College and Research Libraries brary School, Indiana University, Blooming- ton. Kenney, Brigitte L., and Esteves, Roberto. Video and Cable Communications: Guidelines for Librarians. Based on a Report of the ALA Video/ Cable Study Committee. Chicago: Information Sci- ence and Automation Division, Video and ·Cable Communications Section, American Library Assn., 1975. 84p. $3.50. This publication, a rev1s10n of a formal report submitted to ALA, provides a useful compendium of general information on the present status and future prospects of video and cable technology in libraries. The first two of the six chapters deal with the in- volvement of some 400 libraries. Chapter 3 covers video hardware and software in fairly general terms. Chapter 4 touches on cable regulations and franchising, and Chapter 5 deals with community education, organization, and resources. The last chap- ter is a checklist for librarians. The most useful section is Appendix A, providing per- haps the most complete annolated bibliog- raphy yet assembled in one publication. For the untutored, this publication will provide an excellent generalized overview of what is involved when libraries make use of the new technology. Unfortunately, it is so generalized that it might be misleading to some. For instance, the statement is made that the new low cost of video equip- ment (a portable black-and-white camera- recorder combination available for about $2,000) makes this equipment attractive to many libraries. One looks in vain, how- ever, for any real data on staff time and training that must be expended to make the camera-recorder operational and effective. The items listed in the bibliography prob- ably bring out the needed data; without such data in this publication, the impres- sion is left that the use of video and cable technology in libraries is easy, inexpensive, and effective. We do not believe the editors intended such an impression. The more than a year delay in publica- tion of the guidelines has had a serious im- pact on its usefulness. It is considerably out of date in a very rapidly developing area. Librarians will do well to check the fine Recent Publications I 65 bibliography for those items that will pro- vide updated information in crucial areas, such as equipment specifications and costs, changes in FCC regulations, and technolog- ical developments. This is an admirable first effort in a very new area. We can only hope that the guide- lines will be updated regularly. Such effort would be most helpful to the profession.- Gordon P. Mart in, University Librarian, California State University, Sacramento. Chen, Ching-chih. Applications of Opera- tions Research Models to Libraries: A Case Study of the Use of Monographs in the Francis ·A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University. Cam- bridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1976. 212p. $17.50. (LC 75-28210) (ISBN 0- 262-03056-X) This work seems to confirm a widespread belief that excellent doctoral dissertations seldom translate into readable professional literature for the practitioner. Chen's work is admirable, the methodology and conclu- sions are sound, but the narrow scope of the subject and the unavoidable reliance upon jargon to discuss it will severely limit her audience. The first of the book's three sections is basically a restatement and extension of the probabilistic models of circulation proposed by Morse. The theory is that while it is im- possible to predict whether individual ti- tles will or will not circulate, it is possible to predict the circulation behavior of sub- ject classes of books on the basis of his- torical data. The average librarian will probably have to accept this proposition as an article of faith. One who has not read and understood Morse's Library Effective- ness, or who lacks a solid background in quantitative methods, will never make it through p.35. The models rest upon the as- sumption that book circulation is a random process, but this by no means commands universal agreement among the profession. Section two reports in detail the author's successful attempt to apply the models, originally developed from a small data base at the MIT Science Library, to the Count- way Library of Medicine. Sampling tech- niques were used to obtain historical circu- lation data for selected subject classes in 66 I College & Research Libraries • January 1977 the Countway collection, the data were used to formulate predictions about future circulation behavior in those subjects, and the predictions were confirmed by subse- quent analysis of actual circulation. Given the fact that the data base at Countway was significantly larger and diHerent in type from that of Morse's original study, the models appear to have a general validity. Chen reports some rather interesting in- formation, not directly related to the test- ing of the models, on retention of materials, user identification and use patterns, etc. Again there are some problems with jargon, but a careful study of the text and the sev- en appendices is worthwhile. Section three will be of most immediate interest to practicing librarians. Chen is ab- solutely correct in her assertion that "in or- der to provide maximum services to users of a library and to develop an optimum col- lection with the least cost, librarians must have a thorough understanding of its op- erations as well as an awareness of the cur- rent and future user needs and require- ments." She uses the results of the Count- way study to illustrate the implications of this kind of operational knowledge for de- cision making in such areas as library budgets, selection and duplication policies, weeding, and so forth. Few would deny that many librarians, including those whose positions carry spe- cific responsibility for the task, know less than they should about library operations. And clearly knowledge about library op- erations can only be developed through re- search about those operations. Chen argues convincingly about the need for increased operational research, but is less compelling about the need for increased application of those specialized mathematical techniques we calr "operations research." In her introduction, Chen repeats some familiar claims about the value of opera- tions research techniques, i.e., that they contributed mightily to Allied successes in World War II, and that "an increasing number of experts have become persuaded that the procedures of operations research would be effective in solving some of the problems of the public sector." O.R. also has its critics who claim that we won the war despite operations research rather than because of it and that operations research- ers have been forced to direct their atten- tion to the public sector because the wel- come mat is no longer out at private indus- try.-Robert L. Burr, Circulation Librarian, The College of William & Mary, Williams- burg, Virginia. Jovanovic, Slobodan; and Rojnic, Matkos, comps. A Guide to Yugoslav Libraries and Archives. American Council of Learned Societies and Social Science Re- search Council. Joint Committee on East- ern Europe. Publication Series, no.2. Co- lumbus, Ohio: American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, 1975. 113p. $4.00. On the basis of this Guide and the na- tion's library literature, one may judge that librarianship in the Yugoslav republics has made significant advances in the last three decades. The librarians of Yugoslavia have created a corps of exceptionally competent professionals without the benefits of formal graduate education for librarianship. Very few went abroad to study, while others have attained advanced education at home. The library specialization came to many through systematic study q.nd on-the-job training. As for their libraries, it would ap- pear that they are better managed than they are supported. This work is an abridged version, edited by Paul L. Horecky and translated by Eliz- abeth Beyerly. Horecky correctly observes that it is "a mere introduction to the sub- ject." The libraries of Yugoslavia are organized and governed by the individual republics or provinces. Each republic has its own li- . brary association. The umbrella organiza- tion is the Federation of Library Associa- tions of Yugoslavia. The table of contents of this Guide reflects this pattern of orga- nization, alphabetically by republics: Bos- nia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia (with autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina), and Slovenia. Within each unit the arrangement is alohabetical by cities and then by select- ed libraries, followed by principal archives. Each section has a brief historical intro- ductory sketch of library and archival de- velopment with bibliography. Individual li-