College and Research Libraries


compilation of nearly twenty years of visit-
ing libraries and being involved in library 
planning. Although it has information useful 
for all types of libraries, it is written pri-
marily from the academic library stand-
point. 

A beginning chapter gives a brief over-
view of information every planner needs to 
know about building shape, number of 
floors, entrances, interior walls, security, 
use of glass, conduit systems, etc. The next 
three chapters deal with housing problems 
of the user. Furniture and space needs are 
discussed for each area. The use of the 
phrase "keys areas" for the more usual "key 
areas" is upsetting semantically, but is a 
small price to pay for a considerable amount 
of useful information. 

Separate chapters deal with housing print 
and nonprint collections. There is consider-
able detail about various types of shelving, 
including compact shelvin_g. The author 
briefly discusses IMCs and LRCs, but 
directs his comments on nonprint media to 
the librarian with little training in this area. 

Appendixes include sample specifications 
(useful) and a list of buildings the author 
visited (unnecessary). There are many 
photographs that illustrate points in the 
text, but they are not well designed and the 
reproduction quality is poor. It seems as if 
the photographs were simply culled from 
quick shots taken over many years of travel, 
rather than being taken especially for this 
book. That, and the poor-quality binding, 
do not make this volume worth $39.75, no 
matter how useful the information.-D. 
]oleen Bock, University of Guam, Agana. 

Managing Costs and Services in College 
Libraries: A Users Manual. Field review 
ed. CASC Planning and Data System. 
Washington, D.C.: Council for the 
Advancement of Small Colleges, 1979. 
44p. $5. 
.One simple but limited way to answer 

the question "How good is my library?" is 
to compare it to others in colleges of similar 
type and size. By using this manual in con-
junction with the workshop and consultation 
services (optional) of the Council for the 
Advancement of Small Colleges and its data 
collection and reporting services (required), 
a library in a small · liberal arts college could 

Recent Publications I 465 

compare itself to similar libraries in terms of 
staff size, book budget, and total budget; 
circulation, interlibrary loan, and hours; dis-
tribution of expenditures between clerical 
and professional staff, among administrative, 
technical, and public services, and among 
types of materials. 

Other comparisons can be made on the 
library budget as a percentage of total in-
structional expenditures and of total educa-
tional and general expenditures; volumes 
and expenditures per FTE (full time equiva-
lent) student; service months of library 
faculty per FTE teaching faculty and FTE 
student, etc. 

The council's data base comprises the 
Higher Education General Information Sur-
vey/Library General Information Survey 
(HEGIS/LIBGIS) data and other derived 
measures of library expenditures and opera-
tions supplied by participating libraries . For 
an unspecified fee the council runs a partici-
pating library's data against those of the li-
braries already in the data base and pro-
duces several data reports which are used in 
making comparisons. In the tables the li-
braries are arranged by FTE student count 
of their parent colleges and the above mea-
sures and ratios are displayed for each li-
brary. Institutional identities are kept 
anonymous. 

Several sample reports using hypothetical 
data are presented along with a helpful case 
study. There is a discussion of how this li-
brary costs module can be integrated with 
one or more of the council's ten other mod-
ules, covering such areas as student recruit-
ment and attrition, fund raising, college 
goals and climate, instructional program, 
and so on . 

Caveats: In interpreting the results of the 
comparisons one must consider " ... pro-
grams and service emphases, goals and 
objectives, and resources of the college" 
(p.33). Also, one has the insecure feeling 
that there is nothing inherently normative 
about the individual and collective data 
against which one's own is being compared. 

Sometimes, however, comparative data 
may be just what is needed to pry some 
funds from a reluctant president or chief 
academic officer who is embarrassed by or 
jealous of what the competition is doing. 
Beware: This tactic could backfire if the 



466 I College & Research Libraries • September 1980 

comparisons show your library is doing 
much better than others. 

The astute library director appreciates the 
highly individualistic, sometimes eccentric, 
and always political nature of budget 
appropriation and allocation. To support the 
library's funding requests, the director uses 
whatever arguments and data allow him or 
her to make the best case for the library. 
Certainly the comparative data which the 
council's services and products help a li-
brary generate have a place in rationalizing 
budget requests. Such data constitute one 
implement in the library director's 
armamentarium.-Albert F. Maag, Capital 
University, Columbus, Ohio. 

Lane, Alfred, H. Gifts and Exchange Manu-
al. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 
1980. 12lp. $15. LC 79-7590. ISBN 0-
313-21389-5. 
Alfred Lane, longtime head of the gift 

and exchange division of Columbia Uni-
versity Libraries, clearly explains the pur-
pose of Gifts and Exchange Manual in his 
preface. "The book is not intended to be a 
treatise or a scholarly examination .... Nor 
does it attempt to examine the state-of-the-
art." Rather, it is a how-to book, a hand-
book of procedures, a manual-as the title 
suggests. As such, its usefulness is probably 
limited to those who have a gift and ex-
change operation as a major portion of their 
responsibility. 

The need for such a book is subject to de-
bate. Of 121 pages, about half are text and 
half are appendixes. In the 121 pages are 
numerous blank pages and others that have 
great amounts of white space, including 
substantial margins. The net result is 
perhaps 20,000 original words constituting 
the text. Nevertheless, the procedures de-
scribed have been tried and proven by the 
author and by others and should provide 
considerable help to persons with little gifts 
and exchange experience. 

In chapter one Lane discusses the place 
of gifts and exchange in the library's organi-
zational structure along with some of the 
qualities needed in personnel and typical 
responsibilities. Most of the comments are 
so elementary that they could go without 
saying. He presents a very weak argument 
in favor of the gifts and exchange librarian 

needing a basic background in one or more 
foreign languages. However, he does 
emphasize the characteristics that provide 
the sine qua non of every gifts and ex-
change librarian-the public relations role 
and the ability to grasp the collection de-
velopment trends in a specific library. 

Chapters two and three are devoted to 
library exchange procedures, particularly 
those of academic libraries. Noted is the in-
fluence on the growth of exchanges of both 
UNESCO and the International Exchange 
Service of the Smithsonian Institution. Con-
siderable discussion is given to specific 
kinds of materials, procedures, agreements, 
and records that are common to library ex-
changes. It is apparent that the costs associ-
ated with exchange operations may be sig-
nificant, and both the obvious and hidden 
costs are frankly discussed. According to the 
author, "The economics of exchange have 
not been thoroughly studied, and certainly 
they should be." While the jury may still be 
out, a recent study by ·Mark Kovacic, "Gifts 
and Exchanges in U.S . Academic Libraries" 
(Library Resources & Technical Services, 
Spring 1980), tends to support Lane's feel-
ing that gift and exchange programs can be 
a cost-effective means of acquisition. 

The chapter on gifts to libraries offers a 
realistic look at the pros and cons in relation 
to library gifts. The importance of gifts to 
academic libraries should not be minimized 
because of the problems they can produce. 
There is substantial comment about library 
policies on estimates and appraisals and on 
the acceptance and disposition of gifts. The 
importance of having such policies can hard-
ly be overestimated, as they will prevent 
subsequent misunderstandings. Reference is 
made to two basic documents: Valuation of 
Donated Property (IRS Publication no.451) 
and the ACRL Statement on Appraisal of 
Gifts (C&RL News, March 1973). 

A couple of brief chapters are devoted to 
the activities related to selection from 
among the gifts received, specific utilization 
in the collections of a library, and disposal 
of unneeded items. A final chapter of two 
pages is concerned with rare books and 
manuscripts, appropriate for a gifts and ex-
change manual but contributing very little 
here. The remainder of the book-almost 
half---consists of appendixes and a brief in-