416 I College & Research • September 1978 department, planning of specific functions, though previous efforts have been largely centralization versus decentralization of in­ frustrated. formation activities, cost-effectiveness and To those who have been indoctrinated in cost-benefit analyses of the services pro­ the folklore of education for librarianship, vided, interactions with users (including the most startling assertion concerns the in­ user surveys), and standards in control and stitution known for years without ambiguity evaluation procedures . .They are certainly as as "the Graduate School," or, sim­ useful and timely for the neophyte as for ply, "GLS." Veterans of the Chicago doc­ the veteran in the profession. toral wars may be reminded of an exchange The presentation is informal and lucid. · often heard: Nevertheless, the publication is lacking in "GLS isn't like it was in the Good Old three respects: First, the amount of material Days." dealing with the application of computers in "Yeah, but then it never was. " information processing and dissemination is We may have joked in those terms, but scanty. Second, it is almost unthinkable to we knew better. We knew very well that see a book written on the management of GLS , during the golden years of Louis an information department with practically Round Wilson's deanship, had introduced a no reference to the various subject-oriented new quality to education for librarianship. data bases, their availability, use, and man­ The school, after floundering under the out­ agement. This is especially relevant at a sider, George A. Works, began to examine time when interactive, on-line information with rigorous logic and precise quantitative systems are almost like household items in measurement the fundamental assumptions an average-sized or infor­ of librariauship. It produced a whole gener­ mation department. Third, the half-life of ation of library leaders. It was a major the material cited and presented in the text source of borrowing for the shape and con­ is on a steady decline since there are hardly tent of the new curriculum introduced any post-197~ references included in the around 1950. In innumerable ways it raised end-of-chapter bibliographies. the level of librarianship. Having considered the above. factors, one The accomplishments during the ten wonders if the manuscript of the book was years of the Wilson deanship are evident, originally completed some years ago and and their soundness is secure beyond ques­ then kept in cold storage. There is no doubt tion. It will be unfortunate and wasteful that any professional who has kept abreast if-as seems likely-the attention to this of recent developments in the information book is directed to defending the impreg­ science field will readily notice this serious nable or to denouncing the authors and built-in time-lag. Overall, however, this is elaborating the flaws of their case. For their as g od a text as any that covers the indictment of librarianship is valid. field -]ata S. Ghosh, Ardmore, Pennsyl- The case is partially stated in an aphorism:

ouser, Lloyd ]. , and Schrader, Alvin M. Librarianship has been deficient in its Science, The Search for a Scientific Profession: with the consequence that its Humanity has been tainted with sentimentality and its Technology Education in th~ U.S. with meaningless proliferation, uninformed by and Canada. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, Theory and unevaluated by Measurement. 1978. 180p. $8. LC 77-17563. ISBN 0-8108-1062-X. (Though surely a Butlerism, its source has Surely one of the most interesting recent escaped me. I shall be grateful for its iden­ works, this book, through its indictment of tification.) library education, presents its underlying This unfortunate condition was somewhat thesis that we need a comprehensive and ameliorated at GLS under Wilson, but purposeful undertaking to develop a cohe­ Houser and Schrader suggest the advance­ rent theory of librarianship based upon ments were made in spite of Wilson rather rigorous research. This outcome, the au­ than because of him. To raise such a charge thors argue passionately, is attainable even and to countenance it in a review just when Recent Publications I 417 the dean's centenary has been recently cel­ case against librarianship and library educa­ ebrated is to court accusations of bad taste if tion remains, and it is a strong one. not, indeed, lese majeste. Yet a decent re­ The case centers upon library school edu­ spect for a man known for his intellectual cation, which, it is asserted, lacks grounding toughness requires that the charge be con­ in "theory and theoretical knowledge base." fronted, especially since it comes with the Why, they ask, does the curriculum not peculiarly ambiguous endorsement of the teach theory rather than the late Douglas Waples in the form of a per­ dull menu of "show and tell" sessions, student mitted dedication of the book to him and presentations, "how I do it good in my library" the statement of his "satisfaction" (p. viii) talks, learning "experiences," and accounts of with the relevant chapters. rules, tools, procedures, techniques, routines, When one looks into the matter a bit, one products and services which apparently were finds that some of those assumed vaguely available sometimes, in some libraries, for some to have been Wilson proteges (Waples, people, under some conditions? (p. vi) Pierce Butler, William Randall, Leon Car­ The description is all too familiar, and it novsky) had actually preceded him to GLS. reflects more fundamental problems than It is interesting, considering the skepticism inept teaching. These problems go to the and mounting hostility to GLS from practic­ root of the profession and its practice as ing , that Wilson had served for six well as its training. In their analysis, years on the Board of Education for Librar­ Houser and Schrader go beyond G LS in ianship, the major voice of ALA. Wilson's days to study and comment upon The authors maintain that he aborted the later developments of library education and earnest and self-conscious effort that had its present state. On the basis of several of been mounted by Works, the first dean, their studies of library schools, they con­ Waples, an interim acting dean, and their clude that the overriding characteristic of associates to create a true library science the years since Wilson's retirement has based upon systematic research. Instead, been they say, Wilson made of GLS primarily a high-level training school for university li­ growing intellectual confusion . . . centered in brarians, an outcome considerably advanced the library science educators [who] prefer per­ from the past but, in sum, a subversion of sonal experience to any other qualifications for teaching, [who] lack any pretense of scientific the goals for which the Carnegie Corpora­ leadership, [whose] literature exhibits no charac­ tion had endowed the school and toward teristics of scholarship, [who] do not teach re­ which the early faculty members had di­ search knowledge or even research methods to rected their efforts. their students, [and who] have little influence at As if these charges were not enough, all on their students. Houser and Schrader analyze Wilson's own When they teach, they teach non-research, ex­ writings, concluding that none rank as sci­ perience based, non-cumulative (although possi­ entific research except for The Geography bly additive), subjectively selected and relatively of Reading and even that is "essentially de­ out-of-date literature (abridged and adapted from p.l46-47). scriptive" (p.65). They say that, even as dean, Wilson kept "his first loyalty" to the Houser and Schrader find something to Board of Education for Librarianship (p.58). anger everyone. They say it awkwardly and Their criticisms of policies take on an unfor­ abrasively. They are pedantic, sententious, tunate tone of personal attack in this hint of and contentious. They arrogantly assume double-dealing and in their charge of eva­ that their conception of science and scien­ siveness. tific research encompasses the only valid The history of GLS and of Wilson's place scholarship. All in all, they make their case and contribution are crucially important is­ in terms that are unlikely to persuade. sues in librarianship and library education. Yet, in more measured terms, most of One hopes that John Richardson's Indiana their principal case is valid. It is true that dissertation on the history of G LS will settle librarianship and library education are in a many of the questions. But, regardless of sad state, arising mostly from the strength the validity of the case against Wilson, the of the forces of trade-school pragmatism that 418 I College & Research Libraries • September 1978 have managed to frustrate every attempt at Greenwood Press, 1978. 277p. $18.95. fundamental change, turning graduate re­ LC 77-84762. ISBN 0-8371-9890-9. ISSN search education into a training ground for 0074-9243. practice and directing research efforts to­ The lore of the acquisitions ward management studies designed to in­ comes to the fore. Ted Grieder presents us crease the efficiency of an agency, the li­ with a picture of how to run a university li­ brary, whose fundamental character is taken brary acquisitions department good. His to be fixed as it has been handed down display is based upon his experiences and from the past. the lore that has developed in libraries over Library schools suffer most strongly, for the past half·century. Unlike Ford's The they were set on their way by that ultimate Acquisition of Library Materials , with its trade-school promoter, Melvil Dewey, but philosophical foundations and theory in the the schools' ills are only a reflection of the open, Grieder shows the practical workings ills of librarians hip itself. Until the profes­ involved in daily operations of the univer­ sion is reformed, library schools will be able sity library's acquisitions department. His to do very little. Chicago · was indeed a emphasis upon bureaucracy, which accom­ unique opportunity for a group of library plishes the library's mission, distinguishes school educators to chart a new course and, Acquisition: Where, What, and How from in the event, even that supremely inde­ Melcher on Acquisition. pendent institution was unable to stand Grieder's approach is to give general against the practicing librarian who, as ideas about the nature of acquisitions and Pierce Butler said almost half a century ago, its various tasks and then to explain by "is strangely uninterested in the theoretical example. The first part of the book is a de­ aspects of his profession ... [who] appar­ scription of the acquisition task and its loca­ ently stands alone in the simplicity of his tion within the library structure, specifically pragmatism: a rationalization of each im­ within the technical services division; this is mediate technical process by itself seems to the "where" and "what" of acquisitions. Part satisfy his intellectual interest" (Introduc­ two gets into specifics by way of a checking tion to Library Science, p.xi, xii). manual (roughly one-third of the book) and Houser and Schrader's effort at reform is chapters on how to set up other important probably doomed by its abrasiveness, its manuals and operations, nitty-gritty admin­ awkwardness, and its overstatement, but it istrative procedures, and even "How to bears the marks of deep conviction, and it Choose a Job." makes points of considerable validity. Li­ One is constantly aware· of the experi­ brarianship would be advanced if the en­ mentially-based and nontheoretical na­ trenched forces that have frustrated every ture of present-day acquisitions work. From effort of this sort in the past were to listen the small chapter on job descriptions and carefully to the underlying message and re­ salary considerations for clerical workers, spond to it. Although that outcome is un­ we are struck with the value of experience likely, the book will at least have raised vis-a-vis professional education: A senior li­ some stimulating questions. Everyone who brary assistant with five or more years of has a serious interest in the profession experience should receive more salary than should read it thoughtfully, with the toler­ a neophyte M. L. S. Throughout the book ance for its defects that will permit hearing Grieder seemingly qualifies all of his state­ the message it seeks to convey.-W. L. ments about procedure by the profession's Williamson, University of Wisconsin­ ubiquitous imprecision: "varies from library Madison. to library." For sure, details do vary from library to library; yet, and herein lies the Grieder, Ted. Acquisitions: Where, What, value of Grieder, those details serve an and How. A Guide to Orientation and overarching goal: to acquire materials for Procedure for Students in Librarianship, the users of any given library. Librarians, and Academic Faculty. Con­ The student librarian should find this text tributions in Librarianship and Informa­ helpful in giving handles on procedures tion Science, no. 22. Westport, Conn.: within the acquisitions operation, which