College and Research Libraries


280 I College & Research Libraries • May 1976 

of efficient use. Her book can be highly 
recommended as a basic text for both class 
and self-instruction.-Mary W. George, 
Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, Univer-
sity of Michigan. 

Oluwasanmi, Edwina; McLean, Eva; and 
Zell, Hans. Publishing in Africa in the 
Seventies. Proceedings of an Internation-
al Conference on Publishing and Book 
Development held at the University of 
Ife, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 16-20 December 
1973. Ile-Ife, Nigeria, Univ. of Ife Pr., 
1975. 377p. cloth $16.50; paper $10.50. 
This volume is not merely concerned 

with publishing in the narrow sense but 
also writing, reading, and librarianship. 
Most of the contributors to the. volume are 
from Nigeria. 

The conference recommendations, eight 
in all, follow the brief introduction; there 
next appear summaries of conference pa-
pers, twenty-six of them; the contributed 
papers, presumably in full (twenty-one in 
all); appendixes of more or less formal 
speeches; and, £nally, a good index. To 
most readers of this journal, only a few of 
the names will be familiar in a list of one 
hundred participants which included the 
distinguished novelist, Chinua Achebe. 

The discussion, rather repetitious, deals 
with the history of missionary presses, state 
publishing houses, and academic presses. 
Particularly noteworthy is the lengthy essay 
by S. I. A. Kotei of the Department of Li-
brary Studies, University of Ghana, on 
"Some Cultural and Social Factors of Book 
Reading and Publishing in Africa." 

Unfortunately, there is no explicit discus-
sion of the economic role of expatriate pub-
lishing houses in Africa. Keith Smith in 
"Who Controls Book Publishing in An-
glophone Middle Africa?" Annals af the 
American Academy of Political and Social 
Science 421:140-50 (Sept. 1975), provides 
preliminary data on his investigations. 

The signi£cant result of this conference 
on publishing in Africa in the 1970s was 
the start of two serial publications, both 
edited by Hans Zell in England: the bian-
nual African Books in Print (London: Man-
sell, 1975- ) , updated by the quarterly The 
African Book Publishing Record. 

This volume is well produced and will 

be read and referred to in years to come, 
not only by students of librarianship and 
publishing (for example, see Thomas Lask, 
"Program Is Established at Hofstra [Uni-
versity] to Teach Courses on Book Publish-
ing," New ·York Times, Oct. 21, 1975, 
p.40), but by persons concerned with de-
velopments in the Third World.-Hans E. 
Panofsky, Curator, Melville ]. Herskovit~ 
Library of African Studies, Northwestern 
University Library, Evanston, Illinois. 

Beeler, Richard J., ed. Evaluating Library 
Use Instruction: Papers Presented at the 
University of Denver Conference on the 
Evaluation of Library Instruction, De-
cember 13-14, 1973. Library Orientation 
Series, no. 4. Ann Arbor: Pierian Pr., 
1975. 97p. (LC 75-677) (ISBN 0-87650-
062-9) 
That many librarians are involved in pro-

grams of library instruction, and are experi-
menting with a wide variety of approaches, 
is evident from the many articles, confer-
ences, and workshops devoted to the sub-
ject. However, less readily available is in-
formation about program evaluation. This 
collection of seven papers provides a step 
toward remedying the situati.on. 

There is general agreement among the 
papers' authors that objectives are a pre-
requisite for evaluation design and develop-
ment and that accountability to manage-
ment is an important function of evalua-
tion. Of interest to readers as well will be 
the range and diversity of topics covered. 
Emphasis is placed on the evaluation of in-
structional, and not orientation, programs. 

The first paper is by Thomas Kirk, sci-
ence librarian at Earlham College and 
chairman of the ACRL Bibliographic In-
struction Task Force. Although structurally 
flawed, the paper is one that should be 
read by all who are, or will be, involved in 
the evaluation of instructional programs. He 
reviews past research, provides critical dis-
cussion of evaluation attempts and studies 
of selected instructional programs, and pro-
vides some practical suggestions. 

The second paper, by Richard R. John-
son, experimental psychologist and program 
manager for the Exxon Education Founda-
tion, deals with the purposes and method-
ology of data collection. 

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