College and Research Libraries 228 I College & Research Libraries • May 1978 life.-Catherine G. Asher, Indiana Univer- sity, Bloomington. On-Line Library and Network Systems. Symposium Held at Dortmund Univer- sity, March 22-24, 1976. Organized by E. Edelhoff, W. Lingenberg, G. Pflug, V. Wehefritz. Edited by Edelhoff and K.-D. Lehmann. Zeitschrift fiir Bibliotheks- wesen und Bibliographie, Sonderheft 23. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1977. 167p. DM 36. The twelve papers that comprise this compilation deal with several aspects of li- brary automation and networking in Ger- many and the United States. According to Eckhard Edelhoff 's introduction, the sym- posium was intended to provide infor- mation-a kind of state-of-the-art report- to computing center and library personnel in the German Federal Republic. Demonstrations of systems included OCLC, BALLOTS, University of Bielefeld (IBIS), and University of Dortmund (DOBIS), and a description of the on-line catalog access and circulation control system at Ohio State University was also presented. Representatives from Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Holland, Austria, and South Africa also attended, but no informa- tion about automation activities in these countries is reported. Generally, two types of presentations were made: First, those that tried to deal with network and file design , bibliographic control standardization, and comparative analyses of certain system characteristics. Second, descriptions of systems, either in operation or planned. Of the former, G. Pflug's overview of li- brary automation painted the broadest can- vas ; R. H. Klar dealt with the basic compo- nents of library systems analysis, emphasiz- ing the relationships among library services and housekeeping functions; C . Bossmeyer discussed the problems and complexities of communications format design in Germany and file maintenance problems and then de- scribed an off-line network facility de- veloped by the Hochschulbibliothekszen- trum des Landes N-ordrhein-Westfalen (HBZ); K. Sailer and P. Gruber discussed the interaction among three files in an off- line serials control system operating at the Arbeitsstelle fiir Bibliothekstechnik; J. Griese presented an overview of file organi- zation schemes used in the OSU, OCLC, BALLOTS, DOBIS, and IBIS systems, which he derived from oldish printed sources; E. Kohl made a strong case for cost savings, based upon use of bibliographic records from other sources-if cataloging and subject control standards are adhered to (he also makes a plea to those responsible for standards decisions in the U.S. and elsewhere to consider the international im- plications of those decisions); F. Kilgour as- serted that the growth of OCLC is not lim- ited by technology but by the number of ti- tles printed since Gutenberg and that OCLC is also attempting to develop and interface with CATV for direct user access to library holdings information; H. Atkinson pointed out that OSU costs per item circu- lated were reduced from forty-six cents (1970) to forty-three cents after the intro- duction of the patron access and circulation system; M. Behnke described the IBIS (In- tegrated Library System), which supports cataloging and indexing for the HBZ; A. Veaner described the development an~ im- pact of BALLOTS upon technical processing activities at Stanford, including a staff re- duction from eighty-five (1972) to seventy- three FfE; B. Jedwabski illustrated the im- plementation of DOBIS at Dortmund Uni- versity; V. Wehefritz dealt with work-flow analysis, particularly in acquisitions process- ing, as it related to use of DOBIS. There are a number of problems with language in this pubHcation. For instance, the foreword is printed in both English and German, but within each paper the leading abstract appears only in German, and the text is in English. In many cases the transla- tions are not well done, and the usual ac- ronym problem is compounded for Ameri- can · readers because they represent German entities, e.g., GZS, GDZS, GAZS, etc. Some are explained, and others are not. On the other side of the coin, Atkinson's use of the word "nincompoop" must have caused a humorous delay in the simultaneous transla- tion. Typos and misplaced or unexplained il- lus,trations abound. An annoyance is the lack of institutional identification and job titles of the authors. Edelhoff concludes that "what had been 1 aimed at was fully achieved," namely, the briefing of the attendees about the status and problems being faced by particular ·sys- tem designers and managers. The American contingent appeared to be advisory, while the other speakers raised many questions that the republic's library community should address. In this connec- tion, it is instructive for American readers to get some sense of the impact North American library systems and automation decisions may have on librarians and library service in other countries. The global bib- liographic village is being built, and we can no longer ignore the effects that multina- tional standards and decisions will have on local library service.-Ron Miller, Califor- nia Library Authority for Systems and Serv- ices (CLASS), San Jose. Library Services to the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Edited by Maryalls G. Strom. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1977. 285p. $12. LC 77-24686. ISBN 0-8108- 1068-9. Maryalls Strom, in her Library Services to the Blind and Physically Handicapped, has brought together some twenty-eight ar- ticles covering the time span from 1963 to 1976 on the subject of library service to the handicapped-a topic that has become in- creasingly popular since the signing of the regulations for the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 last year. The fact that · the provisions of the act are no longer voluntary but man- datory has increased considerably the inter- est in such works. The book is divided into four sections: special libraries, special people, special con- siderations, and special services. The first section on special libraries is devoted mainly to descriptions of the Library of Congress and its programs for the blind and others with handicapping conditions that af- fect a person's ability to read . For those un- familiar with the LC program, particularly the more recent development of its network system, the articles present a good, overall description. One, "The World Will Never Be Small Again" by Robert Russell, is written from the user's viewpoint and is probably the most inspirational account of the value of the talking books program to be found any- Recent Publications I 229 where. Though written twenty years ago, this account of a blind English prof~ssor' s struggles in the academic world bears read- ing not only by librarians who may be work- ing with the handicapped but all librarians. Of the nine articles in the second section on special people, six are on problems of children with various handicaps; one is on the retarded; one on problems a parent faces with a handicapped child; and one on the development of nonprint services at Gallaudet College, the only liberal arts col- lege in the U. S. for the deaf and hard-of- hearing. This last article, by Fern Edwards, acting librarian at Gallaudet, would be help- ful for librarians in institutions where there are deaf students. The two problem areas covered in the third section, entitled "Special Considera- tions," are selection of materials and bar- riers to access. The articles on selection, al- though valuable for school and public librar- ians, have little relevance for academic li- brarians. Of the three articles on barriers to access, one describes a 1970 survey of how libraries were attempting to cope with the problem (which would most likely show different re- sults today) ; another, by Ruth Velleman, describes architectural adaptations in the li- brary of the Human Resources School in Albertson, New York, and the third dis- cusses the problems, particularly with re- gard to volume capacity of academic librar- ies, posed by various building standards recommended for serving the handicapped. The Velleman article particularly, even though it is on a school library, includes much information that would be valuable to academic librarians, especially for those serving students confined to wheelchairs. The final section of the book, on special services, brings together some of the litera- ture on service to the homebound, the in- stitutionalized, and the aging. The appendix contains a source of reading materials for the handicapped, a list of DBPH regional and subregional libraries, and a rather lim- ited bibliography of further reading on li- brary service to the handicapped. · For the growing number of academic li- brarians designated to work ~pecifically with the disabled students in their institutions, many of the articles in this book would be