College and Research Libraries 544 I College & Research Libraries • November 1977 ICieS are reprinted in full. Eighteen public library and thirty-eight academic library policies are reprinted in part. Those pol- icies reprinted in part are arranged into several categories, e.g., selection, weeding, etc. Such an arrangement is very useful. Similar information has been available previously. Carter, Bonk, and Magrill have included partial selection statements in Building Library Collections (4th ed.; Me- tuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1974). The Boyer and Eaton compilation mentioned above has been quite useful to librarians and library educators since 1971. The ALA Headquarters Library has maintained a file of representative acquisition policies; and the Association of Research Libraries produced a SPEC Kit of acquisition pol- icies in 197 4. Nevertheless, Library Acquisition Policies and Procedures is more comprehensive than any of these. Its organization enhances its usefulness, and it is up-to-date. If one doubts the need for this new collection, it should be remembered that many libraries do not have acquisition policies. Futas in- dicates the majority of libraries do not have. This reviewer's experience in four major academic libraries-three of which did not have written policies-tends to sup- port this position. In addition, a survey in connection with the ARL SPEC Kit men- tioned above indicated "a great deal of ac- tivity in the area of acquisition policy." Minor annoyances included difficulty in finding footnote references, the point being made at least three times that policies rep- resent the ideal and not necessarily the re- ality of the situation (p.ix, xiv, xxvii), indi- cation on page ix that 500 questionnaires were sent while page xviii says more than 450 were sent, and the defensive stance re- garding librarianship that is found in the preliminaries. However, the book is basical- ly a good collection of documents related to acquisition policies and will be helpful to libraries in generaL-Don Lanier, Head, Acquisitions Division, Auburn University Library. Libraries in Post-Industrial Society. Edit- ed by Leigh Estabrook. A N eal-Schuman Professional Book. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 1977. 337p. $13.95. LC 77-8928. ISBN 0-912700-00-9. This collection of essays was compiled for those librarians who are aware of changes in institutions, clientele, informa- tion tools, etc., and are willing to learn from understanding and sharing the experience of other professionals in the changing world. Thus these librarians will not main- tain their status quo but will advance in competence, invigorate public service, and attain greater ,stature in the profession. The title of this volume is derived from the heading of part V, the last eighty pages of the book. In the first part, after an introductory ar- ticle by Daniel Bell, explaining his term "post-industrial society," four other sociolo- gists react to his postulate. Professionalism, of constant concern to librarians, forms the second section, with articles well chosen to present many aspects of this area that may be relevant to librar- ianship, from domination by professions to licensing of paraprofessionals. Since professionals usually work in some kind of organization, the third part relates to their role in today' s new and different managerial styles. Worker participation with shared authority, public service, bu- reaucracies at federal and state levels, re- lationships between clients and formal or- ganizations, and the need for new policies to manage information in our now highly technological society are covered herein. The fourth section deals with the services needed by the post-industrial society, dif- ferent because of technological change, which influences the clients' demands. Computers, cable television, educational changes to meet older students' needs, how to deal with the conflicting requests from special groups and the politically powerful, a clear understanding of culture-all these will affect services. · Part V, the last quarter of the book, treats explicitly information services as they are to affect librarianship now or in the near future. The development of a model for information systems through analyses of informatiqn needs and use is the subject of the first article. From similar current studies of information use, etc., the second article critically evaluates library coopera- tion to determine how cooperative systems should develop. Library service in a mech- anized library environment is th~ frame- work of the third rather tecl)nical paper. The last article focuses on special-interest magazines, on-line retrieval services, and information brokerage as examples of how the library might compete in the informa- tion marketplace despite concomitant prob- lems. Building this book upon Bell's "post-in- dustrial society," the editor erected a spe·- cific type of well-interfaced edifice, not a library, reflecting the expertise of a variety of artisans. The introduction compares vari- ous parts of the building to librarianship, while the bibliography cites library litera- ture related to each section. Starting with a different concept, one might well fabri- cate a totally different structure with quite different craftsmen, with as valid and beau- tiful results. For many librarians who seek to involve professionals from other disciplines in their research and teaching, this compilation will have much appeal. Critical thinking on the concerns of librarianship will occur more readily as a result of such intet disciplinary findings. This descriptive review was deliberate so that librarians will know that only one- fourth of the book deals directly with li- brary and information services. Any librar- ian worthy of the appellative "professional" will peruse this book with delight, make ap- plications to the field, develop methods of procedure, and organize activities that de- rive from the critical thinking necessary in this crucial age in order to save the library profession for its present clientele and ex- tend it to others who have not as yet bene- fited from it.-Rev. Jovian Lang, Division of Library and Information Science, St. John's University, Jamaica, New York. Tedd, L. A., An Introduction to Comput- er-Based Library Systems. London: Heyden, 1977. 208p. £ 8.50. $17.00. ISBN 0-88501-221-8. This is a textbook based on a course taught by the author at the International Graduate Summer School at the College of Librarianship in Aberystwyth, Wales. Be- cause of either the nature of the course or for some other reason, the scope is extreme- ly broad for a 200-page book. Within its covers it attempts to provide an introduc- tion to computers, a discussion of com- puterized library systems, and a discussion of computerized information retrieval sys- tems. Recent Publications I 545 After an "overview" chapter, there are three on computers: one each on hardware and software, and one on "setting up." These are brief but fairly clear; they nat- urally use British terminology ("backing store" for off-line storage, for example), but this seldom presents a problem in under- standing. The next four chapters comprise the sec- tion on library applications of data process- ing, or, as Tedd continually refers to them, "housekeeping activities." The phrase is reminiscent of the 1950s when such appli- cations were considered too trivial to de- serve serious study, information retrieval being just around the corner and obviously destined to make traditional library opera- tions (and libraries) obsolete in short order. Perhaps because of such a view, the cover- age of some "h,ousekeeping" applications is very slight-automated acquisition sys- tems, for example, are covered in a little more than two pages. Circulation control receives twenty-three pages, reflecting the widespread interest in such systems in Britain, with the treatment of ·cataloging and serials control somewhere in between these extremes. The discussion of MARC concentrates so heavily on the British viewpoint that the reader is left with the impression that the development of MARC has been a joint ef- fort of the United Kingdom and the Library of Congress almost from the beginning. Some basic information about MARC is omitted: there is no mention, for example, of the languages, publication dates, or types of materials covered by either LC' s MARC Distribution Service or the counter- part service offered by the British Library. Computerized information retrieval sys- tems are treated in three chapters: one on indexing, one on selective dissemination of information ( SDI), and one on retrospec- tive search systems. There is a fairly exten- sive discussion of the various types of KWIC (Key Word In Context) indexes, a description of PRECIS (the Preserved Con- text Index System), and brief mention of one or two others. The SDI chapter ex- plains the concept and the most common variations, then lists some of the SDI ser- vices available commercially-without, however, describing them. In the chapter on retrospective search systems, the two dominant commercial ones ( SDC' s ORBIT