College and Research Libraries


Clemson University, Clemson, South Caroli-
na. 

New, Peter G. Book Production. Outlines 
of Modern Librarianship. London: Clive 
Bingley; New York: K. G. Saur, 1979. 
152p. $10. ISBN 0-85157-266-9. 
Peter New's Book Production is one of 

the volumes in the very useful "Outlines of 
Modem Librarianship" ·series published by 
Clive Bingley of London. While the 
announced purpose of these brief manuals is 
to serve as introductions to, or even text-
books in, a variety of courses of the stan-
dard library science curriculum, in practice 
they appear to be particulary helpful as re-
view books for students preparing for major 
examinations. 

The present volume is a small octavo of 
about 150 pages bound in paper-covered 
boards. The index is serviceable, and the 
few black-and-white illustrations are ade-
quate, though clearly color would have 
helped to explain full-color halftones. There 
is no bibliography, but reference is made 
throughout to a very few essential British 
texts, particulary Sean Jennett's Making of 
Books (Faber, 1974). Obviously for Amer-
ican instructors, however, the basic text 
would be Marshall Lee's Bookmaking (Bow-
ker, 1979), which was presumably not avail-
able to New when he wrote this book. 

The author, who has a library science 
background, has taught book production for 
nineteen years and has written extensively, 
including Reprography for Librarians 
(Bingley, 1975) and Education for Librar-
ianship (Bingley, 1978), is, to say the least, 
well qualified for his task. 

New's interest in pedagogy shows in his 
thoughtful introductory chapter, "Study and 
Teaching of Book Production," and in his 
excellent organization of all subsequent 
chapters. Indeed the book provides the 
teacher with a ready-made outline for a unit 
or course in book production. Four chapters 
are devoted to the printing of text, an equal 
number to the printing of illustrations, one 
each to paper and binding, and a final chap-
ter discusses design and typography. The 
presentation is what might be called "defini-
tion-in-context." As each technical term is 
introduced, it is italicized and its meaning is 
given in relation to the process being de-

Recent Publications I 371 

scribed. The technique is effective, and. the 
format makes the book easy to use as a 
handbook should be. 

The index provides an alphabetical 
approach, though its convenience would be 
improved if boldface numbers were used to 
distinguish between definitions an~ simple 
mentions of the terms. In this sort of ani-
mated glossary the difference between En-
glish and American usage might be a prob-
lem. There are such differences, filmsetting 
for photocomposition, photo-lithography for 
offset lithography, and unsewn for peifect 
binding, but they are few and should cause 
no serious misunderstandings; in fact, the 
American term is often given as a synonym. 
The cost of the book at $10 is more apt to 
discourage its widespread purchase by stu-
dents in this country. 

Peter New's book is confidently recom-
mended for purchase by faculty and stu-
dents in library science, journalism, bib-
liography, certain technical courses, or 
wherever a layman's understanding of the 
technical aspects of book production is 
sought, and by libraries serving such clien-
teles.-Budd L. Gambee, University of 
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Developing Library Effectiveness for the 
Next Decade. Proceedings of the Seventh 
Meeting of IATUL, Leuven, May 16-21, 
1977. Edited by Nancy Fjallbrant and Ker-
stin McCarthy. Goteborg, Sweden: Inter-
national Assn. of Technological University 
Libraries, Chalmers Univ. of Technology 
Library, 1978. 235p. ISBN 91-7260-257-0. 
As one might infer from the title, this 

book contains a diverse set of original pa-
pers on library effectiveness presented at 
the May 1977 conference of the Internation-
al Association of Technological University 
Libraries at Leuven, Belgium. It consists of 
nine, long, invited papers, as well as 
fifteen, shorter, spontaneously presented 
"communications." 

The general introduction of the confer-
enc.e identified the specific problems facing 
university libraries that gave impetus to the 
conference theme: "the ever increasing pro-
duction of publications, the never ending 
growth of student populations, the pressure 
on us to supply information more quickly, 
the appearance of more and more sophisti-