reviews 280 College & Research Libraries May 1997 able to read in themselves, quite apart from any relevance they may have for librarianship. Inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Words, Regis Debray (“The Book As Symbolic Object”) offers a po- etic evocation of the book as fetish, as stone, as architecture, as religious ob- ject. Raffaele Simone (“The Body of the Text”) shows how texts (not books) can be thought of as closed and autono- mous, or open and permeable. And who could resist Umberto Eco’s reassuring, grandfatherly, utterly lucid summing up? Why do we have to choose between visual and alphabetic cultures? he asks. Why not improve both? Fewer books would be a good thing; too many are published already. We can have both publishing and communicating, closed texts and open systems. Eco’s sense of humor is a tonic. He jokes about a “cul- ture in which there will be no books, and yet where people go around with tons and tons of unbound sheets of paper. This will be quite unwieldy, and will pose a new problem for libraries.” Although a few of the other pieces in this book are less original, none seems dated. This may be because they have been revised for publication, or perhaps semioticians perceive patterns that are only beginning to emerge. Those who crave an answer to the literal question What is the future of the book? will be disappointed that these authors have no answer (in fact, they warn against attempts at long-range predictions about changing technology). They seem to be defining a world in which two or more cultures exist simultaneously, the culture of the book and something else. This divided consciousness will be rec- ognized immediately by librarians as the mental world they already in- habit.—Jean Alexander, Northwestern Uni- versity, Evanston, Illinois Issues in Collection Management: Librarians, Booksellers, Publishers. Ed. Murray S. Martin. Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Pr. (Foundations in Library and Informa- tion Science, 31), 1995. 193p. $78.50. ISBN 1-55938-608-8. LC 95-4503. Most of the fourteen articles in this col- lection were first presented as papers at the 1991 Charleston Conference on Issues in Book and Serial Acquisitions. Although the focus of the volume is on academic libraries, issues such as shrinking budgets and new technologies are ones that all libraries face as they try to adapt to an ever-changing and complex environment. Volume editor and series coeditor Murray Martin states in his introduction that the pur- pose of this book is to provide all librar- ians with models that may help in deal- ing with today’s problems. The book is organized into four sec- tions. The two lead articles comprising the first section approach long-stand- ing library issues from a theoretical and philosophical perspective. In his pro- vocative essay, Richard Abel, who has had many years of experience in library bookselling, explores the distinction be- tween information and knowledge, and proposes changes for restoring their balance. He correlates information with the journal and knowledge with the book, and suggests that by restoring the ratio of materials budgets in favor of books, we will at least begin to solve some of the problems that have beset librarians for years. Clifford Lynch, an expert in the area of library automation, explores the fi- nancial implications of shifting from printed to electronic reference sources. He suggests that improved reference services through the use of networked databases are likely to reduce individual purchases of both the print and elec- tronic versions of these reference tools, and thus may create serious economic issues for not only libraries and pub- lishers, but also the entire marketplace. The remaining three sections consist of articles that identify a variety of is- sues related to collection management Book Reviews 281 in academic libraries, and present prac- tical suggestions and strategies for han- dling these issues. Each section is pre- ceded by a short overview essay. The thread that binds all three sections to- gether is the need for communication and collaboration, whether among li- brary functions or departments, be- tween library and faculty, or among the library, the publisher, and the distribu- tor. The four articles comprising the sec- tion on acquisitions and collection de- velopment all relate to the selection process and how it permeates all other library functions. Martin looks at acqui- sitions and collection development as integral and equally important parts of an organic whole. Donna Cohen pre- sents a strong case for using regular and systematic serials review as a col- lection management tool. Ron Ray em- phasizes the necessity for expanding the vendor selection process as more responsibilities seem to be shifted from the library to the vendor. Cultural di- versity as a collection development tool is the topic of the section’s last essay. Rachelle Moore and Harry Llull remind us that building ethnic collections ad- dresses only one cultural diversity is- sue, which is embedded primarily in the humanities and social sciences. Equally important are issues of scientific lit- eracy, patron involvement, and level of materials. The next section focuses on faculty involvement in the selection process as being essential for fostering under- standing between the library and the faculty. Two successful faculty liaison models are described, one by Andrea Testi for a science and engineering li- brary and the other by Sever Bordeianu for all teaching departments of a uni- versity. Connie Wu tells about an effec- tive journal cancellation project that could not have taken place without close faculty involvement. The need for ongoing communica- tion is reinforced even further in the fi- nal group of articles, which deals with the relationship between libraries and the world of publishing. The library’s need for accurate information from pub- lishers through vendors is emphasized by Arlene Sievers, whereas Joe Hewitt suggests that both vendors and publish- ers can glean important insights into the needs of libraries by asking the right questions in surveys and question- naires. Glen Secor suggests that areas of contention, such as that of preferen- tial discounts, between university presses and vendors could be elimi- nated by brainstorming about mutual interests, rather than clinging to oppos- ing positions. John Smith emphasizes the need for libraries to realize that ven- dors can only be expected to solve prob- lems dealing with their area of exper- tise, namely, the distribution of materi- als. Julia Gammon describes how she brings her experience as a librarian to the publishing world. The greatest value of this collection of articles lies in its practical nature. All of us who work in academic libraries are confronted with similar issues every day as boundaries between library func- tions become more blurred and the pub- lishing world becomes more multifac- eted and complex. The problems are not new, and the authors do not necessar- ily have answers or solutions. What they do contribute are fresh insights and alternative ways of looking at these problems. These are not isolated issues that relate only to individual libraries or library/vendor/publisher relationships but, rather, issues that affect all of us. The information in this volume is well organized and clearly presented. Al- though the references are already somewhat dated, Martin does state that the original papers of the 1991 confer- ence were updated for this book. My one criticism concerns the poor quality of graphics in one of the articles and insufficient proofreading, especially at 282 College & Research Libraries May 1997 the beginning of the book, resulting in some garbled words and faulty sen- tence structure. These criticisms aside, the book is well worth reading by any- one involved in selecting, buying, sup- plying, or publishing library materials. As Martin summarizes so well: “all par- ticipants in the collection management process would benefit from having more information about the other play- ers. They are not in a zero-sum game where someone must lose and some- one win, but in a partnership where all can do better by knowing more about the other partners. By improving com- munication and taking a broader view, publishers, vendors, and librarians can improve the ways in which information and knowledge are packaged, distrib- uted, and used. This is particularly de- sirable in what promises, for some time to come, to be a very tight financial set- ting for libraries.”—Maija M. Lutz, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachu- setts The Social Role of Higher Education: Com- parative Perspectives. Eds. Ken Kempner and William G. Tierney. New York: Garland Pub. (Garland Reference Li- brary of Social Science, 988; Garland Studies in Higher Education, 7), 1996. 215p. $40 alk. paper. ISBN 0-8153- 1765-4. LC 96-16423. This is a book of case studies of higher education in different national contexts. The cases are taken from seven coun- tries and one region (Central America), and many are written by scholars from the countries themselves. The editors begin with a chapter that outlines a theo- retical perspective on what they define as the “organizational culture” of higher education. An ambitious description of the organizational culture is quickly pro- vided on the very first page of the book: it consists of the missions, symbols and communication, strategy, environment, and knowledge production within uni- versities. This framework leads one to expect a strongly comparative volume, but the editors note that the articles are, for the most part, focused on the na- tional political context of education, es- pecially the way academic work inter- acts with different national histories and agendas. Some of these histories and agen- das are described as cultural themes or values, especially in the case of Ja- pan and Thailand. Although they pro- vide interesting reading, national and cultural themes are difficult to pin down, as scholars of “national character stud- ies” during the Second World War found. For example, the intuitive in- sights of Japanese culture described by Ruth Benedict in The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946) enthralled readers dur- ing and after the war, yet such studies were soon abandoned. Characterizing the national character of any country was too often only a repetition of the values and ideals expressed by the up- per classes and the ideal literary heri- tage of a country. Still, there is a temp- tation, given into in this book, to charac- terize Mexican, Finnish, or Japanese culture as having core values, even to- day in a world of nation-states that sometimes come apart at the seams. The editors foresaw criticisms of the cultural theme approach of many chap- ters, and so refer to the case studies as “interpretive” social science. Reading interpretive work is always fascinating, and this book is no exception. Each chap- ter is like a new journey to a distant land, though the itinerary to these different lands is not very clear. The cases were chosen by opportu- nities of scholarship rather than by a theoretical logic because there is no common theme or structure that relates them together. Some cases are from Latin America (Mexico, Chile, Central America, and Costa Rica), and the oth- ers are from disparate countries around the globe, including Japan, Thailand, Australia, and Finland. Although each << /ASCII85EncodePages false /AllowTransparency false /AutoPositionEPSFiles true /AutoRotatePages /All /Binding /Left /CalGrayProfile (Dot Gain 20%) /CalRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CalCMYKProfile (U.S. Web Coated \050SWOP\051 v2) /sRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CannotEmbedFontPolicy /Warning /CompatibilityLevel 1.3 /CompressObjects /Tags /CompressPages true /ConvertImagesToIndexed true /PassThroughJPEGImages true /CreateJobTicket false /DefaultRenderingIntent /Default /DetectBlends true /DetectCurves 0.0000 /ColorConversionStrategy /CMYK /DoThumbnails false /EmbedAllFonts true /EmbedOpenType false /ParseICCProfilesInComments true /EmbedJobOptions true /DSCReportingLevel 0 /EmitDSCWarnings false /EndPage -1 /ImageMemory 1048576 /LockDistillerParams false /MaxSubsetPct 1 /Optimize true /OPM 1 /ParseDSCComments true /ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo true /PreserveCopyPage true /PreserveDICMYKValues true /PreserveEPSInfo true /PreserveFlatness false /PreserveHalftoneInfo true /PreserveOPIComments false /PreserveOverprintSettings true /StartPage 1 /SubsetFonts false /TransferFunctionInfo /Apply /UCRandBGInfo /Preserve /UsePrologue false /ColorSettingsFile () /AlwaysEmbed [ true ] /NeverEmbed [ true ] /AntiAliasColorImages false /CropColorImages false /ColorImageMinResolution 151 /ColorImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleColorImages true /ColorImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /ColorImageResolution 300 /ColorImageDepth -1 /ColorImageMinDownsampleDepth 1 /ColorImageDownsampleThreshold 1.10000 /EncodeColorImages true /ColorImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterColorImages true /ColorImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /ColorACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /ColorImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000ColorImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasGrayImages false /CropGrayImages false /GrayImageMinResolution 151 /GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 300 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.10000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /GrayImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000GrayImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasMonoImages false /CropMonoImages false /MonoImageMinResolution 600 /MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 1200 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.16667 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict << /K -1 >> /AllowPSXObjects false /CheckCompliance [ /None ] /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false /PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile () /PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier () /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName () /PDFXTrapped /False /CreateJDFFile false /Description << /ENU (IPC Print Services, Inc. Please use these settings with InDesign CS4 \(6.x\). These settings should work well for every type of job; B/W, Color or Spot Color. Contact Pre-press Helpdesk at prepress_helpdesk@ipcprintservices.com if you have questions or need customized settings.) >> /Namespace [ (Adobe) (Common) (1.0) ] /OtherNamespaces [ << /AsReaderSpreads false /CropImagesToFrames true /ErrorControl /WarnAndContinue /FlattenerIgnoreSpreadOverrides false /IncludeGuidesGrids false /IncludeNonPrinting false /IncludeSlug false /Namespace [ (Adobe) (InDesign) (4.0) ] /OmitPlacedBitmaps false /OmitPlacedEPS false /OmitPlacedPDF false /SimulateOverprint /Legacy >> << /AddBleedMarks true /AddColorBars false /AddCropMarks true /AddPageInfo true /AddRegMarks false /BleedOffset [ 9 9 9 9 ] /ConvertColors /ConvertToCMYK /DestinationProfileName (U.S. Web Coated \(SWOP\) v2) /DestinationProfileSelector /DocumentCMYK /Downsample16BitImages true /FlattenerPreset << /ClipComplexRegions true /ConvertStrokesToOutlines true /ConvertTextToOutlines true /GradientResolution 300 /LineArtTextResolution 1200 /PresetName ([High Resolution]) /PresetSelector /HighResolution /RasterVectorBalance 1 >> /FormElements false /GenerateStructure false /IncludeBookmarks false /IncludeHyperlinks false /IncludeInteractive false /IncludeLayers false /IncludeProfiles true /MarksOffset 9 /MarksWeight 0.250000 /MultimediaHandling /UseObjectSettings /Namespace [ (Adobe) (CreativeSuite) (3.0) ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfileSelector /NA /PageMarksFile /RomanDefault /PreserveEditing true /UntaggedCMYKHandling /LeaveUntagged /UntaggedRGBHandling /UseDocumentProfile /UseDocumentBleed false >> << /AllowImageBreaks true /AllowTableBreaks true /ExpandPage false /HonorBaseURL true /HonorRolloverEffect false /IgnoreHTMLPageBreaks false /IncludeHeaderFooter false /MarginOffset [ 0 0 0 0 ] /MetadataAuthor () /MetadataKeywords () /MetadataSubject () /MetadataTitle () /MetricPageSize [ 0 0 ] /MetricUnit /inch /MobileCompatible 0 /Namespace [ (Adobe) (GoLive) (8.0) ] /OpenZoomToHTMLFontSize false /PageOrientation /Portrait /RemoveBackground false /ShrinkContent true /TreatColorsAs /MainMonitorColors /UseEmbeddedProfiles false /UseHTMLTitleAsMetadata true >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /HWResolution [2400 2400] /PageSize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice