Building Library Collections: Nonbook Material

A distinguished librarian in California believes that "books are basic" and that, "It's wicked to call a library a materials center. '* But another equally distinguished librarian from California says, "the soundest and truest audio- visual enthusiasts I know are also book lovers-those who cherish books for the good they do to people and who transfer their enthusiasm to anything else that does a similar good to people. Goodness is no vested interest. " Fundamental to this chapter is the belief that the same basic principles apply to the building of the book collection that apply in the building of the nonbook materials collection. Librarians are devoted to the printed word; they know its power and its meaning, its function and purpose. They appreciate the rich heritage received through books and printing, and they hope this indispensable medium of communication will not diminish. But they know also that individuals do not live and learn by words alone. Is it correct, then, to assume that books can always do the teaching job at hand or that they can do it better than other media? John Dewey in his Art as Experience has said, "Thinking directly in terms of colors, tones, images, is a different operation technically from thinking in words. . . If all meanings could be adequately expressed by words, the arts of painting and music would not exist. There are values and meanings that can be expressed only by immediately visible and audible qualities and to ask what they mean in the sense of something that can be put into words is to deny their distinctive existence."published or submitted for publicatio