College and Research Libraries of PROBE? This is one of her recommen- dations, and yet it is difficult to understand how one can examine the feasibility of a sys- tem without examining its goals. What is the justification of maintaining PROBE with its searching limitations? How would the addition of supporting data bases such as Psychological Abstracts affect cost? And a minor irritation. Why has the author omit- ted punctuation from the title of the book? It was difficult to determine whether this was a two-part essay or whether PROBE had a built-in evaluation program. The author has attempted to include too much information in too little space. As a 1~ result, many topics are hastily and unevenly covered. Although the review of pre-1973 literature is extensive, later studies, as pointed out, are slighted. The 1973 study is pre sen ted in laborious detail, the 1977 study sketchily . Little or no attempt is made to summarize results, and one won- ~ ders if the brief history of ERIC was really necessary. The author, however, does pre- sent a good case for continuous evaluation of retrieval systems, and the study of PROBE is probably not only of historic interest but should prove helpful to future evaluators.-Sylvia G. Faibisoff, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb. Evans, G. Edward. Developing Library Col- lections. Library Science Text Series . Lit- tleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1979. 340p. $15 U.S . and Canada; $18 elsewhere. LC 78-27303. ISBN 0-87287- 145-2. Collection Development. LJ Special Report #6. New York : Library Journal, 1978. 80p. $5; cash with order, $3.95. ISBN 0-8352-1129-0. ISSN 0362-448X. Changes and studies relating to collection development make it difficult to produce a textbook on the subject that is anything more than a general overview, which is soon out-of-date . Those previous books that have succeeded have concentrated on gen- eral principles and not specifics. Evans tries to combine these principles with practical applications to cover collection development in all libraries. The result is a well-written yet flawed discussion of collection develop- ment principles and applications. Evans defines collection development as Recent Publications I 389 being comprised of six elements: community analysis , policies, selection, acquisitions, weeding, and evaluation . (Preservation of library materials is, unfortunately, com- pletely ignored.) Each topic is described in detail, with variation depending on the type of library. The chapters on selection (one on audiovisuals and one on books) are quite strong, with emphasis on current selection aids and their applicability. Students should find the short synopses of nine previous books on collection development to be especially useful. The book attempts to show that selection of library materials does not take place in a vacuum . Thus, Evans covers not only A!V selection; he also describes the production, distribution , and acquisition of these items. Similarly, there are chapters on production and distribution of books and a description of basic ordering procedures. Unfortunately , some of his statements in this area are in- correct; Ford's revised work on acquisitions remains a better student text in this area. However, while areas related to collection development are covered, Evans doesn't manage to convey the importance of seeing collection development as an integral part of total library operations. Evans discusses interlibrary cooperation, copyright, and censorship in separate chap- ters under a "related issues" heading. The description of the effect on collection de- velopment of the new copyright law is very general. Ten pages are wasted by simply reproducing sections of the new copyright law. There are too many gaps to make this an effective text. Neither the article by Edel- man and Tatum (C&RL, May 1976) on de- velopment of collections nor Magrill and East's excellent review of collection de- velopment trends (Advances in Librar- ianship, v.8) is cited in the text. Budget- ing is not well covered ; Clapp-Jordan is practically ignored, while common terms , such as periodical back files, are explicitly defined. The usefulness of this book to both librarians and students is undermined by its broad scope, general coverage, and failure to discuss important issues, such as those raised by Galvin and Kent in their Pittsburgh study. The LJ Special Report is mistitled. It is 390 I College & Research Libraries • July 1979 not about collection development but is a compilation of fourteen previously unpub- lished, annotated subject bibliographies (or bibliographical essays in some cases). The work is focused on "the needs of a medium sized public library or undergraduate library clientele," and the bibliographies, designed to serve librarians building collections for general readers, should be very useful. The book's major strength is that it contains good bibliographies on areas of current interest-microcomputers, the aged, bioethics, farming-as well as such popular topics as careers, fantasy, dogs, and science fiction. -William Schenck, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Schaefer, Barbara Kirsch. Using the Mathematical Literature: A Practical Guide. Books in Library and Information Science, v.25. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1979. 141p. $19.75. LC 78-24537. ISBN 0-8247-6675-X. Here is another book written by a librar- ian for librarians who need access to the mathematics literature. I suppose it is ask- ing too much to hope that real library users might find it and enjoy it: these nonlibra- rians might be helped by its simple, direct descriptions of classification systems and card catalogs and a careful explanation of what Mathematical Reviews is all about. It is a sprightly up-to-date book covering selectively the literature of mathematics: greatest emphasis is put on pure or "core" mathematics without much dallying in the interdisciplinary swamp of applied mathe- matics, except for brief chapterS on statistics and operations research, which are com- paratively self-contained subjects. There is a definite bias toward American literature, especially the publications of the American Mathematics Society. Mathematics is ·one of the more international disciplines, and there is no mention of such important sources of papers as the French Seminaire publica- tions. The book begins with a concise history of mathematics, followed by an informative chapter on the nature of mathematics and its literature. Mathematical activity · is di- vided into three segments; research, appli- cations, and exposition. While the needs of the mathematical researcher can be satisfied by access to a comparatively small amount of literature, applications-oriented mathe- matics is widely dispersed through a variety of subjects and a diverse collection of jour- nals and abstracts. The third segment, exposition, involves bringing together research from both pure and applied sources to arrive at consolida- tions, simplifications, and relations within a general body of theory. According to Schaefer, this last area is the most neglected and difficult: mathematics is less susceptible to rapid review than the rest of the sciences due to its abstract nature, dependence on old as well as new literature, and specializa- tion. The next area of discussion is information needs of mathematicians depending on the depth, currency, and focus of their interest. How the library and publishers organize lit- erature to meet these needs is mentioned, along with the different forms this literature takes: journals, society publications, abstracts, monographi<;: series, and reference sources are included . The book ends with two brief chapters on applied subjects, statistics and operations research, where the literature is pretty well packaged. No men- tion is made of the lack of a computer searchable data base for mathematics or the problems involved in this. This is all presented in a fresh, direct style. I have only a few specific gripes. First, there is no mention of handbooks such as the CRC mathematics handbooks: even with the advent of hand calculators some tables are still useful to mathemati- cians. Second, for historical searches by au- thor I find it useful to remember the se- quence from Poggendorff; through the Royal Society Catalog, 1800-1900; the In- ternational Catalog (math section) 1905-15; the ]ahrbuch uber die Fortschritter der Mathematik , 1864-1936; then the Zen- tralblatt, beginning in 1931; and Mathemat- ical Reviews, beginning in 1940. With this sequence you can access almost 200 years of mathematics literature. Third, there is too much concentration and explanation in Schaefer's book on the publications of the American Mathematics Society and not enough editorial comment on such things as the lack of a cumulated annual index for Statistical Theory and Method Abstracts.