College and Research Libraries 262 I College and Research Libraries • May 1980 edge relating to censorship is sketchy and often is based on opinion, not fact. More data are needed by persons who have to be involved, especially in subject areas likely to come under attack in schools and libraries. A second reason for the study was due to the U.S. Supreme Court decision of June 21, 1973, that changed interpretations of the First Amendment relating to obscenity reg- ulations. The third reason was based on the author's conviction that censorship is much more prevalent than many librarians and educators believe and that specific facts might help them if they should ever be faced with censorship issues. A great deal of quantitative data about censorship in the United States are pres- ented by Woods in an effort to answer nine specific questions. These questions, in brief form, are: (1) When did the censorship at- tempts occur? (2) Where did they occur? (3) How many items were censored? (4) What formats of materials were censored? (5) What types of educational institutions were affected by the censorship attempts? (6) What were the titles of the censored mate- · The Economics of Online Bi-bliographic Searching: Costs and Cost Justifications by William Saffady Describes the services currently available and what it takes in terms of equipment, personnel , and training for a library search service to become operational. Saffady's unique contribution is an economic analysis of the various options, including cost comparisons between manual and machine-assisted searching. In Library Technology Reports September/October 1979 issue Volume 15 Number 5 Single issue price $40.00 Library Technology Reports American Library Association 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611 rials? (7) What were the sources of the cen- sorship attempts? (8) What were the reasons for the censorship attempts? (9) What were the final dispositions of the censorship at- tempts? Several interesting facts emerged in the study. One was that schools accounted for 62 percent of all educational censorship, with more than two-thirds of this on the high school level. The author noted that "public libraries were less censored than colleges and universities, but more censored than other school levels or junior colleges." The most often censored title was Catcher in the Rye, and the second most often cen- sored was Soul on Ice. Many other interest- ing facts are given on the various topics,_ and tables are included to document the findings. This is a well-written, carefully prepared study of censorship in America between the years 1966 and 1975. It should be of invalu- able assistance to anyone who has to deal with censorship problems.-Martha Boaz, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Hernon, Peter. Use of Government Publica- tions by Social Scientists. Libraries and Librarianship: An International Series. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing Corp., 1979. 173p. $16.95. LC 79-16144. ISBN 0-89391-024-4. The first book-length use study of gov- ernment publications, Use , of Government Publications by Social Scientists, examines the use and nonuse of federal, state, local, foreign, and international documents by his- torians, sociologists, political scientists, and economists. In addition, Hernon investi- gates the effect of library characteristics, such as organization, collection arrange- ment, etc., on the use of documents. The study is based on questionnaires and inter- views administered to faculty and librarians at seventeen public and private institutions offering bachelor's through doctoral pro- grams. Hernon's findings are both enlightening and of tremendous practical value. Social scientists, excluding historians, rely primar- ily on current publications. All social scien- tists use only a relatively few types of documents , such as statistical publications, census reports, congressional hearings and committee prints, court cases, and serial set items. As might be expected, heavy and moderate users of the library are more likely to use documents than are limited users of the library. Hernon discovered that there is no difference in the use patterns of faculty in bachelor's , master's, or doctoral programs. Economists and political scien- tists are much more likely to make frequent use of documents than historians or sociologists. Regardless of discipline , federal publications are of greatest interest, fol- lowed by international and United Nations documents , state documents , foreign docu- ments , and finally, local documents. Faculty locate documents primarily through citations in the general literature, bibliographies in subject fields , mailing lists of government agencies , and contact with colleagues . Most faculty preferred informal methods of introducing students to docu- ments and, interestingly , 28.3 percent of the respondents never mentioned docu- ments to their students. Two reasons are offered for not using documents. First, many nonusers believe government agencies publish little of value in their specific field. Second, many non- users find the problems associated with identifying and accessing documents over- shadow any potential value of the docu- ments themselves. Librarians have long debated the effect of various document classification schemes on document use, and the debate is likely to continue, as Hernon reports that "there is no statistically significant difference between frequency of use and the type of classifica- tion scheme employed" (page 103). Hernon provides a unique and valuable insight into faculty use pattern of docu- ments. Originally a dissertation, the re- search is thorough and well designed; how- ever, the book could benefit from additional editing, as it still reads as if it were a disser- tation . In addition , Hernon's definition of some categories is questionable. Heavy li- brary use, for example, is defined as twenty-plus library visits per year, which seems somewhat low. Finally , one last caveat: "Frequency of faculty use of the li- brary's documents collection is not a good indicator of the use by faculty members of Recent Publications I 263 government publications in general" (page 88). Faculty frequently obtain documents through agencies, colleagues, and other channels. A welcome addition to the literature, Use of Government Publications by Social Scien- tists should be read by all documents librar- ians and librarians responsible for social sci- ence collections.-David R. McDonald , Stanford University Libraries , Stanford California. Grolier , Eric de. The Organization of In- formation Systems for Government and Public Administration. Documentation, Libraries and Archives: Studies and Re- search, 8 . Paris: UNESCO , 1979. 163p. $8. ISBN 92-3-101595-8. (Available from : UNIPUB, 345 Park Ave. South, New York , NY 10010.) This UNESCO-funded study describes and compares information systems for gov- ernment and public administration (ISGPAs) that are intended to aid decision makers. The scope of the work is international and is THE FOUR BIBLIOGRAPHIC UTILITIES: A Comparison by Joseph R. Matthews A 97-page report with 77 pages of appendices which include copies of the current contracts and price lists. In Library Technology Reports November/December 1979 Volume 15 Number 6 Single issue price $40.00 Library Technology Reports American Library Association 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611