College and Research Libraries


242 I College & Research Libraries • May 1972 

ly when they do know something about 
publishing." As a result of this fleshing-out 
of basic material the book will undoubted-
ly prove very useful to · graduate library 
school students as well as to library tech-
nicians and clerks. 

There are several tables at appropriate 
places in the book setting forth detailed 
listings of staff activities and responsibilities. 
This should prove helpful to supervisors 
writing job descriptions or organizing or 
reorganizing a library. The book also con-
tains a detailed discussion and practical 
evaluation of the primary acquisition tools 
such as BIP, PW, CBI, NUC, PTLA, etc. 

This book will be very useful to a be-
ginning librarian or library technician as a 
picture of what actually happens from the 
time an order is placed until the book is 
shelved. In addition, there are probably 
many practicing librarians who would ben-
efit from the review this book offers. And 
finally, it will undoubted~y prove very use-
ful to schools with library technician 
·courses and to libraries with in-house-train-
ing programs. All in all it is an excellent 
book.-Ashby ]. Fristoe, Unive1·sity of Ha-
waii. 

LIST 1971: Library and Information Sci-
ence Today. Paul Wasserman, manag-
ing ed. New York: Science Associates/ 
International, 1971. 397p. $25.00. 
This publication is the outgrowth of a 

seminar begun at the University of Mary-
land in the summer of 1969. A group of 
students and faculty met to discuss the 
problems of developing a formal mecha-
nism for gathering information about work 
in progress in library and information sci-
ence. The data gathered by the seminar 
participants form the basis for LIST 1971. 

Simply stated, the volume is a directory 
of research and innovation in library and 
information science. It is similar to the 
National Science Foundation's now defunct 
Current Research and Development in Sci-
entific Documentation, but is broader in 
scope and is not limited to activities cited 
in the published literature. 

Listed for each project are the principal 
investigators, the title of the project, 
the name and address of the institution at 
which the work is being performed, the 
approximate beginning and ending dates, 

and a short description of about 100 to 200 
words. References to published literature 
are omitted. To facilitate browsing the en-
tries are arranged in a classified manner 
by broad subject. Indexes of principal in-
vestigators, organizations, geographic loca-
tions, funding sources, titles, and subjects 
and keywords provide adequate alternate 
means of access to the text. 

As a directory of research and innova-
tion, LIST 1971 is not successful. Although 
the volume claims to be international in 
scope, the emphasis is primarily upon the 
United States and Western Europe. There 
is only one enhy for the Soviet Union, one 
for Australia, and three for all of South 
America. The coverage is not comprehen-
sive, even for projects originating in the 
United States. Several programs prominent-
ly reported in the published literature are 
omitted from the volume. Undoubtedly 
many of the omissions result from the de-
pendence upon gathering information by 
questionnaire. 

The projects listed in the publication are 
broad and varied. They range from the 
scientific to the sociological, from computer-
aided indexing and abstracting to outreach 
programs for the disadvantaged. Although 
the focus is supposedly on research and 
innovation, it is sometimes difficult to dis-
cern from the text what is particularly in-
novative or experimental about a program. 
The production of a KWIC index, for which 
several projects are cited, is an activity 
which in 1971 can scarcely be classified 
as either research or innovation. 

Browsing through the volume, one is 
presented with a fascinating mosaic of the 
current activities and interests of the li-
brary profession. The publication will thus 
be useful in the library school research 
methods course to instill in the student an 
appreciation for what constitutes research 
(or what passes for research) in library 
and information science. The price, unfor-
tunately, places LIST 1971 beyond the 
means of most library science students.-
Howard Pasternack, University of Chicago. 

Hutchins, W. J., L. J. Pargeter, and W. L. 
Saunders. The Language Barrier; A 
Study in Depth of the Place of Foreign 
Language Materials in the Research Ac-
tivity of an Academic Community. She£-



field, England: Postgraduate School of 
Librarianship and Information Science, 
University of Sheffield, 1971. 314p. 
£3.50. 
Language has always been one of the 

easier criteria to apply in selecting books 
and journals for academic libraries. There 
is a generally understood but largely un-
measured correlation among the language 
of the publication, its subject, and its ac-
tual use. In times of budgetary restraint, 
therefore, the book selector is often tempt-
ed to choose the path of least resistance; 
i.e., to prefer the language used by the ma-
jority in the academic community. Tradi-
tion, assumption, and intuition play a ma-
jor role in this decision-making process as 
published knowledge on scholarly behavior 
and use-patterns in libraries has yet to pro-
vide interpretable data. 

The detailed case study done at the 
University of Sheffield by Hutchins and 
others is a significant step toward a better 
understanding of the practical problem of 
language in the transfer of scholarlv and 
scientific information and it offers an· inter-
esting variety of contact points for thought 
and action. 

Building on earlier work done at the 
same university, the authors have tried to 
determine the nature and effects of the 
"language barrier" between the "very large 
rapidly increasing quantity in all fields of 
knowledge in languages other than English" 
and the efficiency and quality of research 
and scholarly activity. The possible need 
for translation services was explored in re-
lation to - this barrier. During a two-year 
period the team interviewed more than 
half of the population being surveyed-in 
virtually all representative academic dis-
ciplines-with an emphasis on language 
competence and education, assessment of 
the importance of research work carried 
out in various countries in the world, 
and methods by which the population kept 
up to date in their fields. This information 
was collated against a variety of records 
and analyses of the actual library usage 
including a full year's borrowing and 
foreign language interlibrary loan transac-
tions, Xerox copying of foreign language 
items, and the use inside the library of 
current foreign language and multilingual 
journals. To add further dimensions an 

Reoent Publications I 243 

analysis was made of all citations in pub-
lications and theses produced during one 
year, and all the library's holdings and 
budgets with regard to the foreign lan-
guage material. The results of these sur-
veys have been reproduced in a substantial 
number of detailed tables showing the lan-
guage and use relationship in the human-
ities, social sciences, physical sciences, med-
icine, and engineering. 

The conclusions, of course, are not so 
surprising: There is indeed a language bar-
rier and there is a great need for access in 
one form or another to especially French, 
German, Russian, and Japanese research 
output. The authors recommend that spe-
cial courses in technical language knowl-
edge be developed. Despite the low usage 
in some fields the library should continue 
to select foreign language materials and 
the library staff should increase its efforts 
to promote the use of the available bib-
liographical and indexing tools. The need 
for coordinated, competent translation ser-
vices is clearly identified. 

For American university libraries faced 
with dwindling funds and sharply decreas-
ing university language requirements, this 
study comes at a most opportune time. Its 
methodology and the detail with which the 
data have been arranged can serve as a 
very useful model for local or national 
application. We hope that this volume will 
not only reach the shelves but also the 
eyes of concerned librarians and univer-
sity administrators.-Hendrik Edelman, Cor-
nell University Libraries. 

UNISIST: Study Report on the Feasibility 
of a World Science Information System. 
United Nations Educational, Scientific 
and Cultural Organization and the In-
ternational Council of Scientific Unions. 
Paris: UNESCO, 1971. 161p. $4.00. 
In one triad of scientific investigation-

desirability, necessity, and feasibility-it is 
often only the third component which gar-
ners the focus of attention. It is refreshing 
to note that in this study, however, the 
elements of desirability and necessity are 
considered with equal concern. 

The results of this four-year inquiry sug-
gest that the needs of the scientific and 
technological communities can be met more 
satisfactorily through a flexible network of