College and Research Libraries Book Reviews Emerging Communities: Integrating Networked Information into Library Services. Ed. Ann P. Bishop. Urbana- Champaign, Ill.: Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Cham- paign, 1994. alk. paper, 304p. $30 (ISBN 0-87845-094-7). This volume of twenty-six presenta- tions from the 30th Annual Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing addresses the full range of issues raised by the emerging networked information environment. Researchers and practitio- ners who have assimilated the basic knowledge and issues of library auto- mation and networked information, but who have not yet achieved the nirvana of an expert, will find herein a resource of great value. Beginners should avoid this compilation, as it is not a primer. A number of emerging experts in this new field are represented-Clifford Lynch, James P. Love, Hope N. Tillman, Sharyn Ladner, and Diane Kovacs all contribute variations on the themes of harnessing the technology, utilizing the resources, and understanding the issues of the networked environment in libraries. Emerging Communities may appear disjointed to some because it presents a diffuse array of essays and studies. The narrative analyses of Lynch and Love contrast with the rigorous methodologi- cal presentations of Tillman and Ladner and with OCLC's high-powered explo- rations of the Internet. Nonetheless the far-ranging nature of the network tech- nologies themselves are well exposed and examined by this variety of ap- proaches. Although the volume is dominated by narrative essays, a significant number of presentations do utilize quantitative 86 analysis to make their points and raise questions. For example, an essay by Martin Dillon et al. on "The OCLC In- ternet Resources Project" brings OCLC' s formidable technical resources to play in analyzing Internet File Transfer Protocol (FTP) sites. The initial analysis presents surveys of the twenty largest FTP sites, listing the Internet addresses of the sites, as well as the number, size, and type of files (e.g., text, images, executables, etc.). The OCLC researchers then present the results of an experiment that examined the feasibility of cataloging such files at FTP sites. A sample of three hundred files extracted from the examined FTP sites was randomly assigned to thirty primary participants for cataloging. The article by Ladner and Tillman also utilizes survey methods to describe ex- isting practices among special librarians.,. The authors identify the types oflnternet functions being used by special librari- ans (e.g., e-mail, FTP, Telnet, etc.), how often these functions are used, and the rankings of perceived importance by special librarians of these resources. A two-level hierarchical listing of "Internet Use Categories" is a definite keeper for those interested in exploring the amor- phous range of resources on the Internet. The narrative analysis approach is best represented by Clifford Lynch's "The Roles of Libraries in Access to Net- worked Information" and James Love's "Current Issues and Initiatives in the Electronic Dissemination of Govern- ment Information." Lynch, as is usual in both his writings and his presentations, brings to bear an ability to clarify com- plex issues. In this essay he draws paral- lels between current conditions in libraries and earlier times in the broad- cast industry. Among other subjects, Lynch explores the topics of free infor- mation and the role of advertising in the changing information environment. He concludes by challenging librarians to convince those paying for the construc- tion of our technological future that we librarians "can add value by furthering the objectives of the financiers." ยท James Love couples real-world activ- ism aimed at changing the penurious dissemination of public domain infor- mation by the U.S. federal government with a comprehensive exposition of cur- rent legislation, policy, and bureaucracy as they relate to federal information policy. His synopsis of the Security and Exchange Commission's EDGAR pro- ject, the Department of Justice JURIS system, and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130 makes this a contribution that should be used in all graduate-level courses dealing with government information for at least the next twelve months-a shelf life typical of any work dealing with the existing technological and economic environment. A cursory exami- nation of one element of the published OCLC data in this collection (the cur- rent size and number of files at the FTP site wuarchive.wustl.edu) shows an unsur- prising steep increase in both figures since the very recent publication of OCLC's study. Although the overall quality of this compilation will also make it a valuable item for historical purposes, some of the presentations are of the ubiquitous "look-what-we-did" genre. Such writ- ings are valuable in other contexts, but they tend to clash with the overall schol- arly nature of this book. As would be expected from one of the flagships of the profession, the Graduate School of Library and Information Sci- ence of the University of Illinois, these are high quality proceedings of a profes- sional conference with work of current and relevant information for academic librarians.-Raleigh Clayton Muns, Uni- versity of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri. The African-American Mosaic: A Li- brary of Congress Guide for the Study Book Reviews 87 of Black History and Culture. Wash- ington D.C.: Library of Congress, 1993. 300p. $24 (ISBN 0-8444-0800-X). As the first fully referenced, illus- trated, and indexed resource guide to the Library of Congress collections on Afri- can-American materials, this work is an essential reference tool for librarians and sophisticated library users. Its aims are to ease the work of researchers who visit the library and to increase public aware- ness of the full range of the library's resources for the study of African- American history and culture. The guide is chronologically arranged in three sections of nine chapters that span the years from the antebellum pe- riod to the Civil Rights era. Although the guide presents the initial story of African-American history and culture through the window of slavery, it ig- nores the history of the African Ameri- can before the slave trade. There is no mention of LC' s extensive African civili- zation collection or its works on African exploration of America before the slave 'trade, key components in the study of the African-American experience in the United States. African-American Mosaic is a logistical blessing for researchers faced with the prospect of visiting three different build- ings, secondary storage facilities, and many reading rooms to explore or access materials. Now researchers can identify and direct themselves to relevant LC ma- terials via number, date, name, or title, as well as to other libraries and archival holdings. The book reveals an impressive array of resources not generally known out- side the Library of Congress. Previously obscure resources include, for example, the House Un-American Activities Com- mittee collection of four thousand pam- phlets that document "the activities and thinking of militant or extremist African American groups"; the collection of Daniel Alexander Payne Murray, an Af- rican-American bibliophile who worked for the Library of Congress for fifty-two years; and the LC Carter G. Woodson collection papers on Hiram Revels, the first African-American U.S. senator.