College and Research Libraries 254 I College & Research Libraries • May, 1965 nally admitting that the line has to be drawn somewhere. And this problem is plainly all the more aggravating when the terms and concepts themselves are not precise, as they often are not in the social sciences. Human activities and relationships are not always clearly definable, thank heavens, and it will take some doing to reduce them to any such classification scheme as Foskett has in mind. The terms Personality and Ac- tivity, especially as used here, are far from precise-are indeed rather subjective judg- ments which would inevitably vary from person to person. The age-old problem of classifying a piece of material which covers more than one subject and consequently has a complex web of relationships to other subjects lies at the heart of this matter. It is a dilemma which librarians need to work on, and Fos- kett and his colleagues in this endeavor deserve the best wishes and gratitude of all of us. His book certainly is an excellent exposition of that work, its difficulties, and its goals. On the other hand, they might well temper their enthusiasm-and their earnestness-with the thought that it will never be perfectly solved. And after all, it does no serious damage to a social scientist to wander up a few blind alleys. He can pick up a lot of useful information that way; in fact, he may even find that he is working on the wrong problem.-]ames F. Govan, Trinity University. The Universal Decimal Classification. By Jack Mills. (Rutgers Series on Systems for the Intellectual Organization of Infor- mation, Vol. 1, edited by Susan Artandi) New Brunswick, N.J.: Graduate School of Library Service. Rutgers, The State University, 1964. v, 132p. Paper, $3.50. Jack Mills, lecturer (North-Western Polytechnic, London) , and practitioner ( ASLIB-Cran£eld Project) , one of the British avantgarde in the art and science of classification, was eminently qualified as guest leader of the first seminar, Octo her 31, and November 1, 1963, in the Rutgers Series on Systems for the Intellectual Or- ganization of Information, supported by a grant from the National Science Founda- tion. The Universal Decimal Classification, with its origins rooted in Dewey's Decimal Classification-including its merits and some of its limitations-already lucidly described by Mills in a chapter of his text, A Modern Outline of Library Classification ( 1960), is further delineated in this compact volume of six chapters and a four-part appendix. The introductory chapter includes a bib- liography and surveys the background and development of the UDC. Its basic concepts and significance for manual and/ or mecha- nized indexing are emphasized, and an eval- uation is given of its utility. Its truly inter- national character is evidenced by the list of its editions by language, with provision for its "Extensions and Corrections" which, unlike "Decimal Classification Additions, Notes, and Decisions," are kept up to date primarily by volunteer participants. Mr. Mills, in the core of the volume, his second and third chapters, demonstrates with clarity, by description and by exam- ples, the applications of the system. For an understanding of his description, however, a knowledge of the UDC notation (a mix- ture of hierarchical and "analytico-syn- thetic" characteristics which permits mul- tiple entry and p ermutation) , and of the construction of its indexes (classified and AI Z) , is necessary to follow his demonstra- tion of input, searching methods, and out- put of the system for organization of infor- mation (books, journal articles, reports, ab- stracts, etc.) . As the author translates sub- jects from their natural to their UDC nota- tional language he deftly inserts concise identification of classification concepts. In addition, he has compiled in the second appendix a glossary of definitions of twenty- two terms used in the text. Two brief chapters are devoted to further applications and to methods for evaluation of the system. The concluding chapter, the "Seminar Panel Discussion," for some read- ers may prove the most provocative. The panelists included Benjamin Custer (Dewey Decimal Classification), Phyllis Richmond (University of Rochester), Malcolm Rigby (Meteorological and Geoastrophysical Ab- stracts), Maurice Tauber (Columbia U ni- versity), and Harold Wooster (Air Force Office of Scientific Research) . Susan Artandi (Rutgers, the State University), was mod- erator. In contrast to the use of the UDC by some five thousand organizations in the world, only a few libraries in the United States use this system, and this fact prompt- ,. ed such questions as: Is the UDC a true general classification? Is the UDC notation suitable for computerization? What may be the most effective methods to keep the UDC index and schedules up to date? Can classi- fication be any better in the long run than the quality of our understanding of the al- phabetical approach? Can the classified schedule be used without consulting the A/Z index? Is it preferable for an indexer to be a subject specialist or an efficient in- dexer? Why is the UDC more international than any other system? Why have so few American libraries used UDC? The remaining three parts of the appen- dix contain "Descriptions of UDC Installa- tions," "Examples of Abstracting and In- dexing Journals Using UDC," and "Indexing Book Reviews I 255 and Abstracting Services Using UDC." The eight pages of this latter world list indicate only three such services as published in the United States. Reproduced from typewritten copy, this paperback is easy to handle. Those UDC numbers in the text not set forth in tabular form are difficult to read, however. There is no index, but the organization of the text may compensate for this omission. While this critique of the Universal Deci- mal Classification will be read primarily by cataloging teachers and students, special li- brarians and information scientists, it does provide a mental stretching for all librarians concerned with intellectual organization of information.-Laura C. Colvin, Simmons College. S. S. S. Members WE HAVE a program for the Detroit Conference which is different. A trip through the Ford Rouge plant is planned for Wednesday, July 7, 1965. Buses will be waiting at Cobo Hall to take you to the Ford plant at 10:00 A.M. Cost will be $1.75 for transportation and whatever you wish to spend for lunch in the Ford cafeteria. Tickets and passes will be available at the ALA information desk in Cobo Hall. A meeting of Geology Librarians will be held at 9 A.M. Tuesday, July 6 in Room 207 of the Kresge Science Library of Wayne State University, Detroit. Anyone who is interested in the problems re- lated to geological library materials is cordially invited to attend. The principal topics for discussion at this meeting will be on im- proving information exchange in the geological sciences and on the best ways for literature specialists to organize in order to provide good service to research geologists . • •