College and Research Libraries


The volume is extremely weli done in 
what it does include. However, the title 
implies that this volume will discuss COM 
applications to library activities. Several li-
brary applications are alluded to in this vol-
ume, but none are handled in depth. This 
lack does not overshadow the importance of 
the hardware and software of the COM 
process to libraries. 

Most library COM activities will probably 
be handled by a service bureau. But librar-
ians have to deal with the service bureaus 
and with the computing staff developing the 
software. The volume is a needed tool for 
the librarian contemplating COM applica-
tions. 

The value of this volume to COM users 
outside the library field should not be over-
looked . All COM users need to have a gen-
eral understanding of the technical side of 
the process. 

This type of publication would have been 
a very useful tool for those who pioneered 
COM applications in libraries. Librarians 
currently anticipating the use of COM 
should refer to it. The value of this publica-
tion will, of course, be limited by the 
changing technology in the COM area. Cer-
tain capabilities of COM service bureaus are 
not mentioned, since their development and 
availability have occurred in the last few 
months. Because the whole area of com-
puter usage and COM applications by li-
braries is changing rapidly, more books of 
this type are needed.-Helen R. Citron, 
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. 

Perreault, Jean M. The Idea of Order in 
Bibliography. Sarada Ranganathan Lec-
tures, no. 9 . Bangalore: Sarada Ran-
ganathan Endowment for Library Sci-
ence, 1978. 135p. $8.50 
This set of six lectures is a heavily 

philosophically oriented disquisition on the 
significance of order in bibliographic files . 
The fundamental thesis is that, for searching 
to be successful, the searcher must be able 
to predict the location of an item in a file, 
requiring that the file be designed with this 
need in mind. The work is limited to alpha-
betically ordered files. 

The subject matter of these lectures is ex-
tremely important. One wishes that all 
those responsible for file arrangement un-

Recent Publications I 69 

derstood and applied the points the author 
is making. Unfortunately, the practical 
cataloger and head of cataloging who stand 
most in need of the points elucidated are 
unlikely to wade through the rather 
abstruse philosophical arguments. Fur-
thermore, having done so, they will find lit-
tle practical assistance; only readers who are 
prepared to apply philosophical abstractions 
for themselves will be able to profit. 

The lectures are approximately equally 
divided between subject and non-subject 
cataloging. The work of several other au-
thors is criticized in a very thoughtful fash-
ion (the reader should find these criticisms 
quite useful), but the basis for selection of 
the works criticized seems idiosyncratic. 

The thoughts and ideas presented in this 
work are valuable and will reward the 
reader who has the patience to work 
through them. It would be a service to the 
profession if the author would undertake to 
re-present his ideas in a form more suited 
to those who need to hear them.-]essica L. 
Harris, St. John's University, New York, 
New York . 

How to Start an Audiovisual Collection. 
Edited by Myra Nadler. Metuchen, N.J.: 
Scarecrow, 1978. 157p. $7. LC 78-1993. 
ISBN 0-8108-1124-3. 

Cabeceiras, James. The Multimedia Library: 
Materials Selection and Use. Library and 
Information Science. New York: 
Academic Press , 1978. 275p. $13. LC 
77-11209. ISBN 0-12-153950-4. 
Other than the fact that they are both 

committed to the concept of multimedia li-
brary service, these two books really have 
very little in common. Nadler's book is a 
collection of essays (each by a different au-
thor) intended to help launch a public li-
brary audiovisual program . The choice of 
audiovisual in the title is deliberate; this is 
a book about how to add nonprint services 
to an already functioning print collection. 
The Cabeceiras book, on the other hand, is 
a systematic treatment by one :iuthor of the 
characteristics and utilization of various 
forms of media in a generalized library set-
ting; this author uses the umbrella term 
multimedia to emphasize the fact that he is 
dealing with library programs where print 
and nonprint resources exist as coequals.