Buildings for Small Public LibrariesReview by: Russell J. SchunkThe Library Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Apr., 1951), p. 150Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4304010 .

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I 50 THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY

"Buildings for Small Public Libraries." Pre- pared by ERNEST I. MILLER for the A.L.A. COMMITTEE ON LIBRARY ARCEITECTURE AND BUILDING PLANMNG. Chicago: Ameri- can Library Association, I950. PP. 39. $1.25. (Lithoprinted.) After a period of over ten years the library

world is provided with a new collection of sketches and floor plans of buildings for small public libraries and branches. War and short- ages of material account for the lapse of time. In fact, even now one wonders how Mr. Miller and his committee could find enough really new buildings to serve as up-to-date examples of small library and branch planning. Let it be said at once that their choice seems well bal- anced and adequate.

No attempt is made to supplement other vol- umes devoted to the "how" of building plan- ning. The expressed object of presenting "a few examples of the end result of planning" is effec- tively carried out. There are not only pictures and floor plans but also comments on the special features embodied in fourteen small public li- brary buildings. In addition, there are included banks, churches, stores, and even a carriage barn remodeled for library use.

The section on "Adaptations" stresses the desirability of assessing the potentialities of an existing building before trying to alter it. The fact that most private residences have too many interior walls in proportion to floor space rules them out for successful remodeling. On the other hand, examples of other buildings which have proved to be good library building risks are shown.

This reviewer feels it necessary to comment on one adaptation included in the book-that of Lagrange Central Branch, Toledo, Ohio. While this remodeling was ingeniously worked out, the union of a fireproof branch bank with several semi-fireproof single-story stores resulted in a substantially higher fire insurance rate.

A concise but effective summary of trends in modern design and in the use of light and color is included. Trends toward lower ceilings, better lighting, and more adequate heating and me- chanical ventilation are well described. The selective bibliography is good.

It is hoped that tbis helpful material will aid librarians and trustees in more sensible plan- ning-in copying the good features of modern plans or in adapting such features to local needs. The dearth of modern examples has strait- jacketed building progress too drastically, but

there is a good chance that Miller's book will cut the bonds of the strait jacket.

RUSSELL J. SCHUWx Library Division

Minnesota Department of Education

Hollywood Looks at Its Audience: A Report of Film Audience Research. By LEO A. HANDEL.

Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1950. Pp. xvii+240. $3.50.

Mr. Handel's book is a comprehensive intro- ductory overview of the extant research in the field of the moving picture and of the major techniques and devices that have been used. While it reports almost nothing that has not al- ready been reported in the books and journals available to students of the field, the author's position as audience research director for a ma- jor motion-picture company makes available to him some interesting data on commercial as well as noncommercial research. The book gathers these findings into a single volume and brings together the broad conclusions conceming weak- nesses and strengths of the several research techniques.

Handel makes no claim to evaluate in terms of social utility the motivations or results of the methods that he analyzes. His interest is in the methodology as methodology. To the nonre- search humanist it is amusing to read his dead- pan report on the "audience appeal index," for example, which can be used to guide the mov- ing-picture distributor in methods for selling a bill of very bad goods to the suckers before the word can get around. The loaded description is all mine of course; Handel merely indicates the value of the research method in showing the dis- tributor that "pictures with a low audience ap- peal . . . can be released as fast as possible in the subsequent runs to take fullest advantage of the company-controlled advertising and publicity and to get as little interference as possible from unfavorable word-of-mouth publicity" (p. 70). While the general reader may wish for more normative criticisms, the objective reporting does permit the reader to make up his own mind about the use of controlled research which re- sults in the perpetuation of certain dubious practices in film production, distribution, and exhibition.

The general librarian will probably be most interested in the way that the researches re- viewed here support the picture he has already

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