College and Research Libraries published in 1970. The compilation of the bibliography is an outgrowth of work Evans has done for courses he has taught in the administration of modem archives. Al- though the author modestly subtitles his volume, "A Select Bibliography," it is the most comprehensive single source of Eng- lish-language publications on archival the- ory and practice in the U.S. The book is broadly divided into four major sections: ( 1) archival administration, ( 2) archival functions, ( 3) American archival agencies, and ( 4) international ar-chival develop- ments. Each chapter begins with a list of basic readings on a general topic, followed by bibliographic citations on related sub- topics. Within each subtopic, entries are ar- ranged chronologically by date of publica- tion and printed in paragraph format. Each topic has a decimal notation to which the index of authors and subjects is keyed, a system that is both accurate and easy to use. The heart of the book is the section deal- ing with archival functions. Here the user has easy reference to chapters on appraisal, preservation, arrangement, description, au- tomation, and reference service for archival material. In addition, the section includes information on nonprint material such as still and motion pictures, sound recordings, cartographic records, machine-readable rec- ords, microphotography, and oral history. Evans' Modern Archives and Manu- scripts is a standard reference for any col- lege; its comprehensive list of books, ar- ticles, proceedings, and published sources through December 1973 is the starting -point for information about archives. The fact that it will receive frequent use makes it regrettable that the book was published only in a paperbound edition.-Nicholas C. Burckel, Director of Archives and Area Research Center, University of Wisconsin- Parkside, Kenosha. Metcalfe, John. Information Retrieval, Brit- ish & American, 1876-1976. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1976. 243p. $10.00. (LC 75-29154) (ISBN 0-8108-0875-7) ~ The book's strengths are obvious. Be- cause Metcalfe possesses a reasonable un- derstanding of information retrieval as it developed since the mid-twentieth century, Recent Publications I 479 the reader will find the last three of the book's eight chapters most useful. Here the author analyzes H. E. Bliss and S. R. Rang- anathan, "Pre-Coordinate Indexing with Permutations and Combinations," and "Post-Coordinate Indexing and Mechaniza- tion" in a discourse sufficiently supported by existing source materials. But the strengths of the last three chap- ters contrast sharply with the striking weak- nesses of the first five. Metcalfe judges early information retrievalists like Melvil Dewey and Charles A. Cutter not on the basis of problems confronting them in 1876, but on the basis of problems confronting contem- porary catalogers in 1976. Such tactics make for poor history, and as a history this book has serious shortcomings. For exam- ple, analysis of the Dewey and Cutter sys- tems derives almost exclusively from sec- ondary sources. The author visited no man- uscript collections to bolster his research. Particularly distressing is Metcalfe's prac- Out of Stock? Back Orders? If your wholesaler has long de- lays in completing "out of stock" and "back orders", why not try the firm that specializes in this area. Current imprints are easy to deliver but it takes a penonalized, special- ized attention to give you reliable service on back list or other hard-to- get items. At Book House we call it "Con- cerned Service" and it works every day for a growing clientele includ- ing academic libraries just like yours. Call 517-849-9361 Collect A The House of Superior U. Library Service BOOK HOUSE 208 West Chjcago Jonesville, Mich. 49250 480 f College & Research Libraries •. September 1976 tice of arriving at conclusions which, though challenging existing schools of thought, are supported only by citations to the same authors he is disputing. Then there are conclusions which are supported by no evidence at all, such as Metcalfe's be- lief that Herbert Putnam's predecessor as Librarian of Congress, John Young, was more responsible for LC' s existing thought patterns on information retrieval than Put- nam (p.91-92). The book has similar shortcomings in style and accuracy. All too often the reader finds individuals discussed in the text intro- duced by last name only. On pages 62-63, Metcalfe begins the first three sentences of one paragraph as follows: "As Comaromi said . . · ."; "As Comaromi says . . ."; and "Comaromi said .... " Such tense-hopping and structural monotony is hardly indica- tive of scholarly writing. On page 90, Her- bert Putnam is appointed Librarian of Con- gress on April 5, 1899; yet on pages 108~9, the date curiously jumps to April 5, 1900. Perhaps this might be passed off as mere oversight, but Metcalfe cites the latter date to show how much Young had accom- plished with LC information retrieval be- fore Putnam had arrived. Similarly, in Met- calfe's discussion of Bliss and Ranganathan, the reader is informed twice ( p.152 and 168) of Ranganathan's habit of reading his rival's books between ten and midnight to put himself to sleep. Except for the last three chapters, the book is hardly worth the reading effort.- Wayne A. Wiegand, College of Library Sci- ence, University of Kentucky. Verona, Eva. · Corporate Headings: Their Use in Library Catalogues and National --'- Bibliographies. A Comparative and Crit- ical Study. London: IFLA Committee on Cataloguing, 1975. 224p. $18.00. (Avail- able from Canadian Library Association, 151 Sparks Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1P5E3.) (ISBN 0-903043-05-X) As a part of the effort to bring about in- ternational standardization of the conven- tions of bibliographic control, the IFLA Committee on Cataloguing (now the IFLA International Office for UBC) commis- sioned Dr. Eva Verona to undertake a study of the current usage of corporate au- thorship in various countries. Seventy-three (I) codes are compared, many of which have appeared after the 1961 International Conference on Cataloging Principles. Verona has gone beyond the stated ob- jective in also offering her own views, interpretations, and recommendations throughout the text. Thus the work covers more ground than its title and subtitle in- dicate. A study of this type is bound to become rapidly dated. However, the inclusion of Verona's comments and analyses of catalog- ing problems, such as the evaluation of the current German code ( RAK), with its in- teresting approach to personal and corpo- rate authorship (Vedasser/Urheber), are of lasting value and will likely lend perma- nence to what would have otherwise been a "state-of-the-art" presentation of corpo- rate authorship problems in various catalog- ing codes. The work is recommended to all those who are interested in the theoretical aspect of cataloging.-Ake I. Koel, Associate Li- brarian for Technical Services, Yale Univer- sity Library, New Haven, Connecticut. + I