College and Research Libraries


In this much needed work, the level of 
readability is uneven; some of the essays are 
much more scholarly and others much more 
popularly written. This approach helps to 
mold the work into its purpose-to attract 
the nation's young early and to guide the 
more mature student into career choices. 
Even so, the problems of these groups are 
much more easily enumerated than the so-
lutions. The work should still serve its pur-
pose well and indeed should .go a long way 
toward encouraging minority groups to 
enter the profession and to stimulate the na-
tion to commit itself to ensure equality of 
education and job opportunities for all 
minorities and to honor that commitment. 
While necessary and well intended, the few 
federal and other institutional efforts in-
itiated to counteract this problem have been 
too meager, too restrictive, too tempo-
rary.-Jessie Carney Smith, University Li-
brarian and Federal Relations Officer, Fisk 
University, Nashville, Tennessee. 

Personnel Development in Libraries. Edited 
by R. Kay Maloney. Proceedings of the 
Thirteenth Annual Symposium Sponsored 
by the Alumni and the Faculty of the 
Rutgers University Graduate School of 
Library Service. Issues in Library and In-
formation Sciences, no . 3. New 
Brunswick, N.J. : Bureau of Library and 
Information Science Research, Rutgers 
University Graduate School of Library 
Service, 1976. 115p. $6. LC 77-5023. 
ISBN 0-8135-0843-6. (Distributed by 
Rutgers University Press.) 
This volume constitutes the proceedings 

of the thirteenth annual Rutgers GSLS 
Alumni/Faculty Symposium, which was held 
in April 1975. It includes an introduction by 
the editor, three papers, a discussion sec-
tion, and a selected annotated bibliography. 

The discussion section-about a sixth of 
the book-should have been left out. It is 
marred by typos (management's "bag of 
tracks"!), and the discussion groups too 
often wound up discussing tangential issues. 
At times, the groups seem to have missed 
the speakers' points altogether. The bibli-
ography seems adequate, though its 102 an-
notations might have been briefer and more 
informative, and it might have focused less 
narrowly on 1970-1975. 

Recent Publications I 137 

The three papers themselves make a total 
of only forty-four pages. For those not 
abreast with the current literature, Jeffrey 
Gardner's paper could be useful. Gardner 
reviews the inadequacy of salary increments 
as a motivating device, then describes two 
"new" approaches: peer review and perfor-
mance goals. Myrl Ricking's paper suggests 
that "task analysis" might help "define, at 
long last, what the profession of librarian 
really is." Unfortunately, as Ricking points 
out, her paper provides little practical ad-
vice, since task analysis is "exacting . . . ir-
ritatingly detailed ... imd very expensive." 

Paul Strauss' paper is the most interesting 
of the three. He makes the point that job 
enrichment and career ladder programs fre-
quently fail because they do not recognize 
that many workers prefer externally im-
posed work-structures while other workers 
reject such externally imposed structures. 
His distinction between "structure abetted" 
and "structure threatened" individuals is 
useful as still another means of sorting out 
the · difference between professional and 
nonprofessional tasks. 

The "personnel" referred to in the book's 
title are actually professional librarians 
rather than library employees in general. 
The personnel methods described are more 
appropriate for a large library than for a 
small one. Peer review, for example, takes 
place on a collegewide basis rather than in-
house in a small institution. The book's 
focus is therefore much more narrow than 
its title implies, while the · book's brevity in 
itself restricts its usefulness. 

The application of modern personnel 
techniques to libraries is probably for the 
good, especially when those techniques en-
hance the likelihood that librarians will be 
able to maintain and develop their prof~s­
sional skills. However, this particular 
volume lends little to the dialogue.-Peter 
Dollard, Alma College Library, Alma, 
Michigan. 

Levine, Jamie J., and Logan, Timothy. 
On-Line ·Resource Sharing: A Comparison 
of BALLOTS and OCLC. A Guide for 
Library Administrators. San Jose, Calif.: 
California Library Authority for Systems 
and Services (CLASS), 1977. 121p. $5. 
(Available from California Library Author-