College and Research Libraries of UDC, this time as Foskett himself sees it. A few of his suggestions: UDC should be "a broad classification . . . with a detailed analytico-synthetic scheme to replace the current full/ medium editions" (p.105). The scheme should use several CRG ideas, and it should be accom- panied by "a thesaurus rather than a sim- ple alphabetical index" (p.108). UDC should develop "through use in mechanized information retrieval systems and through computer production of the schedules" (p.103); by use of Computer Output Microfilm "at the end of each year a com- plete new edition could be published" (p.117). Just as LC and DC are "tied to a collection" and "developed through the daily work of classifying the books received by the Library of Congress," so "the British Library should accept as one of its respon- sibilities the maintenance of a team to maintain and utilize UDC" (p.102- 3). "The English edition could then become the ba- sis for all versions of UDC" but "policy would remain in the hands of the FID I CCC; a situation analogous to that of DC" where "revision is carried out'' in the Li- brary of Congress ''but overall policy is de- cided by Forest Press Inc., acting on the advice of the Decimal Classification Edi- torial Policy Committee" (p.119). Funding would come from the British Library and from the sale of the completed edition (p.120). This is a book whose detail may be for experts more about penguins than they wish to read and for the interested non- experts more jargon than they can easily understand. Organization of the material is rather more haphazard than one might expect from a classification expert (there are even tacked on four not too obviously needed appendices) . It is not impossible that the solutions offered would transform (rather than save) UDC and repel some present producers and some present users. But Foskett's statement of the problem rings loud and clear: The old girl can no longer get by with just love and a lone faithful servitor; what she needs now are cash and a retinue. But first she must have a face lift.-Paul S. Dunkin, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers Grad- uate School of Library Service. . Recent Publications I 379 Mathies, Lorraine M., and Watson, Pe- ter G. Computer-Based Refere'JU!e Ser- vice. Chicago: American Library Assn., 1973. 200p. $9.95. The title is somewhat misleading. The reader may be anticipating a discussion on the provision of reference service using an electronic data base and how a library should go about doing this. The on-the-line librarian may well have questions about the implications and costs in getting involved in such a venture. Librarians are becoming aware of commercially available data bases and are probably beginning to ask basic questions about the direction to take. For example, is it best to opt for the commer- cial product offered by such corporations as SDC or Lockheed, or is it better to start one's own shop of electronic reference tools? How does a library market this new service? What are the staffing requirements: their numbers and educational background; and how does a library pay for this? What this book turns out to be is an in- troductory technical manual (based on a 1971 ALA preconference) on some aspects of electronic data use; e.g., document pro- cessing in ERIC, binary numeration, Boo- lean Logic, and weighing. The authors ap- pear to have the viewpoint that librarians will, by working through this book, be less likely to be snowed by computer people when electronic data services are talked about. The authors state that librarians must be versatile in discussing computer- based services. This is true, but do librari- ans need to know binary arithmetic ( 14 pages) or Boolean logic ( 12 pages) to car- ry on intelligent conversations. Some librar- ians will need to know how to use a com- puter terminal and to act as facilitators in arranging for a user's search of the litera- ture. (No doubt for such an individual all of this book is relevant.) Most other librari- ans will need to know about the administra- tive and user-oriented aspects of such ser- vices. The best and most original part of this book deals with search strategies and their refinement in realizing the full benefit of an electronic data base. This section provides useful information on how one goes about structuring and refining the language of a search request. 380 I College & Research Libraries • September 1974 The editors should have provided a dif- ferent direction for this book to face the fundamental questions librarians should or do have regarding the use of such reference tools. The obvious expertise of the authors could have been used to help other librari- ans learn about providing electronic data bases in reference service to a library's users.-]ohn Lubans, ]r., Assistant Director for Public Services, University of Colorado Libraries, Boulder, Colorado. Proceedings of the 1973 Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing: Net- working and Other Forms of Co-opera- tion. Ed. by F. Wilfrid Lancaster. Ur- bana-Champaign, Ill.: University of Illi- nois Graduate School of Library Science, 1973. $6.00. This volume is a potpourri of materials on the application of computerized informa- tion handling techniques to one of the most complex and convoluted of today' s ''hot topics" in librarianship-networking. We have here a good mix of people, including library systems personnel, senior adminis- trators, and information specialists, chosen specifically for their professional experience with networking at one stage or another- designing, planning, developing, operating, and evaluating. Library school teachers are conspicuously absent, for the emphasis is squarely on the practical, not the academic. Most of the activities discussed are attempts at centralized technical processing, but in- formation retrieval services for users are covered in McCarn (MEDLINE) and in parts of the papers by Randall and by Evans, whose generalized schematic ap- proach is intriguing enough to steal the show from the particular project he is de- scribing. There are accounts of libraries "back- ing into network operations" (Brodman), where a system was designed for one li- brary and then adapted for many, and of formally organized and chartered affairs like OCLC (Long), which had its objec- tives well enough defined at the outset to let a contract for the simulation of comput- er performance characteristics in order to make the right choice of machine for its purpose. Jolliffe provides the only European contribution with a succinct account of Project LOC, a joint attempt to create a machine-readable union catalog of pre-1801 materials held at Oxford, Cambridge, and the British Museum. This is not a network, of course, but it could become the basis for one, and much more should be known about it in the U.S. Whether or not the clinic succeeded in imparting help at the nuts and bolts level I do not know, but in published form the more interesting contributions are those that go beyond technical description to give us the flavor of what it is really like to be involved in computerized cooperation. The oft-repeated platitude that runs "The major problems are not technological, but organi- zational and administrative" seems depress- ingly confirmed by recurring comments on the problems of properly financing coopera- tive activity; or persuading librarians to give up some control of their operations and services; of being dependent upon a computer center which has many other mis- sions and user groups; of increasing user ex- pectations which then are not fulfilled; of whether and how to charge for services, etc. Even taken singly, most libraries have found it difficult enough, organizationally, to understand and exploit the computer (as any Gentleman of Quality knows). The immediate chances of them multiplying their manifestly severe bureaucratic prob- lems by ten and then succeeding cannot be very high. Joseph Becker ends the volume with the hortatory comment that a national network of all types of libraries cooperating about everything is "just around the bend." Given the general tenor of the preceding papers, that seems a trifle optimistic.-Pe- ter G. Watson, University Library, Univer- sity of California, Los Angeles. OTHER BOOKS OF INTEREST TO ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS Ash, Rene L. The Motion Picture Film Edi- t01'. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1974. 171p. $6.00. (74-4072). (ISBN 0-8108- 0718-1). Atkins, Thomas V., ed. Cross-Reference In- dex. A Subject Heading Guide. New York: Bowker, 1974. 255p. (73-23066). (ISBN 0-8352-0680-7). •