College and Research Libraries 68 I College & Research Libraries • ] anuary 1979 conference at Oslo in 1977 is one result of its work. The published proceedings come at a propitious time for United States libraries when a great deal of thought and concern has been expended upon the development and implementation of a national library service policy. The papers are divided into two major sections: interlibrary lending in non-Nordic countries, and interlibrary lend- ing in the Nordic countries. It is unfortu- nate that the Nordic presentations could not have been translated-one must be content with English-language summaries-but the sections dealing with non-Nordic lending are presented in English and in their en- tirety. Maurice Line's exposition of the British Library Lending Division (BLLD)' s stream- lined document delivery pleads the case well for a highly centralized national lending system. In contrast, Jurgen Heydrich's de- scription of West Germany's intricate and decentralized lending picture is emphati- cally not a model to be emulated. User frus- tration must be widespread in West Ger- many, as a large percentage of requests are returned unfilled after many months, and bearing a great number of official stamps , mutely testifying to the bureaucratic hands through which they have unsuccessfully passed. Conversely, simplicity, extremely mini- mal record-keeping, and speed are keynotes of the British system, and although the BLLD charges for its services, the number of requests handled has risen dramatically from 118,000 in 1962 to 2,540,000 in 1976, demonstrating users are not at all reluctant to pay for a reasonable turn-around time. While the avowed purpose of the confer- ence was to set goals for interlibrary lending and planning among Nordic countries, two themes recur that transcend regional con- cerns. First is the need for each country to develop a strong, centralized national bib- liographic system, buttressed with adequate and reliable financial support. Second, the concept of universal availability of publica- tions, already acknowledged by the Interna- tional Federation of Library Associations and by UNESCO, must be recognized and understood. As Line points out, universal biblio- graphic control made possible by computer technology will avail us little if the docu- ments to which they refer are not readily accessible. When, and only when, the con- cept of availability has been accepted and a concrete plan developed for its fulfillment at the national level, can a truly effective in- ternational interlibrary lending structure be postulated. For librarians interested in expanding, promoting, and strengthening international interlibrary lending, careful study of the Oslo document is indispensable to an as- sessment of the present state of the art, and the editors are to be commended for this contribution to the literature. -Alice Weaver, University of Toledo , Toledo , Ohio. Saffady, William. Computer-Output Mi- crofilm: Its Library Applications. Chicago: American Library Assn., 1978. 190p. $10.50. LC 78-18416. ISBN 0-8389-3217-7. This readable description of computer- output microfilm (COM) is a must for librar- ies or other groups considering COM usage. The coverage of COM hardware and software · is outstanding. The considerations involved in output selection, COM display equipment, and retrieval coding and index- ing are discussed in detail. This report includes a. description of the state-of-the-art through January 1978. Limi- tations as listed by the author include (1) libraries as users not owners of COM recorders, (2) mention of representative equipment, and (3) an appendix that lists COM recorders available in the United States. These are not seen as limitations of this volume by this reviewer. Libraries cur- rently need a broad introduction to COM hardware and software. Specifics in COM hardware will change with improvements in the technology. This volume includes an excellent glos- sary of COM terms that librarians and others need to know and understand. There are pictures showing various types of hardware. The appendix includes a formula for determining monthly COM costs, a list of companies specializing in the production of COM catalogs for libraries, and a selected bibliography. The volume is extremely weli done in what it does include. However, the title implies that this volume will discuss COM applications to library activities. Several li- brary applications are alluded to in this vol- ume, but none are handled in depth. This lack does not overshadow the importance of the hardware and software of the COM process to libraries. Most library COM activities will probably be handled by a service bureau. But librar- ians have to deal with the service bureaus and with the computing staff developing the software. The volume is a needed tool for the librarian contemplating COM applica- tions. The value of this volume to COM users outside the library field should not be over- looked . All COM users need to have a gen- eral understanding of the technical side of the process. This type of publication would have been a very useful tool for those who pioneered COM applications in libraries. Librarians currently anticipating the use of COM should refer to it. The value of this publica- tion will, of course, be limited by the changing technology in the COM area. Cer- tain capabilities of COM service bureaus are not mentioned, since their development and availability have occurred in the last few months. Because the whole area of com- puter usage and COM applications by li- braries is changing rapidly, more books of this type are needed.-Helen R. Citron, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Perreault, Jean M. The Idea of Order in Bibliography. Sarada Ranganathan Lec- tures, no. 9 . Bangalore: Sarada Ran- ganathan Endowment for Library Sci- ence, 1978. 135p. $8.50 This set of six lectures is a heavily philosophically oriented disquisition on the significance of order in bibliographic files . The fundamental thesis is that, for searching to be successful, the searcher must be able to predict the location of an item in a file, requiring that the file be designed with this need in mind. The work is limited to alpha- betically ordered files. The subject matter of these lectures is ex- tremely important. One wishes that all those responsible for file arrangement un- Recent Publications I 69 derstood and applied the points the author is making. Unfortunately, the practical cataloger and head of cataloging who stand most in need of the points elucidated are unlikely to wade through the rather abstruse philosophical arguments. Fur- thermore, having done so, they will find lit- tle practical assistance; only readers who are prepared to apply philosophical abstractions for themselves will be able to profit. The lectures are approximately equally divided between subject and non-subject cataloging. The work of several other au- thors is criticized in a very thoughtful fash- ion (the reader should find these criticisms quite useful), but the basis for selection of the works criticized seems idiosyncratic. The thoughts and ideas presented in this work are valuable and will reward the reader who has the patience to work through them. It would be a service to the profession if the author would undertake to re-present his ideas in a form more suited to those who need to hear them.-]essica L. Harris, St. John's University, New York, New York . How to Start an Audiovisual Collection. Edited by Myra Nadler. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1978. 157p. $7. LC 78-1993. ISBN 0-8108-1124-3. Cabeceiras, James. The Multimedia Library: Materials Selection and Use. Library and Information Science. New York: Academic Press , 1978. 275p. $13. LC 77-11209. ISBN 0-12-153950-4. Other than the fact that they are both committed to the concept of multimedia li- brary service, these two books really have very little in common. Nadler's book is a collection of essays (each by a different au- thor) intended to help launch a public li- brary audiovisual program . The choice of audiovisual in the title is deliberate; this is a book about how to add nonprint services to an already functioning print collection. The Cabeceiras book, on the other hand, is a systematic treatment by one :iuthor of the characteristics and utilization of various forms of media in a generalized library set- ting; this author uses the umbrella term multimedia to emphasize the fact that he is dealing with library programs where print and nonprint resources exist as coequals.