lib-MOCS-KMC364-20140103102946 103 BOOK REVIEWS Libraries in New York City, edited by Molly Herman. New York: Columbia University School of Library Service, 1971. 214 pp. $3.50. This guide to libraries in New York is comprehensive, and the description of each library is thorough. Pages 184 and 185 list libraries in which there are active and significant automation projects. Frederick G. Kilgour COBOL Logic and Programming, by Fritz A. McCameron, Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1970. 254 pp. $6.00. This book provides a good introduction to COBOL, although the author implies that COBOL logic is different from ·other computer language logics. However, many examples are included in the text to illustrate new com- mands and there are numerous review questions, exercises and problems in each chapter. The problems of later chapters build on the logical designs presented earlier. Thus, the reader can follow a problem from analysis through solution. The book would be a more useful self-instruction guide as well as textbook if the answers to recall questions and exercises were given. A sound understanding of COBOL should be gained from solving the fairly sophisticated problems at the end of the book. One unique and useful idea is the inclusion of coding sheet, punch card, printout, test data and output facsimiles. The most serious drawback of this book in regard to library automation is its obvious slant toward business applications. While the COBOL com- mands presented are sufficient for most applications, there is no mention of character manipulation commands such as EXAMINE, with TALLYING and REPLACING options. In addition, problems are oriented toward bookkeeping and inventory controls. Valerie ]. Ryder Die Universitii.tsbibliothek auf der Industrieausstellung: 1. Wissen auf Abruf. 16 pp. 2. Dokumentation-lnformation. 16 pp. Berlin: Universitats- bibliothek der Technischen Universitiit Berlin, 1970. No price. This constitutes a report (in two parts) of the contribution of the Library of the Technical University of West Berlin to the official German Industrial Exposition held September 27 to October 6, 1968. The Library's special exhibit was part of a section labeled: "Quality through Research and De- velopment." It attempted to give a synoptic view of modern library proce- 104 Journal of Library Automation Vol. 4/2 June, 1971 dures and their value for improving science library services. The examples demonstrated emphasized document acquisition procedures and the various readers' services. A total area of approximately 600 square feet was divided into two rooms, one showing technical equipment and the other, besides housing a TWX-terminal, was furnished as a reference reading room. The terminal connected the exhibit area with the reference department of the Library of the Technical University. Graphic charts on the walls explained functions of the typical science library in Germany and the kinds of services offered. No fundamental differences from the situation in other Western countries, especially the USA, can be pointed out. It may be mentioned here that West Germany has an efficient organization of Union Catalogs, one for almost every State (Bavaria, Wiirtemberg Baden including Palatin- ate, Hessen, Nordrhein-Westphalia, Hamburg, and West-Berlin). Inter- library loan requests go first to a region's Union Catalog and from there, when the item is traced within the region, to the appropriate lending library, which forwards the item or copy to the requesting library. Non-traceable titles are automatically sent on to a neighboring State's Union Catalog, and so on, until the item is found and sent to the requesting library. Reader/ copier machines for different systems of micronized text material were displayed and could be operated by the visitors. Under the title "document circulation" the application of EDP methods were shown, using machine readable paper tape for borrowing records. The system described was an off-line one, using (presumably daily) lists of the updated circulation master file. Other graphic charts described the automated document re- trieval system installed at the library of the Technical Institute of Delft, Netherlands, and the integrated library system of Euratom in Ispra, Italy, which includes a Selected Dissemination of Information Service. Computer generated bookform catalogs of monographic and serials records of other West German science libraries were on display, together with information dealing with the European Translations Center in Delft, which records all scientific translations and publishes "World Index of Scientific Translations." A film showing the operation of the National Lending Library of Great Britain was demonstrated. Literature analysis, recording, storing, and retrieval are the topics of the second part of the report. Electromechanical documentation methods using punch cards, and more often punch paper tape, with their corresponding machinery for selecting and writing back records, were shown under operating conditions. A computer based automatic information retrieval system, developed by Siemens on the hardware of the current RCA Spectra 70 computer series was also exhibited. The system named "Golem" claims to have some advantages over the MEDLARS I system of the National Library of Medicine. It is operational at Siemens/ EDP Headquarters in Munich. Richard A. Polacsek Book Reviews 105 MARC Manuals used by the Library of Congres~> , prepared by the Informa- tion Systems Office, Library of Congress. 2d ed. Chicago: Information Science and Automation Division, American Library Association, 1970. 70, 318, 26, 18 p. This second edition contains the same four manuals as did the first, issued in 1969, although the titles of some of the individual manuals have been changed. The manuals are: 1. Books: A MARC Format. 4th ed., April 1970 (formerly the Subscriber's Guide to the MARC Distt·ibution Service. 3d ed.) 2. Data Preparation Manual: MARC Editors. 3d ed., April 1970. 3. Transcription Manual: MARC Typists. 2d ed., April 1970. 4. Computer and Magnetic Tape Unit Usability Study. The fourth manual has been reproduced unchanged from the 1969 edition. The third, which contains the keyboarding procedures designed to convert bibliographic data into machine readable form, has been given a subtitle and completely revised to apply to a different keying device, the IBM MT /ST, Model V. It is the first two manuals, however, which will attract the widest con- tinuing study outside of the Library of Congress. Both manuals have been updated. Significant changes from the previous edition of each are indi- cated in the margin by a double asterisk at the point where the revision was made. No indication is made of deletions, however. Thus, users who look for field 652, which was described in the earlier edition, will not find it; nor will they find any instructions directing them to fields 651 and 610, which contain the material formerly placed in that discontinued field, although both 651 and 610 are provided with o o to indicate that they contain new material. Among the additions to the first manual are provisions for Greek, sub- script, and superscript characters, and a revision of the 001 field to take into account both the old and the new L.C. card numbering systems. Among the deletions is the table showing the ASCII 8-bit HEX and 6-bit OCTAL in EBCDIC HEX sequence. The editors' manual contains the procedures followed by the MARC editors in preparing data for conversion to machine readable form. While the first edition of the MARC Manuals contained the first edition of this particular manual, a second edition was issued in July 1969 for internal use within the Library of Congress. This third edition is essentially the same as the second edition with minor revisions such as the addition of examples and clarifying statements, a few new instructions, and corrections of typographical errors. The double asterisks in this manual refer to changes from the second edition, not from the first, so that owners of the first edition will have to make their own comparisons to see where the third edition differs from the first. Among the new, non-asterisked, materials included that did not appear in the first edition are a discussion of other (non-LC) subject headings on 106 Journal of Library Automation Vol. 4/2 June, 1971 pp. 111-114 and of romanized titles on pp. 131-132. The third edition also contains several new appendices covering diacritics and special characters, sequence numbers, and correction procedures. While the editors' manual is designed chiefly for use by the editors at L.C., it has great value for MARC users. In many places it provides an expansion and explanation of material treated much more briefly in the first manual, Books: A MARC Format. Examples of this clarification are the discussion of fixed fields in the editors' manual and its explanation of the alternative entry indicator in the 700 fields, which is merely listed in the first manual. The editors' manual also contains material that does not appear in the first manual, such as the alphabetic alternatives for the numeric tags (which I find more confusing and less memorable than the numeric ones). While only a year intervened between the appearance of the first and second editions of the MARC Manuals, enough changes have been made to make the new edition a necessary purchase for all those actively involved in the use of MARC records. Provision of an index would, however, have facilitated its use. Judith Hopkins Computers in Knowledge Based Fields, by Charles A. Myers. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1970. 136 pp. $6.95. A Joint Project of the Industrial Relations Section, Sloan School of Manage- ment, MIT and the Inter-University Study of Labor Problems in Economic Development. The author has written previously on the impact of computers on manage- ment. In the current study on the implications of technological change and automation he has selected five areas-Formal Education and Educa- tional Administration; Library Systems; Legal Services; Medical and Hos- pital Service; National and Centralized Local Data Banks. In this book he is trying to answer such questions as what needs prompted the use of computers, what are the initial applications and what problems were encountered, what affect does the use of computers have on the work performed and what resistance was encountered to their introduction. He also posed the question: Can anything be said about comparative costs of computer based programs as compared with other programs? The answer appears to be "no" or "not yet." The chapter on libraries deals primarily with Project INTREX and thus fails to give an overview of developments in library systems which are operational. The other chapters offer a review of planned and operational projects as of 1968-69. Stephen E. Furth Book Reviews 107 Libraries and Cultural Change, Ronald C. Benge ( Hamden, Connecticut and London:) Archon Books & Clive Bingley ( 1970 ). 278 pp. $9.00. This work is intended primarily to serve library students as an introduc- tion to a consideration of the place of the library in society, with suggestions for further reading. The author is hopeful that it may be of interest to a wider audience, and it is. Mr. Benge has taught in library schools in the Caribbean, West Africa, England and Wales. This experience is reflected in his approach to a discussion of the social background of library work. Although, as he points out, it is possible to establish connections of many kinds, and libraries might be convincingly connected with witchcraft or the illegitimacy rate or pre- historic man, yet more meaningful connections must be sought, and he has selected not only culture, but cultural change, as the basis. Further, in his several discussions he has tried to commence with the cultural back- ground and then to note the possible implications for librarianship, rather than to follow the more usual method of commencing with libraries and showing the relevance to them of social forces and other institutions. A listing of a few of Mr. Benge's fourteen chapter-headings will suggest his development of his theme: "The Clash of Cultures", "Mass Communi- cations", "Censorship", "The Impact of Technology", "Philosophies of Librarianship". Each chapter is an urbane essay in the editor's easy-chair manner, a monolog in which the author introduces the reader to that part of the universe that can be viewed through the arch over which the par- ticular chapter-title is inscribed, and relates it to the work of the library. Mr. Benge is infmmative ( he is up-to-date on all manner of matters; e.g., he has been reading Library College and he knows about High John), he is occasionally witty and often convincing. As the basis for class-room discussion his work is perhaps also as stimulating as a propaedeutic should be, but lacking such discussion I doubt this attribute. I find that to stimulate, a book must organize the field of discussion. For me Mr. Ben~e fails to do so. I find his essays agreeable, with occasional bons mots ('Young people, like books, must be preserved for the future "; "Guinea pigs are happy creatures") but, like other conversational literature, it leaves me with a general euphoria but unsatisfied logic. For example, the final chapter ("Philosophies of Librarianship" ) starts out bravely by questioning the relevance of theory but concludes feebly that what is needed to explain librarianship is perhaps a new integration of traditional custodial principles, the missionary approach, and the rationale of a personal reference service. References from other than the Anglo-American culture-sphere are few; the book would have gained greatly from more. We here in JLAUAY are naturally interested to hear what Mr. Benge has to say on "The Impact of Technology". In this chapter-regrettably- he abandons his method of social background first and relevance for libraries 108 journal of Library Automation Vol. 4/2 June, 1971 afterward, and simply notes the direct impact of technology on libraries, mainly in the UK. He concludes that "There can be no doubt that the information crisis does exist and that traditional reference or retrieval methods have not solved it. There is chaos, duplication and waste. What I have tried to suggest here is that on the evidence to date, we cannot yet be sure that machine retrieval is the answer" ( p . 175). There are misprints, to be sure, neither unusually numerous or serious, with one exception. Dr. Vannevar Bush's name (p. 182) has been mangled, and is, moreover, omitted from the Name Index. Verner W. Clapp Serial Publications in Large Libraries, edited by Walter C. Allen. Urbana, Ill.: Graduate School of Library Science, University of Illinois, 1970. 194 pp. $4.50. Handling of serial publications was the topic of the sixteenth Allerton Park Institute held in November 1969; the papers are published in this slim volume. Almost every paper offers a number of controversial and provoca- tive ideas which must have evoked interested and interesting reactions. The subsequent discussions are not reported. Problems of serials-the librarian's basket of snakes-are identified and analyzed from selection and acquisition through check-in, cataloging, bind- ing, shelf arrangement, abstracting and indexing, to machine applications. The papers cover this gamut well and in most cases provide a good view of the state of the art. Recurrent themes are the significant role of serials in today's information flow, the urgency of the problems (though the content is long on agony and short on therapy), and the necessity for bearing in mind the user's rather than the librarian's convenience where both cannot be accommodated when reaching for solutions. Donald Hammer's paper on computer aided operations provides a good introduction and overview of automated serials systems, with some helpful hints to beginners in the field. Microfilm technology and machine reada.ble commercial abstracting and indexing services are touched on by Warren Kuhn and Bill Woods, but each topic deserves more thorough treatment in separate papers. Too few of the speakers proposed specific research in their areas; where such long-standing problems exist, some well-directed suggestions might elicit useful studies. The book should be useful to library schools as good coverage of a seldom detailed problem operation, to librarians entering the challenging maelstrom of serials handling, and to those already overinvolved who might be refreshed by the longer view. The poor proofreading is a minor flaw. Mary jane Reed Book Reviews 109 Training in Indexing: A Course of the Society of Indexers, edited by G. Norman Knight. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The M. I. T. Press, 1969. 219 pp. $7.95. To this reviewer, who h ad struggled through the compilation of one annual index to the Journal of Library Automation with the aid of scarce, unrelated, and out-of-date books and periodicals on the subject of indexing, this thorough, well-written volume, aimed at the neophyte indexer, came as a godsend. It comprises a series of lectures, by master practitioners of the craft, sponsored by the Society of Indexers. That authors and audience were chiefly British d etracts not a whit from the book's usefulness to Americans. Two introductory chapters b y Robert L. Collison on the elements of book indexing are followed by twelve on specific treatment of those ele- ments and of different types of material. Chapters on indexing p eriodicals, scientific and technical material will particularly interest readers of lOLA. Exercises, a selected bibliography, and an index that also serves as an illustration of points in the text, enhance the usefulness of this book to the beginner. It should be equally useful to an indexer of no matter how much experience, for , as Collison emphasizes in his opening statement, indexing is still in an elementary stage, there are no common rules on which all indexers agree, and everyone considers himself his own authority on how an index should b e arranged and what should go into it. In treating a subject that might seem to the layman to lend itself all too readily to the cut-and-dried approach, the authors have brought a delightful measure of flexibility, wit and imagination. At no point do they lose sight of the fact that the indexing of books, like the writing of them, is a very human endeavor. Eleano1· M. Kilgour Reader in Library Services and the Computer, edited by Louis Kaplan. Washington, D. C.: NCR Microcard Editions, 1971. 239 pp. $9.95. This volume contains a couple of dozen reprints, mostly of articles. The Reader is not intended for those doing research and d evelopment in library automation, but rather for librarians and library students who wish to familiarize themselves with the subject. The quality of the articles is high. In general, they present a conservative position, which is not to say that they oppose library automation. Rather, they inform the reader of positive action to be taken and in so doing impart understanding. Within this conservative fram ework, however, various view- points are expressed. Seven subjects group the articles: The Challenge ( three articles); Varie- ties of Response (six ); Theory of Management (one); New Services (six) ; Catalogs and the Computer ( two ); Copyright (one ); and Information Retrieval Testing ( six ) . The R eader is not a book in the sense that a book 110 Journal of Library Automation Vol. 4/ 2 June, 1971 contains a central theme. It is likely that the R eader will be used for its sections rather than in its entirety, but that is the manner in which one expects to use a reader. Anyone who so uses it will be enlightened. The Reader has but one serious shortcoming. It is devoid of an index. This deficit will seriously hamper consultation of the book. Frederick G. Kilgour Automation Management: The Social Perspective, ed. by Ellis L. Scott and Roger W. Bolz. Athens, Ga., Center for the Study of Automation and Society, University of Georgia, 1970. (Second Annual Georgia-Reliance Symposium) $5.75. Sixteen papers are presented at this symposium by a variety of authors from labor, management, academe, etc. As in all collections of papers, they are uneven in quality. The preface of the symposium states that the "1970 Symposium focused on the problem of automation management, from a social perspective, as it relates to industry, education, labor and govern- ment." The papers reflect ideas concerning the need for training and retraining, and for preparing people for automation by having them participate in the decision-making process. Three papers on the effects of automation use economic analysis based upon the Gross National Product and other labor and business indicators and find that the changes predicted for auto- mation in terms of joblessness and increased productivity are unfounded, although some questions are asked about the validity of the figures used to make these assumptions. There are interesting formulations on the nature of change and innovation and the time lag between basic research and industrial application. Gordon Carson's paper expressly attacks the issue of automation in libraries and in education. Dr. Carson sees one of the problems as the library's print media orientation when the other senses, such as hearing, could also be used. Libraries are also attacked on the basis of how they measure effectiveness, i.e., the number of volumes on the shelf, rather than "the speed with which information can be retrieved from that library and placed in the hands of him who needs to use it." This methodology for measuring effectiveness is changing presently, so that the need expressed by Dr. Carson may be met. In conclusion, Dr. Carson states that there are "three essential areas in which automation can be exceptionally helpful in higher education. These are as follows: 1 ) Improved teaching techniques including auto- didactic learning systems; 2 ) registration, fee payment and curriculum planning .. . ; 3) libraries-information retrieval." Although in a way many papers in this volume skirt the periphery of the effects of change and how to create it, it is worthwhile reading on the whole. Henry Voos Book Reviews 111 Interlibrary Loan Involving Academic Libraries, by Sarah Katharine Thom- son. Chicago: American Library Association, 1970. (ACRL Monograph, 32). viii/127 pp. $5.00. Interlibrary Loan Pmcedure Manual, by Sarah Katharine Thomson. Chi- cago: American Library Association, 1970. xi/116 pp. $4.50. Interlibrary Loan Involving Academic Libraries is a summary version of "a normative survey of current interlibrary loan practices in academic libraries in the United States." It makes surprisingly compulsive reading for anyone who has worked much with interlibrary loans, and might be an eye-opener for those who haven't. (The original, complete version appeared in 1967 as a Columbia University DLS dissertation.) Much of it documents or corroborates the feelings (or suspicions) of busy, experienced interlibrary loan staff; some of it is new and surprising; and doubtless many of the same patterns and trends hold true today. Dr. Thomson, working primarily with data reported by academic libraries to the U.S. Office of Education in 1963-64, results of intensive analysis of a sample of 5895 interlibrary loan requests (drawn from a total of 60,000 received by eight major university libraries in 1963-64 and 1964-65 ), and information from several question- naires, presents a clear picture of who borrowed what from whom, how often; staffing and time required; distribution patterns of requests by size and location of library, type of reader; sources of difficulty, delay and failure; factors predictive of fast and efficient service; and a number of other variables. Her results and conclusions are presented clearly, with supportive or illustrative statistics, graphs, correlations, and other tables. Chapter 14 offers recommendations of librarians for increasing the pro- portion of interlibrary loan requests fill ed. Suggestions and recommenda- tions resulting from Dr. Thomson's study were incorporated in, or influenced the drafters of, the 1968 National Interlibrary Loan Code, the model regional or state code, and the 1968 interlibrary loan request form. Dr. Thomson estimates that interlibrary loan requests involving academic libraries are well over the million mark by now, and refers to a 1965 study which reports large libraries estimating they are unable to fill about one- third of the requests they receive. It is to be hoped that some of the worst faults in interlibrary loan requests have been mitigated by the revised codes, revised form s, and better education of interlibrary loan assistants. The new procedures manual should help, too. Perusing this monograph should foster greater awareness and understanding of the dimensions and problems of interlibrary loan service. Now, if only we had an up-to-date cost study .... Who profits from the appearance of the Interlibrary Loan Procedure Manual? Not merely ILL novices, whether new clerical assistants or young librarians faced with setting up, reorganizing, or streamlining inter- library loan routines. It has value for the old ILL hand, checking up on established routines to be sure no sloppiness has crept in ; for the library school student, as an early exposure to good library cooperation manners, 112 Journal of Library Automation Vol. 4/2 June, 1971 as well as a basic step-by-step indoctrination in "how to do it"; for recipient libraries, whose time and patience would be much less strained were all requestors to follow these elementary, commonsense, too often ignored recommendations; and last, not least, the library's patron, whose needs will be filled faster, more economically, with fewer false starts. A wealth of practical detail has been packed into these pages-a plethora of detail, some might complain, confusing the beginner and boring the experienced. But a procedure manual by definition tries to incorporate every stroke and serif of A to Z. Simple solutions to that complaint are re-reading, and/or judicious scanning. The manual includes annotated texts of the 1968 National Interlibrary Loan Code and the Model regional or special Code; primer-type instructions for borrowing and requesting librar- ies (including concise sections on special puzzlers such as academic theses, government publications, technical reports, materials in non-roman alpha- bets); and consideration of related, often problematical areas such as photocopy, copyright and reprinting, location requests, teletype requests, purchase of dissertations, and international loans. Useful appendices (e.g., sample forms, some library policy statements, the text of the IFLA Inter- national Loan Code), a bibliography and a detailed index complete the work. Chapter levels vary of necessity. For the novice, the teletype request chapter may seem too brief or confusing, yet several appendices (for instance ) will be of interest even to the seasoned ILL assistant. Through- out, the effort has been for clarity, coverage, explicitness. The cost of an interlibrary loan transaction is too great to indulge sloppy, inefficient, or idiosyncratic procedures, and this manual is therefore required reading for all involved in interlibrary loans, and a copy should be at the elbow of every new clerical assistant. Elizabeth Rumics