College and Research Libraries


country, hopefully for educational rather 
than for economic reasons. In the mean-
time, studies like this will be important 
technical guides wherever the selectio!} of 
materials for storage is necessary.-]. 
Daniel Vann, CLR Management Intern, 
Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, 
California. 

• Resources of South Carolina Libraries. By 
Edward G. Holley, Johnnie E. Givens, 
Fred W. Roper, W. Christian Sizemore. 
Columbia, S.C. : South Carolina Commis-
sion on Higher Education, 1976. 126p. 
Having moved to the Carolinas from 

Texas where he had conducted a somewhat 
similar survey, Dean Holley with his col-
leagues has coordinated an equally effica-
cious critiqqe _ to assist libraries in 
"strengthening all the state's institutions of 
higher learning so that quality education 
will be available for every citizen who wants 
it and can profit from it," an ideal stated by 
the South Carolina Commission on Higher 
Education and the Postsecondary Education 
Planning Commission, whose objective is to 
include full consideration of the library 
function. 

Although ACRL' s recommendations for 
measuring the strengths of collections 
(checking standard bibliographies, etc.), 
staffs, and buildings were also evaluated 
components of the program, this was proba-
bly the first statewide survey to apply the 
measuring techniques adopted as ACRL' s 
standards in 1975. 

Two aspects of this survey are of particu-
lar interest: the surveyors' acknowledgment 
of the wide use of public library resources 
by college students (with good ·supporting 
data) and the division and integration of the 
surveyors' responsibilities. Holley took the 
"general purpose" universities and the pub-
lic libraries; Givens, the senior colleges; 
Sizemore, the two-year institutions; and 
Roper, the health sciences libraries. In all, 
more than fifty institutions were included, 
with some overlaps of visitations. The sec-
tions of the survey are individual reports, 
but the whole book is well coordinated and 
interestingly presented, with all the neces-
sary documentation, tables, and statistics. 

The conclusions suggest that the four 
classes of libraries do not differ significantly 

Recent Publications I 51 

from their counterparts in most other states 
or regions. Cogent suggestions accompany 
the stimulating analyses and reviews of each 
type of library, with the most urgent needs 
for development seeming to be in the 
health sciences and public libraries. 
Throughout the survey the usual needs for 
increased financial and staff support, 
cooperative bibliographic (resource) activity, 
and service coordination among the libraries 
are emphasized. 

It is a truism, perhaps, that the librarians 
who are concerned with the recommen-
dations of other experts are already aware of 
most of the facts that a survey of this kind 
will reveal. Nevertheless , well-conducted 
surveys such as this give substantiated sup-
port to librarians everywhere and, in the 
special locale under study, guidance to 
educators, administrators, and legislators 
who may not have seen their local special 
needs in perspective. The problems that can 
only be solved with their understanding and 
support are adroitly pinpointed.-Lee Ash, 
Library Consultant, Bethany, Connecticut. 

Lancaster, F. W., with the assistance of M. 
J. Joncich. The Measurement and Evalua-
tion of Library Services. Washington, D. 
C.: Information Resources Press, 1977. 
395p. $27.50. LC 77-72081. ISBN 
0-87815-017-X. 

NATO Advanced Study Institute on the 
Evaluation and Scientific Management of 
Libraries and Information Centres, Bris-
tol, 1975. Evaluation and Scientific Man-
agement of Libraries and Information 
Centres. Edited by F. W. Lancaster and 
C. W. Cleverdon. NATO Advanced 
Study Institute Series. Series E : Applied 
Science, no.18. Leyden: Noordhoff, 1977. 
184p. $19.50. ISBN 0-286-0656-4. 
It is rare to have the opportunity to re-

view a book in the field of librarianship that 
is admirable in almost every respect. It is _ so 
rare, in fact, that one hesitates to announce 
such a judgment for fear of being taken as 
undiscriminating. With The Measurement 
and Evaluation of Library Services, F. W. 
Lancaster has indeed written a book that 
deserves enthusiastic praise, even to the 
point of overlooking the minor flaws that 
can always be found if one searches hard 
enough, if that would encourage the wider