College and Research Libraries 334 I College & Research Libraries • July 1972 provide the full picture of federal environ- mental involvement.] 2) Most of the standard periodical selec- tion tools offer either very inadequate bib- liographic control of government period- icals or none. (Ulrich's includes more gov- ernment periodicals in recent editions, but it is still highly selective and unannotated.) Also the lists designed specifically for the selection of government periodicals (the February issue of the Monthly Catalog or Price List No. 36) are more limited in scope and bibliographic detail than Andri- ot's Guide. Research libraries in need of a comprehensive bibliographic apparatus will want to investigate the new Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789- 1970 (Index four lists series) and com- pare it with Andriot' s Guide. 3) A well-known problem is the identi- fication of non-GPO serials including elu- sive bulletins, circulars, newsletters, re- leases, and looseleaf services put out by minor bureaus and field agencies. The Guide includes most of these fugitive items not readily identified by any other tool. 4) Sub-series of government serials have always appalled and frustrated users. Ci- tations of such sub-series are furnished and annotated. Examples of series thus analyzed include the Catalog of Copyright Entries, Current Fishery Statistics, Water Supply Papers and, what will please any information seeker who ever tackled the Serial Set, even House and Senate docu- ments. 5) After a government periodical had been bibliographically identified, informa- tion about its availability, frequency, and price is as vital as the basic question about its existence. The Guide provides the fol- lowing details fCi>r each entry: Availability (same symbols used as in the Monthly Catalog), beginning date, frequency, LC card number, SuDocs number, and deposi- tory item number. It is regrettable that in- formation provided by earlier editions is no longer included: LC class number, decimal class number, and price. 6) With the federal government becom- ing more and more involved in affairs of institutional and private life, access to in- formation on current federal laws, regula- tions, standards, statistics, raw and repack- aged data is becoming more crucial to wider strata of population than ever. There should be access to this informa- tion by topics in disciplinary as well as in- terdisciplinary areas. Since the Guide has no subject index and the title index is not a permuted one, the user has to resort to his familiarity with agencies and their con- cern with various areas of human endeavor when using the Agency index as a poor substitute for the subject approach. [There are some inconsistencies and er- rors in the bibliographic listings and in- dexes. In the Agency index (v.4, p.1040), under Council we find Environmental Quality. On p.1043 we find Environmental Quality Council. Both entries carry the same SuDocs number. Actually the en- tries should clearly distinguish between two different agencies: the Council on En- vironmental Quality (established in 1970) and the Environmental Quality Council (established in 1969, renamed and later terminated in 1970) ]. In conclusion, the improvements in this new edition of the Guide outweigh the flaws and shortcomings. A further improve- ment could be made by including, in case of government periodicals, the indexing and abstracting services where these peri- odicals are included. This device would be invaluable for both selection and reference purposes. In the meantime, the Guide is recommended for use in medium and larger libraries of all types. If there is still a li- brarian to whom public documents repre- sent "a despised class of books," he should find them less despising because of this expedient key.-Marta L. Dosa, School of Library Science, Syracuse University Spyers-Duran, Peter, and Gore, Daniel, eds. Advances in UnderstaRding Ap- proval and Gathering Plans in Aca- demic Libraries. International Seminar on Approval and Gathering Plans in Large and Medium Size Academic Li- braries, 2d, Western Michigan U niver- sity, 1969. Kalamazoo: Western Michi- gan University, 1970. 220p. When approval plans first appeared on the library scene in the early 1960s, only libraries with sizeable book budgets could consider having an English-language ap- proval plan. The questions facing the li- braries using and contemplating approval - '-· plans were whether such procurement plans are cost effective, whether the qual- ity of collection development is impaired or improved by these plans, how should an approval plan be handled and managed by the library, would the faculty accept the plan, what are the objections to having an approval plan, and how could a library with an automated acquisitions program incorporate the approval plan into its au- tomated program? Advances in Understanding Approval and Gathering Plans in Academic Libraries is a collection of papers presented at the Second International Seminar on Approval Plans in Large and Medium-sized Libraries, which was held at Western Michigan U ni- versity on October 31, 1969. The seminar took place in a year when book budgets were sizeable and when federal support was great. It was a time when many medi- um-sized libraries were presented with huge amounts of money and were faced with the problem of how to spend it. In some instances the approval plan was not viewed as a valuable procurement method but as a hole in which to dump a huge sum of money. The papers reflect the age of affi.uence. It is assumed that the great amount of money being poured into ap- proval plans is justifiable. Papers relating the experiences of seven libraries concerning approval plans make up one third of the book: the role of the faculty in book selection (a problem which is relatively independent of the method of book procurement), the mechanics and ra- tionale of ordering additional copies of ti- tles received on approval, and the need for a system of earmarking titles for special col- lections and binding are discussed. Other papers address an unsuccessful attempt at making an approval plan work, faculty ap- praisal of approval plans, the satisfaction of branch library needs, and the problems of incorporating the approval plan into an existing automated acquisitions program. The remainder of the book describes the services of a number of dealers offering approval plans. Several types of plans are represented, although changes in the ser- vices described have since taken place. Richard Abel & Co., which was then man- ually operating its program, now employs a computer for profiling and supplying ac- Recent Publications I 335 cording to the customer's requirements, and Bro-Dart, which then employed a computer, is now manually operated and has limited its approval coverage to the sciences, med- icine, business, and economics. Baker & Tay- lor, then a newcomer as an approval deal- er, has developed its U.S. English-language approval plan. In spite of such changes, the services presented provide an overview of the different types of approval plans that were and are available to libraries. Just as budgets have changed, so has the ability of approval dealers to supply titles against a narrower, more specific profile. Dealers have learned from their experi- ences and have developed subject de- scriptors and other limiting parameters, so that a library wishing to receive only cer- tain types of books in given subject cate- gories may do so. This type of information is not included in the proceedings, nor is the discussion of how or whether libraries with limited book budgets should go on a limited approval plan for "core" titles. The library market is dynamic and although its complexion has changed since the sem- inar, these proceedings play an important role in relating the development of ap- proval plans in academic libraries. Daniel Gore's critical essay, "Understanding Ap- proval and Gathering Plans," is excellent and should be required reading for librar- ians and library school students.-H arriet K. Rebuldela, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado State Library Policy; Its Legislative and Environmental Contexts. Douglas St. Angelo, Annie Mary Hartsfield, Harold Goldstein. Chicago: American Library Association, 1971. 118p. Knowing that the research upon which this slim volume is based was supported by a substantial federal grant one is tempted to ask in the words of a popular song, "Is that all there is?" Upon close examination, however, it appears that this study, which utilizes the techniques of policy output analysis to examine the significant factors in state library development is very sub- stantial. For this reviewer the most significant conclusions were: 1. Good state library programs are an act of free will.