College and Research Libraries 372 College & Research Libraries mainly practical guides to the elements of library user education or reviews of the lit- erature on a particular aspect of that very broad and much discussed subject. Al- though some of the essays have no schol- arly apparatus, most make reference to many of the old chestnuts in the field, for example, Lubans, Educating the Library User, and Roberts, Library Instruction for Li- brarians, and to numerous articles in the journal literature. Except in one chapter, there is a conspicuous absence of frequent references to two books now considered classic texts: Beaubien and others, Learn- ing the Library, and Oberman and Strauch, Theories of Bibliographic Education: Designs for Teaching. If the book is meant to serve as a beginning textbook for on-the-job training, it would have benefited by the inclusion of a general selected bibliogra- phy. After chapter 1, which introduces the need for the volume, the essays loosely follow the progression of organizing to do bibliographic instruction, from setting ob- jectives to evaluating results. A few chap- ters seem to be dropped in at random: the results of the ARL survey, for example, and an excellent and well-documented es- say by Linda Lucas, "Educating Librari- ans to Provide User Education to Disabled Students." The specialized nature of Lu- cas' chapter makes it seem out of place in this book and raises the question of the ab- sence of similar essays on other special groups, such as minority students in Head Start-type programs or international stu- dents, who are appearing on campuses in rapidly growing numbers, presenting fer- tile ground for the library instruction li- brarian. There seems little really new in this slen- der volume. The title has an appealing draw, but Ormondroyd' s chapter is about the only one that actually delivers on its promise.-Paula D. Watson, The Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Douglas, Mary Tew. How Institutions Think. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Univ. Pr., 1986. 146p. $19.95 (ISBN 0-8156- 2369-0). LC 86-5695. In How Institutions Think, the noted an- thropologist Mary Douglas brings the dis- July 1987 tanced and objective perspective of her discipline to an examination of modern so- ciety. While she acknowledges the role of calculated self-interest in human life, she notes correctly that the prevailing zeitgeist of individualistic calculation hardly re- quires that the importance of rational choice be defended. Her emphasis is else- where, on demonstrating the inherently social nature of individual cognition, the a priori role of society in dictating the very categories and terms of thought that ulti- mately defeat simple reductionist efforts to find the causes for individual choice and action. Douglas draws widely from sources in and out of the social sciences in building her case. Her eclecticism in finding the strands of her argument in Mancur Olson's classic Logic of Collective Action (which brilliantly draws the limits of col- lective action), in examples drawn from social psychology and from the history of science, and even in the nomenclature used by California vintners, makes this short book a stimulating, but also a diffi- cult, adventure in the history of modern thought. The main threads of Douglas' argument are drawn from the genius of the French sociologist Emile Durkheim and Ludwik Fleck's studies of the philosophy of sci- ence. Her selection of Durkheim-who was primarily a student of primitive soci- eties, and of Fleck, a student of modern society's defining institution-follows strategically and deliberately from her premise that it is both too convenient and very wrong to exempt modern society from an objective functional analysis of thought systems on the assumption that organic, unspoken, and sacred belief sys- tems structuring individual thought can be found only in primitive societies. Much of Douglas' analysis is devoted to refuting various theoretical efforts to bal- ance the books of social exchange in an at- tempt to redeem informed self-interest as the exclusive motor of social action. In- stead, Douglas argues that only by accept- ing the values and thought categories of the larger group can individuals claim a sense of their identity. Indeed, she argues that true intellectual freedom must begin THE RESOURCE AUTHORITIES. ............ w.raat~ea• - ... ,..._ ..... mo. -0 Americana Collections In Microform 0 Research Collections in Microform 0 Television News Transcripts and Indexes 0 International Newspapers on Microfilm 0 Newspaper Indexes 0 Journals In Microform 0 U.S. and International Patent Documentation 0 Patent Search and Awareness Services 12 Lunar Drive/Drawer AB Woodbridge, CT 06525 Toll-free: 1-800-REACH-RP TWX: 71 0·465-6345 FAX: 203-397-3893 The Sabin Collection: A history of the Western Hemisphere, on microfiche. Unparalleled in breadth and depth, The Sabin Collection from Research Publications is based on Joseph Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana: A Dictionary of Books Relating to America from its Discovery to the Present Time. Materials published in Europe, South and Central America, the United States and Canada include topics and events such as Columbus' discovery of America, Spanish explorations and conquests, the Revolutionary War, the pioneering of Canada, the Western movement, Native American Indians, slavery and abolition, the exploration of Arctica and Antarctica, and much, much more. The col- lection contains a wealth of primary source materials on literature, economics, politics, agriculture and other subjects. The Sabin Collection is an ongoing project of Research Publications, with approximately 15% of the bibliographic titles filmed. The collection is supplemented annually with 600 volumes of additional material. For further in- formation use the form below. Or call 1-800-REACH-RP ( 1-800-732-2477) now. From Connecticut, Alaska and Canada, call collect 203-397-2600 . 0 Please send me more Information on The Sabin Collection. 0 Please have a sales representative call me. Name Title Inst!tut!on Address City State Z!p Code Phone For further information, or to place your order directly, calll-800-REACH-RP (1-800-732-2477) . 1-800-BEACB-BP 374 College & Research Libraries with the recognition that moral choices are never made in isolation, but have a social basis: "For us, the hope of intellectual in- dependence is to resist, and the necessary first step in resistance is to discover how the institutional grip is laid upon our mind" (p.92). It would be an arbitrary exercise to sug- gest reasons why this book should appeal particularly to academic librarians. Cata- logers and indexers may find interesting Douglas' discussions of the social ele- ments in our common classification of our world. As administrators of public institu- tions, directors will respond to her em- phasis on values that transcend individual calculation. And certainly selectors should be aware that here is a volume worthy of their attention. But it is as think- ing individuals interested in understand- ing their society and their place within it that librarians will respond to her ideas, which allow us to see the social ether that surrounds and shapes us, but of which we are too often unaware.-Paul Metz, Univer- sity Libraries, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg. Morris, John. The Library Disaster Prepared- ness Handbook. Chicago: American Li- brary Assn., 1986. 129p. $20 (ISBN 0- 8389-0438-6). LC 86-1155. Hickin, Norman. Bookworms: The Insect Pests of Books. London: Sheppard Pr., 1985. 176p. $30 (ISBN 0-900661-38-0). There has been a plethora of literature issued in the last few years on how to pre- vent and recover from a disaster, as well there should be. Disaster preparedness is an element of preservation that does not require buckets of money (though it may indeed require buckets) or a profession- ally staffed conservation lab, and yet the benefits of preventing a disaster and of a quick, knowledgeable recovery from one are potentially enormous. Many of the publications reflect the planning process and the plans created by individual insti- tutions. A lot of it is repetitious but almost all of it contains some useful information. However, this book is not just another di- saster preparedness handbook. Rather than presenting an outline of what a com- prehensive disaster preparedness plan July 1987 should contain or a list of supplies one may need to salvage wet, muddy library _.. materials, this book contains chapters with such titles as "Problem Patrons" (in- cluding angry patrons, rowdy teenage gangs, and drug users), "Theft and Muti- lation of Books and Materials,'' and ''Planning and Design for Safety and Se- curity.'' There is a chapter on recovery from water damage, but it is not a how-to "-· on salvaging various types of library mate- rials. It describes automatic water- warning systems and freeze- and vacuum-drying as salvaging techniques. Much of the chapter is a case history of the flood at Stanford University's Meyer Li- brary, including an excellent flow chart ~ , designed by Sally Buchanan that de- scribes the decision-making and routing steps the books moved through on their way from the freezer back to the shelves. In other words, disaster preparedness as discussed here means loss control rather than contingency planning. And therein lies its usefulness. The informa- tion it contains is largely supplemental to other works on preparedness. The strength of this book is directly re- lated to the expertise of the author. John Morris is a loss control consultant who has specialized in libraries and museums, so he can speak pointedly to the specific con- cerns of library staff. The discussion of the , planning and design of facilities as they re- late to loss prevention are thorough and practical, as is the review of security pro- grams, problem patron management, fire protection and prevention, and insur- ance. Simple and inexpensive strategies are given along with more costly and so- phisticated ones. All are liberally inter- spersed with firsthand accounts of the multitude of calamities with which Morris has had experience. The information on materials preservation and conservation, on the other hand, is cursory and not par- ticularly useful. The Handbook provides a foundation of information that enables librarians to ana- lyze critically and upgrade their own exist- ing situations. Perhaps more importantly, it can provide a basic understanding of the available means of protecting libraries and their contents so that staff can effectively