College and Research Libraries


472 I College & Research Libraries • September 1979 

special services for undergraduate students , 
which Braden lists among her top ten 
priorities. Maybe such articles have been 
omitted from this volume because they are 
being saved for that future volume? Maybe 
they are still waiting to be written? 

Despite these gaps , this volume certainly 
deserves a place on the shelves in most 
academic libraries and in all faculties and 
schools of library science . It should be read 
by all U gLi librarians-perhaps even ~s 
preparation for some new substantive and 
objective articles on why and how we pro-
vide the services this volume describes.-
Sheila M. Laidlaw, University of Toronto , 
Toronto , Ontario. 

REFERENCE 

1. James Davis, " The Changing Role of the 
Undergraduate Library in Uni versities," in E. 
] . ] osey, ed., New Dimensions for Academic 
Library Service (Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow, 
1975), p. 73. 

Taylor, P . J. Information Guides: A Survey 
of Subject Guides to Sources of Informa-
tion Produced by Library and Informa-
tion Services in the United Kingdom. 
British Library Research & Development 
Report No. 5440. London: British Li-
brary, Research and Development De-
partment, 1978. 106p. £6. $12. ISBN 
0-905984-22-6 . ISSN 0308-2385. (Avail-
able from : Publications , British Library , 
Research and Development Dept. , Shera-
ton House, Great Chapel St. , London 
S1V 4BH.) 
A survey of 1,600 library and information 

services in the United Kingdom by Aslib in 
1977 investigated the form and range of 
production of brief printed subject guides to 
sources of information. This study also iden-
tified areas of overlapping effort and possi-
ble strategies for the coordination of effort. 
Emphasis was placed on the instructional 
function of the guides. The 530 guides ex-
amined indicate that compilation and pro-
duction of such publications is not a major 
activity of the agencies, and the material is 
more often produced by higher education 
units with "considerable investment of re-
sources in their production within these sec-
tors." Three series of information guides 

produced in the United States are also de-
scribed. 

Analysis of the guides compared subject 
coverage, duplication of coverage, subject 
specificity, content, form of entry and lay-
out, physical format, design features, style 
of presentation and written expression, page 
layout, use of annotations, and arrangement 
of contents. 

Some of the outstanding guide series are 
discussed (appendixes include copies of Sci-
ence Reference Library [British Library] 
Guidelines and MIT Pathfinders and Library 
of Congress Science Tracer Bullets) as well 
as the role of guides in user education. 

Useful even beyond survey results for 
U.K. librarians is an appendix indexing sub-
jects covered by information guides with 
reference to issuing institutions. Other ap-
pendixes include a bibliography of pub-
lished guides to literature/information 
sources and examples of design work. 

Those already printing information guides 
and those contemplating it will find valuable 
sections on responsibility for production , 
pricing, and sale of guides , tests of 
readability of guides , and design considera-
tions. With the increasing popularity of this 
type of publication , this survey identifies 
important considerations to be taken up by 
U .S. librarians as well as those in the U.K. 
The report should be included in collections 
of academic libraries planning printed user 
service projects.-Mary Pound , The Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin. 

Progress in Communication Sciences. V.l. 
Edited by Melvin J. Voigt and Gerhard J. 
Hanneman. Norwood, N.J .: ABLEX Pub-
lishing Corp., 1979. 198p. $17.50. ISBN 
0-89391-010-4. ISSN 0163-5689. 
Pretentious and heavy handed at times , 

volume one of the series Progress in Com-
munication Sciences, edited by Melvin J. 
Voigt and Gerhard J . Hanneman, never-
theless bears monitoring. 

The stated objective of the series is to 
document specific aspects of the great 
number of rapid changes occurring in com-
munication systems and, along with these 
changes, to focus on the concomitant and 
inevitable fallout: social change. Moreover, 
an important goal of the series is to keep 
abreast of, and report on, research-in-