College and Research Libraries


ryphal and help to emphasize the problems. 
This text should supersede many of the 

earlier (and poorer) articles in the field and 
should be basic reading, for some time, for 
North American map librarians, whether 
experienced or beginners, and for nonmap 
librarians who want to know what is hap-
penging in the field.-joan Winearls, Uni-
versity of Toronto . 

The Information Society: Issues and An-
swers. American Library Association's 
Presidential Commission for the 1977 De-
troit Annual Conference. Edited with a 
Preface and Introduction by E. J. Josey 
and a Foreword by Clara Stanton Jones. 
A Neal-Schuman Professional Book. 
Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 1978. 133p. 
$11.95. LC 78-17708. ISBN 0-912700-
16-5. 
The ALA program in Detroit two sum-

mers ago attempted an ambitious departure 
from the usual Annual Conference format: 
an ali-day, plenary, think/talk session de-
voted to an examination of some major 
problems librarians face in the emerging 
"post-industrial society." 

Five major speakers followed in the wake 
of a keynote address by Norman Isaacs, a 
communications specialist from Columbia's 
Graduate School of Journalism (who ha-
rangued the gathering on those 
shortcomings of librarians-negativism, ar-
rogance, self-serving behavior, absurd 
bureaucratic routines-he presumed must 
stand in the way of libraries becoming 
"working community centers," a function he 
saw as their higher calling). 

OCLC director Fred Kilgour briefly re-
viewed past applications of technology to li-
braries, chiefly in cataloging, and invited 
participants to speculate on the fountain of 
beneficial effects about to shower forth as 
computer technology moved librarianship 
into "another of its great ages." New York 
State Senator Major Owens lambasted li-
brarians for failing to r~spond positively to 
social change during the past twenty years 
and, with the White House Conference in 
mind, called for· greater participation by li-
brarians in the government's policy-making 
procedures in order to overcome public in-
difference. 

Thomas Buckman, president of the Foun-

Recent Publications I 13 

dation Center, treated information as a 
commodity and discussed the economic im-
plications posed by new technology; Gerald 
Shields of the School of Information and Li-
brary Studies, SUNY Buffalo, invited 
analysis of the new role of librarians result-
ing from that technology; and Fay Blake of 
the School of Library Science, University of 
California at Berkeley, warned that public 
access to information must be determined, 
not by technology, but by librarians with a 
clear notion of their patrons' need. 

Following each address, the audience of 
some 1,500 participants broke up into small 
group discussions and proceeded to kick 
around these and other topics. It was, as 
one participant said, "the world's largest 
reactor panel." 

It is chiefly as a record of the event that 
publication of conference proceedings must 
be judged, and as a record this one is intel-
ligently designed, well edited, and thor-
ough. Feedback from the discussion groups 
is summarized and presented along with the 
texts of principal speeches; the editor's in-
clusion of reviews of literature prepared as 
handouts for the discussion sessions-and in 
some instances the review essays were more 
stimulating than the formal addresses 
themselves-gives the volume some claim 
to utility. 

Predictably, although some of the funda-
mental concerns are shared by academic li-
brarians (especially the identity crisis of the 
professional librarian caught up in a chang-
ing economic and technological environ-
ment), the public library context of the ses-
sion, as well as its necessarily superficial 
and hortatory treatment of issues, made 
it-and makes its tardy report-of only in-
cidental interest to the vast majority of 
readers of this journal.-W. A. Moffett, 
State University of New York, College at 
Potsdam. 

Conroy, Barbara. Library Staff Develop-
ment and Continuing Education: Princi-
ples and Practices. Littleton, Colo.: Li-
braries Unlimited, 1978. 268p. $17.50 
U.S. and Canada; $21 elsewhere. LC 78-
18887. ISBN 0-87287-177-0. 
This book provides an in-depth presenta-

tion of all aspects of establishing staff de-
velopment and continuing education pro-



74 I College & Research Libraries • January 1979 

grams. The material is divided into three 
major areas: planning, implementation, and 
evaluation. Within these broad areas, spe-
cific and detailed information is provided. 

Part I covers planning and addresses the 
topics of determining needs , developing 
program objectives, identifying resources, 
and designing a program. Part II deals with 
program implementation and includes mate-
rial on determining administrative respon-
sibilities, the selection of educational staff, 
the involvement of learners in an adult edu-
cation environment, and the provision of 
facilities, equipment, and materials. Part III 
is focused entirely on the important area of 
program evaluation and contains information 
on the design of evaluation tools and the 
collecting, analyzing, and utilizing of evalua-
tive information. 

The differences between staff develop-
ment and continuing education are estab-

Operating 
Budget Cuts? 
Less staff for equal work? Save 

time and trouble, get the most for 
your money with service designed 
to meet your needs. Reduce staff 
time in claim work and direct or-
dering - let us do the work. Any 
book in print (U.S. and Canada) 
can be supplied with custom invoic-
ing and prompt, accurate reporting 
of back ordered titles. Give us a 
trial order and see what our "Con-
cerned Service" can do for you! 

Call 517-849-2117 Collect -

the 
BOOK 
HOUSE 
SINCE 1962 
JOBBERS SERVING LIBRARIES 
WITH ANY BOOK IN PRINT 
208 WEST CHICAGO STREET 
JONESVILLE. MICHIGAN 49250 

lished in the introduction. Conroy describes 
staff development as the "effort intended to 
strengthen the library's capability to fulfill 
its mission effectively and efficiently by en-
couraging and providing for the growth of 
its own human resources." The responsibil-
ity for initiating learning opportunities 
within a staff development program rests 
with the employing library. Continuing 
education is described as "those learning 
opportunities utilized by individuals in fulfil-
ling their need to learn and· grow following 
their preparatory education and work ex-
periences." These programs are produced 
by library associations, state library agen-
cies, and graduate library schools. 

A number of sample forms are presented 
to illustrate a specific procedure or meth-
odology, and examples of specific staff de-
velopment and continuing education pro-
grams are also presented. A wealth of refer-
ence resources are also provided on each 
topic covered. 

The organization and the scope of the ma-
terial combine to make this a useful re-
source tool for those with responsibilities in 
staff development and continuing education. 
This book can serve as a manual in directing 
libraries and library associations and schools 
in formulating their own needs, approaches, 
methods, and activities within the areas of 
staff developqtent and continuing education. 
Because of the author's detailed approach 
and her emphasis on planning, Conroy's 
book should stimulate a more thoughtful 
consideration of the role that staff develop-
ment and continuing education play in 
maintaining and advancing library service. 
It should also encourage librarians to ap-
proach both areas in a more systematic and 
organized manner. 

While the book contains an overwhelming 
amount of jargon and detail and could have 
profited from greater brevity in places, it 
does offer a sound basis for approaching staff 
development and continuing education, as 
well as considerable information on the par-
ticulars of developing, implementing, and 
evaluating such programs. This should be 
required reading for library staff with re-
sponsibilities in either of these areas. It 
would be advantageous if all library staff 
could read this in order to gain a better 
understanding of the effort that is required 



to present quality programs, as well as the 
responsibility of participants in such 
programs.-Sheila Greth , University of 
Connecticut, Storrs. 

National Library and Information Services: 
A Handbook for Planners. Edited by C. 
V. Penna, D. J. Foskett, and P. H. 
Sewell . London, Boston: Butterworths, 
1977. 231p. $16.95. LC .76-54296. ISBN 
0-408-70818-2. (Available from Butter-
worths, 19 Cummings Park, Woburn, MA 
01801.) 
Librarians familiar with the works of C. 

V. Penna will find that this volume is an 
elaboration and expansion of his theories 
and earlier works on planning library ser-
vices for underdeveloped nations. In this 
handbook , in collaboration with P. H . 
Sewell, formerly senior library advisor in 
the Department of Education and Science 
in Great Britain, and D. J. Foskett, librar-
ian of the University of London Institute of 
Education, Penna makes a case for " con-
scious and systematic" planning of. national 
library and information systems at the high-
est government level. 

The authors propose, furthermore, that 
effective and efficient systems can only be 
developed if planned within the nation's so-
cial and economic structure and submit that 
these systems are successful only if manage-
rial control is similar to that used in large-
scale industry. ., 

Librarians, interestingly enough, are not 
the target audience for this book. The au-
thors state that , in their treatment of this 
topic, they have deliberately catered to the 
"political, educational and administrative au-
thorities who, in many cases, have had to 
assume responsibility for LIS planning with 
very ·little information or precedent to guide 
them." They hasten to add, however, that 
they recognize that library professionals 
have been trained by many library schools 
in the principles and techniques of planning 
but unfortunately have had few occasions to 
use their expertise. 

The authors have likewise been careful to 
point out that centralized planning is more 
apt to take place in countries such as the 
USSR where centrally planned economies 
are the norm , rather than in countries such 
as the United States and western Europe 

Recent Publications I 15 

whex:e national libraries and information 
centers have developed in a decentralized 
and more happenstance fashion. 

Although extremely informative, the 
scope and content of the handbook are so · 
broad that coverage of each topic is uneven. 
At times it appears that the authors cannot 
decide whether they are writing a textbook 
or a handbook and end up doing a little bit 
of both. Educators can find a list of topics 
useful for teaching a course in planning li-
brary information systems; others will find 
this a compact guidebook. 

Two-thirds of the book deals with meth-
odology, principles, and techniques of plan-
ning; the preparation of plans and matrixes; 
policy making ; the relationship between 
formulation of policy and financial control; 
and the relationship of library and informa-
tion systems to other government agencies. 
The authors touch upon problems unique to 
underdeveloped nations such as lack of pub-
lishing houses, use and maintenance of 
nonbook materials, accountability, and dif-
ficulties of forecasting manpower needs and 
supply. 

Only the last chapter of the book deals 
with implementation and hastily covers such 
topics as staffing; acquisitions and selection 
policies and procedures; cataloging and bib-
liographic control; the variety of classifica-
tion schemes that lend themselves to sys-
tematic arrangement of an information sys-
tem ; abstracting and indexing; thesauri ; and 
use of automatic data processing. 

It is unfortunate that, although the au-
thors appear to have used an extensive 
amount of documentation in collecting data 
for this volume, they chose to limit their 
bibliography to a few selected items. In 
spite of its limitations, the handbook is a 
worthwhile addition to library collec-
tions.-Sylvia G. Faibisoff, Northern Illi-
nois University , De Kalb. 

Books Are for Use. Final Report of the 
Subject Access Project to the Council on 
Library Resources. Pauline Atherton, Di-
rector. School of Information Studies, Re-
search Studies #4. Syrac.use, N.Y. : 
School of Information Studies, 1978. 
172p . $10 (10% handling costs and N .Y. 
sales tax if applicable). (Order [IST-10] 
from: Printing Services, Syracuse Univer-