How to Locate Educational Information and Data. A Text and Reference Book; AlexanderLibrary Exercises: For Use with the Same Author's "How to Locate Educational Informationand Data" by Carter AlexanderReview by: Louis ShoresThe Library Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Apr., 1936), pp. 204-206Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4302264 .

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204 THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY

cial consciousness; it was to be anticipated that the age-old specter of "indoc- trination" would raise its head. But at least it is heartening to hear Childs, in his "Preface to a new philosophy of education," assert that .... education can never be innocent of social presuppositions. It is always controlled by basic conceptions of social welfare of one sort or another. The real choice, therefore, before American educators is between an educational program based on our traditional social philosophy of laissez faire capitalism and individualism, and an educational pro- gram based upon a social philosophy whose central doctrines are formulated in terms of the characteristics of the power age. The reason why the proposal to make a new social philosophy the basis for our educational activity is often criticized as an effort to in- doctrinate the young, is because we forget that the traditional philosophy being so persuasively rooted in our familiar ways of life is taken for granted and imparted to the young as a matter of course. In each case the educational program is equally based on a social philosophy. The pertinent question is which is the more adequate philosophy.

What of the significance of the Yearbook for the library profession? There is no need to labor the point that librarians, as an integral part of the educa- tional process, should concern themselves in educational trends. In the spirit that conceived the Yearbook all librarians should share. But the place of the volume itself in the professional reading of librarians is not large. The first section of the book could be ignored almost in its entirety; librarians would do better to go directly to the source materials: the Social Trends Report, the writings of Laski, Berle, and Means, and the rest, and to draw their own con- clusions. As to the second section, however, all would profit from a thorough study of the forementioned chapters of Childs and Newlon. Children's libra- rians, too, would derive much from the contribution of Worth McClure, and do well to remember that just as we had the old formalist who required the memorization of historic data without regard to the comprehension of historic movements or the building of ideals, so we have also the new formalist whose pupils produce clay vegetables, Indian villages, and pic- ture-cutting books galore without regard to the understanding of human relationships and the modification of childish behavior.

Also, librarians concerned as they should be with developments in adult edu- cation, will be interested in Studebaker's informative account of the Des Moines experiment. Taken as a whole, the value of the Yearbook for librarians lies in its possibilities as a stimulus to attempt a similar integration in the library field-with, let it be hoped, a greater degree of success than is achieved in these documents. H. SHERA

Miami University

How to locate educational information and data. a text and reference book; Alex- ander library exercises: for use with the same author's "How to locate educa- tional information and data." By CARTER ALEXANDER. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1935. Pp. xxvi+ 272+ IOI .

If Masters' theses and Doctors' dissertations in the field of education have not always been of the highest caliber no small part of the blame rests on the

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REVIEWS 205

failure of graduate schools of education to provide instruction in library and research methods for their students. A recent query sent out by the reviewer to the thirty schools approved for doctoral work by the American Council on Education indicates that more than half of these schools provide no such in- struction, and that most of the others have a program that is either inade- quate or ineffective.

The outstanding exception is Teachers College, Columbia University, where Library Professor Carter Alexander, who is thoroughly library-con- scious, has for years been instructing graduate students there in library and research methods, both in formal courses and in informal seminar or individual relations. Based upon his experiences in this work, Dr. Alexander has pio- neered with a manual of instruction and a set of exercises intended to enable the graduate student in education, as well as the research worker who missed such preparation in his own student days, to handle library materials and the basic tools in the field of education with intelligence and economy of time.

The book is divided into three parts. Part I, "Library work and the educa- tor," indicates the need for bibliographic training. Part II, "General library sources and techniques," includes in various chapters such topics as proce- dure, practical bibliography, library reading, note-taking, reference books, periodicals, society publications, government documents, and interlibrary loans. The chapters on United States Office of Education and National Edu- cation Association publications will prove especially helpful. The former, which is based on the check-list prepared by Miss Witmer and Miss Miller, contains an annotated list of the Office's and Bureau's various series, and is fairly complete except for the failure to relate the bibliographical series pre- ceding the Monthly record with the lists issued by Dr. Wyer from I899

through 1907.

The third part deals with "Special library sources and techniques," cover- ing such problems as book reviews and lists, statistics, legal aspects, textbooks, news items, information about individuals, illustrations, etc. An ingenious key for locating references mentioned anywhere in the book has been worked out and placed in a table at the front of the book.

Especially valuable are the chapters on note-taking, reading, and organiz- ing a bibliography. For the latter, Dr. Alexander has devised a "Universal Bibliography Card," which may be a step in the right direction, but which to the reviewer seems unnecessarily complex in form. It would appear to be far simpler to teach the student the five basic units in any bibliographical entry and then include an exercise which would develop his ability to spot these units in all publications. This would enable the student to use the more con- venient 3 XS card, since the space consumed by printed directions on the Al- exander card would be saved.

The Alexander library exercises are issued separately in loose-leaf form for use with the text. There are twenty-nine exercises in all, many of which will prove most fascinating. The first two exercises are self-surveys to enable the

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2o6 THE LIBRARY QtUARTERLY

student to determine how much and what he needs to know. Others are de- voted to mastering one tool, such as the Education index, or to giving practice in procedures such as choosing headings for searching, or to improving read- ing ability. The exercises can be administered either by the seminar professor or by the librarian.

Both the book and exercises will prove an excellent investment because they abound with devices and short-cuts that will save many precious hours for students and research workers. And graduate schools of education with- out provisions for library instruction can do no better than to adopt the two Alexander publications as required seminar texts.

Louis SHORES George Peabody College

Nashville, Tennessee

Adult interests. By EDWARD L. THORNDIKE and the STAFF OF THE DIVISION OF PSYCHOLOGY OF THE INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH OF TEACH-

ERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. New York: Macmillan, 1935. PP. ix+26s. Similarity in title invites comparison of this book with the author's Adult

learning and leaves a reader unprepared for the marked contrast between the two. The earlier book reported objective experiment in educational psychol- ogy. The present one, despite some experimental chapters and a generous Appendix of test forms, leaves an impression predominantly theoretical.

The impression is not wholly inadvertent, as the author's Preface indicates. This book is intended for workers in adult education and for students preparing to

become teachers of adults. It has seemed best to secure clearness and brevity even though this entails dogmatism, apparent neglect of psychological doctrines which are held widely, and possibly overconfidence in results obtained by us but not yet con- firmed by others or generally accepted. We believe that practice based on these results will on the whole be much better than the traditional practices which it replaces.

As this paragraph promises, what follows is virtually a text in pedagogy for teachers of adults. As such, notwithstanding the admitted tinge of dogma- tism, it will carry conviction to many readers who have taught. Its main power, one feels, is due to Mr. Thorndike's ripe experience as an educator more than to the data on interests assembled to support his theory.

The three chapters devoted to the study of interests, as such, make fas- cinating reading, but from a scientific viewpoint do not carry complete con- viction. Chapter ii on the change of interests with age shares with E. K. Strong's treatment of the same subject, the limitation of not reporting obser- vations over a period of time. Reports of youthful interest from memory may be as dependable as Mr. Thorndike believes, but unqualified comparisons with present interests still take no account of changes in social environment between the twenties and the fifties of persons reporting. Within that time such activities as listening to music, going to the theater or movies, traveling,

xE. K. Strong, The change of interests with age (Stanford University Press, I931).

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