College and Research Libraries ary 1979, with a minimum of redundancy. Two of the fourteen chapters are pre- sented by others: "The Librarian and the Blind Patron," by Hanan C. Selvin, a blind sociology professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and "Special Needs of the Deaf Patron," by Alice Hagemeyer , a deaf librarian at the Washington, D. C., Public Library. Both discuss library services from the point of view of their own disabilities and include many resources and services that should be of interest to those serving blind and/or deaf patrons. Velleman discusses attitudes toward handicapped individuals , types of physical disabilities , legislation, information for inde- pendent living, barrier-free design, rehabil- itation , special education , and the role of the library in serving special groups . Each chapter contains many references to materials and services in addition to the footnote citations found at the end of each chapter. There are also three chapters de- voted entirely to resources: "A Core Public Library Collection, " "A Model Rehabilita- tion Library," and "A Core Special Educa- tion Collection." Each is further divided into subject areas such as legislation and financing, sex and the disabled , travel , and death; and extensive , annotated bibliog- raphies are provided for each. Appendixes include lists of various agen- cies , training centers, resource centers, and sources of equipment with addresses and phone numbers. There is also a detailed in- dex which adds considerably to the useful- ness of the book. While a great deal of valuable and some- times difficult-to-find information has been brought together in a well-written and con- cise manner, perhaps the most valuable part of the book is that on attitudes and under- standing. If librarians had read this earlier, perhaps there would have been no need for the emphasis placed on services to the dis- abled at the recent White House Confer- ence on Library and Information Services. Both of these works are important-in- deed Velleman' s must be considered a land- mark-but they will be useful for different reasons. Certainly all librarians who are serving or should be serving disabled peo- ple should have the V elleman book. Those Recent Publications I 251 who are interested in the international aspect of problems relating to materials for the handicapped should also have the IFLA volume.-Lucille Whalen, State University of New York at Albany. Little (Arthur D .) Inc. A Comparative Eval- uation of Alternative Systems for the Pro- vision of Effective Access to Periodical Literature. A Report to the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. Washington: National Commis- sion on Libraries and Information Sci- ence, 1979. 1v. (various paging). LC 79- 6278. (A limited number of copies are available free from NCLIS, 1717 K Street, NW, Suite 601, Washington DC 20036. May also be ordered at $4 per copy from Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Govt . Print. Off., Washington , DC 20402.) The periodical crisis for libraries , now recognized to be of major proportions, is defined in a series of five important docu- ments and additional secondary literature. Vernon Palmour's Study of the Characteris- tics, Costs and Magnitude of Interlibrary Loans in Academic Libraries (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1972) is the first, point- ing to the major costs and administrative problems for academic libraries. The Asso- ciation of Research Libraries concluded from this study that the best way to reduce ILL costs is to improve periodical loans , and alternatives are suggested in Palm our's Access to Periodical Resources: A National Plan (Washington: ARL, 1974). Further work by Palmour, Bernard Fry, Peter Watson , and others led to the conclu- sion that other periodical costs can be re- duced through some form of cooperative arrangement. NCLIS appointed a task force on a national periodicals system to prepare a specific plan, and their suggestions are in Effective Access to the Periodical Literature: A National Plan (Washington, 1977), refer- red to as the Green Book. The core of the proposed national periodicals program is the creation of a national periodicals center (NPC), a facility to house a national collec- tion used to provide nationwide interlibrary loans for periodicals at greatly reduced national costs . In the fall of 1977, the Library of Con- 252 I College and Research Libraries • May 1980 gress asked the Council on Library Re- sources to prepare a technical development plan for a national periodicals center and to write the plan in such a way that LC or some other designated agency could operate the center as the hub of an organization to provide several levels of periodical service to the nation. The project director, C. Lee Jones , worked with a number of consul- tants , advisors , and reviewers to write A National Periodicals Center: Technical De- velopment Plan (Washington: CLR, 1978). This study is now referred to as the Bur- gundy Book. The fifth in this series of major studies, but perhaps not the last, is a report to NCLIS by the Arthur D. Little group, a comparative evaluation of the suggested alternatives (The White Book). The thrust is to provide a technical-economic analysis of the three means for providing access to periodical literature. These three are: a sys- tem of nonintervention , or basically the sys- tem as it exists today-what some hold to be no system at all ; the concept of a nation- al periodicals center-a dedicated center, established as a national, single source; and a multiple tier arrangement-perhaps better described as a private sector network. Each of these is presented using back- ground information , details on the systems themselves, the specific issues involved with each, "criteria elements ," financial costs , benefits analysis , and finally an analy- sis of the qualitative issues. The discussions are supported by twenty well-constructed and helpful tables. Little question exists that access to cur- rent and retrospective serials, especially periodicals, is both critical to library service and difficult to provide with speed and other efficiencies . The concept of an NPC (the Burgundy Book ) seemed to answer many questions, but many others arose after a chance for examination and evaluation . Some of these questions are studied and considered in the White Book. The Burgundy Book seems to hold that the position it discusses is revealed truth and leaves no room for question and discus- sion. The White Book asks several questions and raises many doubts about the absolutes stated in the Burgundy Book. The primary question examined in the White Book is cost: Would the $26 million subsidy answer the need? Can these funds b e more effec- AMBASSADOR BOOK SERVICE, INC. ; AMBASSADOR BOOK SERVICE, INC. "serving academic and research libraries" 42 Chasner Street • Hempstead, NY 11550 Call us 516/489-4011 collect! tively used in other ways, even if they are to be made available? The chapter concerned with "financial costs and benefits analysis," almost half of the book, summarizes in outline format the catalyst for success or failure-money. The need for some form of service is clear, but that may not be a compelling argument when benefits are considered. The cost analysis is detailed, even if based on incom- plete data. The theoretical quality of the projections clearly presents a number of un- resolved and previously unstated problems with any large financial commitment. The White Book takes the position that any enabling legislation for whatever system eventually develops will not be passed until at least 1985. This lead-time permits use of "scenario projections" that can be used by those interested in formulating opinions shaping future decisions on periodical sys- tems. The analysis in the White Book is percep- tive in that a number of observations on the apparent development of an NPC that have been hinted in informal discussions or sug- gested in some recent literature are articu- lated clearly and argued forcefully. Some administrative problems of the NPC' s prom- ised configuration, such as presently- standing contracts, not discussed in the Burgundy Book, are brought out in the White Book. Unlike the Green and Burgundy Books this White Book has a brief bibliography, only ten items, and some of these are not clearly identified. In addition, the White Book has no index. Neither do the Green and Burgundy Books. These omissions are unfortunate and lessen the effectiveness of the series. The White Book's reasoning is tight, the outline technique presents options clearly and unambiguously, and the presentation is fair and reasonably full, covering as it does the pros and cons to the three options. This is not intended only to throw cold water on the idea of an NPC , but it does slow down what might be an overly enthusiastic rush toward a "solution," which needed fuller ex- amination and evaluation. Individuals on both sides of the NPC con- cept, and especially the mugwumps, should study the White Book. It is more than help- ful. It is an essential part of the background Recent Publications I 253 information that librarians need to have to formulate a rational and successful solution to a pressing problem. The 1970s were a decade for the recogni- tion and definition of the periodicals crisis; perhaps the 1980s will be the decade for a solution.-Neal L. Edgar, Kent State Uni- versity, Kent , Ohio. Brownstone , David M., and Carruth, Gor- ton . Where to Find Business Information: A Worldwide Guide for Everyone Who Needs the Answers to Business Questions. A Hudson Group Book. New York: Wiley, 1979. 616p. $34.95. LC 79-15799. ISBN 0-471-03919-5. The appearance of a new directory to sources can be a welcome sight because, the user hopes, it updates significantly, broadens the scope meaningfully, and can be used easily. Where to Find Business In- formation meets all of these hopes suc- cessfully. Listed alphabetically are 5,108 English-language sources from all countries now being published, with concentration on periodic publications and services including computerized data bases; thus timeliness and broadening of field are achieved. There are more than 2,500 subjects to use as ac- cess points leading the user to an annotated listing of sources, and there is an index of publishers-the three assuring ease of use. The 1979 timeliness makes it a useful ad- junct to three 1976 publications: Lorna Daniells' Business Information Sources, Paul Wasserman's Encyclopedia of Business Information Sources, and Mary Grant and Norma Cote's Directory of Business and Fi- nancial Services. Daniells' book with its cursive discussions of methods of locating facts, basic time saving sources , and chap- ters on the various areas of interest to busi- ness is more truly a guide than Brownstone and Carruth's work. Wasserman's guide, with its dictionary arrangement and ex- tended table of contents covering the 1,300 subject headings, each subdivided as to type of material, "is a quicker and easier path to a printed source for a specific citation dealing with a single point. Grant and Cote's is a directory of 1,051 publications of business information agencies, a more limited range than the others. The more recent Bowker Business Books and Serials in Print 1977