lib-s-mocs-kmc364-20141005044228


BOOK REVIEWS 
Die Elektronische Datenverarbeitung im 
Bibliothekswesen. By Paul Niewalda. 
Muenchen-Pullach, Berlin, Verlag Doku-
mentation, 1971. (Bibliothekspraxis, 1) 

As the first volume in a new series called 
Bibliothekspraxis (Library Practice), V er-
lag Dokumentation has published a short 
monograph on library automation by Paul 
N iewalda, of the University Library of 
Regensburg. Niewalda has written an in-
troductory text, in German, condensing the 
standard, largely American, literature on 
the subject. His treatment is concise, well-
written, and · well-organized. Computer 
capabilities, and existing library applica-
tions in the United States and elsewhere, 
are carefully delineated. The text is 
thoroughly documented, with a large num-
ber of notes and a useful bibliography in-
cluded. 

The book addresses itself to the German 
reader and, in fact, much is already fa-
miliar to American librarians. Yet Nie-
walda's frequent references to the ·Euro-
pean, particularly the German, library 
automation scene enhance the book's value. 
The author is clearly well informed both 
about library automation in general, and 
about local practice and problems. He 
brings to his task common sense and sound 
judgment. 

The work is recommended to those 
readers having a general interest in foreign 
developments in the field of library auto-
mation. 

S. Micha Namenwirth 
University of California, 
Berkeley 

DictionanJ of Library Science, Information 
and Documentation in Six Languages. 
Compiled and artanged by W. E. Clason. 
Amsterdam: Elsevier Scientific Publ. Co., 
1973. 

The Basic Table, a numbered list of en-
tries for 5,439 English language words and 
phrases, alphabetically arranged, forms the 
body of the Dictionary of Library Science, 
Information and Documentation. Each en-
try consists ·Of a serial number, the English 
term (American and/or British), equiva-
lents in French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch; 
and German, and a code identifying the 

Book Reviews 123 

vocabulary with which the term is asso-
ciated. Hence, there are separate entries 
for volume as a book trade or library term 
and as an information processing term. 
Many entries are augmented by brief defi-
nitions. English synonyms are also fre-
quently given; in general these are terms 
from which references have been made. 
In such cases entry is under the synonym 
which files first. This practice produces 
some apparently eccentric choices; e.g., 
pseudonym, see allonym; UDC, see Brus-
sels system. 

Following the Basic ' Table are indexes 
for the five non-English languages. Nu-
merical references are given to Basic Table 
entries in which the index term is cited. 
German Band is found not only in the 
first volume entry mentioned above but 
also in the bookbinding and information 
processing entries for tape. 

Criteria employed for the selection of 
entries are unexplained. IBM's Data Pro-·' 
cessing Glossary and the American Na-
tional Standard Vocabulary for Information 
Processing appear to have been important 
sources of information processing terms. 
The glossary in Anglo-American Catalog-
ing Rules was evidently not used. It is 
clear that some of the source lists used 
were in other languages. 

The juxtaposition of related vocabularies 
which often put the same words to differ-
ent uses presents difficulties which the ap-
proach taken here seems capable of han-
dling. Nevertheless the work as executed 
has flaws which reduce its effectiveness. 
The notions of synonymy and nonsynony-
my among the English terms are puzzling. 
Definitions are frequently unclear and oc-
casionally wrong. There are cases in which 
the non-English equivalents for a single' 
term are certainly not synonymous with 
each other. The utility of the mdexes 
would be enhanced if the number of non-
English synonyms given were greater. 

However, if approached with care, the 
volume can ·provide much useful informa-
tion. In works of this type it is probably 
unfair to expect perfection. Besides, a dic-
tionary which manages to encompass both 
negative entropy (information theory) and 
scrivener's palstJ (authors and authorship) 
has to be interesting, at least. 

Charles W. Husbands 
Harvard Universitv Library