College and Research Libraries 390 College & Research Libraries ters 11 from professional associates which produced a clear consensus-and it was 11 not in the first instance financial. 11 Be- sides outstanding personal characteris- tics, the expectations were for a genuine understanding of the library's missions in higher education, a clearer recognition of the librarian's acceptance as a peer in the educational enterprise, and a reliable flow of communication and consultation. As this volume asserts, and as Moffett quoted President W. Robert Parks of Iowa State University, the library's needs ''must become the shared concern of every scholar and every department on this campus, we must each of us make it our own individual business." To this statement, Moffett and each library direc- tor in the country will say, amen.-David C. Weber, Stanford University. Strategies for Meeting the Information Needs of Society in the Year 2000. Comp. by Martha Boaz. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1981. 197p. LC 81-11751. ISBN 0-87287-249-1. Projecting future trends and developing strategies for solving perceived library and information science problems has been a major preoccupation of many a writer in our field. Frequently, however, such projections have been narrow in scope in the sense that they encompassed only specific technologies, dealt only with specific media, specific types of informa- tion services, specific institutions, or re- flected the unique vantage points of single individuals. Moreover, the projections of- ten lacked the essential interconnections or syntheses required for the integrated assessment of both the sociopolitical and technological factors affecting the future provision of information services. Martha Boaz, research associate at the Center for the Study of the American Ex- perience at the Annenberg School of Com- munications and former dean of the Grad- uate School of Library Science, University of Southern California, has done an admi- rable job in selecting and organizing a number of manuscripts which, in their to- tality, provide an excellent overview of the information problems that we may en- counter in the not too distant future. Plan- September 1983 ning is suggested and solutions are of- fered which are available to us now and will be available to us in the decades ahead. Fourteen manuscripts (two of which are reprints) emphasize major aspects of in- formation technology, overall user needs, information economics, networking, le- gal, social, ethical, and regulatory issues. The contributed papers deal in depth with one or more aspects of such topics as tele- communications and value systems (R. Byrne, J. E. Ruchinskas), information and productivity (V. E. Giuliano), user needs and societal problems whose resolution require information services (B. Nanus, P. Gray, J. Naisbitt), library and information service networks, including political, le- gal, and regulatory factors (A. F. Trezza, R. Turn, H. L. Oler, R. Weingarten, P. Zurkowski), the role of the author in the information society (W. I. Boucher), and expected advances in computer, video, and communications technology (H. S. McDonald, M. Boaz). Through judicious selection and grouping of the contribu- tions, by providing also an introductory review paper, biographical sketches of the authors, and by also providing a summary of conclusions and recommendations, the compiler has made the volume coherent and valuable. In publishing this worthwhile contribu- tion to the literature of the field of library and information science, it is regrettable that the publisher prints this legend on the verso of the title page: "No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, me- chanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written per- mission of the publisher.'' Were we to ad- here fully to this spurious admonition, our present and future information needs would hardly be met.-Irving M. Klempner, State University of New York at Al- bany. Stevens, Norman D. Communication throughout Libraries. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1983, 195p. $14.50 cloth. LC 82-10502. ISBN 0-8108-1577-X. In 1981 theARL'sOfficeofManagement Studies, in its Occasional Paper Number 6, produced a succinct checklist of sugges- tions for library managers interested in building and maintaining an effective in- ternal communications system. In this sixth volume of Lowell Martin's useful Li- brary Administration Series, Norman Stevens provides a comprehensive elabo- ration of that checklist (which he includes as an appendix). He's got a helpful bibli- ography and a philosophical starting point: good communications require an open, free-flowing process that deserves the care and attention of all the members of an organization, not just the chief ad- ministrator. Although he treats communi- cations as a specific undertaking, he rec- ognizes that it does not stand alone, but is an essential element pervading all aspects of library administration. He illustrates this by reference to virtually every kind of organizational media, formal and infor- mal, internal and external, from annual re- ports to the office grapevine. As important as communication is, and most successful library administrators would agree its importance cannot be overstressed, it remains, as Stevens says, ''an amorphous process which is difficult to define in detail and even more difficult to evaluate. It is a process which almost al- ways seems to be in need of improve- ment." Not only is there never adequate information in an organization such as ali- brary, there is no guarantee that good communications, even when they exist, will actually achieve positive results. Sometimes, the amorphous nature of his subject seems to overwhelm Stevens himse~f. His chatty and descriptive ap- proach becomes enumerative and, in the end, somewhat repetitious. Indeed, he may have failed to heed one of the most fundamental requisites for effective com- munication: knowing with whom you are communicating. It is not clear that Stevens ever really decided whether he was writ- ing this book for the student preparing for library administration, or the conscien- tious manager trying to get his act to- gether. In any event he left this reader wishing he had given us less of an abstract presentation and been more specific in his analysis of what works well and what Recent Publications 391 does not. For a writer known for his wit and style, it is disappointing not to find him getting at what makes for good style in effective communications-a concern he skirts altogether. His book is most helpful when he occa- sionally departs from the generic, as he does, for example, in reproducing ex- cerpts from a 1980 memo from one of his own University of Connecticut staff mem- bers about whether, and how, to produce an in-house newsletter. Some of his bor- rowings, however, are less inspired. In at- tempting to suggest how to go about ana- lyzing the effectiveness of a library's communications, he chose to reproduce examples of questionnaires and survey in- struments of others (including a commun- ications audit prepared for professional engineers more than thirty years ago) rather than assimilating these materials and going on to create an instrument spe- cifically designed for librarians. It's a good book, but Stevens demon- strates the paradox about communica- tions he himself has pointed out: even Heritage on Microfillll Rare and out-of-print titles and documents on 35mm silver halide microfilm. • French Books before 1601 • Scandinavian Culture • 18th Century English Literature • Victorian Fiction • Literature of Folklore • Hispanic Culture Send for catalog and title information today. ~~~~[M ~COv\PINY 70 Coolidge Hill Road Watertown, MA 02172 (617) 926-5557 392 College & Research Libraries when it's good, it is not enough.-William A. Moffett, Oberlin College Library. Lynam, Peter, Slater, Margaret, and Walker, Rennie. Research and the Practi- tioner: Dissemination of Research Results within the Library-Information Profession. London: Aslib, 1982. 83p. ISBN 0- 85142-163-6. This slim volume reports on research sponsored by the British Library Research and Development Division (BLRDD) to discover the: "extent of awareness of on- going research amongst practitioners; their attitudes towards research (and rea- sons for holding them); assessment of the utility and relevance of research to their day to day work; the kind of research that ideally they would like to see in prog- ress." It builds on two earlier and related BLRDD-supported studies-one on the dissemination of research to library educa- tors and one on the dissemination prac- tices of researchers. Marketing concepts and terminology are used throughout. The report describes responses to a questionnaire mailed to 1, 950 library- information workers selected from three sampling frames: the membership of Aslib ( the Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux), the member- ship of the Institute of Information Scien- tists, and the Library Association (Great Britain). Chapter 2 summarizes results succinctly in one or two paragraphs de- voted to each of the remaining chapters of the report which are: the potential audi- ence for research; participation in profes- sional groups and activities; reading habits: use of the professional literature; the practitioner as researcher and author; how practitioners hear about research; awareness and evaluation of research. A final chapter called ''Let Them Speak for Themselves" provides verbatim com- ments. The potential audience for research was segmented in three different ways: by cur- rent employment (industry, commerce; central government; societies, associa- tions; local government; education), by extent of experience (six categories begin- ning with "under 3 years" and ending with "over 20 years"), and by qualifica- tions (none, Library-information only, September 1983 other (subject) only, dual (library- information and other). These variables were correlated with responses on all other topics. Current employer is the one which revealed the greatest number of sig- nificant differences among respondents. Many of the results provide an interest- ing perspective on the field although they do not relate directly to the dissemination of research. Of those that do so relate, none are suprising but a few seem worthy of mention. Only 27 percent of the practi- tioners had been involved in research and the involvement usually meant in-house studies rather than generalizable ones. Only 23 percent felt that they were well in- formed about research and only 32 per- cent claimed to be ''fairly'' or ''greatly'' interested in it. Although talks at meetings might seem to be a good way to disseminate research findings, learning about research is not one of the reasons why respondents at- tend meetings. In view of reasons why they do not attend, the authors suspect many would cease to come if research were featured. When the various media where one might read about research were considered (secondary services, newsletters, primary journals, research reports, theses) the journal article was eas- ily the most popular. This remained true even when informal means of learning about research were also considered (i.e., various forms of personal contact). Re- search reports were not heavily used partly because they are hard to locate. The authors found this a ''perturbing finding'' since many researchers believe dissemina- tion is completed once they have pro- duced a research report. The United States has no agency like the BLRDD to exert leadership in matters re- lated to research. If it did, and a similar study were conducted, the results would probably be very similar in the U.S. Re- searchers interested in disseminating their results and library educators inter- ested in helping practitioners to appreci- ate research should take heed.-Mary ]o Lynch, ALA Office for Research. Morrow, Carolyn Clark. The Preseroation Challenge: A Guide to Conseroing Library Materials. White Plains, N.Y.: Knowl-