College and Research Libraries tive artistic, architectural, graphic, and li- brary expertise of more than twenty-five au- thors , whose training and background fully qualify them to advise on library sign sys- tems. As librarians become increasingly more aware of the need to train their pa- trons to use libraries more efficiently and ef- fectively, the need for attractive and care- fully planned directional signs and other de- vices to guide and inform the user becomes more and more apparent . In buildings under construction , librarians have the opportunity to make an important contribution to the planning of directional graphics. In older buildings , the librarian must often attempt to bring some order to the chaos of accumulated signs or to impose a logical system on an illogical geography without the aid of architects or graphic de- signers. This book succeeds in discussing the issues involved in a variety of settings and in proposing solutions to problems that often require expertise and abilities not usually found on library staffs. The chapter topics indicate the scope and variety of the authors ' approaches: orienta- tion needs and the library setting; mazes , minds , and maps ; perceiving the visual message ; planning library signage systems; the role of the design consultant; sign mate- rials and methods ; the language of signs ; signs for the handicapped patron ; symbol signs for libraries ; evaluating signage sys- tems in libraries ; signs and the school media center; an approach to public library sign- age ; signs in special libraries; a signage sys- tem for a university library ; low-budget guidance ideas; wayfinding in research li- braries: a user's view; coordinating graphics and architecture; architectural techniques for wayfinding; designing open-stack areas for the user; effective library signage: a pic- torial study; and technical and psychological considerations for sign systems in libraries. An annotated bibliography on visual guid- ance systems offers further reading on theory and research, materials and tech- niques, and on such systems in libraries and in other institutions. Barbara Marks's humorous essay on the language of signs should not be confined to this one printing, nor the soundness of her advice lost in her amusing examples. Kitty Selfridge' s advice on planning library sign- Recent Publications I 569 age systems imposes upon the library scene graphic design that is common in other types of modern buildings, but rare in li- braries . The pictorial study of effective li- brary signage, contributed by the Institute of Signage Research , demonstrates that some libraries-even some of the staid old Gothic piles-have solved their signage problems in creative and exciting ways . The exclusive use of black and white photographs in a book describing the inven- tive use of color graphics is an economy that should never have been permitted, but , re- gardless of this one slight failing , Sign Sys- tems for Libraries breaks new ground and should be on every librarian's reading list.-Malcolm C . Hamilton , Haruard Uni- cersity , Cambridge , Massachusetts. The British Library Bibliographic Services Division. Leeds Polytechnic School of Li- brarianship ; produced in collaboration with the Educational Technology Unit . Tape/Slides in Library Science , No .3. Se- ries title on cassette: Talking to Librar- ians , no . TS/3. Leeds , The School , 1978. 76 slides , colored, 2 in. by 2 in ., & cassette , script, and brochures . £35. Order from: Administrative Assistant (Post Experience Courses), School of Librarianship, Leeds Polytechnic, 28 Park Place , Leeds LS l 2SY. The Bibliographic Services Division of the British Library is responsible for the biblio- graphic control of all materials received in the library , whether print or nonprint, and for bibliographic and cataloging services available to libraries and librarians through- out Great Britain and abroad. The division produces six bibliographic tools , British National Bibliography ( BNB) , Books in English , International Serials Data System Bulletin, British Education Index, British Library Automated Information Ser- vices (BLAISE) , a computerized information retrieval and cataloging system, and British Catalogue of Music. Through a tape service, interested librar- ies may acquire the catalog records pro- duced in the division . Each library has a choice between three types of service. The complete or exchange tape is a weekly ser- vice that contains a complete record of all 570 I College & Research Libraries • November 1979 entries appearing in that week's issue of BNB. The selective tape, also a weekly ser- vice, contains only records of publications that the library states it intends to purchase or has already purchased. The third service is the local cataloging service , which is is- sued on microform at stated intervals; with this service a library may specify the rec- ords it wishes to receive as well as the amount of data each record should contain . Cataloging in publication is also a responsi- bility of this division. All these activities are described in the tape-slide program , which explains how the data are assembled and distributed. The presentation does not provide a comprehen- sive coverage of the activities in the various components of the division , only an over- view of the division's work. This is why the informative pamphlets on the products and activities of the division that are included in the . package are of great value and deserve attention . The twenty-five minute sound cassette , which is accompanied by a printed text, is concise, pertinent, and well written . Several voices are heard on it, and the end result is a pleasing variety of clear enunciation. The seventy-six slides , on the other hand, are not of comparable quality. They gener- ally exhibit a lack of imagination , have a tendency to be repetitious , and are insuf- ficient in number. Slides of cataloging rec- ords, however, are exceptionally clear, with artistically designed and positioned arrows that direct the viewer's attention to the rel- evant data . A considerable number of slides simply present, in visual form , portions of the text on the accompanying sound cassette that the producers felt should be reinforced . Even though the objective of the tape- slide program is never mentioned , it is clear from the slides used to reinforce the content of the accompanying tape and ffom the lengthy pauses on it that the package is in- tended as a teaching device. As this package is unlikely to be used as a teaching tool in this country, librarians many find these in- structional techniques irritating. At thirty- five pounds, the package is an expensive means of acquiring information about the profession that can be obtained from a thor- ough perusal of the library literature.- Judith P. Cannan, Washington , D. C. The Role of Women in Librarianship, 1876-1976: The Entry, Advancement, and Struggle for Equalization in One Profes- sion. By Kathleen Weibel and Kathleen M. Heim , with assistance from Dianne J. Ellsworth. A Neal-Schuman Professional Book. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press , 1979. SlOp. $14.95. LC 78-27302. ISBN 0-912700-01-7 . In spite of, or because of, its length, the title of this book does not tell us that it is an anthology and a comprehensive, annotated bibliography . As such, it encompasses a wide variety of sources and styles, out of which the compilers dissect seven broad types of writing: (1) opinion pieces pro and con the presence of women in the profes- sion , (2) exhortations on how to be good women librarians , (3) descriptions of wom- en's status in librarianship, ( 4) statistical studies including data on women, (5) statis- tical studies that focus solely on women , (6) regularly published news items or features, and (7) historical or sociological studies of the role of women in the field. A preface tells us of the book's conception and gestation . An introduction reviews the varying professional and social climates within which women assumed their equivocal preponderance in librarianship . An alphabetized set of biographical notes follows on the contributors of the forty-four articles that have been chosen from British and American sources . These articles are ar- ranged in five historical periods: " 1876- 1900-Emergence of an Organized Profes- sion"; "1901-1921-The Move toward Suf- frage"; "1922-1940-Between the Wars "; " 1941-1965-World War II and After"; and "1966-1976-The Second Feminist Move- ment." The bibliography, with its own introduc- tion and three indexes (subject, author, and title) occupies the final two-fifths of the vol- ume. It was compiled by searching Cannons, Library Literature, special lists such as the bibliography of the SSRT Task Force on Women and those appended to substantial works on the subject, in addition to special journal indexes, e.g., for the Library As- sociation Record and Library ] ournal. The entries are arranged first by year, then by season and month, except that letters re- sponding to articles, etc., are cited with the