College and Research Libraries (7) At what level of efficiency is scanning of journals done?, etc. T h e other functions, covered in Chapter I I I , are review of the state of the art, estab- lishing reliability of a source, redirecting attention to different approaches or aspects, eliciting feedback from other scientists, help- ing to assess the position of a topic within the current research market. T h e topics for research suggested in this chapter are: (1) What is incidence of communications serv- ing the function? (2) How many of these involve forms of communication that are problematical? (3) How important to sci- ence were these experiences? (4) How did they come about? and (5) What are the corresponding experiences of those who lacked easy access to these sources? Chapter IV, which provides supplemen- tary comments on the main channels of communication, points out that the aver- age number of journals read is thirteen, that biochemical and chemical literature is dispersed less than zoological literature. Similar miscellaneous notes are included on reviews, abstract journals, conferences, and personal contacts. This study is interesting in that it rep- resents an attempt by trained social scien- tists to develop a clearer statement of the nature of the problems of scientific com- munication and to isolate those that might profitably be studied. Unfortunately, despite the stress laid on isolating non-conventional forms of communication, there is little ex- posed here that is not common knowledge among the practitioners in the field of spe- cial library work or documentation, and the program of investigation might have prof- ited from using the current management engineering technique of including in the survey team at least one person who is com- petent in the discipline being investigated. T h e fundamental problem in this type of approach to the problem of scientific com- munication is that it attempts to derive re- liable data from the consensus of a group that does not include specialists in the field in which they are being queried. This, like asking visiting bankers what they think of the cooking on railway dining cars, may elicit consensus but may not necessarily point to valid action. This is best exempli- fied in the discussion of review journals (p. 140-145) in which of fifty-three men asked to list the distinguishing features of good and bad reviews, twenty-nine failed to give any and those that did give features for identifying bad reviews couched them in such general language as to be meaning- less in operational terms. Probably one of the most important fea- tures of this report is its recognition of the limitations of the method, or perhaps even the questions, in view of "the nature of specialization among the basic research- ers. . . ."—Ralph R. Shaw, Graduate School of Library Service, Rutgers University. Dorking Conference Proceedings of the International Study Con- ference on Classification for Information Retrieval. Held at Beatrice Webb House, Dorking, England, 13th-17th May, 1957. London: Aslib; New York: Pergamon Press, 1957. 147p. T h e Proceedings of the International Study Conference on Classification for Informa- tion Retrieval, held at Beatrice Webb House, Dorking, England, May 13-17, 1957, makes widely available the principal addresses, discussions, conclusions, and recommenda- tions of the Conference. T h e forty invited participants represented a broad national spectrum including France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Unesco, the Unit- ed Kingdom, and the United States. Invited representatives from the Soviet sphere did not attend. It seems possible that the long-range sig- nificance of the Dorking Conference will not emanate so much from its own sub- stantive achievements. T h e limitations of conferences of this kind in terms of valid research achievement are obvious. But as pragmatic devices to create a more conducive mental environment for cooperative research in needed areas, conferences of this kind find a level of reality and usefulness. In this sense, the addresses themselves at Dorking may be regarded as a kind of "busy" em- broidery-work around this deeper, pragmatic function. They cover a wide range from pious generalities, to "chauvinism" concern- ing a particular system, to highly specialized 164 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH L I B R A R I E S - dissertations on classification technique. However, it is in terms of the depth and maturity of its deeper function—as a collec- tive focus and appeal for research—that the Dorking Conference will either prove viable or wanting in the years ahead. As a crystallizing medium for needed re- search, the Dorking Conference may prove limited to a certain extent by its inferential definition of research. T o be sure, if all of the successive recommendations were ful- filled, applied knowledge and technological know-how in classification and information retrieval would unquestionably be enriched. Research, for example, is called for in the area of analysis (facet, relational, codifying, semantic, synthetic, and linguistic). Research is also proposed in the development of clas- sification schedules, and in the designing of a universal scheme. Upon review, these rec- ommendations, given great weight and de- tail at Dorking, would appear to gravitate more about classification engineering than classification research, and to lend themselves more to mechanical and technological in- ventiveness than to the objective methods of academic research. Much less emphasis is placed upon logi- cally researchable areas such as quantitative and qualitative usage studies, and compara- tive analysis of internal characteristics of information systems, such as relative effi- ciency or cost. These vital areas, awaiting fuller research, are defined in the Dorking recommendations but with detectably low- ered enthusiasm and reduced detail. It is interesting, for example, to compare the maturity and foresight which accompanies their description at Dorking, with the re- search prospectus of the Washington Inter- national Conference on Scientific Informa- tion, 1958, which de-emphasizes application and technique in order to isolate, in a highly detailed manner, those areas lending them- selves to a variety of objective research meth- ods. It is quite possible that the ideas ex- pressed at the Washington Conference may have some influence in accelerating research in areas of classification and information re- trieval.—Frederic D. Weinstein, New Haven State Teachers College. Comment "Human Relations Training for Librarians? Yes, But—" T h e suggestion that library schools offer courses in interpersonal relations, as set out in the article, "Human Relations Training for Librarians?" (CRL, X I X (1958), 227-29) at first found this reader in agreement. T h e n he found himself resisting the pro- posal. Or at least doubting its efficacy. T h e proposition—that there is a definite need for librarians to study and understand the dynamics of human behavior—is beyond dispute. T h a t point was well made by Mr. Anderson and Dr. Kell. It is true that li- brary work is a service occupation-profes- sion: essentially, we help others carry out their purposes in pursuing the use of li- brary materials (and in so doing seek our own fulfillment). And it follows that we ought to work hard at comprehending the wondrous workings of the human mind and the complex of emotional responses which combine to produce motivation, attitudes, action, and reaction. Still, the writer wonders about the pro- posal that courses adapted specifically to human behavior in the library field be taught in library schools, or as part of li- brary school curriculum. In fairness to authors Anderson and Kell he freely ac- knowledges that it is easier to render cri- tiques of others' proposals than construct a recommendation of one's own. What follows is not intended as a rebuttal, but only a summation of the reasons for the doubt in his mind about the proposal. T h e proper study of man (in the sense under discussion) would seem to rest with the behavioral or social science faculty of- fering basic undergraduate instruction in sociology, psychology, philosophy, cultural anthropology (and perhaps a graduate course in human dynamics). Few persons probably would disagree with MARCH 1959 165