College and Research Libraries


other, buyers for department and bookstore 
chains) have on each other. He tries to de-
termine how these "client relationships" 
have affected the publishing structures and 
how much influence they have on publica-
tion decisions. 

The four large focal organizations selected 
for study are one library-oriented trade pub-
lisher, one mass market publisher, one pub-
lic library system with forty-six branches, 
and, in the commercial area, both a 
bookstore and a department store chain. 
Research methods, clearly set forth by the 
author, include interviews, questionnaires, 
and analyses of new titles in production or 
released during the period of his study and 
the new titles selected for the library sys-
tem and the mass market outlets in the 
same time period. A summary chapter, ap-
pendix, notes, and bibliography enhance the 
validity of his findings. 

The results are provocative. In retrospect , 
one is impressed, especially, with how far 
the readers, the children for whom the 
books are intended, are removed from 
major consideration by both publishing 
structures. Also, as a nonlibrarian, with the 
objectivity that an outside discipline allows, 
Turow is able to comment dispassionately 
on the close relationships among children's 
librarians, particularly library coordinators, 
and children's editors. Within the library 
system, he is made aware of the tensions 
that arise when branch librarians reflect a 
closer relationship with their public than 
with publishers, even though the branch li-
brarians agree with their coordinators that 
quality must be a prime consideration in 
book selection. 

The ramifications of this study extend be-
yond the realm of children's books, and the 
hypotheses may be applicable to other areas 
of librarianship. With a better understand-
ing of organizational relationships, we may 
be able to exert changes where they are 
needed. Written clearly with a minimum of 
jargon and based on meaningful research, 
Getting Books to Children is recommended 
not only to all active in- children's librar-
ianship but also to other librarians, espe-
cially those concerned with book selection. 
Evaluations of quality and measures of 
popularity, concerns with what stretches our 
minds and what sells itself, are not limited 

Recent Publications I 387 

to one segment of the publishing or com-
munications industries.-Mary E. Thatcher, 
University of Connecticut , Storrs. 

Lockwood, Deborah L., comp. Library In-
struction: A Bibliography. Westport, 
Conn .: Greenwood Press, 1979. 166p. 
$16.50. LC 78-20011. ISBN 0-313-
20720-8. 
Deborah Lockwood in her book, a bibli-

ography on library instruction of that title, 
sets forth criteria for her selection of titles 
from the sometimes overwhelming number 
of works on the subject. She chooses to pick 
works that are in English and are readily 
obtainable, thus eliminating the many 
workbooks, handbooks, manuals, and guides 
for term papers; she also selects few items 
published before 1970 . She divides her 
work into three broad categories: general 
philosophy and state of the art , types of li-
braries, and methods of instruction. 

Each major section of the bibliography 
has subdivisions by subject and is arranged 
in chronological order. The individually 
numbered entries are annotated, albeit un-
evenly, and a few not at all. Several annota-
tions are either so brief or ambiguous as to 
be meaningless, such as "addresses the 
question of whether or not to evaluate" for 
one entry. There is a name (author) index 
that refers the reader to individual entries, 
but no subject index. 

Deborah Lockwood is currently a refer-
ence librarian at George Washington Uni-
versity and was an instruction librarian at 
Indiana University. She provides, in her 
preface, a brief note on the field of library 
instruction, emphasizing that little library 
instruction literature has been published 
outside of the library field. She further en-
courages instruction librarians "to begin 
reaching beyond the library field and to 
start thinking in broader terms than indi-
vidual programs and develop a philosophy 
and a concept that will be acceptable to our 
clientele and colleagues," which is sound 
advice indeed. 

The compiler includes familiar library in-
struction authors: Patricia Knapp , Tom 
Kirk, John Lubans, Hannelore Rader, Louis 
Shores, Carla Stoffie, and Marvin Wiggins 
and also gives the reader some less familiar 
studies that appear in ERIC. The book is a 



388 I College & Research Libraries • July 1979 

good intn>duction with over 900 entries; the 
price is rather dear and the annotations in-
consistent in quality, but instruction librar-
ians will want to see this one.-Anne 
Roberts, State University of New York at 
Albany. 

Kiewitt, Eva L. Evaluating Information Re-
trieval Systems: The PROBE Program. 
Foreword by Bernard M. Fry. Westport , 
Conn.: Greenwood Press , 1979. 168p. 
$15.95. LC 78-55322. ISBN 0-313-
20521-3. 
Currently, the use of on-line searching to 

retrieve bibliographic data from machine-
readable bases has become such a common 
phenomenon , and the use of batch retrieval 
appears to be almost anachronistic. Never-
theless , in the early seventies, batch re-
trieval was still novel, experimental, and 
daring. At that time , ERIC was particularly 
concerned with the dissemination and use of 
the ERICTAPES, and a number of universi-
ties and commercial organizations prepared 
programs that were predominantly batch 
mode-oriented. Ronald Tschudi prepared 
PROBE , a batch process for Indiana Uni-
versity. Eva Kiewitt , then education librar-
ian , evaluated the program at the request of 
ERIC. 

The primary purpose of the study was to 
test the performance of PROBE and rec-
ommend improvement and/or change. The 
information collected was ultimately used in 
the author's dissertation , "PROBE: Com-
puter Searches of the ERICTAPES-An 
Evaluation of a Pilot Study" (1973). The 
present study is neither as tight nor as well 
organized as that dissertation and to some 
extent suffers by comparison. However, the 
intent and functions of this book are dif-
ferent from the dissertation, and although 
the author has drawn heavily on that thesis, 
it has been manipulated and massaged for 
publication. 

The book has merit. It is a good state of 
the art on the literature evaluating the per-
formance of information retrieval systems, 
and is particularly useful for library school 
students. Not only does Eva Kiewitt review 
the classic literature in this area, but 
through her discussion of the pitfalls and 
mistakes that she experienced in her study 
of PROBE future evaluators can profit from 

her errors. The reader is provided with a 
number of caveats and guidelines. It is un-
fortunate, however, that she has not sig-
nificantly updated her original bibliography. 
Fewer than 10 percent of the references 
bear post-1973 imprints. 

The book does have other limitations and 
omissions and is at times frustrating, espe-
cially when the author reaches conclusions 
that do not appear to be supported by the 
data. Among these limitations is the failure 
to include evaluations and studies compar-
ing on-line and batch-oriented search ser-
vices. Inasmuch as one of the stated pur-
poses of the book was to determine, not 
only if changes should be made in PROBE , 
but also to determine whether "it should be 
used in addition to or in place of the use of 
online capabilities ," it is disappointing that 
the author does not come to grips with this 
stated purpose. 

A more extensive investigation of this 
problem would have been appropriate in-
asmuch as DIALOG , an on-line retrieval 
service, is already available to students and 
faculty on the Indiana campus. Only one 
comparative study is reported, and a very 
brief summary of the methodology and the 
results is presented . The study undertaken 
in 1977 replicating the 1973 study simply 
substantiated the 1973 findings , and on this 
basis the author recommended that PROBE 
or a "similar program" remain an. integral 
part of the overall reference services. 

Then the author again recommends that 
the advantages of batch mode retrieval be 
compared to on-line access in order to de-
termine whether PROBE is still a viable 
form for searching ERIC tapes. One sus-
pects that although the 1977 study 
confirmed user satisfaction, adequate turn-
around time, and the lower cost of the 
PROBE search versus the DIALOG search, 
the author still suspected its feasibility. She 
is careful to point out that cost analysis of 
PROBE is based on the pricing structure at 
the university and that additional costs are 
built into a retrospective search. Other limi-
tations of PROBE are noted, and one ques-
tions its lower cost benefits . 

There are a number of unanswered ques-
tions that remain after completing the book. 
Why, for instance, has Kiewitt failed to 
compare the original and the current goals 

l