College and Research Libraries of the holes in those indexes might prevent premature retirement, and (2) an added statement indicating the "End of Study" would be of value, especially when the last page of such a study is filmed on the last frame of a given fiche. All in all, the LTR and its Sourcebook . are outstanding contributions to library technical literature and excellent candidates for the ALA's centennial best-seller. For larger libraries, requiring reliable and most recent information about library equipment, supplies, and services, the bimonthly LTR is almost indispensable, in spite of its $100 subscription tag. The annual cumulation of the SLT, at half this price, is the second best solution. Most probably, the purchase of the Sourcebook in addition to the LTR subscription, will depend to a large degree on the extent and thoroughness of its edi- torial updates. The critical consideration about any good service is hot the fact that it costs, but the conviction that it pays. The LTR series is now accessible to practically all library budgets-paying many times over the ini- tial cost of its subscription.-Joseph Z. Ni- tecki, Temple University Libraries. Annual Review of Information Science and ·Technology. Volume 10, 1975. Carlos A. Cuadra, Editor. Ann W. Luke, Associate Editor. Washington, D.C.: American So- ciety of Information Science, 1975. 476p. $27.50. (LC 66-25096) (ISBN 0-87715- 210-1) Writing a review of the eleven separate articles contained in this volume has proved a very difficult assigrtment. On the one hand, the pretensions of the field are very high. One is impressed by the thorough- ness of the work the individual authors have done in assembling and describing 1,505 publications in the field and produc- ing an index that is over fifty pages long. On the other hand, after one has waded through it all, one feels having heard con- siderable fancy but essentially empty talk. It is too bad that the Annual Review has not seen fit to update its coverage of one of the real advances in information science and computer technology; namely, data base management systems (last covered in Recent Publications I 561 volume 7). Its coverage of other impmtant advances, such as data storage devices, data input devices, and data output devices is very scattered. Instead, in this volume we are given an entire review devoted to mini- computers. Unfortunately, the discussion of these machines is hopelessly naive; and the examples given represent more the dreams of some computer salesman than a review of "information science." The review entitled "Library Automa- tion" suffers from the opposite problem; namely, it lists item after item with little or no comment as to the significance or mean- ing of each. The review by Peter B. Schip- ma, "Generation and Uses of Machine- Readable Data Bases," is, by contrast, ex- cellent. He discusses standardization, soft- ware, organizational relationships to data bases, etc., all from a knowledgable well- thought-out point of view. A recurrent theme in his article is the cost effectiveness of such systems, and he emphasizes that this subject is "the area of great vacuum in the literature." The article by Seldon W. Terrant, "The Computer and Publishing," is also excellent. The author reviews carefully the actual steps being slowly taken by the industry so that "many of the long promised capabil- ities have materialized." The chapter by Donald A. Dunn, "Communications Tech- nology," is very useful because of its bal- anced and thorough approach. His account of AT&T's attempts to keep prices high and others out of the communication business as well as the description of two new areas in communications (digital data transmis- sion and packet switching) should be read by anyone who is or plans to be part of a computer network. The review by Ben H. Weil on "Copyright Developments" is also quite good at relating the developments of the judicial and legislative process with those of technology. Three separate reviews address the non- technological aspects of information sci- ence, that is, getting all participants in the field together to figure out what they should be doing. One article, "Bibliographic Stan- dards," provides a good account of the or- ganizations that supposedly set standards and how they interrelate. Another review, "National Planning of Information Ser- vices," anticipates a good deal of growth 562 I College & Research Libraries • November 1976 in the literature of this field. The third ar- ticle, "Cooperation in Information Activ- ities through International Organizations," tells what is really happening: "Informa- tion, in short, is being looked at as a source of power, and wherever power exists, po- litical interest follows." The most extensive review in this vol- ume, with 276 bibliographic citations and a length 50 percent longer than any other review, is "Design and Evaluation of Infor- mation Systems" by Rowena W. Swanson. Swanson points out that evaluation of such systems is "still in a formative stage in which the focus is more on investigative procedures and instruments rather than on outcomes." But how she can conclude that "information organization skills and the type of understanding of users that infor- mation scientists have acquired are sorely needed" is beyond the comprehension of this reviewer. In short, then, we have here a book that one may turn to if one is unfamiliar with information science and its practitioners and wants an annotated bibliography of what they contributed during 197 4. Some of the annotations are better than others, and there is an uneven quality to the en- tire volume.-Stephen M. Silberstein, Li- brary Systems Office, University of Califor- nia, Berkeley. The Library of Congress as the National Bibliographic Center. Report of a Pro- gram Sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries, October 16, 1975. Washington: Association of Research Li- braries, 1976. 58p. $4.00. The substance of this booklet is taken from the minutes of the October 1975 meeting of the Association of Research Li- braries. It has been published separately in order to reach a wider audience; and for good reasons. The papers and discussion have great interest for the entire library community, spelling out as they do the ac- tivities and intentions of the Library of Congress in serving as the de facto center of national enterprise in bibliographical control. The seventy-eighth meeting of ARL, held in Washington, D.C., featured a tour of the Library of Congress and a meeting at which its operations and plans in the area of bibliographical control were described and discussed. Following a summary of the history of LC-ARL relations in bibliograph- ical activities delivered by Warren Haas, four LC staff members described the pres- ent state of LC' s automated projects and plans for their future development: Wil- liam Welsh and Henriette Avram on "Au- tomation Activities at the Library of Con- gress," Lucia Rather on "The Core Biblio- graphic System," Henriette Avram on "The National Bibliographical System [or Ser- vice]," and John Rather on "Transition to the Automated System." Discussion and questions followed. It is difficult to select high points in the very exciting picture that has been outlined for the future. Much of the report is con- cerned with development of the "Core Bib- liographical System" -the virtually com- plete automation of LC processing activ- ities. These are not only of interest per se but also because these developments will provide the basis for the "National Biblio- graphical System." When this latter system is fully operational, the libraries of North America will have · remote access to virtual- ly all parts of LC' s processing activities- not only a much-expanded MARC (cover- ing all languages by 1979) but also the LC internal process information file, the CONSER serials data base, the register of additional locations, LC authority files, etc. About the only area in which major de- velopments are not planned is that of large- scale revision and modernization of the present subject-heading structure. In his paper on transition, John Rather is candid but optimistic in detailing the problems to be faced and solved before both systems reach full development, ex- pected before the end of the 1970s. When they are, however, the Library of Congress will clearly be the National Bibliographical Center, or, perhaps more accurately, the National Center for Bibliographical Con- trol, if still not the National Library de jure. But it will be providing the services other libraries probably most want from a nation- al library.-Georgg J'iternick, The Univer- sity of British Columbia.