College and Research Libraries


coming well known and understood by librar-
ians in many corners of the world. Those in the 
United Kingdom, and to a growing degree 
Australia, are confronted less with the whims 
of an electorate than with specific directives to 
keep a lid on library costs. The 1976 Atkinson 
Report, crlmed at libraries in the United King-
dom, while moving these institutions closer to 
the ranks of endangered species, may awaken 
librarians to the fact that "the old indepen-
dence of the individual library and librarians" 
has gone the way of the dodo bird. 

Colin Steele's Steady State, Zero Growth 
and the Academic Library is an important 
stimulant to examining the problems facing all 
librarians. And while "the essays in this book 
do not offer any radical solutions," readers will 
find it a welcome relief to the more-of-the-
same philosophy that seems to dominate much 
current thinking about libraries. Elizabeth 
Watson's opening essay is by far the most re-
freshing. She not only discusses the meaning 
behind steady-state growth but also explores 
why librarians seem incapable of useful action , 
namely, "the paucity of information we pos-
sess about questions of central concern": the 
areas of costs, user behavior, and information 
needs. Watson poses a "value position" that 
should be carefully -considered. Most impor-
tant , she suggests actions librarians must take. 

Following the point of view expressed by 
John Horacek, that "one can also take the At-
kinson Report positively, as a sign of the time·s 
and consequently as a stimulus to thought and 
planning for remedial action ," most of the au-
thors in this collection attempt to provide 
something more than palliatives . Peter Durey 
stresses the need oflibrarians to be more effec-
tive managers and propagandists (are library 
schools listening?) . John Dean writes a brief 
text on evaluating and controlling the size of 
collections. His "trends at Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity" curiously begs the question of a li-
brary in steady-state. Bernard Naylor, in as-
sessing the factors involved in library coopera-
tive programs , sounds an accurate warning in 
his penultimate sentence: " ... it will need a 
very great change in libraries' present at-
titudes towards cooperation, if this is to have a 
substantial impact on libraries' current finan-
cial and space problems." 

One could fuss over much that is said-or 
not said. The primary focus of the book, how-
ever, is to raise questions, demand attention to 

Recent Publications I 173 

very real problems , explore the dimensions of 
possible alternatives, and, above all , to 
think-probably in terms in which librarians 
have not felt compelled to think before. As 
Norman Higham concludes, "Whether indi-
vidual libraries pursue previous policies, or 
change course, librarians will be working in a 
different environment with a sharpened 
awareness of the issues involved."-John C. 
Heyeck, Stanford University . 

Neal, K. W. British University Libraries. 
2d ed. Cheshire: The Author , 1978. 
£3.80. LC 78-40372. ISBN 0-901570-11-7. 
(Available from the author: 59 Redesmere 
Drive , Alberley Edge , Cheshire SK9 
7UR, England.) 
This second edition is intended as an intro-

ductory text for library school students and 
newcomers to university library work. Al-
though the thirteen chapters cover all aspects 
of university librarianship in the United King-
dom, the depth of coverage is very uneven. 
For example, as much space is given to de-
partmental libraries as to government and 
communications , or the financing of British 
universities and their libraries. 

The content is also very variable in quality; 
the chapter on library planning is a good re-
sume of the methods and problems associated 
with the design and furnishing of new librar-
ies , illustrated with examples from recent 
British practice . However, the standard of this 
chapter is rarely matched in the rest of the 
book. It is inevitable that an introductory text 
has to include much detail of basic routines 
and methods, and this is present in this work. 
But there is a tendency to highlight idiosyn-
crasies in the practices of individual libraries at 
the expense of clearly indicating good general 
practice, an approach which must be confusing 
and unhelpful to librarianship students and 
newcomers to the profession . They would do 
better consulting the works cited in the bibli-
ography at the end of each chapter. 

The author appears to have a lack of under-
standing of the working relationships within a 
university library, between the library and its 
parent institution, within the university itself, 
and between the university and the University 
Grants Committee, the provider of80 pe rcent 
of British university income . For example , 
many who have actually experienced the hard 
work put into preparing for a U. G. C. visitation 



174 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979 

would disagree strongly with the quoted view 
that these visits border on the farcical. 

The real problems facing British university 
libraries-finance , space, matching literature 
supply to reader demand, critical performance 
evaluation, adoption of systematically eval-
uated computer-based methods and routines, 
etc.-are largely skated over. In general , this 
is not a book I would recommend. I consider 
much of it would confuse and mislead its in-
tended audience, the student and 
newcomer.-] . K. Roberts, University of 
Wales Institute of Science and Technology, 
Cardiff. 

Hyman, Richard J. From Cutter to MARC: 
Access to the Unit Record. Queens College 
Studies in Librarianship, no. 1. Flushing, 
N.Y.: Queens College of the City University 
of New York, 1977. 40p. $2. LC 77-089466. 
ISBN 0-930146-10-7. ISSN 0146-8677. 

Hyman, Richard J. Analytical Access: History, 
Resources, Needs. Queens College Studies 
in Librarianship, no. 2. Flushing, N.Y.: 
Queens College of the City University of 
New York , 1978. 68p. $5. LC 78-18413 . 
ISBN 0-930146-12-3. ISSN 0146-8677. 
The Queens College Studies in Librar-

ianship series has made its debut with two 
monographs by R. J. Hyman. These mono-
graphs complement each other and are jus-
tified by the same rationale. Even though the 
demise of the card catalog may seem immi-
nent, the unit entry in book or card format 
must continue to provide access to biblio-
graphic resources for a long, long while be-
cause of the high cost of converting retrospec-
tive records to MARC format. Therefore, it 
behooves us to realize the full potential of this 
instrument. 

From Cutter to MARC , the first of these-
ries, deals with the problem of access to "the 
work." Hyman points out that the unit entry 
can yield more than mere finding-list informa-
tion if it is approached with the same search 
strategies as are used with an automated data 
base. His suggestions for " manual coordinate 
retrieval" are practical, should be required 
reading for every neophyte reference librar-
ian, and are especially applicable in the 
academic environment where the needs of the 
scholar often require sophisticated searching 
techniques. This monograph deserves special 
commendation because it offers sensible 

methods for the efficient use of readily avail-
able resources. 

Analytical Access is concerned with the 
problem of access to the content of" the work." 
It consists primarily of descriptions of the 
kinds of tools available: the "in analytics" au-
thorized by cataloging codes since Cutter's day 
but seldom made; the analytical entries in 
nineteenth-century book catalogs; periodical 
indexes, some of which include books as well; 
indexes to composite works; and the com-
puterized data bases that now provide the 
major access to the content of monographic 
materials. 

The author might well have mentioned 
another type of useful tool, the stepping-
stones to serial indexes , which are provided 
not only by the mandatory notes on serial en-
tries (see AACR rule 170) but also by tools like 
the Guide to Special Issu es and llldexes of 
Periodicals, the second edition of which was 
issued by the Special Libraries · Association, 
New York Chapter, Advertising Group in 
1976. 

The inadequacy of these modes of access 
prompts the author to conclude that abstracts 
of all works , monographic and serial, should 
"be included in all computerized data bases, 
all printed catalogs and cards, and also in the 
works themselves." Though many will agree 
with this proposal, Hyman doesn't address the 
difficult questions that such a recommenda-
tion poses, such as the high cost of profession-
ally prepared abstracts , the uneven quality of 
author-prepared abstracts , and the fact that 
only the reader can define relevance. 

At least half of each of these monographs is 
dedicated to appendixes , notes, etc. Although 
a scholarly approach is laudable, when the tail 
threatens to wag the dog, the reader is likely to 
ask, "Is this appendix necessary?" Since the 
historical background has been well 
documented in the "Notes," this reader won-
ders what purpose is served by a "Chronology" 
that the compiler characterizes as "not in-
tended to be comprehensive, for either events 
or publications." 

Of marginal value also is the "Glossary, " 
which gives the customary definitions for li-
brary terms appearing in the text, even such 
elementary terms as "dictionary catalog." 
Each term when it first appears in the text is 
italicized and asterisked , a practice this re-
viewer found distracting. With the target au-