ing, New York. Nevertheless one copy was cut into subject sections and sent out in sections for check- TANDARDS serve two purposes: as cri- ing by members of the new departments S teria for past accomplishments, and of instruction. The library staff checked as bases for present and future action. another copy. The checks were combined, The present study of standard lists has and the checked entries clipped and been a part of an unusual experience of mounted served as excellent order cards. organizing a new college library, depend- Mudge's Guide to Reference Books2 ing heavily upon such lists. was similarly checked, but only a small Queens College was created late in the proportion of these titles was found to spring of 1937 by fiat of the Board of be necessary or within the grasp of the Higher Education of the City of New library. All "basic" titles listed by York. Some buildings were renovated Shores3 were clipped and added to the and a staff gathered during the summer; order file. Careful examination of the 400 freshmen were admitted to classes in Mohrhardt List of Books for Junior Col- October, 1937. Three and a half years lege Libraries4 showed it to be excellent later there is a student body of over 2000 as a buying list. It was up to date, its still growing, and a library of 45,000 titles were of a high quality, quite suited volumes. to all years of a four-year liberal arts col- The best way to begin gathering a li- lege. Accordingly all of the 5585 Mohr- brary in a hurry seemed to be to depend hardt titles were added to the order list. upon standard lists, and multiple copies of To the "standard" titles were added the leading lists were among the first several thousand suggested for immediate books purchased for the new library. purchase by members of the faculty. It was immediately apparent that the 2 Mudge, Isadore G. Guide to Reference Books. Shaw List of Books for College Libraries/ A.L.A., 1936. 504P. 3 Shores, Louis. Basic Reference Books. Pre- begun in 1928, contained a large propor- liminary ed. A.L.A., 1937. 4o6p. (2d ed. 1939 is now available) 1 Carnegie Corporation of New York. Advisory 4 Carnegie Corporation of New York. Advisory Group on College Libraries. A List of Books for Group on Junior College Libraries. A List of College Libraries. Prepared by Charles B. Shaw. Books for Junior College Libraries. Compiled by A.L.A., 1931. 8iop. Foster E. Mohrhardt. A.L.A., 1937. 386p.

216 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES Nearly three-fourths of the faculty sug- be with each book of the month. They gestions made independently proved to be can be subject to a continuous re-evalu- duplicated in the standard group. The ation in the way that books cannot be. remaining fourth were incorporated into Each new year's selection is based on the the buying list. Virtually all of these past year's experience. titles have now been secured. Thus the Queens College collection is The New Shaw Supplement closely related to the standard lists. Some The appearance of the Shaw Supple- parts were so closely related that checked ment8 in the spring of 1940 put Queens copies were used as subject guides until College Library back into the class of catalogers could begin to catch up with older libraries, enabling a check on past the flood of purchases. The lists were performance against a standard selection fundamental, and suggestive stimulants as which was not available when purchases well; but in no sense were they regarded were made. Queens' holdings of titles as restrictive. They were always subject in the supplement were checked complete- to reinterpretation in the light of the ly, except for periodicals, and it was curriculum. found that the library had 52 per cent of the titles. Psychology was the highest Periodicals class, with 78 per cent. Political science As Queens never aims to be a great and geology followed with 71 Per cent. research library—it has too many rich and The lowest group was religion, with 17 generous neighbors in Manhattan—its per cent. Queens is a municipal institu- periodical subscription list is a modest tion, and does not offer courses in this one. In selecting the basic titles, there subject. Holdings in the classics were was heavy leaning upon the subject lists low (small registration in this depart- given in each section by Shaw and Mohr- ment) and also in philosophy (courses hardt, and upon the independent lists limited to juniors and seniors, and still compiled by Lyle,5 Walter,6 and Hilton.7 being organized). The subscription list for the second year It was interesting to find a slight gen- was extensively revised. Many of the eral tendency to have a larger proportion more popular items, to be had in public of the more recent titles than of the older library branches, were eliminated. Other ones in the 1931-38 list. This tendency titles, especially foreign ones, and learned was not pronounced in any class (the time journals definitely related to specific span was too short, and the number of courses were added. titles too small) but it was clearly evident Periodicals require, and can be given, in history and sociology. more attention per title than books. It is Such are the practical values of the possible for one to be familiar with a standard lists. By inference, the library periodical year after year as he cannot that makes intelligent use of them ought 5 Lyle, Guy R. Classified List of Periodicals for to be admitted to the inner circles of the College Library. 2d. ed., rev. and enl. Faxon, 1938. 96p. accredited institutions. It is fairly sure, 8 Walter, Frank K. Periodicals for the Small Library. 6th ed. A.L.A., 1932. 114P. (7th ed. however, of getting a reasonably good 1939, is now available) 7 Hilton, Eugene, and Waples, Douglas. "Periodi- cals for the College Library." North Central As- 8 Shaw, Charles B., comp. A List of Books for sociation Quarterly 8:425-44, Apr. 1934. College Libraries, 1931-38. A.L.A., 1940. 284P.

JUNE, 1941 217 Year of pub!ication

FIGURE I. DATES OF PUBLICATION OF TITLES IN THREE STANDARD LISTS OF BOOKS FOR COLLEGE LIBRARIES collection of books in an economical way. in a state of continual flux. The lists But I believe that these standards ought are permanent only in the sense that they to have more lasting values and broader are not constantly remade. implications than a mere listing of indi- We ought to get some clues to enable vidual titles. We ought to be able to us to determine the proper size of a col- take a list apart and to see what makes lege library collection—assuming that a good library book collection. I like to there is an optimum size. Having fixed think of the lists as a momentary freezing the size, we should be able to determine of the stream that is a good college library the yearly additions required to keep it book collection. The college library is up to date. Conversely we should have an

218 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES active policy of discarding to avoid stag- sufficient to account for the predominance nation. of recent titles, particularly in the last two decades. The drop in production between Obsolescence and Mortality 1915 and 1920, due to war conditions, is reflected in the curves, but otherwise From the interchange of new and old, their slope is nearly a straight line. Ad- we should derive a rate of obsolescence justments for such fluctuations will and mortality which would be useful for smooth the curves to a great extent. budget and accounting purposes. It may be inferred that consciously or If there are mortality tables for hu- unconsciously the compilers of these lists mans, why not for books ? Like their preferred the more recent books. If a authors, books grow old and die. The compiler were to do his work over again, flesh may remain in-mummified form, but in later years, but with the same standards the spirit goes. A few books may seem of selection, the curve would remain ap- immortal, even in spirit, but they approach proximately the same, except for dis- immortality through the successive re- placement in time. The peak would incarnations of translations and editions. advance a number of years corresponding I refer to the life of a book as reading to the time elapsed. matter in the college library—as an active everyday participant in the educative proc- Book Obsolescence ess. I exclude 42 line Bibles and First Folios—which are to be looked at and Figure 2 illustrates such a conjecture not read, and which are not generally in simplified form. A hypothetical list found in college libraries anyway. of books issued in 1920 had its peak be- Randall9 and Eells10 have already done tween 1910 and 1920, and contained some work in the field. With more data, almost no books published prior to 1870. covering a longer period of time, the stim- A similar list, of the same size, and com- ulus of immediate budget problems, and piled on the same basis twenty years later, the desire to keep the new collection at in 1940, shows a peak between 1930 and Queens alive, I propose to go further. 1940. It has almost no books older than What follows is in the nature of an in- fifty years, or published before 1890. terim report. Area A represents the new books in the In Figure 1 are shown on logarithmic scale the distributions by date of publica- tion of titles in three standard lists, Shaw, Mohrhardt, and the Shaw supplement. It is immediately apparent that the rela- tively recent books predominate in each list. No adjustment has been made for fluctuations in actual book production, but such fluctuations are certainly not

9 Randall, William M. "The College Library Book Budget." Library Quarterly 1:421-35, Oct. 1931. 1940 1920 1900 1880 10 Eells, Walter C. "Recency as a Measure of Book Collections." Junior College Journal 8:308-10, Mar. 1938. FIGURE 2. BOOK OBSOLESCENCE

JUNE, 1941 219 194° list not included in the 1920 list. time the list is being compiled. Here Area B includes books common to both y = number of titles lists. Area C represents books in the old x = years elapsed list but dropped from the new. Area C Two parameters may be regarded as keys is equal to Area A. Area A represents to the character of the collection or se- the births and C the deaths in the passage lection : of twenty years. b = maximum number of books Similar curves, plotted for individual for any one year (i.e., when subject classes, show wide differences in x = o) their slopes or rates of decline. The peak a = the index to rate of obso- for classics is not high, and the drop is lescence in the group very slow. Chemistry has a high peak, If this formula and these parameters and drops sharply. Other subjects tend can be established for general collections to vary with the speed of research and and subject subdivisions, a library can be development in the field. tested at any time by taking a sampling This family of curves resembles the v^of its titles. A glance at the resulting generally recognized "decay" curves, in- curve will show whether the library is cluding the curve of organic decay, certain steadily adding new material, and whether obsolescence, depreciation and mortality there is progressive discarding of old. It curves, and even the classic curve of for- will be possible to substitute objective rat- getting developed by Ebbinghaus. ings in place of the intangible terms "live" Three mathematical formulae may be and "up-to-date." considered: Pearson's type I and III Presentation of objective data on obso- curves, and the exponential curve: lescence in terms which budget makers y = be~ax and accountants can understand should This last is easiest to use. But it does not be of great help when the librarian seeks take care of the lag in selection during the funds for the new books each year.

220 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES