College and Research Libraries 266 College & Research Libraries Generally, festschrifts in librarianship are interesting conglomorations of papers by acquaintances of the person being hon- ored, gathered over time by an editor, most often useful tutorials in the authors' fields, and not altogether intellectually stimulating. One can usually count on them for state-of-the-art presentations in a broad field. This one is different. It is actually the proceedings of a festschrift ceremony held at Colorado State University, where An- derson was director of libraries from 1957 until his recent retirement. The speakers were few: those well associated with re- search librarianship, as well as colleagues in various relationships with Anderson. The ceremony was relatively brief, hence the proceedings can be read quite quickly. And there was a theme, so there is coher- ence among the papers, some of which are expository, some of which are analytical. All present the personal views of the au- thors. -Shirley Echleman' s brief opening paper sets forth a statement of some rather broad questions that face the research library community as it moves from the tradi- tional to the new information age. A re- view of the proceedings of the Association of Research Libraries for the past few years will extend her analysis but will leave the basic questions open for devel- opment. Forrest Carhart, retired executive director of the New York Metropolitan Reference and Research Library Agency, now a resident of Colorado, reports in some detail how the New York State Three-Rs program developed into a suc- cessful array of cooperative activities among New York City's hundreds of large and small research libraries. The presenta- tion is suggestive, but not analytical. The remainder of the volume consists of five papers from people now or until re- cently associated directly with the opera- tions of research libraries and contains the few brief, but cogent, analyses and com- mentaries. Ralph Ellsworth clearly makes the case for the modular library building as the only way to accommodate the kinds of changes that research libraries might have to make to match demands of the new information age. Richard Dougherty May 1987 faces the inevitability of the substitution of electronic and other forms of access to li- brary collections and their contents for open-shelf browsing and advises us to be- gin now to help scholars to adapt. David Starn quickly analyzes the collection de- velopment and preservation problems of research libraries and describes in general the workings of the Research Libraries Group's cooperative programs in these ar- eas. His apt view that access to informa- tion about collection goals, collecting strengths, and items selected for preserva- tion is one of the keys to the potential suc- cess of such cooperation adds strength to the arguments for new methods of access of others in this volume. Richard McCoy's personal views of re- search library problems in providing ac- cess to information in and about library collections are based on his years as presi- dent of the Research Libraries Group. He makes a most clear analysis of the similari- ties and differences among various net- work activities (e.g., OCLC and RLG) and argues well for interaction, integration, and reduction of conflict among them on behalf of the scholarly user. Finally, G. Edward Evans of the Harvard University Library staff and formerly a faculty mem- ber at both UCLA and the University of Denver, speculates on the nature of there- search library in the year 2010, giving us three scenarios of potential development and analyzing information access and management problems in each case. All in all, this is a most enjoyable, though brief volume. Most of those in management positions of research li- braries have already thought about one or another of the issues, and much has been written about them. It is useful, neverthe- less, to pause briefly to read these words of a few of our major agents for change in research librarianship.-Russell Shank, University Libraries, University of California, . Los Angeles. Schauer, Bruce P. The Economics of Manag- ing Library Service. Chicago: American Library Assn., 1986. 278p. $49 (ISBN 0- 8389-0453-X). LC 86-14186. Detailed, academic approaches to li- brary budgets and economics are being E RESOURCE AUTHORITIES. Other Television News Transcripts and Indexes International rNEIWB}:Iapers on Microftlm Newspaper Indexes Journals 1n 12 Lunar Drive/Drawer AB Woodbridge, CT 06525 Toll-free: 1-800-REACH-RP TWX: 71D-465-6345 FAX: 203-397-3893 Invite the entire ABC News Team into your library. As dramatic as television news coverage itself, every spoken line of current and past ABC News from selected programs is converted to microfiche and ready for your library patrons. An ideal reference for students and the general public who seek out tod.ey's important news events. From Ted Koppel's Nigb.tline® to 20/20 ... from Peter Jennings' World News Tonight® to ABC Specials -eleven programs in all, with transcripts from 1969 to present. A current- yea:r subscription to the printed, comprehensive qua:rterly ABC News Index, cumulated annually, enables users to pinpoint the precise information they need. A cumulated backfile index also is ava.ila.ble. This m~ well become one of the most popula:r methods of resea:rching current affairs ever offered in the history of library science. For further information, utilize the form below. Or call 1-800-REACH -RP (1-800-732-2477) to place your order now. From Connecticut, Alaska and Canada., call collect 203-397-2600. 0 Please send me your brochure. 0 Have a representative_ call me. Name Instltution Addrese City Phone Title State Zip Code For further information, or to place your order .n.wcu·uBu-uao 1-SOQ:j{jl(Jj:jp 268 College & Research Libraries presented more and more in the literature. Plans for analyzing library services and other activities through economic models are suggested to replace the more typical and straightforward approach to budget- ing that many librarians follow, i.e., using the collective judgment of library adminis- trators to construct a budget request based on perceived needs and demands. These judgments have been based on observa- tion and supplemented by routine statis- tics of size or number of transactions. This volume takes a different approach. It looks at the ''economics'' of library ser- vice, applying hard quantitative analysis to most aspects of library financial man- agement. The science of economics is brought to bear on decision making for li- braries. The first half of the volume dis- cusses microeconomic theory as it relates to areas of library management. The flavor of the text is economic, not bibliographic. Chapters on consumer preference, market demand, library production, and equilib- rium analysis present areas for library management through microeconomic models. The second portion of the book provides further analysis of library deci- sion making through actual examples- collection adequacy, waiting-line time at a service desk, and correlation between cir- culation rates and inventory. This is definitely not casual or easy read- ing for most librarians. Selected sections include properties of isoquants, indiffer- ence curves, rules of probability, and pro- duction with multiple variant inputs. Concepts are expressed in the language of the economist, with formulas and graphs. While librarians know well that books should not be judged by their covers or by the look of their texts, this volume has the appearance of one that most humanists would avoid after leafing through for only a moment. A more relevant consideration, how- ever, is the value of the text in library deci- sion making. It may be compared with Stephen Roberts' Cost Management for Li- brary and Information Services (C&RL 47:520-22 [Sept. 1986]), which also presents a formal, quantitative approach to resource allocation. Those librarians and managers comfortable enough with May 1987 economic theory to utilize its quantitative approach as an aid to decision making may find value in this material. How one balances the numbers approach to equally valid library concerns of professionalism, politics, and other unquantifiable factors is critical. One must assume, however, that to implement the approach presented here is beyond the training or experience of most librarians. As in the Roberts book, the basic methods for obtaining the infor- mation to aid in the decision-making pro- cess may not be possible for most library situations and existing staff. The volume presupposes at least some familiarity with the concepts and mathematics of eco- nomic theory; better yet, an academic 1 background in this area would be of great assistance. Beyond the ability to set up and collect the economic information dis- cussed here (which would involve consid- erable effort), the library administrator must have the ability to integrate the infor- mation gathered into overall planning. A system of information gathering that demonstrates the cost of alternatives to administrators is probably as good aid in decision making. What must be consid- ered, however, is the amount of effort re- quired to gather the information in rela- tion to its usefulness. Such decisions can only be made on a case-by-case basis. The economic analysis of library operations ~ presented here may be useful in some sit- uations, but the method for obtaining the information is probably inaccessible to most library administrators.-John Vasi, Library, University of California, Santa Bar- bara. American Books Abroad: Toward a Na- tional Policy. Ed. by William M. Childs and Donald E. McNeil. Washington, D.C.: The Helen Dwight Reid Educa- . tional Foundation, 1986. 309p. $35 (ISBN 0-916882-05-5). LC 85-17540. The foreword by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick boldly sets the ideological and political framework for the reader: books are tools both of democracy and development; freedom of thought requires that ideas be communicated; the Soviet Union is far ahead of the United States in disseminat- ing its own books abroad. In the introduc-