College and Research Libraries 414 I College & Research Libraries • September 1982 considerable literature devoted to periodi- cals weeding. He also makes no mention of the American Library Association's recent Guidelines for Collection Development (American Library Assn. Resources and Technical Services Division, Collection De- velopment Committee. Chicago: American Library Assn., 1979), which contains a chap- ter on "Review of Library Collections." These guidelines see review (weeding) as part of the collection-management process and would be more useful than Slate's work to most academic librarians contemplating weeding. This book is recommended only for academic collections supporting a library- science program or to individuals with a strong interest in the subject of weeding.- Barbara A. Rice, State Library Cultural Center, Albany, New York. Boss, Richard W., and Marcum, Deanna B. "On-Line Acquisitions Systems for Li- braries," Library Technology Reports 17:115-94 (March-April 1981). Single is- sue, $40. Attendance at meetings devoted to discus- sions of automating acquisitions indicates that librarians need current and accurate in- formation in this area. The authors of this re- port attempt to provide information to help librarians evaluate acquisitions systems. The authors first list seven categories of automated systems: in-house, transferred software, software houses, integrated, turn- key, utility, and jobber. They then describe twenty specific automated acquisitions sys- tems, divided into these seven categories. The depth of the description varies depend- ing on the operational status of the specific system. The rest of the report is designed for librar- ians planning to choose automated acquisi- tions, with sections on questions to ask in or- der to evaluate a system, and specific steps to take in procurement. Boss and Marcum con- clude that libraries will benefit in the long run from integrated systems, and should pressure suppliers of automated systems to provide them. The appendix has some sample screen dis- plays; a list of WLN charges; general specifi- cations for DataPhase's and OCLC's acquisi- tions systems; names, addresses, and contacts for the twenty systems described; and a bibli- ography on automated acquisitions. Unlike a famous winegrower, this L TR re- port was issued before its time. The purpose of L TR is to provide librarians with "author- itative information" on products so that in- formed purchasing decisions can be made. This report fails to provide this information. Many of the automated systems described were still under development in 1981, and descriptions of these systems are not critical, but simply state what the company hopes the system will do when (and if) operational. Af- ter reading this, the librarian is no better off than if he or she had read publicity releases from the company. The items in the appen- dix provide little helpful information, and the bibliography, with citations easily found in other sources, lists only two articles pub- lished after 1978. In order to provide the crit- ical evaluations which are needed, this re- port should be redone next year, emphasizing major operational systems. In the meantime, librarians needing guidance on automated systems will find the papers presented at the LIT A Institute on Auto- mated Acquisitions (published in ]OLA, V.13, no.3 and no.4, Sept. and Dec., 1980) more useful than this L TR- William Z. Schenck, University of Oregon Library, Eugene. International Handbook of Contemporary Developments in Librarianship. Ed. by Miles M. Jackson. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1981. 619p. $65. LC 80- 27306. ISBN 0-313-21372-0. This is a collection of thirty-four original articles by fifty-one authors, on libraries and librarianship in sixty-five countries. Editor Miles M. Jackson, professor of library studies at the University of Hawaii, states that the purpose of the volume is to present an "over- view of the major developments and most significant trends in librarianship since 1945." He adds that the book is concerned with international librarianship and is "not intended as a work of comparative library studies." Actually it is a kind of one-volume, long-article encyclopedia of libraries and li- brarianship by country. Typically, each article provides brief his- torical, geographic, and occasionally politi- cal background, followed by information on the national library and on university, pub- DOES YOUR SUISCRIPTIOI AGEICY OFFER YOU ••• MORE? MORE ... than 160,0CX) foreign and domestic serials, including continuations and annuals? MORE ... personalized service and flexibility from regional offices? MORE ... easily handled claiming, with the least time- consuming claim system: A. A simple list B. A monthly Qaim Checker C. A Missing Copy Bank? MORE ... innovation, with the world's first international online data communications system for serials? MORE ... professionals with the knowledge and concern to make your serials program work better? We provide the ..ost ••• MORE often. EBSCO SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES The serials professionals. P. 0. Box 1943 Birmingham, Alabama 35201·1943 (205) 252·1212 Telex: 5·9717 416 I College & Research Libraries • September 1982 lie, special, and school libraries, library edu- cation, and library associations. Some au- thors go considerably beyond these headings. Some confine themselves to straightforward descriptive statements. Some provide a con- siderable amount of interpretation and ex- planation. To say that there is some uneven- ness among the articles in thoroughness, interpretation, detail, and style is merely to note an inevitable characteristic of a book such as this. As a matter of fact, the uneven- ness is minimal. Most contributors are natives of the coun- try they write of and hold library positions in them. Many, however, are U.S.-based li- brarians or educators who have had some long-standing association with library mat- ters in another country. In the latter category are Mohammed M. Aman of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who writes on the Arab countries; Ray L. Carpenter of the Uni- versity of North Carolina on Italy; Katherine Cveljo of North Texas State on Yugoslavia; Josephine Fang of Simmons College on the People's Republic of China; Abdul Huq of St. John's University on Bangladesh, and Ivan M THE Kaldor of SUNY at Geneseo on the USSR. John Harvey's article on Iran is a well- informed and up-to-date overview of li- braries and librarianship in that country, de- spite its having been written during a period when information was most difficult to come by. The editor's decisions on which nations to include would probably raise questions no matter which were included or excluded, but the stated criteria are simply too vague to ex- plain his choices. The criteria are that in- cluded countries have been chosen as "repre- sentative" and "have library developments that are significant and more pronounced than those found in other countries." These criteria do not explain, for example, the in- clusion of Hungary and the exclusion of Nor- way and Sweden, or the exclusion of Indone- sia and Taiwan and the inclusion of the Pacific Islands and Singapore; and they most certainly do not justify the exclusion of all of the Latin American world except Mexico. Jackson states that the book is "intended both for reference use and for general read- ing." For "general reading" it provides inter- pUBLICA IONS UNITED ords 1962"1981 security Official ReC Assembly, the il Official N tions General~ ·ty counc · . United a ords of the. of the secun TrusteeshiP . official ReG d Decision~ unci I, the . ament contal~s Resolutions an. and social ~o ard, the Dlsa~tributors. council, f the Econom~evelopment o nd National. hi paper covers Recor~S ~e Trade and UN sookselle,~S ~ 1" format Wit council, t. list of the . hed in sVz x C r'Ylmiss1on, re pubiiS o'''. cords a . Official Re d otherWise. state unless . Send for UN Official Records Catalogue 1962-1981, available free of charge. UNITED NATIONS Room A-3315 New York, New York 10017 PUBLICATIONS Palais des Nations 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland esting and authoritative surveys of libr~ry developments from 1945 to the present in se- lected countries, followed by brief bibliogra- phies for further study. Most of the material is not conveniently available anywhere else, so the volume will be an important addition to library science collections. For reference _use, its obvious limitation is that it is con- fined to a select number of countries. Access to the contents is flawed by a carelessly made index which omits many of the proper names in the text.-]ohn ]. Farley , State University of New York at Albany. ABSTRACTS The following abstracts are based on those prepared by the ERIC Clearinghouse of In- formation Resources, School of Education, Syracuse University. Documents with an ED number here may be ordered in either microfiche (MF) or pa- per copy (PC) from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service, P. 0. Box 190, Arlington, VA 22210. Orders should include ED number, specify format desired, and in- clude payment for document and postage. Further information on ordering docu- ments and on current postage charges may be obtained from a recent issue of Resources in Education. Managing to Survive/Succeed: Potentials Within the Library Organization. 1981 LA- CUNY Institute Bibliography. By Mimi B. Penchansky and others. City University of New York, N.Y., Library Association. 1981. 23p. MF-$0.83. PC-$1.82. Prepared for the 1981 Spring Institute of the Li- brary Association of City University of New York (LA CUNY), this bibliography lists sources on aca- demic library management techniques. Its three sections encompass the following areas: (1) the in- dividual's relationship to the library organization, (2) effective management of time, and (3) human resource development within the library. Listings are alphabetical by author. Academic Library Instruction in Kansas. A Di- rectory. Comp. by Virginia Quiring and others. Kansas State University, Manhat- tan; Library. 1980. 26p. ED 206 308. Recent Publications I 417 MF -$0.83. PC-$3.32. Results of a 1980 survey are tabulated to provide a view of the scope and diversity of materials and activities for library instruction at the thirty-six Kansas academic libraries which responded to the questionnaire. The questionnaire, included as an appendix, addressed staffing, including qualifica- tions and evaluation; funding; methods used in li- brary orientation and instruction as well as instruc- tional goals and objectives; methods of publicizing and evaluating the instruction; print and nonprint materials used; and the respondents' interest in co- operative sharing of resources for library instruc- tion. BCLN Hardware and Computing Facilities Evaluation Study. Final Report. By Stephen H. Smith. British Columbia Union Cata- logue, Richmond. 1981. 139p. ED 206 309; for related documents, see ED 200 203-207. MF-$0.83. PC-$9.32. This study to determine the hardware and com- puting facility costs of establishing and operating a British Columbia Library Network (BCLN) for current members of the B.C. Union Catalogue used empirical data regarding their performance of the DOBIS system and estimates of workload, and compared those data with the costs of obtain- ing current computer-utility services from the Uni- versity of Toronto's UTLAS system. Hardware and computing facilities requirements, including tele- processing network evaluation criteria and soft- ware support evaluation criteria, are explored. Re- quest for proposal (RFP) information is provided. BCUC Data Base Loading and BCLN User and Data Base Requirements Study. BCUC Replication Study, Design Phase I. Main Re- port. By Lynn M. Rosen and G. W. Brian Owen. British Columbia Union Cata- logue, Richmond. 1981. 196p. ED 206 310. MF -$0.83. PC-$12.32. This design phase study concerning the proposed replication of the DOBIS system for the British Co- lumbia Library Network (BCLN) was conducted to determine the preferred strategy for the transfer and loading of the British Columbia Union Cata- logue (BCUC) database currently resident at the University of Toronto's UTLAS system. User and database requirements are investigated in order to recommend a suitable database design for the BCLN DOBIS system. Other implementation tasks such as pilot usage projects are examined. Cost esti- mates and an implementation schedule for all tasks are included. A bibliography lists previous BCUC reports and documents, National Library DOBIS documents, journal articles, and miscellaneous publications. A fifteen-page supplementary report