College and Research Libraries 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-