College and Research Libraries


492 College & Research Libraries September 1990 

Published: 

Catalogue 32: 

Philosophy 

Old, Rare & Out of Print Books, 
Journals and Pamphlets. 

Catalogue 33: 

Economics & Economical His­
tory. 
Parts 1-2. 

1. Finance- Banking- Stockmarket 
Taxes 
2. Agriculture - Rural Economy 

Catalogue 34: 

Law & The History of Law - Inter­
national Law. 

Free on request. 

A. GERITS & SONS 
Modem and Antiquarian Booksellers 

Library Agents 

Prinsengracht 445, P.O. Box 664 
1000 AR Amsterdam, The Netherlands 

Teleph. 31-20-27 22 85 ·Fax 31-20-25 89 70 

• 
Out of Print & Antiquarian Catalogues 

and 
Flyers of New and Forthcoming 

European Publications 
Free on request 

European (West & East) Out of Print 
Searching Service 

"Interaction: The Work Women Do" by 
Pamela M. Fishman, and "A New Ap­
proach to Understanding the Impact of 
Gender on the Legislative Process" by 
Lyn Kathlene are not only relevant to the 
topic but particularly well selected. 

Nielsen believes that theoretical discus­
sions are most meaningful when offered 
in conjunction with specific examples of 
their applications. Her presentation in this 
volume is structured accordingly, with the 
second group of readings, offering exam­
ples of theory applied to specific areas of 
inquiry. 

In part two, the article that illustrates the 
utilization of feminist literary criticism and 
anthropological fieldwork is a noteworthy 
example of the integration of empirical cri­
teria and the hermeneutic and emancipa­
tory themes of feminist research. AnnaL. 
Tsing in her ''The Vision of a Woman Sha­
man'' gives an account of how Induan Hil­
ing, a Meratus woman, becomes . recog­
nized in her own society for her 

. shamanistic powers, powers usually at­
tributed to men. Evolving with this recog­
nition is the gradual transformation of the 
society itself as Induan Hiling creates new 
forms of rituals, songs, and expressions. 
Tsing is able to draw from her participant/ 
observer fieldwork, her interpretive anal­
ysis of events and traditions, and the ex­
pansive attributes of feminist research. 
The reader understands clearly the 
sources of information and the contribu­
tions of various techniques. 

Other authors selected for inclusion are: 
Marcia Westkott, Judith A. Cook, Mary 
Margaret Fonow, Kathryn Anderson, Su­
san Armitage, Dana Jane, Judith Wittner, 
Sherna Berger Gluck, and Myra Marx Fer­
ree. The editor has coupled her excellent 
essay on the strengths of feminist research 
with an outstanding group of articles, 
thereby creating a valuable contribution to 
the literature of research methodology.­
Patricia A. Wand, The American University, 
Washington, D.C. 

Magrill, Rose Mary and John Corbin. Ac­
quisitions Management and Collection De­
velopment in Libraries. 2d ed. Chicago: 



American Library Assn., 1989. 285p. 
alk. paper, $27.50 (ISBN 0-8389-0513-7). 
LC 89-6784. 
A pressing need to enrich educational 

resources and opportunities for acquisi­
tions librarians and students with an inter­
est in this area has been a major theme in 
the literature over several decades. Earlier 
editions of this book were written as a par­
tial response to this need. The publication 
of Stephen Ford's The Acquisition of Library 
Materials (1973) resulted from a 1969 rec­
ommendation of a joint committee of the 
ALA RTSD and Library Education divi­
sions. Ford's book and Melcher on Acquisi­
tions (1971) were both intended to super­
sede Gertrude Wulfe Koetter's Acquisition 
Work: Processes Involved in Building Library 
Collections (1961), which reads more like a 
procedural manual than an overview of 
the subject. 

In 1984 ALA published the first edition 
of the present volume as a major revision 
and update of Stephen Ford's 1973 book 
(revised by Ford in 1978). Now we have a 
second edition with over fifty-five pages 
of new material, most in the three intro­
ductory chapters on collection develop­
ment. Every chapter has been revised; the 
chapter on acquiring nonbook materials, 
for example, has been substantially en­
larged to include important new material 
on electronic formats. Major develop­
ments in the automati<?n of acquisitions­
from microcomputer applications to inte­
grated library systems-are also covered. 
The literature on acquisitions and collec­
tion development has grown substantially 
in the past five years, and the selective bib­
liographies concluding each chapter cite 
many of the best recent works on each 
topic. 

The intent of the book remains that of 
earlier editions, "an overview of the way 
in which library acquisitions programs are 
managed-what they try to accomplish 
and what methodologies are often used­
and the processes through which the col­
lection is designed, developed and evalu­
ated." Though not specified in this 
edition, the book's intended audience 
presumably remains that identified by 
Ford in the 1973 edition-both library 

Recent Publications 493 

school students and practitioners in li­
braries. 

Introductory chapters, including an 
overview, policies, and organization of 
collection development, are followed by 
chapters on acquisitions: organization, 
pre-order searching, the order process 
(single titles), vendor-based order plans, 
purchasing special types of materials, 
nonbook materials, serials, gifts and ex­
changes, and a concluding chapter on the 
evaluation of both collection development 
and acquisitions activities. Each chapter 
concludes with an excellent bibliography 
on the topics covered. Notes on each 
chapter and a general index conclude the 
book. 

Acquisitions Management and Collection 
Development in Libraries needs to be read 
carefully lest the reader misunderstand 
what the book is and is not. Ford's original 
version of this book was devoted solely to 
acquisitions, not collection development, 
and the book remains important for its 
thorough coverage of policies, proce­
dures, and problems of acquisitions. Ma­
terial on collection development has been 
added in subsequent editions to place ac­
quisitions work in its proper context­
collection development and manage­
ment-not to change the essential focus of 
the book. Any student or practitioner 
working in acquisitions should also be 
conversant with the growing literature on 
collection development but must consult 
other works such as William Wortman's 
Collection Management; Background and 
Principles (1989) for coverage of collection 
development topics. 

This book also contains the unavoidable 
weaknesses of any text covering a particu­
lar function in many different types of li­
braries. Such a work simply cannot pro­
vide equal coverage of acquisitions in 
every type of library. The academic or 
public acquisitions librarian is, therefore, 
more likely to find this work useful than 
the librarian working in a school or special 
library, despite the frequent references to 
the latter library contexts. 

As an overview of library acquisitions 
operations set in a generalized context of 
collection development and management, 



494 College & Research Libraries 

the book remains a valuable standard 
work. It provides a thorough, coherent in­
troduction to acquisitions for the novice 
and a convenient source of reference for 
the veteran. It would be a suitable text­
book for a course on acquisitions, and the 
practitioner will find valuable suggestions 
of sources and procedures for acquiring 
materials in formats that are unfamiliar. 
This new edition should join its predeces­
sors on the shelves of acquisitions depart­
ments and library school collections 
alike.-Eric Carpenter, Oberlin College Li­
brary, Oberlin, Ohio. 

Grafton, Anthony. Forgers and Critics: Cre­
ativity and Duplicity in Western Scholar­
ship. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 
1990. 157p. alk. paper, $14.95 (ISBN 0­
691-05544-0). LC 89-28347. 
Accounts of the production and un­

masking of forgeries have universal 
appeal-pitting the forger's superior un­
derstanding of what must have existed 
against the critic's belief that systematic 
comparison of data leads to truth. Most 
studies of forgery familiar to librarians 
deal with specific items (Mormon docu­
ments, the Vinland Map), perpetrators 
(Thomas Chatterton, T.J. Wise), types 
(facsimiles of newspaper issue or Lincoln 
letters), or historical periods. Studies of 
criticism-whether biblical, historical, lit­
erary, or textual-are categorized sepa­
rately. 

In this brief but tightly written essay, 
Anthony Grafton analyzes serious and 
skillful forgeries including textual matter 
produced in Western culture over the past 
2,500 years, always with intent to deceive. 
Thousands are known: historical records 
of an heroic past, literary remains of a ca­
nonical nature, sacred texts offering spirit­
ual authority, and legal documents legiti­
mizing practices and possessions. In 
modern times, personal or professional 
gain has proved a temptation to creative 
and often prominent scholars, as they but­
tress an argument or fill in a gap. Con­
cerns of the forger include not only the 
text's linguistic and physical aspects but 
also a convincing explanation of its prove­
nance. 

From extensive reading and hundreds 
of examples familiar and unfamiliar, Graf-

September 1990 

ton argues compellingly that criticism de­
veloped not through some abstract need 
for it but as a result of the stimulus pro­
vided by forgers. The critical method is 
not an invention of Renaissance human­
ism or nineteenth-century German schol­
arship but continues a tradition begun in 
classical Greece. It has increased iri so­
phistication concomitantly with the chal­
lenge of better forgeries and has changed 
chiefly in the mass of data supporting its 
contentions. It tends to be less discrimi­
nating when dealing with texts that coin­
cide with the critic's assumptions and de­
sires. "Forger and critic have been 
entangled through time like Laocoon and 
his serpents," writes Grafton in his intro­
duction; 11 the changing nature of their 
continuous struggle forms a central theme 
in the development of historical and philo­
logical scholarship" and has given us a 
richer sense of what the past was really 
like. 

The author's erudite and wide-ranging 
theory-originating as a public lecture at 
Princeton University where he is Profes­
sor of History-represents a logical exten­
sion of his ground-breaking publications 
in the history of classical scholarship and 
in Renaissance education. His exposition 
of 11 a fascinating but troubling feature of 
the Western tradition'' gives perspective 
to the critical judgment bibliographic in­
struction librarians endeavor to instill and 
to the "spurious works" catalogers find 
pervasive in the P A schedule of the Li­
brary of Congress classification. More 
generally, Grafton's lucid thought offers 
academic librarians a rare and welcome 
opportunity to step back and consider the 
authenticity and intellectual origins of 
some of the materials we care for, as well 
as the motivations behind the scholarship 
our efforts support.-Elizabeth Swaim, 
Wesleyan University Library, Middletown, 
Connecticut. 

Libraries and Scholarly Communication 
in the United States: The Historical Di­
mension. Ed. by Phyllis Dain and John 
Y. Cole. New York: Greenwood, 1990. 
148p., $37.95. (ISBN 0-313-26807-X). LC 
89-23248. 
The collection of essays in this book de­

rives from a conference of the same name