College and Research Libraries


BOOK REVIEWS 

Spyers-Duran, Peter, and Gore, Daniel, eds. 
Economics of Approval Plans. Proceed-
ings of the Third International Seminar 
on Approval and Gathering Plans in 
Large and Medium Size Academic Li-
braries, Held in the Ramada Inn, West 
Palm Beach, Florida, February 17-19, 
1971. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood 
Press, Inc., 1972. 134 p. 
Librarians probably use their literature 

to better advantage than most professional 
people. We readily learn from others in our 
field because we are inclined to write about 
our experiences and also because we read 
a lot. To learn more about approval or 
gathering plans, I recommend the reading 
of Economics of Approval :Plans. 

The editors of this small volume might 
just as well have titled it another "how-to" 
book with the following possibilities: ". . . 
Establish an Approval Plan; . . . Choose 
an Approval Plan Dealer; . . . Save Money 
With an Approval Plan." Actually, the title 
was taken from the first essay in the book 
and it only partly describes the contents. 

As the subtitle tells us, it is Number 3 in 
a series of seminar proceedings on approval 
plans and from all indications the subject 
has been exhausted, at least until a new 
breed of approval plan is devised to aid or 
bedevil the librarian. 

The papers are varied in quality and 
style. We have the scientific approach of 
a study of the economics of approval plans 
as well as chatty, off-the-cuff statements ex-
plaining why approval plans fail. There is 
reported a case history in establishing the 
plan in a medium-sized university by Le-
Moyne Anderson, a useful account pointing 
out pitfalls along the way. One paper re-
counts for us the kinds of plans offered by 
three major dealers, a revealing study that 
is good to have at hand, although such in-
formation becomes dated very fast. 

284/ 

Recent Publications 

One chapter is concerned with a panel 
discussion by book dealers; conversational 
in tone, it really contains little of signifi-
cance for us. Comments such as "bugs in 
the program," "our sales were suffering," 
etc., were hardly worth capturing on paper. 

Have we answered all the questions? 
Does anyone still have doubts? At least one 
of the papers would lead us to believe that 
there are indeed no unanswered questions: 
"It seems obvious that the approval plan 
technique for building research libraries is 
here to stay. The results of the present 
study clearly demonstrate its efficiency and 
effectiveness." [Axford] 

Richard Chapin finalizes the volume with 
his witty summary which turns up some 
sharp deductions about the three-day con-
ference. Once again we are reminded that 
"we don't know what we're talking about." 
Who has yet defined a gathering plan, an 
approval plan, a blanket order? The impor-
tance of collecting current materials and 
doing it well is noted by Mr. Chapin as he 
opines that 80 percent of all research done 
on a university campus is based upon ma-
terials published in the last ten years. He 
takes to task the writers of "efficiency pa-
pers" because "they seem to indicate that 
books received on approval plans get on the 
shelves at hardly any cost." There are still 
selection costs, despite the best efforts of 
the dealers' computers. 

The book does not repeat what has been 
said before at the seminars, for the most 
part. New ideas, strategies, and experiences 
from which most of us could benefit will be 
found here. On the other hand, the library 
scene has changed somewhat since these 
papers were written, a fact which will have 
to be taken into consideration when reading 
the book-Roscoe Rouse, Oklahoma State 
University, Stillwater. 

Wasserman, Paul. The New Librarianship; 
A Challenge for Change. New York: 
Bowker, 1972. 
Paul Wasserman's new book is an impor-

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