College and Research Libraries there is a great deal to be learned about documents cataloging in this book. The user will also find information on diverse topics not readily available in one source, such as a definition of'' star prints,'' infor- mation about SUDOC and NTIS num- bers, and how to compute scale on maps. Cataloging Government Documents must be approached with caution as a catalog- ing aid. The user should be aware that LC rule interpretations are sometimes edited, and that the examples given are often not from AACR2 or CSB. Closer proofreading of examples and text would be desirable, as typographical errors always loom large in a cataloging work such as this. No er- rata sheet is currently available. Docu- ments departments that do full AACR2 cataloging will certainly want to take ad- vantage of the GODORT committee's ex- perience and efforts but, given the short- comings mentioned above and a price of $50, general academic cataloging depart- ments are unlikely to make this book a pri- ority for their collections.-Gunnar Knut- son, University of Illinois at Chicago. Advances in Librarianship. V. 13. Ed. by Wesley Simonton. New York: Aca- demic, 1984. 284p. $32. LC 79-88675. ISBN 0-12-024613-9. In a review written some years ago of volume 8 of the same title, I made the claim that Advances in Librarianship is one of the few places in library literature where one finds literate, comprehensive, and brief overviews of advances in the field. This statement still appears to be true. The latest volume of Advances covers a very wide range of topics, from manage- ment information to information systems and library automation in Latin America to collection development and manage- ment. There is something in the eight sec- tions of this short volume for librarians of most tastes, persuasions, and interests. Those of us who struggle with a some- times overwhelming amount of informa- tion will appreciate the systematic ap- proach suggested by Charles R. McClure. He presents a good overview of how vari- ous forms of organizational information Recent Publications 449 processing, e.g., MIS and DSS, might be applicable to libraries. In so doing, he also presents a good review of the literature that has appeared since 1975. Nancy Williamson raises and discusses many of the issues involved with informa- tion storage and retrieval but especially that of subject access to online systems. One of the main issues at present appears to be whether online access should be con- structed from the top down or from the bottom up. Williamson claims that the · needs of the future need to be more com- pletely assessed and that more research is necessary. Public libraries have often been at the ·· forefront of library innovation. John Dur- rance discusses one of these innovations, community information services, specifi- cally the provision of local information, in- formation and referral, and public policy information. In an era when community · information services could be flourishing, poor communication seems to hav_e re- qi MCGR,EGOR cAL;!~~ "PERSONALIZED" .SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE McGregor can simplify complex and time consuming problems of periodi- cal procurement involving research, ordering, payments, renewals and record keeping. Prompt courteous service has been a tradition with McGregor since 1933. Call or write for catalog today 8151734-4183 MCGREGOR MAGAZINE AGENCY 450 College & Research Libraries suited in many libraries not adapting such services. Two articles discuss developments in in- ternationallibrarianship. In the first, Rob- ert Vosper traces the growth, in the recent past, of library associations, both national and international, much of it due to IFLA. This growth has seen a corresponding in- crease in programs: universal biblio- graphic control, national bibliographies, and universal availability of publications, to name a few. The second article by Marietta Shepard argues that "Notable advances have been made in the last decade in Latin America in the development of library and infor- mation services" (p.152). Computers share much of the responsibility for these advances along with other factors such as developmental programs of UNESCO and OAS, greater communication among educators of the region, demand for greater information by scientists and in- dustrialists, and better-trained librarians and information specialists. Among the advances are national library and informa- tion systems and subsystems, regional in- formation systems, and the employment of a whole host of library practices includ- . ing authority control, automated catalog- ing, and the like. The assertion made several years ago that ''collection development is one of the most discussed and still least well-known areas within librarianship" (p.l96) may still be true, though papers like the next three go a long way toward making it less so. Marcia Pankake argues that book selec- tion has changed substantially since the late nineteenth century and has become part of a larger and more complex system-collection development. The early days of selection were characterized by certainty and confidence in the value of the book, in the principles of selection, and in directing readers to suitable materi- als. While the certainty and confidence are gone-it might be more accurate to say that they are inappropriate-they have been replaced by a 'I spirit of inquiry and a need to seek objective evidence" (p.206). Selection is now subsumed under collec- tion development along with evaluation, September 1985 management, budgeting, and a number of other intellectual processes; collection de- velopment is best characterized by plan- ning, control, and system. Evaluation is often an important first step and certainly a powerful tool in col- lection development. Mosher's paper II represents a selective treatment of recent trends in research, methodology, and practice relating to collection evaluation" (p.212). Beginning with a brief historical overview of the literature prior to 1970, Mosher moves on to more recent studies. The evaluation methodologies described include classification-curriculum rela- tionship, analysis of subject literatures, statistical compilation, analysis by collec- tion char.acteristics, citation studies, over- lap studies, and use studies. It is pointed out that care must be shown in the appli- cation of research results to real library sit- uations and that more than one type of study should be employed to insure confi- dence in conclusions. Finally, Mosher raises some issues requiring further study, e.g., the difference between felt and unfelt needs. The final paper by C. D. Hurt is an ex- amination of the two major methods em- ployed to identify the important literature of science, the qualitative (historical) and the quantitative (bibliometric). The histor- ical approach stresses only those scientific events that are . successful and suggests that science is both rational and linear. Bibliometrics, the application of mathe- matical methods to media, on the other hand, suggests that scientific progress is nonlinear and not entirely rational. Though Hurt focuses primarily upon the bibliometric approach, especially citation analysis, he points out that both methods have their respective strengths and weak- nesses and that a combination of the two might be helpful. Like the previous voiumes of Advances in Librarianship, this volume presents papers high in the quality of scholarship and writ- ing. It is simply the best source of over- views of what is going on in the field. As such, it would be an excellent buy for any library staffed by librarians who wish to keep abreast of advances.-William E. Hannaford, Jr., Castleton State College. Swets ... an attractive, many facetted and transparent subscription service. We would be pleased to send you our informative brochure as well as detailed documentation of our services.