College and Research Libraries


and public libraries (a pattern which the 
report does not openly acknowledge) . The 
survey data base therefore rests upon a 
highly irregular foundation which includes, 
for example, responses from 86 percent of 
the large libraries in the survey universe 
but less than 6 percent of the school and 
public libraries in this universe. Another 
questionable feature of this survey was the 
limitation of the personal interviews to pro-
cessing centers and large libraries. 

This study offers much to the reader, in-
cluding a series of thought-provoking com-
ments, such as Comaromi's observation, "in 
most libraries visited . . . the DDC is now 
used in a mark and park fashion" (p.59); 
however, this study is marred by various 
shortcomings, including not only those men-
tioned above but also numerous lesser flaws 
such as the ill-conceived wording of survey 

· question 21 and the erroneous reference to 
Table 10 on page 30. Despite such short-
comings, this study should not be over-
looked by anyone who is vitally concerned 
with the present state and future prospects 
of the DDC.-Robert L. Mowery, Human-
ities Librarian, Illinois Wesleyan U niversi-
ty, Bloomington, Illinois. 

Woodbury, Marda. A Guide to Sources of 
Educational Information. Washington, 
D.C.: Information Resources Press, 1976. 
371p. $25.00 plus postage and handling. 
(LC 75-37116) (ISBN 0-87815-015-3) 
Naturally, the bulk of any "guide to the 

literature" must necessarily be devoted to 
annotated lists of reference resources. In my 
opinion, however, those guides succeed or 
fail on the introduction they give to the 
use of the literature, i.e., the searching 
process. Woodbury's book makes a refresh-
ingly unique and quite literate stab at pro-
viding the library novice with a practical 
guide to searching the education literature. 

She starts with a useful table of catego-
ries such as "yearly summaries," "hot news," 
"government documents," etc., which direct 
one to the correct type of reference re-
source, thus effectively indexing the chap-
ters on resources. A detailed outline of the 
searching process and a checklist of ques-
tions asked when negotiating a reference 
question follow. Some of the tables and fig-
ures reflect the excellent information ser-

Recent Publications I 11 

vices work done by the Far West Labora-
tory for Educational Research and Develop-
ment and other regional labs. 

The traditional, although well written, 
annotations of printed resources are supple-
mented by a section on nonprint sources, 
such as agencies and computerized biblio-
graphic searching services, 

The index of this book is good as is the 
technical quality. Its strong point, however, 
is definitely the innovative approach to ex-
plaining searching. Its weak point is the 
outrageous price, $25.00~ which is out of 
line even considering inflation. All in all, 
Woodbury's manual is clear and concise 
and should be an excellent source for 
those users of educational resources who 
can afford it.-]ames Doyle, Learning Me-
dia Center, Macomb Co. Community Col-
lege, Warren, Michigan. 

Langridge, D. W. Classification and Index-
ing in the Humanities. London: Butter-
worths, 1976. 143p. $11.95. (ISBN 0-
408-70777-1) . (Available from Butter-
worths, 19 Cummings Park, Woburn, 
MA 01801.) 
This title is a bit misleading-the book 

is p:r;imarily a treatise on the application of 
faceted classification principles to human-
ities subjects, with a brief nod to other ap-
proaches to indexing. 

The author begins with a general discus-
sion of the value of classification, especially 
for bibliography, followed by an attempt 
to define the "humanities." The main part 
of the work is a detailed discussion of the 
special features of each humanities subject, 
the consideration necessary in classifying 
it, and its treatment in the major schemes 
now used in libraries. A special classifica-
tion for the sport of cricket provides a dem-
onstration of the principles elucidated. The 
author concludes with brief comments on 
thesaurus construction, book indexing, and 
the like. 

The British approach appears not only 
in the theory presented, and in such things 
as the use of cricket as an example and the 
inclusion of history as a humanity, but also 
in the denigration of postcoordinate index-
ing and an almost total disregard for the 
computer, with the only mechanized system 
noted in any detail a peekaboo card file.