College and Research Libraries 64 I College & Research Libraries • January 1977 in depth in its areas of strength; and, if necessary, areas of collecting would be as- signed. If this comes about, then those who at- tended the Boston Conference of 197 4 will be able to say to their grandchildren some day that they were there when history was about to be made.-Henry Scholberg, Li- brarian, Ames Library of South Asia, Uni- versity of Minnesota. Blake, Norman F. Caxton: England's First Publisher. London: Osprey, 1976. 220p. £7.00 (ISBN 0-85045-106-X) The second half of the twentieth century affords many publishing coincidences. For instance, the appearance of this book coin- cides with the quincentenary anniversary of publishing in England. This anniversary was celebrated in London during Septem- ber 1976 by a Caxton International Con- gress where the author, presently a Senior Lecturer of English Language at the Uni- versity of Sheffield, was one of the main speakers. This critical study of Caxton' s publishing is long overdue; more than one hundred years have passed since the publication of William Blades' bibliographic study, Wil- liam Caxton: England's First Printer. Ac- tually, the similarity of Professor Blake's ti- tle reflects a change in contemporary schol- arly emphasis since he relates the literary, as well as bibliographic, advances in Caxton scholarship. Incidentally, Blake's earlier work, Caxton and His World ( 1969), dis- cusses the literary environment of the fif- teenth century, and though that is partial- ly duplicated here, the present volume also reports the technical aspects of publishing; so the two are complementary. An historical chapter on Gutenberg's in- vention and subsequent lawsuits places printing in the fifteenth century for the novice. Then in the following three chap- ters Blake explores Caxton' s early life and career. Blake raises the possibility that Caxton was born in Strood, Kent, but re- garding a birthdate, he will only say "the limits of his date of birth are between 1415 and 1424." Caxton, we know, entered the mercer's trade and enjoyed a long success- ful career; however, according to Blake, we should not consider Caxton's late adoption of printing as a break with his past. Earlier as a mercer, Caxton was undoubtedly deal- ing in luxury goods; thus, books were sim- ply another item in his inventory. Here, Caxton' s publishing venture is viewed as much a "commercial speculation" as a pure- ly literary endeavor. Having considered the necessary histori- cal background, Professor Blake presents a lucid introduction to the practical aspects of "The Book and Its Production" in the late fifteenth century. Unfortunately, it is marred by several minor technical errors. For example, in his discussion of the Eney- dos, Blake confuses sheet for leaf when he states "the first six sheets (A4A3 2 ) contain the prologue and table of · contents" and page for leaf in an explanation of signa- tures, "if the first gathering by that letter is designated 'a', then the first page will be 'a1' the second 'a2', and so on." The bibli- ographer will immediately realize what Blake has done, but the novice may get the wrong impression of how a book is pro- duced. Readers will find the chapter on "Decora- tion and Ornament" an intriguing discus- sion of the usefulness of decorated borders, initial letters, and paragraph marks for dating Caxton' s books. Usually scholars date Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to 1478, but based on a carefully stated hypothesis involving typographic paragraph marks, there is a possibility, for Blake, that the first edition appeared in 1477. In addition, Blake mentions some solutions to the cryp- tic printer's device used by Caxton. To some extent, the lack of scholarly ap- paratus limits the usefulness of this work. Only a selected bibliography is appended, and although the lack of footnotes tends to · make the text more readable, the interested reader will have to search out .appropriate supporting sources. However, Professor Blake's contribution is the positing of Caxton' s true position in early printing. Blake balances the historical and literary views and blends earlier writ- ings into a single perspective, offering the reader a fascinating, insightful volume nec- essary for understanding Caxton and the publishing and book trades in England and the Low Countries during the fifteenth cen- tury.-]ohn Richardson, ]r., Graduate Li- brary School, Indiana University, Blooming- ton. Kenney, Brigitte L., and Esteves, Roberto. Video and Cable Communications: Guidelines for Librarians. Based on a Report of the ALA Video/ Cable Study Committee. Chicago: Information Sci- ence and Automation Division, Video and ·Cable Communications Section, American Library Assn., 1975. 84p. $3.50. This publication, a rev1s10n of a formal report submitted to ALA, provides a useful compendium of general information on the present status and future prospects of video and cable technology in libraries. The first two of the six chapters deal with the in- volvement of some 400 libraries. Chapter 3 covers video hardware and software in fairly general terms. Chapter 4 touches on cable regulations and franchising, and Chapter 5 deals with community education, organization, and resources. The last chap- ter is a checklist for librarians. The most useful section is Appendix A, providing per- haps the most complete annolated bibliog- raphy yet assembled in one publication. For the untutored, this publication will provide an excellent generalized overview of what is involved when libraries make use of the new technology. Unfortunately, it is so generalized that it might be misleading to some. For instance, the statement is made that the new low cost of video equip- ment (a portable black-and-white camera- recorder combination available for about $2,000) makes this equipment attractive to many libraries. One looks in vain, how- ever, for any real data on staff time and training that must be expended to make the camera-recorder operational and effective. The items listed in the bibliography prob- ably bring out the needed data; without such data in this publication, the impres- sion is left that the use of video and cable technology in libraries is easy, inexpensive, and effective. We do not believe the editors intended such an impression. The more than a year delay in publica- tion of the guidelines has had a serious im- pact on its usefulness. It is considerably out of date in a very rapidly developing area. Librarians will do well to check the fine Recent Publications I 65 bibliography for those items that will pro- vide updated information in crucial areas, such as equipment specifications and costs, changes in FCC regulations, and technolog- ical developments. This is an admirable first effort in a very new area. We can only hope that the guide- lines will be updated regularly. Such effort would be most helpful to the profession.- Gordon P. Mart in, University Librarian, California State University, Sacramento. Chen, Ching-chih. Applications of Opera- tions Research Models to Libraries: A Case Study of the Use of Monographs in the Francis ·A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University. Cam- bridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1976. 212p. $17.50. (LC 75-28210) (ISBN 0- 262-03056-X) This work seems to confirm a widespread belief that excellent doctoral dissertations seldom translate into readable professional literature for the practitioner. Chen's work is admirable, the methodology and conclu- sions are sound, but the narrow scope of the subject and the unavoidable reliance upon jargon to discuss it will severely limit her audience. The first of the book's three sections is basically a restatement and extension of the probabilistic models of circulation proposed by Morse. The theory is that while it is im- possible to predict whether individual ti- tles will or will not circulate, it is possible to predict the circulation behavior of sub- ject classes of books on the basis of his- torical data. The average librarian will probably have to accept this proposition as an article of faith. One who has not read and understood Morse's Library Effective- ness, or who lacks a solid background in quantitative methods, will never make it through p.35. The models rest upon the as- sumption that book circulation is a random process, but this by no means commands universal agreement among the profession. Section two reports in detail the author's successful attempt to apply the models, originally developed from a small data base at the MIT Science Library, to the Count- way Library of Medicine. Sampling tech- niques were used to obtain historical circu- lation data for selected subject classes in