College and Research Libraries


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Chisholm, Margaret, and McDonald, Den-
nis D., eds. Reader in Media, Technol-
ogy and Libraries. (Reader Series in Li-
brary and Information Science) Engle-
wood, Colo.: Micro card Editions Books, 
1975. 530p. $18.95. (LC 75-8050) 
(ISBN 0-910972-51-6) 
Many librarians are acquainted with 

Margaret Chisholm's long-standing interest 
and involvement with media. Her selection 
as editor of this most recent volume from 
the well-known Reader Series in Library 
and Information Science is fortunate. She 
has done an excellent job in pulling to-
gether pertinent articles relating to media, 
technology, and libraries. 

The work is divided into fifteen separate 
sections, which together consider the sev-
eral aspects of media and its utilization and 
application in librarianship. Chisholm's in-
troductory statements to each of these sec-
tions are perceptive and adequately intro-
duce the topics under consideration. 

The editor's underlying philosophy relat-
ing to media and libraries as well as the 
tone of the entire volume is established in 
her introduction to the section on "Defini-
tion and Terminology." She notes that one 
of the fundamental problems of the media 
field has been the lack of agreement on 
basic terms such as "media." 

The term "media" as related to informa-
tion includes all those forms in which in-
formation is stored and transferred. This 
includes all print forms and all audiovisual 
materials. A traditional manner of distin-
guishing the different formats is to use the 
term book and non-book or print and non-
print. Neither of these terms non-book and 
non-print is satisfactory. Both terms are 
negative .... The term non-book forces 
the creation of a schism between the book 
or a form and all other material and this 
is precisely . what must not happen. There 
must not be a division between the book 
and other forms of media. 

This is a wise word of counsel for li-
brarians and "audiovisualists" alike who all 
too frequently look for differences in the 
treatment of media rather than similarities. 

The scope of this work is relatively 
broad. A total of seventy-six articles is di-
vided among the fifteen different sections. 
Many will find particular interest in the sec-

Recent Publications I 563 

tion, "Media: State of the Art," which not 
only includes articles relating to audiotape 
cassettes, microforms, videotapes, and so 
forth, but also to holography, demand pub-
lishing, facsimile transmission, and com-
pressed speech, topics that are pertinent 
yet not widely discussed among librarians. 
A few case studies relating to the planning, 
development, and operational aspects of 
media systems have been included. Among 
the specific systems described are those lo-
cated at Federal City College, Evergreen 
State College, and Oral Roberts Universi-
ty. 

It is not possible, for this reviewer at 
least, to select any one article, or any ten 
articles for that matter, that stand uniquely 
alone in being superior. Each reader will 
have different tastes and different interests, 
but most assuredly they will be met by 
reading this work. Indeed, Margaret Chis-
holm has been successful in bring together 
"in convenient form the key elements re-
quired for a current and comprehensive 
view" of media, technology, and libraries, 
thus meeting the primary objective of this 
series. This is a welcome and much-needed 
addition to the literature of librarianship.-
David B. Walch, Director of Academic Ser-
vices, State University College at Buffalo. 

Black, Donald V., and Cuadra, Carlos A. 
Directory of Academic Library Consortia. 
2d ed. Santa Monica, Calif.: System De-
velopment Corporation, 1975. 437p. 
$25.00 .. (Available from Baker & Taylor, 
Drawer Z, Momence, IL 60954.) 
The first edition of the Directory of Aca-

demic Library Consortia, prepared by Di-
ana D. Delanoy and Carlos A. Cuadra, was 
published by System Development Corpo-
ration in 1972. It listed and described 125 
cooperative organizations meeting rigid 
standards, such as having a membership 
consisting of more than 50 percent academ-
ic libraries and including as participants at 
least two autonomous institutions. Using 
more relaxed criteria (e.g., only one mem-
ber of a consortium need be an academic 
library), Kean Mantius identified 135 addi-
tional consortia and summarized the organi-
zation and activities of each in his Supple-
ment to the Directory of Academic Library 
Consortia, also issued in 1972. 

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