College and Research Libraries


380 I College & Research Libraries • July 1976 

cessive and irrelevant" (p.94). 
Anglo-American librarianship needs more 

ideas brought in from the outside, and in 
spite of the problems connected with this 
work, it is a worthy attempt-the kind of 
publication which ought to be encouraged. 
-Robert Broadus, Department of Library 
Science, Northern Illinois University, De-
Kalb. 

Lowell, Mildred Hawksworth. Library 
Management Cases. Metuchen, N.J.: 
Scarecrow, 1975. 260p. $8.50. (LC 75-
23077) (ISBN 0-8108-0845-5) 

This volume is composed of seventy-six 
fictionalized problem cases exemplifying 
various aspects of library management. It 
is uncertain, however, whether this book 
is to be considered a revised edition of the 
a~thor' s Management of Libraries and In-
formation Centers (4 vols., 1968-71) or 
only as a revised edition of one of the four 
volumes. The author died while the volume 
was in preparation, and this point remains 
unclear. 

Some of the cases are new. Most, how-
ever, are revisions in one form or another 
of cases which appeared earlier in one of 
the volumes of Management of Libraries 
and Information Centers. Each case is an 
episode in the life of a librarian. The cases 
cover all types of libraries. There are cases 
to be role-played. There are my favorites, 
the in-basket cases. 

The general structure follows the au-
thor's conception of the first three phases 
of management: organizing, planning, and 
controlling. The fourth phase, leading and 
motivating, was to have been a part of a 
projected volume, Library Personnel Cases. 

Slight introductory material, of a few 
paragraphs, precede the cases in each chap-
ter. These introductions summarize the 
managerial precepts that the cases in the 
chapters exemplify. Following each case, 
except for those of role playing, one or 
more questions or suggestions are append-
ed. The questions occasionally do not refer 
to the more important points of the cases; 
and readers may have a tendency to focus 
on answers to the appended matter rather 
than on what they perceive to be the rami-
fications of the cases themselves. Since the 
book is to be used in management courses 

in library schools or in seminars, workshops, 
institutes, and continuing education pro-
grams, these suggestions or questions may 
inhibit the imagination of the reader as 
well as inhibit the initiative of the instruc-
tor or program leader. 

There are indexes by title and by subject, 
but each entry refers to a case number in-
stead of a page number. The time required 
to locate a reference is thus needlessly 
lengthened. 

This edition is certainly better than the 
author's Management of Libraries and In-
formation Centers, because the author has 
eliminated some of the objectionable as-
pects of those four volumes, for example, 
the lecture outlines, suggested readings, or 
bibliographies in volume 2. Yet this is a 
volume which I judge should never have 
been published, because there are potential-
ly few persons who should, or would care 
to, read it. Its sole justification might be in 
its becoming a library school textbook. 
Even that possibility is diminished greatly 
because management courses in library 
schools have changed so dramatically in the 
past few years.-G. A. Rudolph, Dean of 
Libraries, University of Nebraska, Lincoln. 

OTHER PUBLICATIONS OF 
INTEREST TO ACADEMIC 

LIBRARIANS 
Allworth, Edward. Soviet Asia: Bibliogra-

phies. New York: Published in Coopera-
tion with the Program on Soviet Nation-
ality Problems, Columbia Univ., by Prae-
ger, 1975. 686p. $35.00. (LC 73-9061) 
(ISBN 0-275-28740-8) 

American Humanities Index for 1975. Troy, 
N.Y.: Whitston, 1976. Vol. 1- . 
$89.50, amiual cumulation; $125.00, 
quarterly index. (ISBN 0-87875-089-4) 

American Theological Library Association. 
Summary of Proceedings of the Twenty-
ninth Annual Conference. Philadelphia: 
American Theological Library Assn., 
1976. 204p. $4.00. 

Ass_ociation of College and Research Li-
braries. Community and Junior College 
Libraries Section. Bibliography Commit-

l