College and Research Libraries 166 I College & Research Libraries • March 1977 with Middleton's selection of Nietzsche's letters, though for almost the opposite rea- son. No such hints are given the reader at the begi:r:tning as to how badly things are going to turn out at the end. Rayward has done a thorough and ele- gant job of threading through the maze of Otlet' s multifarious concerns and has docu- mented his sad tale more than generously, except in the single regard that he quotes Otlet' s diary seldom, cites it less, and gives no precise references to it (perhaps due to the none-too-neat state of any such manu- script). But one can scarcely ever encoun- ter a fact in need of back-up that does not receive its due in a footnote (four of the chapters have almost 100 each!). The book is hard to read, unfortunately, because of its typography; but with its pro- duction in Russia I was surprised to en- counter only two sense-destroying errors. (Page 44 has a line repeated and one omitted, and page 159 has a less easily ex- plained error also involving repetition.) The list of illustrations would have been more to the reader's convenience if it had includ- ed page numbers. Otlet is shown throughout as an idealist concerned for synthesis, a concern that arose from his neoscholastic and then pos- itivistic educational influences and gave rise not only to his interest in universal classifi- cation (the Universal Decimal Classifica- tion) and universal documentation (the Repertoire Bibliographique Universe!, etc.) but also to his interest in internationalism in general (the Union of International Asso- ciations, the Palais Mondial, the League of Nations Committee on Intellectual Cooper- ation, etc.). He is shown throughout as an innovator more concerned with plans and systems than with day-to-day operations, though he was by no means above digging into such operations when necessary, espe- cially to show the way. But (and this is what makes the book so very depressing) Rayward also shows, probably without being thematically aware of it himself, how such a person can be de- stroyed by others: those who think they are being helpful but don't really understand what is globally at risk; administratively minded persons who are really only con- cerned for the balance of the books or for a favorable "image" and who see them- selves as saving what is good in a grandiose but "impractical" idea, thus catastrophical- ly diluting it; governments or their surro- gates who know that success in a political world depends on flexibility, but whose Hex is seen later as having been in one direction only (or who Hex the other way when po- litical pressures allow it, but late enough to have dealt the idea a fatal wound); tinkerers with a system who think that its own internal principles are not what must be preserved and who diffuse its effect so that it grows lopsided and ultimately un- appealing to its potential funders and users. Whether we side with UDC or not, with internationalism or not, with idealism or not, this book should be widely read as much for the human as for the professional message it carries. Otlet had good ideas and embodied them well, and the forces that destroyed his hopes can now largely be seen as the sources of the very lacks that keep FID and UDC from moving into the current need-vacuum. Otlet was ahead of his time in that the means were not then available to realize his ideas, but that is what it all too often means to be an innovator. If the necessary means now are available, let us be sure to look back at the experience of the International Institute of Bibliography and its major founder before we move forward, lest we move forward once more into disappoint- ment and defeat.-]. M. Perreault, Univer- sity of Alabama in HuntsviUe Library. World Guide to Technical Information and Documentation · Services. Guide mondial des centres de documentation et d'infor- mation teC?hniques. 2d ed., rev. and enl. Documentation, Libraries and Archives: Bibliographical and Reference Works, no. 2. Paris: Unesco Press, 1975. 515p. $19.80. ISBN 92-3-001228-9. (Available from Unipub, Box 433; Murray Hill Sta- tion, New York, NY 10016.) This new edition of the World Guide follows Paul Avicenne's Bibliographical Ser- vices throughout the World, 1965-69, as the second number in a new Unesco series. The guide provides information, given in response to questionnaires, on seventeen international and 459 national centers, with the text in English and/ or French. The clos- ing date for the manuscript is given as No- vember 1973. In the body of the text international cen- ters are listed first, followed by national centers arranged alphabetically by the Eng- lish names of countries. Information under each entry includes: General data (official name(s) in original language, English and French translation, acronyms used, address, short history, staff, subject coverage, library holdings); services offered (abstracting, bibliographic and literature searches, trans- lations, publications, reproduction services, consultant services); and other data as to payments and language used. Information on libraries tells if the library is open to the public and gives statistics on books, peri- odicals, microforms, and ·specialized ma- terials. The guide is described as "selective" and not ''comprehensive," but the selection pol- icy is not clearly defined. Included are technical centers, technical libraries at- tached to technical institutions or to univer- sities, national scientific libraries, and docu- mentation centers. Some national libraries (Brazil, the Ivory Coast, Nigeria) are listed, although many other national li- braries provide bibliographic and documen- tation services as well. The extent of coverage under the various entries is uneven, depending on the amount of information provided through the ques- tionnaire. It is stated that only those centers returning the questionnaire were included, and only those in "major subject fields"; however a look at the index reveals a num- ber of specialized topics. A comparison with the 1969 edition shows some puzzling changes, . both in ex- pansion and decrease, most obvious for In- dia (an increase from 6 to 40), .Czecho- slovakia (from 13 to 20), Sweden · (from 7 to 15), 'France (from 19 to 22), Israel (from ·7 to 12). · The United Kingdom dropped from 15 to 4, and the United States from 13 to 4 (one of which is new). The reader has no explanation for these changes and omissions. The inclusion of many new countries from the Third World and Latin America is welcome, but one also notes the deletion of others, such as the Congo, Jamaica, Recent Publications I 167 South Africa, and the Republic of China (Taiwan), without adding the People's Re- public of China. Since the paperback does not open flat, the binding will not withstand frequent use as a reference tool, and the narrow inner margins will make rebinding difficult. The inflationary trend in publishing is evidenced not only in the price increase (the 1969 hardcover edition sold for $6.00) but throughout the guide when comparing in- creases in prices for journals listed and ser- vices provided. For future editions the compilers are urged to list the names of all institutions that qualify for inclusion and not just those that return the questionnaire. This would provide a much more meaningful reference tool for global coverage. The guide is highly recommended to aca- demic and research libraries as the informa- tion contained is valuable and otherwise difficult to obtain.-]osephine Riss Fang, Professor of Library Science, Simmons Col- lege, Boston, Massachusetts. Dowell, Arlene Taylor. Cataloging with Copy: a Decision-Maker's Handbook. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1976. 295p. $15.00. LC 76-1844. ISBN 0-87287-153-3. Catalogers are generally thought to be well-organized persons, who reason care- fully, weigh decisions precisely, and seek the most efficient and suitable answers to problems. The effective use of Arlene Tay- lor Dowell's Cataloging with Copy will cer- tainly enhance that image. The book is written with the obvious conviction that cataloging can be more effectively and more efficiently done if the problems are anticipated and procedures are clearly de- fined beforehand. Using a carefully col)structed outline, nu- merous charts and illustrations, and neat summaries at the end of each chapter, the author has brought together a useful frame- work for making the many decisions con- fronting a cataloger who is seeking to inte- grate outside cataloging into a local existing system. · She is to be commended for identi- fying almost every conceivable problem that might arise when a cataloger is faced