The second edition of "Books for College Libraries," a six-volume work listing 38,651 titles is flawed, although it shows merit, and should be useful. Quality of selections and coverage range from good through excellent to superb. The primary flaws relate to the quality and extent of selections, particularly for such disciplines as history and literature; too few selections have been made among publications which appeared from the mid-60s through the early 70s. The use of strict LC Classification order makes the work difficult to use as a bibliography. The evidence suggests that even a very tightly constructed list should have rounded out at more than 50,000 titles to provide an adequate basis of support for current college curricula. This edition has also attempted breadth rather than depth with extensive coverage of areas not commonly taught in liberal arts colleges. New and useful features include the provision of complete cataloging and classification information, and the availability of all titles listed on MARC tapes and in the OCLC data base. The author and title indexes are also practical and useful. A separate bibliography of over 200 new, additional, misclassed, or superceded titles appears at the end of this critical essay. (Author/MBR)