College and Research Libraries 156 I College & Research Libraries • March 1981 McClure, Charles R. Information for Academic Library Decision-Making: The Case for Organizational Information Management. Contributions in Librarian- ship and Information Science, no.31. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1980. 227p. $23.95. LC 79-8412. ISBN 0-313- 21398-4. Decision making, for some time the dar- ling of management theorists, has finally made its formal debut into librarianship. Given the increasing complexity of academic libraries both in their organiza- tional development and in their utilization of technology, it is no wonder that investi- gators should now begin to examine the process by which library management deci- sions are made. This is a useful and impor- tant research study, derived from the au- thor's 1977 doctoral dissertation. Several underlying assumptions of the study bear emphasis. "(1) The most impor- tant resource of the organization is the indi- vidual, and (2) every employee is a deci- sion-maker" (p . 186). McClure examines the patterns of factual information exchange among library staff members. He demon- strates that various staff groups access and utilize different types of information in a situation-specific manner. His concern, which is every administrator's concern , is that "if an organization employs twenty in- dividuals who are contributing to the ac- complishment of goals at only 75 percent of their potential, there is a loss of five posi- tions in the organization" (p.171). He effec- tively argues that if more staff members have a wider and better selection of infor- mation on which to base their contribution to the total decision-making process , better and more responsive library services will be developed . This is not a new discovery , but what is significant in this book is that now there are empirical data to describe just how information is utilized in a number of libraries. Beyond that-without rehashing the old shibboleths about participative man- agement-McClure provides practical guid- ance on how the opportunities for participa- tion can be extended to more staff on the basis of enhanced " organizational informa- tion management." The study draws on many of the most im- portant user studies of management and technical information that have been pro- duced over the last fifteen years. It also in- corporates some useful concepts from, and references to, . recent research on com- munication in organizations. McClure points up one important and possibly surprising fact that may reflect more on the libraries in his sample popula- tion than on general practice in the field. He states with regard to management informa- tion that "of primary importance is the con- sideration that for many libraries there sim- ply are no internal or statistical reports" (p.165) . I can see how this may be the case in some academic libraries, but in most that I have known either as employee or consul- tant there has been an overwhelming flood of internal reports. Perhaps the point is really that there are few up-to-date, prob- lem-oriented reports effectively employing empirical data to support management rec- ommendations . This is certainly the case, although ARL 's SPEC Kits (Systems and Procedures Exchange ) have helped to address this problem somewhat through the sharing of certain reports of general applica- bility. Computer-based management infor- mation systems (MIS ) are also needed to provide detailed library statistical data on demand. The final point is not a criticism of the study , which is outstanding within the scope of its coverage. The research , howev- er, deals primarily with the factual compo- nents of information necessary for man- agemental decision making. It is doubtless understood, though not explicitly acknowl- edged , that there are other information components of decision making that may in some cases be as important as or more im- portant than concrete facts , i.e., the values, experience, and purposes of the contribu- tors, as well as the historical and political characteristics of the setting.-Robert S. Runyon , University of Nebraska at Omaha . "Special Issue on AACR2." James Thomp- son , ed. Alternative Catalog Newsletter, no.21 (June 1980). $5 (prepaid). ISSN 0161-7192. (Available from: Milton S . Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, Baltimore, MD 21218.) In February 1980, editors of the Alterna- tive Catalog Newsletter-convinced that (TI£.BUSINE551N)EX) The Most Comprehensive Source For The Business Community There's Nothing Else Like It! The BUSINESS INDEX includes complete and thorough indexing of articles, reviews, news and other related material-more than five times the coverage of any other reference. Here's what we provide: • Cover to cover indexing of more than 325 business periodi- cals, with abstracts. • The Wall Street Journal (cover to cover) • Barrons (cover to cover) • The New York Times (Financial section and selected rele- vant articles) · • All business articles selected from more than 1,000 general and legal periodicals. • Business books and report cataloging from the Library of Congress MARC database. Up To Date, Easy To Use We send each new monthly issue on one reel of 16mm COM (Computer-Output-Microfilm) which you can lock in seconds into the COM terminal that is included with each annual subscription . Reference Tailored For Business The BUSINESS INDEX provides extensive special indexing. 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Information Access is the publisher of The National Newspaper Index, The Magazine Index, The Business Index, NEWSEARCH: The Daily Online Index, The Legal Resource Index and The Current Law Index. 158 I College & Research Libraries • March 1981 opposition to AACR2 was widespread on the grounds of cost of implemention and lack of conviction that the new rules greatly improved on AACR1-invited readers to submit their opinions . Issue 21 contains re- plies received . As this review is being prepared, OCLC is "flipping" headings to AACR2 forms, and libraries everywhere are gearing up to cope with changes now less than a month away. If the editors hoped to stem this tide , they have probably failed. However, the issue makes interesting reading, and future revis- ers of catalog rules should take note. Thirty-one persons responded. Eighteen were from small to medium-size university libraries. The rest represented special, col- lege, and very large research libraries and one was a vendor of data-base services . Most writers were catalogers and heads of cataloging, with a sprinkling of library direc- tors and heads of technical services. Thir- teen took the opportunity to let off steam about the rules themselves . Six others, while generally positive about the code, fa- vored deferring all or part of AACR2 until on-line authority control is in place , in order to lessen the devastating effect of massive changes on file maintenance. Only eleven were supportive of full implementa- tion of AACR2 in January 1981, several on the grounds that it's far too late rather than because of overwhelming enthusiasm for the rules. Not surprisingly, Michael Gorman , one of the editors of AACR2, takes to task "no-neck administrators" who prefer "dumb headings" to the cost of change. Several others , however, point to equally "dumb" portions of the code. Jim Thompson comments that, between the ambiguities and inconsistencies in AACR2 itself and the decisions on ap- plying it at the Library of Congress, "it will be virtually impossible for a cataloger in any other library to create a record which another cataloger can accept with confi- dence. " The hope that AACR2 would in- crease standardization seems not to have been achieved. AACR2 may have had more input from the field than previous code revisions, but until publication only a few persons had seen a complete draft. Patrons, those for whom cataloging presumably is done, were not consulted at all. Administrators and others ask why impact studies were not done before adoption and why so much time and effort should be invested in the card catalog just before it ceases to exist. Those who took up ACN's invitation are, for the most part, thoughtful, rational librar- ians who will comply somehow with AACR2 because they have no choice. Most of them are dependent not only on the Library of Congress but also on data bases such as OCLC and RLIN. Not complying would be even more expensive. However, they raise serious questions about the wisdom of this step at this time. Since rule revision is an ongoing process, AACR2 will not be the last code. In the fu- ture , drafts of proposed changes should be distributed and publicized more widely. Those who are highly critical then have the responsibility to express their concerns while there is still time.-Mina H. Daniels, State University of New York at Albany. Osborn, Andrew D. Serial Publications: Their Place and Treatment in Libraries. 3d ed. Chicago: American Library Assn., 1980. 486p. $20. LC 80-11686. ISBN 0- 8389-0299-5. Eighteen years elapsed between the first and second editions of this book, but only seven years between the second and third editions . This is a recognition of the local, national, and international developments in librarianship , technology , and economics that have affected serials purchasing, cata- loging, and accessibility. A thorough effort has been made to update names and edi- tions in the text and in the chapter bibliog- raphies, leaving the basic organization of the text unaltered. Osborn mentions the "growth of understanding in serials manage- ment ," the financial crisis of the seventies, and progress in automation. However, the text does not give a full and integrated dis- cussion of the concerns foremost in the minds of those working with serials and ad- ministering the overall collection: automa- tion of local records, economics and budget- ing, full text retrieval, and nontraditional formats including electronic journals. The book still offers the best available in- troduction to the basic traditional proce- dures of serials processing within libraries.