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58 

BOOK REVIEWS 

Descriptive Cataloguing; A Student's Introduction to the Anglo-American 
Cataloguing Rules 1967. By James A. Tait and Douglas Anderson. Second 
ed.; rev. and enl. Hamden, Conn.: Linnet Books, 1971, 122p. $5.00 

This second edition contains some corrections to the errors made in the 
1968 edition, and includes the changes and clarifications brought out by 
the AACR Amendment Bulletin. The number of exemplary title pages has 
been increased from twenty-five to forty, thus giving the student more 
practice in determining entries and doing descriptive cataloging. This re-
viewer believes that a more exact title would be "Descriptive Cataloging 
and Determining Entries and Headings," because this introductory text not 
only covers descriptive cataloging as defined and explained in "Part II-
Descriptive Cataloging" of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, but 
also includes some of the basic rules for determining entries and headings in 
AACR's "Part !-Entry and Heading." 

There are three distinct sections: descriptive cataloging; determining 
entries and headings; and facsimile title pages for student practice. Descrip-
tive cataloging is covered in just thirteen pages, but all the basic elements 
are there. The explanations are clear and examples are shown, but not in 
the context of a full card. (Unfortunately only one full catalog card is 
illustrated in the entire book.) It is in this section, more than in any other, 
where the differences between British and American cataloging become 
obvious. British descriptive cataloging varies in so many ways from its 
American counterpart that a beginning student in an American library 
school would be quite confused by these variations. 

The next section consists of twenty-five pages and is devoted to the basic 
rules on entries and headings. Examples are used to illustrate the rules and 
the authors point out some differences between the British and American 
texts of the AACR. The remaining seventy pages contain the forty repro-
duced title pages which are followed by some commentary and a key 
corresponding to each title page. These title pages give the student a wide 
range of experience in transcribing the proper information onto the card 
and in determining main and added entries. 

Even though this book is an excellent introduction to the rudiments of 
descriptive cataloging and the determination of main and added entries, 



Book Reviews 59 

its use of British descriptive cataloging precludes its being widely adopted 
in beginning cataloging courses in American library schools. 

Donald /. L ehnus 

Centmlized Processing for Academic Librm·ies. By Richard M. Dougherty 
and Joan M. Maier. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1971. 254p. $10.00 

This is the final report of the Colorado Academic Libraries Book Pro-
cessing Center ( CALBPC) two-part study investigating centralized pro-
cessing. Phase I, reported by Laurence Leonard, Maier, and Dougherty in 
Centralized Book Processing, Scarecrow, 1969, was basically a feasibility 
study, whereas this final report describes the beginning six months of opera-
tions that tested the Phase I recommendations. Partially funded by the 
National Science Foundation, the experiment measured anticipated time 
and cost savings, monitored acquisitions and cataloging operations, and 
tested product acceptability for six libraries participating in the 1969, 
six-month study. 

Even though centralized book processing might hold little appeal for 
the reader, this volume nonetheless is valuable to technical service heads 
because of its above average sophistication in applying a systems analysis 
approach to technical services problems. The authors objectively report 
their findings, outlining in detail the mistakes, the unanticipated problem 
areas, and what they believed to be the successes. 

From the start the authors encountered problems with scheduling. By 
the time the experiment began most participants had a large portion of 
their book money encumbered, and the center was forced to accept cata-
loging arrearages in addition to book order requests. Those who did send 
in orders did not conform to patterns predicted in Phase I. Instead, the 
center was used as a source of obtaining more difficult materials, including 
foreign language items. It was discovered that in actual practice CALBPC 
had no impact on discounts received from vendors. The vendor performance 
study lacked relevancy because it was based upon the date invoices were 
cleared for payment rather than the date books were received in house. In 
evaluating the total processing time, four libraries reduced their time lag 
by participating in the center's centralized processing, and the cost of 
processing the average book was reduced from $3.10 to $2.63. 

The product acceptance study showed that the physical processing was 
only partially accepted with most of the libraries modifying a truncated 
title that was printed on the book card and book pocket as a by-product 
of the automated financial subsystem. Other local modifications were made 
on books processed by the center but that cost or local error correction 
costs were not reported in the study. 

CALBPC's automated financial subsystem was beseiged with many prob-
lems resulting from lack of programming foresight and adequate consulting 



60 Journal of Library Automation Vol. 5/1 March, 1972 

by those who had previously designed such systems. Individuals interested 
in the automation of acquisitions should read this section of the report. 
CALBPC's problems were typically those of building exceptions to excep-
tions in order to accommodate unanticipated program omissio.ns. Simply 
not recognizing that books could be processed before invoices were paid 
caused delays and bottlenecks of such magnitude that procedures had to 
be devised to circumvent requirements of the automated subsystem. 

Many recommendations were particularly relevant to cooperative ven-
tures. In formulating processing specifications such as call number format 
and abbreviation standardization, CALBPC had not anticipated the infinite 
local variations they would have to accommodate. They quickly recognized 
the need for both greater quality control to minimize errors within the 
system and better communications and educational programs for partici-
pants. A reoccurring message was that librarians emphasized the esthetics 
of catalog cards rather than the content, thus a recommendation was made 
to investigate whether a positive correlation exists between the esthetics 
of the product and the quality of the library service. The authors emphasized 
that a cooperative program depends more upon competencies and willing-
ness of individuals than the technical aspects of the operations. 

Some diversification of services was called for but no mention was made 
of the possibilities of an on-line system. It was felt that in future operations 
the center should accept orders for out-of-print and audiovisual materials. 
Those libraries participating in approval programs had received no benefit 
by having books sent first to the center, thus it was suggested that the 
center forward those libraries a bibliographic packet only and that the 
approval books bypass the center. 

This well-documented study, half of which is devoted to charts and 
appendix materials, concluded its recommendations with a positive evalua-
tion of the service the center had performed and suggested that public and 
school libraries should also be participants. 

Ann Allan