College and Research Libraries 100 College & Research Libraries odicals ''that received disproportionate use in their youth will continue to be more popular than their contemporaries as they age.'' In addition to provoking us to re- examine our work in light of research findings, the authors provide us with ideas for research that needs to be done. Whitlatch advises, "There are no good studies that look at loss rates across many libraries and systematically iden- tify variables influencing book loss rates." Metz urges that "local library use studies should focus more on the use of periodicals and especially on the surprisingly high use accorded current periodicals.'' These informed, specific suggestions are far more useful than the research agendas fashionably promul- gated by committees. The authors also identify research that merits replication. According to Osburn, the survey of cooperative col- lection development programs by Joe Hewitt and John Shipman is ''thorough enough to permit inferences about the general status" of cooperative collection development, but it should be repeated with medium-sized and smaller aca- demic libraries. George commends Margaret Steig's study of historians' use of information sources: "No other re- search on faculty library use approaches this article in scope and clarity. It should be undertaken in other disciplines with- out delay.'' All authors but one identify problems already sufficiently investigated. For ex- ample, since we know the low number of subject access points in the catalog is probably inadequate, further inquiries into the number of access points relative to recorded use ''do not appear likely to add much to our understanding." Or, unobtrusive studies of one measure of reference effectiveness, accuracy of an- swers, have provided enough informa- tion that there may be no need for addi- tional research on that topic. Unfortunately, small technical faults mar this exciting book. The lazy title is vague; the occasional weak editing toler- ates jargon and, in some places, a lack of synthesis. The citation style for disserta- January 1991 tions is inconsistent, and uneven spac- ing within the notes slows reading. The subject index could integrate the chap- ters more thoroughly. And the paper- back cover quickly kinks up like curly hair on a humid day. One wishes that the production had reached a standard as high as the book's intellectual con- tent. This book will be useful in library schools, to staff and administrators of academic libraries, and to people doing research. Although each chapter covers one function of librarianship, the reader- ship of each chapter should not be lim- ited to that specialty. Because the biblio- graphic record underlies all of our work, Svenonius on bibliographic control should be mandatory reading for every- one. Metz offers insights and informa- tion on the use of library materials valu- able to us all. Potter's clear synthesis of the literature of the last five years on ap- plications of advanced technology will enlighten anyone. The book deserves a wide audience, and, if it prods us to do better research and to apply its results, it will have a great effect in our profession.-Marcia Pankake, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 37 ~I /0 "2- ""' 6 3g7q EPX Beclier, Tony. Academic Tribes and Terri- tories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Cul- tures of Disciplines. Milton Keynes [En- gland] and Bristol, Pa.: Open University Pr., 1989. 197p. $65 (ISBN 0-335-09221-7); paper, $26 (0-335- 09220-9) LC 89-34087. During the past three decades, an in- creasingly useful and accessible body of data and theory on the sociology of aca- demic disciplines has been published. Academic librarians should begin to de- vote closer attention to it. The latest ad- dition to these investigations, written by Tony Becher, a professor of education at the University of Sussex, is clearly pre- sented, neatly structured, well documented-and overpriced-but it is definitely worth reading, especially by those librarians, such as administrators, bibliographers, and public service staff, whose success depends directly upon their ability to comprehend and respond to the diverse values which drive aca- demic scholarship. Becher distinguishes at the outset be- tween academic disciplines and the fac- ulty engaged in their pursuit; he then sets out to show how the activities, per- ceptions, and relationships of faculty in different disciplines are directly affected by a variety of qualities particular to those disciplines. In order to gather the information needed for the book, he in- terviewed 221 faculty members at eigh- teen universities in Great Britain and the United States who are engaged in work in twelve disciplines: biology (i.e., bot- any and zoology), chemistry, eco- nomics, geography, history, law, math- ematics, mechanical engineering, modern languages (French, German, ยท Italian, Spanish), pharmacy, physics, and sociology. The book does not pro- vide specific, individual analyses of each of these disciplines, but rather uses them as examples of disciplinary types. Becher characterizes and contrasts aca- demic disciplines and their communities primarily by defining and applying four dichotomies. The first two of these, pre- sented at the beginning of the book, are the familiar hard/soft and pure/applied. In general, the hard-pure disciplines are the natural sciences, the hard-applied disciplines are those such as engineering and pharmacy, the soft-pure are usually the humanities and social sciences, and the soft-applied disciplines are mainly professional areas such as law (and, one assumes, library science). The chapter on communication, which contains a well-reasoned and highly informative discussion of such topics as collaboration, competition, and the speed and length of publications in different disciplines and specialities, will no doubt be the section of the book of most interest to academic librarians. In this chapter, Becher introduces his third dichotomy of urban/rural. Urban specialties are those areas within disci- plines in which there is a ''high person- to-problem ratio,'' with all of the attend- ant fast-paced activity, secrecy, competition, high stakes, and rapid publication, often supported by sub- Book Reviews 101 1.1 National Library Bibliotheque nationale of Canada du Canada Canadiana Products from the National Library of Canada TheN ational Library is responsible for promot- ing, gathering and preserving the published her- itage of Canada. The Library has a vast collection of Canadiana dating from Canada's earliest days to the present. In order to provide access to Canada's published heritage the Li- brary has developed various products which are invaluable to those with an interest in Canadian Studies or research. The Library produces Canadiatuz, a compre- hensive bibliography which documents the na- tion's published heritage. Canadiatuz is a valuable aid for Canadian Studies and is avail- able in printed and microfiche formats and on magnetic tape. Canadiana authorities lists verified name head- ings of Canadian origin and can help in compil- ing bibliographies and answering research and reference questions. Canadian Theses is a microfiche bibliography of masters' and doctoral theses accepted by Canadian universities, as well as selected foreign theses of Canadian authorship or inter- est. DOBIS is a Canadian online library system that provides access to the collections of many Ca- nadian libraries via its continuously updated Canadian Union Catalogue of more than 5 000 000 bibliographic records. For more information or a descriptive brochure of Canadiana products please contact: Canadiatuz Editorial Division National Library of Canada 395 Wellington Street Ottawa, Canada K1AON4 Canada 102 College & Research Libraries stantial grant subsidies. (A classic exam- ple, noted in passing by Becher, was the race to unlock the structure of DNA-the double helix.) The urban specialties are located mainly in the sciences. Rural specialties, on the other hand, are more relaxed, less competitive (but also less collaborative), and offer a sufficient number of research topics for every scholar to lay claim to his or her own area of expertise. Some specialties within the natural sciences are rural, as are presum- ably all areas of the humanities, social sciences, and the soft professions. Whether a specialty is urban or rural, of course, is reflected in the methods of communication used by the specialty to move around its constituent informa- tion. It is only in the final chapter on ''Impli- cations for Theory and Practice" that Be- cher introduces his fourth major dichot- omy, convergent/divergent. Convergent disciplinary communities are those with ''a sense of collectivity and mutual iden- tity," while divergent communities are "schismatic and ideologically frag- mented." All of the energy which the reader has expended in grasping the ar- guments presented in the first 150 pages of the book is amply rewarded in this fi- nal, illuminating chapter, for it is here that Becher synthesizes his information, and artfully weaves together his four di- chotomies to reveal some of the major social and conceptual distinctions among scholarly disciplines and com- munities. Becher takes special care throughout his book never to oversimplify. He is continuously aware that he is describing individual perceptions and perspectives in general terms, and that variations and exceptions will necessarily occur in par- ticular cases. He never presents his four dichotomies as absolutes but rather, in each instance, as the two end-points of a single continuum, along which different disciplines or disciplinary communities can be located. My only criticism of the study is that it tends to place perhaps too great an emphasis on the sciences. Be- cher covers all of the main sciences in his twelve representative disciplines, but January 1991 considers only a few disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Some of his dichotomies, notably hard/soft, and especially urban/rural, tend to cluster the sciences on one side, and all other disciplines on the other. This limits somewhat the conclusions he is able to draw about the differences among the nonscientific disciplines. Still, one can- not fault this approach too heavily, given the unchallenged centrality and predominance of the sciences among ac- ademic disciplines today-and, in any case, it is difficult to say whether Be- cher's conclusions would in fact have been much different had he delved more deeply into the humanities and social sciences, and had he included such sub- jects as philosophy, religion, or political science among his sample disciplines. Most of us in academic libraries have a true subject background in only one dis- cipline; when we enter academic librari- anship, we accept a few hackneyed dis- tinctions (scientists use journals, humanists monographs), but then we tend, nevertheless, to generalize our own disciplinary experience, and to imagine that the same qualities charac- terizing the discipline with which we are most familiar are shared by all disci- plines. A careful reading of Academic Tribes and Territories will serve as an ef- fective antidote to that affliction, and will do much to broaden the academic li- brarian's appreciation of the starkly di- vergent aims and values which underlie the many academic disciplines the re- search library is called upon to support.-Ross W. Atkinson, Cornell Uni- versity, Ithaca, NY. Technical Services Today and Tomor- row. Ed. by Michael Gorman. Engle- wood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1990. 207p. (ISBN 0-87287-608-X). LC 90-34856. Michael Gorman has brought together sixteen quality contributions ''to exam- ine the present state of each of the major areas of technical services in libraries, to provide individual views on the future of those areas and of technical services in general, and to furnish the reader with