College and Research Libraries five Survey. A Neal-Schuman Profession- al Book. Phoenix, Arix.: Oryx Press, 1977. 154p. $11.95. LC 77-8514. ISBN 0- 912700-05-X. Approval Plans and Academic Libraries: An Interpretive Survey provides a much- needed source for the practitioner. The pri- mary purpose of the study is the determina- tion of the state of the art among academic libraries. These findings are then compared to the approval plan experience at Purdue University. The authors represent a ra"ther unique team of two librarians and a businessman, each recognized and respected for long- term contributions to the profession. The book describes the results of the sur- vey that was mailed to 144 academic librar- ies ( 101 responding) and analyzes the material in both detailed and summarized formats in seve·n. sections. The interpreta- tion of these results offers probably the most valuable and intriguing part of the book. The design of the research methodol- ogy and information gathering question- naire and the independent evaluation and interpretation of the findings are both sig- nificant achievements. McCullough points to the fact that the survey was not concerned with acquisitions routines but focused instead on the function of approval plans in collection develop- ment. She says that an approval plan is ultimately a collection development tool and only incidentally an acquisitions de- vice. She discusses the various difficulties brought out by the survey respondents and contrasts procedures and problems en- countered by libraries, whether having cen- tralized or decentralized collections. Her sharp observations and analytical solutions should be of great interest to the reader. Posey writes from the subject-specialist viewpoint. He looks on approval plans as a great asset to collection development pro- grams and as an attractive labor saving tool. He is amused by the critics of ap- proval plans who claim that such an ap- proach to collection development is inferior. Posey defends approval plans, point by point, and justifies his reasons with convinc- ing arguments. He states that the engineer- ing library at Purdue purchases books for two reasons: ( 1) to support teaching and research and ( 2) to build an archival col- Recent Publications I 549 lection for the use of retrospective research- ers. These reasons are well met by the approval plan at that institution. The suppliers' view is presented by Pickett's Response. Pickett underscores the fact that the approval plan concept has long suffered from a basic misunderstand- ing of its intent, unrealistic expectations of its strengths, and little attention to any limi- tations. He emphasizes the importance of profile design. Without a good profile and knowledge of its application, the best plan is certain to encounter difficulties. His com- ments and perceptions may be most help- ful in creating a better understanding and stronger relationship between libraries and vendors. The publication is largely a presentation of library practices in matters of approval plans. The information it contains should prove helpful to individual institutions seek- ing to establish comparative guidelines of common procedures. Approval plans are, however, unique institutional ·experiences from which helpful interpretations and gen- eralized conclusions can be drawn, but cau- tiously applied. The book principally addresses approval plans as a collections-development device and a vendor service, which fact makes this work valuable and attractive to a wide range of readership. It is well written, care- fully organized, and has a rather complete bibliography on the topic. For these rea- sons, Approval Plans should be considered a significant and major contribution to the field.-Peter Spyers-Duran, Director of the University Library, California State Univer- sity, Long Beach. International PRECIS Workshop, U niversi- ty of Maryland, 1976. ·The PRECIS In- dex System: Principles, Applications, and Prospects. Proceedings of the Inter- national PRECIS Workship, Sponsored by the College of Library and Information Services of the University of Maryland, October 15-17, 1976. Edited by Hans H. Wellisch. New York: H. W. Wilson Com- pany, 1977. 211p. $12.50 U.S. and Cana- da; $15.00 other countries. LC 77-1932. ISBN 0-8242-0611-8. Unlike many proceedings volumes, this one was well worth publishing. The work reported is both new and significant, the 550 I College & Research Libraries • November 1977 papers are readable, and the price is not exorbitant in today' s terms. PRECIS (Pre- served Context Indexing System), de- veloped by Derek Austin and his associates at the British National Bibliography, is probably the most important innovation in indexing since coordinate indexing was de- veloped by Taube in the 1950s. The workshop combined descriptions of PRECIS and its use at the British Library with papers on research and applications elsewhere. Austin's three papers on de- velopment of the system, its syntax and semantics, and management aspects go into more useful detail than the several articles that have appeared. Jutta S¥)rensen's paper on multilingual aspects presents us with tantalizing glimpses of the possibilities of automatic translation of PRECIS strings so that indexing done in one language can serve several others. Intellectually, such transformations appear to be possible; it is teo early to judge yet whether they would be operationally practicable. The section on research projects contains three comparisons of PRECIS with subject headings and title words, by Phyllis A. Richmond, Valentina de Bruin, and Ann H. Schabas. De Bruin's report will be of spe- cial interest to academic librarians because the eventual goal of her work is to apply PRECIS in the library of the University of Toronto. She devised comparative PRECIS, subject headings, and keyword indexes for books in special subjects for departmental librarians to use. Richmond compared PRECIS (from BNB), LC subject headings (from OCLC and NUC), and a KWIC in- dex; while Schabas offered an SDI ( Selec- tive Dissemination of Information) service from UK MARC tapes, comparing retrieval on titles, PRECIS subject headings, and combinations of these. The first two found that PRECIS provided more access points and more precise indications of the subject matter of the work than did subject head- ings. Titles performed as poorly as would be expected. Schabas' study was still in progress, but the results appear to be simi- lar. In the section on practical applications there are reports of manual PRECIS appli- cation in a Canadian high school library, of audiovisual indexing at the College Bib- liocentre in Ontario, and of film indexing at the National Film Board of Canada. The authors are all enthusiastic over the quality of access available with PRECIS. C. Donald Cook provides a thoughtful discussion of the future of practical appli- cation of PRECIS in North America iii the context of subject heading dominance via Library of Congress and National Library of Canada practice. The reviewer is left with some questions that are not criticisms either of this book or of the PRECIS system, but rather of the nature of "where should we go from here?" How costly is PRECIS to apply com- pared with current systems? A study1 has been performed that should answer this question, but the results have not been dis- seminated in the United States. Since many of the horrid examples given in comparisons with subject headings are simply bad cataloging and not inherent in the system, how would PRECIS fare if its authority files contained as many millions of records as LC's subject heading files? If LC and North American libraries final- ly face the logical consequences of the knowledge that the present subject heading system is breaking down and decide to adopt a new system, should PRECIS be adopted o;r should we go back to square one and try to determine what kind of sys- tem would best meet our needs?-Jessica L. Harris, Associate Professor, St. John's University, Jamaica, New York. REFERENCE 1. British Library. Working Party on Classifi- cation and Indexing, Final Report (R&D Re- port No. 5233; London: British Library, 1975). Simpson, Antony E. Guide to Library Re- search in Public Administration. With a Preface by Marc Holzer. New York: Center for Productive Public Manage- ment, John Jay College of Criminal Jus- tice, 1976. 210p. $5.95. Simpson has provided a well-written, comprehensive guide to library research that should serve as a model for guides in other social science disciplines. While de- signed specifically for researchers and stu- dents in public administration, this volume encompasses material of use to all fields of the social sciences and, therefore, supple- ments guides such as The Student Social-