Baker Bookman

For almost two years now William R. Lansberg '38, who is currently the director of acquisitions for Baker Library, has been devoting his talents and a good bit of his spare time to the worthy cause of disseminating information about contemporary books and good reading. For he is the pen and the voice of the "Baker Bookman," a weekly series of newspaper columns and radio programs that reach approximately 50,000 readers of thirteen Vermont and New Hampshire newspapers and also the many additional listeners of radio stations WTSL and WDCR in Hanover. The "Baker Bookman" generally tries to review two or three current offerings of more than usual interest in hopes of persuading the general public to partake of these literary riches themselves. As a recent added attraction, Lansberg has included personal interviews with local authors who often discuss their own works.

It can be an arduous and time-consuming task to read and review the many books necessary for his weekly columns and programs, but Lansberg feels that it is a worthwhile public service and a great stimulus to general book circulation. For his efforts he has received the commendation of such noted literary figures as Bennett Cerf, president of Random House Publishing Co., and Francis Brown '25editor of The New York Times Book Review section. President Dickey recently commented, "Once again congratulations to you on the radio programs you have been doing. They enrich this community."

Lansberg is well equipped for the literary tasks he has undertaken. Following graduation from Dartmouth in 1938 he went on to take his Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Romance languages at the University of North Carolina. In 1945 he also earned a B.S. in library science from Simmons College in Boston. He has served as French instructor at the University of North Carolina, Southwest Missouri State College, and Boston University; and for two years he was indexer of the International Index of Periodicals for the H. W. Wilson Co. He came to Dartmouth in 1951 as assistant to the librarian, and since 1953 he has served in his present position as director of acquisitions, which involves, in part, deciding which worthwhile books Baker Library shall purchase from among the thousands published every year.

William R. Lansberg '38