College and Research Libraries 276 College & Research Libraries a comprehensive collection development policy. General models can and should be followed, especially in these days of in- creasing national-level cooperation. By no means will that lessen the amount of local effort and careful planning that must go into a policy. We are not interested in copying each others' policies; we do want to learn by sharing insights and processes. That goal is indeed possible by referring to this book and to the many examples of ac- quisitions policies it presents. In reporting on the survey she con- ducted to determine the extent to which li- braries have written and/ or unwritten ac- quisitions policies, Futas shares some useful information with her readers. However, of some 4,500 questionnaires distributed, only 327 "usable" responses were returned. From this information the author has created a profile of academic and public library collection policies and processes. The idea is a good one; it is un- fortunate that Futas did not disaggregate her respondents further by size, however, since the categories of "public" and "aca- demic" make subtle analysis difficult at best. For example, the range of materials budgets represented in her first group, ac- ademic libraries, runs from $0-$9,999 (two libraries) all the way to $1 million or more (some twenty libraries), with a peak at $100,000-$249,999. It is impossible to draw any meaningful conclusions about patterns in academic libraries with such a wide spread of statistical information. Yet, for example, Futas uses this data to calcu- late percentages about who initiates order requests . It is not surprising that her sur- vey shows that the number of bibliogra- phers and collection development officers who are responsible for orders is low (9 percent and 16 percent, respectively), nor that faculty participation is high (55 per- cent); most smaller academic libraries are understaffed in their collection develop- ment functions and rely heavily on faculty for initiation of orders. Had the author grouped her respondents according to size, a different and more accurate picture would have emerged. In conclusion, it should be stressed that these two books are not truly comparable. The Futas volume is important as an ex- ample of the wide range of ways in which May 1985 libraries organize their acquisitions func- tions. It will be a useful working tool for staff participating in the development of policies, although its audience will neces- sarily be more narrowly defined than the readership of the Magrill and Hickey work. The latter will only serve as a guide to the intricacies of collection develop- ment work and as a source of citations for further reading on many related subjects.-Deborah Jakubs, Duke University. Retrospective Conversion: From Cards to Computer. Ed. by Anne G. Adler and Elizabeth A. Baber. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Pierian, 1984. 312p. $39.50. LC 84- 81656. ISBN 0-87650-177-3. Most libraries today are facing or have already faced the task of converting paper card catalogs to machine-readable files, with attendant planning and discussions of local policies and procedures to be fol- lowed in the conversion process. Because of this common simultaneous process, the American Library Association LITA ISAS/RTSD Retrospective Conversion Discussion Group serves as a popular fo- rum for airing retrocon issues. Case stud- ies are interesting starting points for the group's biannual meetings, providing the same excellent background material that warrants their use in the many journal ar- ticles that treat retrospective conversion. An entire book composed of case studies of retrospective conversion projects, how- ever, makes for difficult reading. Lack of an index makes access to specific topics virtually impossible, so that one must read every detail of every project or else know in advance which project most closely matches the needs of his or her institution. The editors obviously had good inten- tions in bringing together the separate projects into one book, since their early ex- perience had shown them that not much was available on retrospective conversion. Their solution was to collect the papers presented at the discussion group with two updated versions of original projects into this book. As with many other collec- tions, the articles themselves vary in style and depth . Some have been tightly edited for publication while others appear to be the original speech presented to the dis- cussion group. Some projects are de- scribed concisely with an attempt to focus on the broader issues of retrospective con- version, such as authority control and ma- nipulation of holdings data. Other articles drone on about local policies and proce- dures, and several articles are buried un- der descriptions of local problems, such as illustrations of every possible variation of shelf list card notations. One article even includes a II collage" of memos from the author to her staff about the retrocon proj- ect, along with other II cute" illustrations to promote the project itself and the result- ing com catalog. Some of the appendixes can only be labeled as filler to make the chapter or the book itself look respectable; why else include seven pages of "Tables of Holding Library Symbols,'' plus ''Han- dling of Stamps on Cards" and "Color- coded Envelopes to be Used in Flagging Problems"- in all seven appendixes total- ing fifty-one pages? Although the editors did try to represent all types of libraries, their bias shows toward academic libraries and especially toward their home institu- tion, Rice University (four of the fourteen Recent Publications 277 articles). Adler and Baber or the Pierian editors should have exercised more con- trol in putting together this book. There is much that is superfluous and a lot that is redundant in this method of compiling de- scriptions of separate conversion projects. Some of the projects, such as MITINET /re- trocon and Texas A&M, have already been explained in journal articles, which makes the $39.50 price seem a bit much. For the library planning a retrospective conversion project, Ruth Carter and Scott Bruntjen' s 1983 Data Conversion provides a solid introductory overview of retrospec- tive conversion. It is more current than the 1978 Library Technology Reports, "The Con- version of Manual Catalogs to Collection Data Bases." If a librarian wants to know what other libraries did (for better or for worse), or what they would or would not do again, Library Literature indexes a multi- tude of articles on retrospective conver- sion; these allow readers to much more ef- fectively match type of institution, material format, or other considerations to their needs.-Doris R. Brown, DePaul Uni- versity. PUBLICATIONS FROM THE UNITED NATIONS DEMOGRAPHIC YEARBOOK 35th Issue A comprehensive collection of international demographic statistics. The first part contains tables giving a world summary of basic demographic statistics, followed by tables presenting statistics on the size, distribution and trends in population, natality, foetal mortality, infant and maternal mortality, general mortality, nuptiality and divorce. The second part updates the census information featured in the 1979 issue. In many of the tables, data are shown by urban/rural residence. Statistics are presented for about 220 countries or areas throughout the world. E/F.84.XIIl.l clothbound $90.00 For further titles please request a free copy of our publications catalogue. .-~ UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS Room DC2-853, New York, N.Y. 10017 Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland