Criteria for Science Book Selection in Academic Libraries

In the past two decades there have been two conflicting currents in public attitudes toward the scientific enterprise. Those of us who are old enough have witnessed a greatly expanded public interest, especially in recent years. Newspaper space devoted to the explanation of science has been greatly enlarged and there has been an eruption in the publication of new glossy popular‐science magazines, two of which, Science 82 and Discover, are quite successful. The Bowker Annual, 26th edition, shows an increase in publication of science titles from 1960 to 1979 of approximately 300 percent (from 1089 to 3156); the increase for medicine and health in that same period has been even more dramatic—more than 600 percent (from 520 to 3254).