College and Research Libraries


the Divisions of Computers in Chemistry 
and Chemical Information at the !75th 
Meeting of the American Chemical Soci-
ety, Anaheim, California, March 13-17, 
1978. ACS Symposium Series , 84. Wash-
ington, D. C.: American Chemical Soci-
ety, 1978. 23lp. $23. LC 78-21611. ISBN 
0-8412-0465-9. ISSN 0097-6156. 
This symposium was organized to exam-

ine some important current developments 
in the storage, retrieval, and manipulation 
of types of data that are associated with 
medicinal chemistry in the pharmaceutical 
industry, in governmental agencies, and in 
related organizations. For those librarians 
willing to turn a few pages and browse here 
and there and not be put off by the some-
what forbidding technical aspect of the pa-
pers presented here , there are insights and 
information of real value to the professional. 

The discussion starts off with a definition 
of "medicinal chemistry" as that area of 
synthetic organic chemistry that deals with 
the preparation of molecules likely to have 
some desired physiological response. But 
when you learn that all this chemical talk is 
only one element in a much larger set of 
functions in the total drug development 
process, the text begins to grab the atten-
tion of anyone interested in information sci-
ence and library networks. 

The chapters are expanded versions of the 
papers presented at the symposium as well 
as several additional invited papers , and it is 
very obvious that a number of the authors' 
names include technical and special librar-
ians . Information systems are described and 
evaluated in detail from the National Cancer 
Institute , National Library of Medicine , 
Office of Naval Research , and such com-
mercial establishments as Rohm and Haas, 
Parke Davis, Upjohn , and Merck Sharp & 
Doh me. 

The development of a safe and useful 
drug, which is an extremely complex and 
costly process, may interest only a few li-
brarians ; but 'when the extraordinarily di-
verse types of information necessary to sup-
port this process are described in terms of 
the data banks and computer terminals and 
on-line activities of the present day , then 
interest rapidly widens-the applications are 
so similar to the day-to-day bibliographical 
processing features of our own systems in 

Recent Publications I 313 

academic libraries. Although the report is a 
state-of-the-art view fn a very special seg-
ment of medical and special librarianship, 
the "transfer points" are very obvious and 
enlightening. 

It is very clear we are all going in the 
same direction when future trends in chem-
ical information are discussed. Integration, 
they say, means the pulling together of dis-
crete in-house systems and the creation of 
automated interfaces (read networks, if you 
will) with public and government systems 
along the lines of some kind of national 
linkage . That is of foremost concern. 
Another extremely important trend is 
toward greater end-user orientation : make 
the systems a working tool of the public 
who will use them ; don't limit them only to 
the trained information specialist. Heard 
that before? 

As the subway sign says , you don't have 
to be Jewish to enjoy Levy's rye bread . Nor 
indeed do you have to be a science librarian 
to get something worthwhile out of this 
book.-Dat.iid Kuhner , The Claremont Col-
leges, Claremont , California . 

Martin , Murray S. Budgetary Control in 
Academic Libraries. Foundations in Li-
brary and Information Science, v. 5. 
Greenwich , Conn : JAI Press, 1978. 219p . 
$21. LC 76-5648. ISBN 0-89232-010-9. 
This is an excellent discussion of academic 

library administration viewed from the spe-
cial (and , therefore , limited) perspective of 
the library budget. As stated in the preface, 
"There is no pretense that this is a defini-
tive study of budgetary practices, nor that it 
will answer all questions that could be 
asked." The approach is practical rather 
than theoretical , focusing upon budget mak-
ing and budgetary control as fundamental 
administrative activities which are continu-
ous. The end product is a conceptual 
framework within which administrators in 
any size academic library should be able to 
construct appropriate budget procedures, 
even though the examples given pertain ex-
clusively to rather large research libraries . 

The text is divided into thirteen chapters 
beginning with a discussion of "The Need 
for Fiscal Management" ; proceeding 
through discussion of the development, 
presentation, and control of the library 



374 I College & Research Libraries • july 1979 

budget; and concluding with "Retrospect-
Important Issues to Remember.'' An 
appendix, "The State University Libraries: 
A Case Study," a brief but useful glossary of 
budgeting terms, and a four-page list of 
"References" round out the work. If this 
outline imparts a ring familiar to experi-
enced library administrators, it is not sur-
prising, for Martin has grounded his work 
carefully in the current literature on library 
administration. But his chief contribution 
might have been made more readily appar-
ent had he subtitled the book, "The Politi-
cal Aspects of Academic Library Administra-
tion." 

Currently, library administrators are en-
tangled in a difficult situation caused by di-
minishing levels of financial support, the 
eroding effects of inflation, outside demands 
for greater accountability, pressures result-
ing from the adoption of various forms of 
"participatory management," and the lack of 
widely supported standards of library ser-
vice. They now face the difficult problem of 
setting priorities among programs, which in 
more affluent years would have been funded 
without question as equally worthy of sup-
port. Martin argues persuasively that the 
budget is a primary tool for coping with this 
situation. 

"A budget," as defined by Martin, "is a 
statement which i-dentifies in monetary 
terms the ways in which an institution will 
seek to achieve its goals during the period 
for which it is valid. It is not perceived 
similarly by all those who ar.e affected by it 
and will require conversion into whatever 
mode is appropriate to each group, program 
or activity. It implies control and feedback 
to measure both conformity to the ex-
pressed or implicit goals and the degree of 
success attained in achieving those goals." 
He acknowledges that "fiscal consideration 
cannot be the sole determinant in policy-
making," but stresses that "without knowl-
edge of the financial situation, decision 
makers can seldom arrive at acceptable con-
clusions on other activities." 

Martin disclaims any intention to explore 
the political basis of budget making on the 
grounds that it would require a monumental 
work to discuss policies on such a level. 
Yet, in my opinion, it is his successful illus-
tration of the relationships between policy 

decisions and fiscal decisions that gives 
vitality and importanc·e to his work. 

While obviously a "must" purchase for li-
brary school collections, Budgetary Control 
in Academic Libraries is worthy of the at-
tention of all academic library admini-
strators.-Ceorge W. Cornell, State Univer-
sity of New York, College at Brockport. 

The On-Line Revolution in Libraries. Pro-
ceedings of the 1977 Conference in 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Edited by Allen 
Kent and Thomas J. Galvin. Books in Li-
brary and Information Science, v.23. New 
York: Marcel Dekker, 1978. 303p. $29.75. 
LC 78-15800. ISBN 0-8247-6754-3. 
This volume contains a collection of pa-

pers, organized in four parts, with the lead 
paper in each part (except part four) an in-
vited view and the subsequent papers gen-
erally reactions or commentary or amplifica-
tion of a special aspect of the lead paper. 
Each paper is well organized, informative to 
both expert and neophyte, and many of the 
papers are quite perceptive. 

Part one deals with the "Potential of 
On-Line Information Systems," with a lead 
paper by Allen Kent carrying that title. 
Samuel A. Wolpert, Anita Schiller, Martin 
D. Robbins, Joseph F. Shubert, and Carlos 
Cuadra offer their reactions to Kent and 
their own opinions on the future potential of 
on-line systems. Divergent views are taken, 
and even the transcription of the discussion 
sessions throughout the book is well done, 
normally a failing in many proceedings more 
often than not. 

Part two is titled "Impact of On- Line Sys-
tems," with the initial paper by Lee G. 
Burchinal concentrating on the impact on na-
tional information policy and local, state, 
and regional planning. Following this paper, 
Melvin S. Day comments on national pol-
icy, Miriam A. Drake on library functions 
with John G. Lorenz reacting to Dra:ke. 
Then Paul Evan Peters and Ellen Gay Det-
lefsen discuss the impact of on-line systems 
on clientele, and Martha Williams looks into 
the future. Contributions on other areas of 
on-line impact, including academic and pub-
lic libraries, are well explained by Alphonse 
F. Trezza, Roger K. Summit, Richard De-
Gennaro, Keith Doms, and Detlefsen. 

Part three concentrates on "Training and 

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