College and Research Libraries 572 I College & Research Libraries • November 1976 schools. They are not all beautiful to the modern eye, but some are strikingly so. The Noah's ark in a fifteenth-century Normandy Book of Hours (Plate 27), with the drowned bodies floating under the blue waves surrounded by an extraordinarily wide and delicate floral border in many bright colors is most arresting. The color in all the examples seems essential for their understanding. Treasures from the Bodleian Library de- serves a place in any collection of books treating the book arts. The illustrations and texts also provide a useful source of intel- lectual history for their discussion of ico- nography, discussion of literature, portrayal of costumes, and citation of sources.-How- ard W. Winger, Dean and J'rofess01', Grad- uate Library School, University of Chicago. Stuart-Stubbs, B.; Friesen, M.; and Mcin- nes, D. Interlibrary Loan in Canada_: A Report of a Survey. Vancouver: Univer- sity of British Columbia Library, 1975. 236p. (on 3 microfiche) Stuart-Stubbs, B.; Nichol, K.; Friesen, M.; and Mcinnes, D. A Survey and Interpre- tation of the Literature of Interlibrary Loan. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Library, 1975. 158p. (on 2 mi- crofiche) (Both reports are available for $5.00 from Canadian Theses Division, National Library of Canada, 395 Wel- lington St., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KIA ON4.) These surveys were carried out during 1974-75 under the terms of a contract be- tween the National Library of Canada and the University of British Columbia. The stated objective of the main study was "to obtain information relevant to the develop- ment of a ·national information network and to make recommendations concerning such elements of a network as ILL procedures, communications and delivery systems, and national lending collections." Interlibrary loan (ILL) has been the subject of numerous major studies in recent years, particularly because of the mounting costs of the service borne by the major re- Walter de Gruyter Berlin· New York -Parliaments of the World A Reference Compendium Prepared by Valentine Herman with the collaboration of Franvoise Mendel Edited by Inter-Parliamentary Union 1976. Large-octavo. XII, 985 pages. Bound OM 168,-; $70.00 ..,. ISBN 3 11 006975 X ;.. Parliaments of the World is an exhaustive survey of all aspects of the composition, organisation and operation of 56 Parliaments as well as their legislative, budgetary and control functions. It takes the form of a series of 70 tables with country-by-country entries, each table being preceded by explanatory text. The book contains material gathered during an international enquiry conducted by the International Centre for Parliamentary Documentation, a department of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. -\> Parliaments of the World is deliberately conceived as a compilation of data displayed for each country in turn, avoiding judgements and evalua- tions. The result is a reference compendium of lasting interest to scholars as well as to parliamentarians, politicians, journalists and all people involved in the work and life of parliamentary institutions. $-price Is subject to change without further notice . For USA send orders to Walter de Gruyter, Inc., 3 Westchester Plaza, Elmsford, New York 10523 search libraries. This study surpasses all others on two major points: it was done on a nation-wide scale, and it encompassed aU types of libraries except school libraries. It is the only comprehensive study of ILL in Canada. In the study, 352. libraries, known to be very active in ILL, supplied detailed infor- mation on the magnitude, staff costs, condi- tions, policies, and practices of their ILL service. A subgroup of 127 libraries sub- mitted nearly 11,000 individual reports on the nature of materials borrowed. The re- sults confirmed in specific manner what had been guessed at for many years, i.e., that the pattern of borrowing and lending fo- cuses on the central provinces, which are most populous in both residents and library resources, that the volume of traffic has been steadily increasing over the past sev- eral years, that a very considerable propor- tion of the items borrowed are "current," and that government, special, and college libraries rely very heavily on the resources of universities and the two national libraries. Other findings reported include the varia- tions in lending and borrowing by angle- phone and francophone libraries, the pro- portion of periodicals to monographs, the subject distribution across broad discipline categories, the means used by borrowing libraries to determine locations, and the factors affecting their choice of lending li- brary to be approached. Also examined was the cost of interli- brary loan services in a number of the li- braries, although not enough libraries sup- plied sufficient data to permit a thorough cost study. It was found that the labor costs averaged $3.25 per loan; the authors indi- cate that other costs would probably double this figure, in which case the Canadian costs compare very closely with those of re- cent major U.S. studies. In a concurrent study, the authors sur- veyed the literature of ILL. Because of its volume, they were selective, attempting to focus on key articles, while also trying to be interpretive, seeking to extract the prin- cipal themes in the development of ILL ac- tivity. Starting with the pioneer era and moving through the evolution of codes and the emergence of networks, the report pro- vides an interesting ILL history. The final Recent Publications I 573 two chapters deal extensively with contem- porary techniques and technology, and with recent surveys and developments, particu- larly in the areas of cost. The authors made only four recommen- dations. Three were addressed to the spon- soring body, the National Library of Can- ada, advocating federal reimbursement to net lenders, a stronger national periodicals resource, and the further development of national and regional union catalogs, co- ordinated by NLC. The fourth, addressed to the Canadian Library Association, con- cerns possible revision of its ILL code. Whether or not any of these recommenda- tions are implemented, these studies, taken together, constitute one of the most impor- tant and most systematic examinations of ILL ever made. These reports are necessary reading for all serious students of this im- portant aspect of library service.-Bruce Cossar, University Librarian, Trent Univer- sity, Peterborough, Ontario. Shores, Louis. Reference as the Promotion of Free Inquiry. Littleton, Colo.: Librar- ies Unlimited, Inc., 1976. 189p. $11.50. (LC 76-6150) (ISBN 0-87287-156-8) This is a collection of twenty-two articles and lectures by Dr. Shores which appeared between 1937 and 1974. The author of Ba- sic Reference Sources (BRS) has chosen a selection of his writings unified by a con- sistent theme that "liberal" reference librar- ianship (defined by J. I. Wyer in 1930 as "conservative, moderate, or liberal") is im- perative to free inquiry and that the "con- servative" or passive method (essentially, waiting for the question to be asked) we~k­ ens our full potential to share in the shap- ing of a free society. The reference librari- an, he says, must anticipate the question, prepare for it, and produce an environment that makes the question easier to ask. The articles, which are indexed and log- ically arranged in seven parts, serve as a professional autobiographical outline, for lack of a better term, highlighting Shores' contributions to reference theory and meth- od, reference book reviewing, and encyclo- pedics (his term). Teachers of reference will want to shelve this volume next to his basic text in their personal libraries, for it illustrates and expands upon some of the