College and Research Libraries


Librarians now making decisions that 
must consider the relative merits of SNA, 
X.25, SDLC, Ethernet, multiplexing, and 
other specific technical issues cannot expect 
much help from this book.- William L. Ba-
sinski, Data Resources, Inc. , Lexington, 
Massachusetts. 

Border, Alan. Video Discs- Their Applica-
tion to Information Storage and Retrieval. 
2d ed. NRCD Publication no.17. Here-
ford, Herts, Great Britain: National Re-
prographic Centre for Documentation, 
1981. 50p. ISBN 0-85267-199-7 hard-
cover; 0-85267-200-4 microfiche. 

Barrett, R. Developments in Optical Disc 
Technology and the Implications for Infor-
mation Storage and Retrieval. British Li-
brary Research and Development Reports, 
no.5623. Wetherby, West Yorkshire: 
The British Library, 1981. 80p. ISBN 
0-905984-71-4. ISSN 0308-2385. 
One candidate for the topic most discussed 

and debated during 1982 by those involved 
in the application of technology to libraries is 
bound to be that of videodiscs- and how 

Recent Publications I 363 

they are likely to be used in the next decade. 
It is being discussed by all manner of people: 
those who give advice at the national policy 
level, those who design and implement li-
brary computer applications, foundation 
program officers, and many others in be-
tween. 

The wide-ranging interest is easy to under-
stand when one analyzes the functional char-
acteristics of a videodisc: the ability to store 
text in the billions and trillions of characters 
at low cost; a high storage density resulting in 
modest use of physical space; and, most im-
portant, the potential for high accessibility 
and deliverability through the use of com-
puters and high-speed telecommunications. 
A videodisc is nothing less than an alternative 
publishing medium, yet it gives rise to de-
scriptions of libraries without walls. The ap-
pearance of these two reports is timely, given 
the degree of interest in this technology both 
here and abroad, and especially given the 
scarcity of material on this topic that is un-
derstandable to a nontechnical person. 

The Border report traces the history of 
video playback systems and focuses quickly 

Only The superior serials management system 
F. 

that evolves with your changing needs. 

Get the complete story 
on LINX. 

There's no competition! 

On 
D DATALINX for direct access 

to computerized Faxon data 
bases and files. 

uld 
D LINX SC-10 for on-line check-in 

CO 
and claiming. 

D LINX for instantaneous elec-
tronic messages and comprehensive, 

Mail coupon to: 
Faxon 

15 Southwest Park 
Westwood, Massachusetts 

02090 USA 
Tel: 800-225-6055 (toll-free) 

617-329-3350 (collect in Mass. 
and Canada) ha' ~e on-line training. (.l,, ~ r--------------, 

nil d Name I creme I ~:::<y/Infmm .. ion CemO< I n 1 Add,. , 1 
IliA/}( _j I ~:::phone( St"e Zip ~ 
... - - I 0 plea se send me more information on LINX and ho w I 

it would work for my library. 

I 0 please contact me to schedule a free no-obligation I 
L 

I .INX de monstration . J 
--------------100 yean helping the wodd commun icate 



364 I College & Research Libraries • july 1982 

on videodisc technology, contrasting be-
tween mechanical, magnetic, optical, and 
capacitative approaches. A small collection 
of system specifications is presented, each 
giving a thumbnail sketch of the salient fea-
tures and availability of those systems now 
on or approaching the marketplace. 

Also included are descriptions of current 
or potential applications, a review of some 
major research and development projects in 
which this technology plays a central role, 
and the author's assessment of future oppor-
tunities (some insurmountable) that are 
likely to present themselves. 

Last, but by no means least, the author 
presents a list of 117 cited references, accom-
panied by another 66 relating to the subject 
of videodiscs. Any reader whose interest is 
whetted to the point where more detailed 
study is called for will find papers cited on 
just about any aspect of the topic. 

The report by Barrett is similar in outline 
to that of Harder, but contains substantially 
more descriptive material relating to the 
technology itself. Of special interest are Bar-
rett's comments on the aspects that require 
more development. The correctness of the 
author's views on a time frame for resolution 
of the problems he cites remains to be seen, 
but the reader is given a good feeling for the 
current state of the art and likely future di-
rections. 

Some of the terminology employed would 
probably be opaque to the nonengineer, but 
Barrett uses it sparingly: a layperson can gain 
a general sense of how these devices work. 
The structure of the report, however, is not 
easily discernible from the section headings, 
making it somewhat difficult to 
assimilate. -john R. Schroeder, The Re-
search Libraries Group, Stanford, Califor-
nia. 

User Fees: A Practical Perspective. Ed. by Mi-
riam A. Drake. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries 
Unlimited, 1981. 142p. $17.50. LC 81-
6032. ISBN 0-87287-244-0. 
This is a collection of eleven pieces related 

to the subject of fees in libraries. It is divided 
into five sections: "Review of the Issues"; 
"Opposition Views"; "Fees in Public Li-
braries"; "Fees in Academic and Special Li-
braries"; and "Fees for Service through In-
formation Brokers." It also contains a 

selected bibliography. The first two sections 
present pro and con arguments concerning 
fees and the remaining sections describe some 
actual charging practices in various types of 
libraries. 

Four of the papers were prepared for a 
workshop on user fees sponsored by the Indi-
ana chapter of the Special Libraries Associa-
tion. Two more of the articles were prepared 
for this volume. The remaining five were 
previously published elsewhere, three of 
them in Special Libraries. 

In the first article, Miriam Drake presents 
a convincing argument that libraries must 
"undertake serious efforts to justify economi-
cally the claims by libraries on our scarce re-
sources or else see a continued erosion of the 
real resources devoted to producing library 
services." It is presumably her conviction of 
this imperative that underlies the selection of 
papers included here. 

Drake's paper is followed by a good pre-
sentation of the economic rationale for li-
brary fees by economist Richard Pfister. Not 
the least of these arguments are the continu-
ing reductions in available public funds and 
the idea that user fees could bring about 
more user-responsive service. Marketplace 
mechanisms are proposed to promote effi-
ciency in resource allocation, to make those 
who use services pay for them, and as a 
means of library survival. 

One wonders whether, governed by the 
market, library services and collections may 
then come to reflect the plastic "shopping 
mall" quality we find in those segments of 
our lives already controlled by market mech-
anisms. One can hope that technological de-
velopments will allow for greater diversity of 
information sources despite the tendency of 
market mechanisms to reduce things to the 
lowest common denominator. 

One of the opposing views is presented by 
Fay Blake. She points out that the fee issue is 
only an issue in publicly funded libraries. In 
a typically rousing paper, she raises her con-
cerns about the availability of information 
and the place of publicly available informa-
tion in the kind of society we want to have. 

The other paper opposing fees is a brief ar-
gument that challenges the view that the 
main purpose of the public library is to sup-
ply light reading. Presenting an English per-
spective, Roger Stoakley argues that intro-