College and Research Libraries be covered in the one-year program. He speaks of the Canadian example and "the gestures at UCLA" and states that "it does not appear that librarianship will return to the two-year master's degree program which it formally abandoned with the adoption of the 1951 Standards.'' So far as UCLA is concerned, the two-year program is not a gesture but an approved and oper- ating program. He cites an obsolete docu- ment, a proposal rather than a finally ap- proved program statement. As he is a UCLA alumnus, it seems strange he did not check out the program by a letter or phone call rather than label it a gesture. Winger (p.92) also discusses the length of the mas- ter's degree program, without citing the source of his 1972 statistics, which must have been those published by the American Library Association. Since Winger is the dean of the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago, and since ALA headquarters is in Chicago, one wonders why he did not use more current informa- tion. He might then have learned that at least one school in the U.S. lengthened its program for the purpose of providing great- er specialization and an element of research in its master's degree program. In fairness, he may have had in mind this school (UCLA), along with Chicago itself, among the "some schools" which he says have longer than one-year programs. Other au- thors in the book (see index under Califor- nia, University at Los Angeles) have found more current information about UCLA, so it may really not matter. There is, however, at least some inconsistency. This is an important, useful book. The editors are to be congratulated for bringing it together, the publisher for getting it into our hands in a good format at a reasonable price for these times, and the authors for their truly significant contributions. It will be of great value to library schools (deans, faculties, students, staffs), to persons con- cerned with accreditation, to university ad- ministrators, and to those members of the profession who recognize the crucial impor- tance of professional education in the real- ization of the goals of library and informa- tion science which have been set by the profession in generaL-Andrew H. Horn, University of California, Los Angeles. Recent Publications I 181 Montgomery, Leon. Document Retrieval Systems: Factors AUecting Search Time. (Books in Library and Information Sci- ence, vol.14.) New York: Marcel Dekker, 1975. 144p. $12.75. (LC 75-18692) (ISBN 0-8247-6195-2) This monograph reports the results of an experiment which Montgomery conducted to explore those factors which were thought to affect search time in an information stor- age and retrieval system. The factors were selected for the explanation of search time and included the number of documents searched, the number of questions asked, and the file organization techniques. These experiments were run in a batch- oriented system in a multiprogramming en- vironment using the computer's clock as a timing device. Thus, the times reported are estimates and are so specified by the au- thor. Not surprisingly, it was found that af- ter an arbitrary number of documents the inverted file system gives search times con- sistently lower than the search times re- quired for linear file organizations. The number of questions asked of a particular data base was also found to be related to search time. Specifically, the time was con- sistently lower with the inverted file, pro- vided the number of questions was suffi- ciently large. The author finds that "the in- verted file organization and search tech- nique becomes more efficient from a search time point of view for situations having more than 32 questions and more than 512 documents." However, these findings are obviously limited to batch-oriented systems. The book is directed toward the design- ers of information systems and not the casual reader. The results are interesting and do provide the reader with a signifi- cant experimental result, but these results are less generalizable than one would like due to their restriction to batch-oriented systems. Thus, the text is not directly useful to the individual designing an interactive information system. One must question the validity of the presentation of the results of an experiment as an approach in a text. Certainly the au- thor's findings would have made a valuable journal article. The book does provide an excellent example of experimental method- ology and may perhaps be best used as a 182 I College & Research Libraries • March 1976 model for future experiments resulting in interesting journal articles.-Michael ]. Mc- Gill, School of Information Studies, Syra- cuse University, Syracuse, New York. McGarry, K. J. Communication, Knowledge and the Librarian. Hamden, Conn.: Lin- net Books, 1975. 207p. $10.50. (LC 75- 4864) (ISBN 0-208-01369-3) K. J. McGarry has produced a primer for librarians in an area in which librarians urgently need a primer. He covers an enor- mous span of knowledge concisely and well. He structures a viable approach to a field of intellectual endeavor which, in common with several newly emerging fields of study, represents a confluence of several older dis- ciplines and new concepts. Most remark- able of all, he recognizes and points out clearly that this new approach, while po- tentially extremely fruitful, provides only a partial view and leaves out of the discus- sion some very important aspects of librari- anship and human knowledge. McGarry's object is to discuss the library in terms of its place in the communication system of society. To do this he first treats the current state of knowledge of commu- nication from the cybernetics, linguistics, sociological, psychological, and anthropo- logical viewpoints. He surveys literature and concepts, discussing the use of models, information theory, entropy and redundan- cy, symbols, culture and the concept of self, social role theory, and other pertinent mat- ters. He then examines the process of inter- personal communication and the necessities of that process. Perhaps McGarry's gloomiest conclusion in relation to the human condition is that hierarchy is an omnipresent necessity of all life and interaction, including communica- tions. One hopes that Warren Bennis and others of his school of thought have what will prove to be a more correct viewpoint in this regard. It would be very disturbing to many people and institutions if we were · to discover that democratic processes of hu- man interaction are inherently impossible. McGarry proceeds, through a brief dis- cussion of nonverbal communication, to an excellent analysis of the impact of the de- velopment of communications on society. In this context he discusses McLuhan' s ideas, set forth in English and treated in a sane and productive manner. He rightly points out the fallacy of subscribing to yet another form of simplistic determinism while recognizing the seminal nature of the concepts McLuhan presents. This discus- sion is long and very valuable as a con- ceptual framework for the study of the his- tory of books, media of other sorts, and libraries. The attempt to make direct application of the theories so well discussed in this vol- ume to the library scene is not entirely suc- ·Cessful. This is usually the case when at- tempts at practical application are made early in the development of a new body of knowledge. · The attempts must, of course, be made because it is from them that a significant force and direction are given to further theoretical development. The importance of the process of theory building and practical application is underscored by a quotation from Eric de Grolier (p.l23), "Now the death of a civilization can be interpreted as the death of its information mecha- nisms." We, whose civilization has devel- oped and become dependent upon an in- formation mechanism of unprecedented magnitude, complexity, and fragility must struggle successfully to preserve and im- prove that mechanism. The consequences of failure could be as cataclysmic as the consequences of failure to keep the peace. This terse and literate book provides a carefully selected and structured guide to the study necessary to achieve understand- ing of the subject. Hopefully, the book will serve as a starting place for course work in many library schools.-Ernest W. Toy, ]r., California State University, Fullerton. tJberregionale Literaturversorgung von Wissenschaft und F orschung in der Bun- desrepublik Deutschland: Denkschrift. (Supra-Regional Provision of Literature in the Federal Republic of Germany: Memorandum.) Bibliotheksausschuss der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft. Bop- pard: Harald Boldt Verlag KG, 1975. 116p. (ISBN 3-7646-1621-0) One of the major goals of the Library Committee of the German Research Society (GRS) has been the development of an ef-