College and Research Libraries 410 I College & Research Libraries • September 1978 briefly discussed, and it is suggested that introduction of an ESS may exacerbate this already critical problem. Special collection theft is briefly discussed as a part of the en- tire library security problem. However, for program planning it is clear that libraries should turn to materials published by the Society of American Archivists when con- sidering the special difficulties that theft in these areas represents. This report, even with its relatively high price, represents an excellent summary of the library theft problem. It puts electronic security systems into perspective as only one element, albeit a major element, in a balanced approach to library theft. Any li- brary contemplating a theft prevention pro- gram will find useful material in this report.-]ames Michalko, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Lecht, Charles P. The Waves of Change: A Techno-Economic Analysis of the Data Processing Industry. New York: Ad- vanced Computer Techniques Corp., 1977. 186p. $39.75. LC 77-94890. ISBN 0-931336-00-7. In his foreword to this somewhat pro- vocative book, Gideon I. Gartner states, ''The Waves of Change describes available evidence pointing to the conclusion that we are in transition to a new era. Such evi- dence should be carefully considered by every student of the computer/communica- tions environment." Reading this volume supports this state- ment. Using clearly understood prose, the author addresses the following topics as chapters: (1) "Computer Industry Develop- ments: A Review," (2) "Changing Hardware/Software Relationships," (3) "Products, Services, and Marketplace Statis- tics," (4) "Manufacturers' Spending Emphasis and Trends," (5) "Data Communications and Network Trends," (6) "Distributed Process- ing," (7) "User Budget Priorities-Past, Present, and Future," (8) "Future System Requirements/Expectations," (9) "Mini/ Microcomputer Impact," (10) "Software Technology Trends," and (ll) "Hardware Technology Trends." In reviewing computer industry de- velopments, the author shows how today we have come full circle back to the concept of a "computer for every user" as the industry initially experienced in the early 1950s and 1960s. It is obvious to the knowledgeable data processing practitioner who has grown up with the computer industry that the au- thor brings considerable experience to bear in the writing of this volume. The book is filled with graphs and charts that point out trends and statistics showing how the computer industry has progressed and the directions that appear to be on the horizon. Some examples are the "Average Design and Programming Cost per Instruc- tion," "Costs of Storage Technologies," "Dollar Growth Rate of Various Segments of the Data Processing Industry," and "Cen- tralized vs. Distributed Data Processing Advantages." These follow each chapter as appropriate to the chapter text. The text is attractively presented with a good quality binding. Only one typographi- - cal error was discovered in the text, which shows rather high quality manuscript pro- cessing. Although every reader will proba- bly not agree with each trend predicted by the author, the general conclusions are sup- ported by the data shown in this work. Of course, the future will tell just how accurate this author has been in his view of the changes soon to be upon us. Blank note pages are left at the end of the text, I sur- mise for the purpose of readers to note their views and then be able to look back in re- trospect at some future time. This volume should be of interest to any- one studying the possible impact of data processing on society and evolution and change in the data processing industry from an economic and technological view and obvi- ously important to any reader whose busi- ness or profession is affected by data pro- cessing trends. Thus students and prac- titioners will find this volume worthwhile. Although a previously serialized version of the data in this volume appeared in parts in the magazine Computerworld, this vol- ume reflects updated and edited text incor- porating more data and more polished presentation for a wider audience. For this reason, this volume is an appropriate addi- tion to personal collections as well as for li- braries that collect in the economic trend or computer science areas.-Audrey N. Grosch, University of Minnesota, Min- neapolis. Current Research on Scientific and Techni- cal Information Transfer. Abstracts and Full Text of Papers Delivered at Three 1976 Seminars Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Division of Science Information. A Micropapers Edition. New York, Jeffrey Norton Publishers, 1977. 24p. + 7 microfiche in pocket. $12.95. LC 77-9216. ISBN 0-88432-007-3. This publication contains the proceedings of three seminars organized toward the end of 1976 by the Division of Science Informa- tion of the National Science Foundation. The seminars were intended to make known the results of twenty-one research projects on scientific and technical information and to provide a forum for an exchange of ideas between the original investigators and the seminars' participants. · The first one, "Alternatives to Traditional Information Transfer Mechanisms," re- ported results from nine projects that "in- vestigated ways of improving electronic storage, publication formats, and dissemina- tion methods." Included are reports relating to SCATT, IEEE publishing experiments, the northern California public library DIALOG use project, and various other studies of modes of information dissemina- tion. The second seminar, "The Use of Scien- tific and Technical Information among Scientists and Engineers," included seven presentations on formal and informal com- munication patterns among scientists and engineers. The third seminar, "Planning Data for STI Managers," provided findings from five projects and analyzed the impacts of selected trends in U.S. scientific and tech- nical communication activities, including a forecast of the scientific journal in the year 2000. While a number of the studies have important implications for academic librar- ians, not least because scientific and techni- cal acquisitions are swallowing an increasing portion of the materials budget, the em- phasis is on improved productivity and efficiency of industrial information systems. The format is also worthy of comment; a Recent Publications I 411 "Micropapers Edition," it consists of ten pages of introduction and contents, fourteen pages of abstracts, and seven microfiche (in a back pocket and of good quality) contain- ing the full text of twenty of the reports (one being unavailable for inclusion). Of the abstracts, seven are reasonably informative ·of the results, while thirteen are descriptive only; perhaps predictably, there is uneven- ness in content and length of these author- produced abstracts. The presswork is un- even; the hard binding is sturdy and attrac- tive. The running title on the fiche headers omits the first word of the actual title, which may cause some cataloging and pub- lic service furor should the fiche get sepa- rated from the book. Each fiche header gives the titles of its respective papers and the row on the fiche where each begins; but browsing among the papers takes a bit of do- ing, since no identifying headings appeared on the typed manuscript pages. And the price: Is $12.95 right for twenty- four pages plus seven fiche where the con- tent is a gift of and paid for by a govern- ment agency? Perhaps allocation toward publishing costs of a small part of the origi- nal twenty-one-project research investment would have really borne out NSF's an- nounced "policy to facilitate timely and broad dissemination · of research results."- Irma Y. johnson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. Houghton, Bernard, and Convey, John. On-Line Information Retrieval Systems: An Introductory Manual to Principles and Practice. London: Clive Bingley; Hamden, Conn.: Linnet Books, 1977. 160p. $10. LC 77-21858. ISBN ·0-208- 01660-0. As in North America, library schools in Britain are now developing courses in on- line bibliographic searching, and also as in North America, some of the first generation of pedagogical material is finding its way rapidly into print. The present work is de- rived from courses taught· by the authors at the Liverpool Polytechnic library school and is essentially aimed at the British market. Part I (about forty pages) has four chap- ters sketching in the background and de- velopment of on-line systems, the funda- mental techniques of automated searching,