College and Research Libraries


270 College & Research Libraries 

The Expanding Role of Telecommunica-
tions in Higher Education. Ed. by Pam-
ela J. Tate and Marilyn Kresse!. San 
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1983. 115p. 
$8.95. ISBN 0-87589-954-4. 
Like most books comprised of collected 

pieces by various authors from various 
disciplines, this one suffers from a lack of 
continuity and focus. The editors set out 
nobly enough by concluding in their 
opening notes: ''We believe that the driv-
ing force behind the development of new 
programs and systems should not be sim-
ply the allure of new technology. Rather 
institutions should continue to base their 
decisions about new ventures in telecom-
munications on the educational and soci-
etal problems that they wish to solve and 
on the learner needs that they wish to 
meet.'' However, the book fails to explore 
these problems and their possible solu-
tions. Instead it takes you through some 
rather mundane discussions: why more 
educational television material isn't pro-
duced, audiovisual media-use statistics, 
and Robert Gillespie's unexceptional 

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May 1985 

views on computing in higher education, 
which have virtually no relevance to the 
issues at hand, at least as they are defined 
by the editors. Michael Goldstein writes 
about public policy, but this is not related 
back to learner needs. Glenn Watts' article 
about the changing workplace is better 
reading than the others, but most readers 
will find the veneer of the content awfully 
thin. The editors' concluding comments 
are the best part; they capsulize the few 
useful points made. But after reading the 
book, I did not feel I had gained any real 
insight into the telecommunications is-
sues that confront our colleges and uni-
versities today. The effectiveness of using 
telecommunications and computing in ed-
ucation is assumed from the start. There is 
no consideration of where either might be 
inappropriate or ineffective. We are not 
provided a strategy for planning or a road 
map to guide us into the future of telecom-
munications. We are not given new in-
sights into the technology. 

The book is a disappointment, for tele-
communications is a misunderstood and 
inadequately planned area on most cam-
puses, and good guides on the subject are 
sorely needed. This book does not fill the 
vacuum. Most readers would get just as 
much insight into telecommunications is-
sues for campus administrators and plan-
ners by reading the New York Times educa-
tion supplements or the Chronicle of Higher 
Education.- Thomas Hassler, University of 
Alaska, Fairbanks. 

Radford, Neil A. The Carnegie Corporation 
and the Development of American Libraries, 
1928-1941 . . Chicago: American Library 
Assn., 1984. 267p. (ACRL Publications in 
Librarianship, no. 44) $29.95. LC 83-
25710. ISBN 0-8389-3295-9. 
Frederick P. Keppel was already ac-

quainted with a number of the nation's li-
brary leaders when he became president 
of the Carnegie Corporation in 1922. 
Among them were Carl Milam, executive 
secretary of ALA, and William Warner 
Bishop, director of libraries at the Univer-
sity of Michigan and past president of 
ALA. Throughout the thirteen-year pe-
riod discussed in this book, these three 
men were fated to work closely together