College and Research Libraries At Buffalo, the consciousness created in policy makers by financial exigency meant that the survival of the colleges would de- pend on the subordination of collegiate per- sonality to institutional personality on re- socialization. The personality of the colle- giate innovation did not make a strong enough impact on the host institution to in- spire either the diffusion of collegiate values throughout the university or the toleration of such values within autonomous enclaves. The colleges were ultimately seen as profit- able (to abolish them was unthinkable) but somewhat incompatible with the impera- tives of the institution. The task confronting SUNY-Buffalo was to bring its colleges back into the fold. In terms of Levine's model, then, the fate of innovation in higher educa- tion is determined less by the character of that innovation than by the relationship be- tween the personality of the innovation and the changing personality of the institution within which it seeks to establish itself. Levine does not claim very much for his model. While the model seems consistent with previous research, there is no assur- ance of its validity beyond Buffalo. Indeed, it was unclear to me whether the model was based on a review of the literature or con- structed on the basis of evidence collected through observation, interviewing, and document analysis at Buffalo. If the former is true, the events at Buffalo constitute something of a test and affirmation of the model. If the latter is the case, the model is the product of retrospective induction and not susceptible to testing by resort to the materials from which it was erected. Final- ly, the author might have expanded a bit on the relationship between economic con- straint and the narrowing of intellectual vi- sion that occurred in the reformulation of institutional personality. In the main, however, Levine has done very well and his thoughtful volume is a fine contribution to the literature of higher education.-Dan Bergen, University of Rhode Island, Kings- ton. Ellsworth, Ralph E. Ellsworth on Ellsworth: An Vnchronological, Mostly True Account of Some Moments of Con- tact between "Library Science" and Me, since Our Confluence in 1931, with Recent Publications I 155 Appropriate Sidelights. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1980. 171p. $9.50. LC 80- 12656. ISBN 0-8108-1311-4. Obviously I, a westerner by birth as well as choice, cannot know intimately the feel- ings eastern librarians may have about Ralph Ellsworth, but in the West his image is, among some academic types, almost mystical. His imposing six-foot-plus frame and shock of white hair with full beard of the same color do not detract from that im- age. We could easily imagine him, dressed in a robe, as Gandalf helping us Frodo Bagginses through our trials. After all, Ellsworth was one of the earli- est proponents of modular library build- ings, and he championed a national central cataloging system long before most academ- ic librarians knew they had a problem big- ger than they could handle individually. He was deeply involved in the creation of the Center for Research Libraries (first called the Midwest Inter-library Center), and he earned an international reputation as a li- brary consultant. These, added to his repu- tation as an iconoclast willing to take on the eastern establishment, give him a special place in the pantheon of young librarians in the West in the 1960s and '70s. This slender volume of memories hardly seems adequate for a man whose image is bigger than life. Yet as I read it, I began to feel a rightness about it for it is, like Ralph, the unvarnished truth. While even unusual modesty might have permitted an emphasis on the author's contribution, Ellsworth has never succumbed to that temptation. As he . did in his career, he clearly states his intent and tells his story (more a series of events than a continuous tale), and leaves embel- lishment to the reader's imagination, or to other writers. There are some delightful incidents re- counted with obvious enthusiasm, and some stories that miss the mark when trying to reach a meaningful conclusion. All in all, these memoirs will be too brief for Ellsworth's admirers and certainly too casual for his de- tractors, but they provide a pleasant trip through some of the library world's more interesting events of the past forty years- and will suffice until the definitive biog- raphy is written!-W. David Laird, Univer- sity of Arizona, Tucson.