College and Research Libraries 480 College & Research Libraries the literature dealing specifically with technological and organizational change in libraries. Managers and library ad- ministrators will find the ideas challeng- ing as they confront change in their own libraries and institutions of higher edu- cation.-Susan F. Rosenblatt, University of California, Berkeley, California. Lingua franca: The Review of Academic Life. Mamaroneck, N.Y.: Lingua Franca, Inc., 1990- . Individuals: $17.95/year; Institutions: $35/year. (ISSN 1051- 3310). Lingua franca: The Review of Academic Life offers scholars in the humanities, broadly conceived, a forum for debate on issues in higher education, with the reformulation of the liberal arts agenda figuring prominently. Launched with a successful trial balloon issue in June 1990, followed with regular bimonthly issues beginning in December 1990, Lin- gua franca is a gutsy, timely, and topical review of the academy and might be char- acterized as a grassroots versidn of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Published in- dependently out of Mamaroneck, New York, Lingua franca is the creation of Jef- frey Kittay, former Yale French professor and currently visiting professor at New York University. In addition to academ- ics, contributors so far include primarily New York-based journalists with cre- dentials from Esquire, the New York Times, Spy Magazine, the Nation, Dissent, and the New Republic. Rarely has a new academic rag re- ceived so much attention from the media, leading this reviewer to believe that Lingua franca is street-smart and market-wise. From the Washington Post to the San Francisco Examiner, from the Boston Globe to the Chicago Tribune, Lin- gua franca has been cited and reviewed enthusiastically. Lingua franca's ads abound with pithy testimonials from the likes of Umberto Eco, Catharine R. Stimpson (recent president of the Mod- ern Language Association and Rutgers graduate school dean), and Lindsay Wa- ters (Harvard University Press executive editor). Bill Katz, in Library Journal, se- lected it as one of "The Ten Best Magazines September 1991 of 1990." The Wall Street Journal and Harper's have reprinted its articles. Why all the fuss? Perhaps because Lin- gua franca takes us behind the scenes in academe and talks frankly about some rather delicate issues: the tenure system at Harvard, unproductive faculty, the great Eskimo "snow" vocabulary hoax, Paul de Man and his deconstruction, and my personal favorite-undercover in- side the M.F.A. creativity boot camp-in which the author reviews the propensity for "groupthink" and political consen- sus that controls writers' workshops across the country. There are also articles of a more practical nature: the diary of a faculty member serving on an affirma- tive action search, an interview with a faculty member accused of sexual ha- rassment, and a primer on new TIAA- CREF retirement plan options. Academic librarians long concerned about their drab image may be gratified to learn from Valerie Steele's article, ''The F- word" (where F stands for Fashion), that they are dressed in vogue for academe. A UCLA history professor explains: "To dress fashionably is to be labeled frivo- lous . . .. Dowdy is safe and serious; bad dressing, one of the last ways in which . academics can project the illusion of oth- erworldliness." Written in a breezy style, Lingua franca is entertaining and easy to read. Growing from forty (June 1990) to fifty (April 1991) pages in length, each issue typically has a number of regular col- umns in addition to the cover story, the feature article, and two shorter articles or interviews. Academic librarians will take special interest in the "Breakthrough Books" section of "Field Notes," in which a handful of scholars identify the most recent significant book in their dis- cipline. Although the selections are typ- ically from the mainstream scholarly press, the column serves as a timely an- notated list of top hits. "Inside Publish- ing" looks forward to new releases-for example, announcing The New York Re- view of Books' plans to initiate an Italian edition, Libri & Idee, and to develop French and German editions as well, and the resurrection of the influential I ~ J J Africanist review Transition. Appearing under the same rubric is a short col- umn-"What Do Editors Really Want?"-in which acquisitions editors answer queries about the kinds of manu- scripts they are seeking in specified fields. Anyone living under the illusion that authors-not editors-set the pub- lishing agenda will be reminded other- wise by reading this column. Academic librarians should be pleased to read-if not contribute to-the regular column "Research File: Documents in Search of Scholars." Here we find the treasures of our collections-at Michi- gan State University, the New York Pub- lic Library, the Library of Congress, Radcliffe College, the International Insti- tute of Social History (Amsterdam), and the Franklin Furnace Archive (Manhat- tan)-begging for scholarly investiga- tion. Enterprising graduate students would be well-advised to package "doc- uments in search of scholars" with "what editors really want" for a sure-fire dissertation/monograph success. Until the April issue, this little maga- zine devoted 20 to 30 percent of its pages to a regular line called "Jobtracks," trac- ing the migratory paths of junior faculty to their first positions or of seasoned fac- ulty to senior positions . Academics will no doubt lovingly run their fingers down the long columns of names in search of that lost classmate, colleague, or mentor-now found-at last, pro- moted to tenure at Emory. In April, through a font and spacing change, "Jobtracks" was reduced to just over six pages in length. With a circulation of 15,000, Lingua franca apparently followed Abbeville's advice and thought first of its audience. Its modest institutional price, $35, suits its desk-top publishing quality and newsy content. Worthy of our support, yes, but also worthy of our vision. As Lingua franca matures-and let us hope it does-academic librarians should help to make their agenda an integral part of its mission. Right now, the mag- azine is walking a fine line between class clown and class act: its reputation hangs in the balance. A case in point is the Book Reviews 481 "Field Notes" insert in the April 1991 issue, "Rad Librarians Track the Zeit- geist," in which the travails of Hennepin County Library's cataloger Sanford Ber- man to establish new Library of Con- gress subject headings are listed. Lingua franca reprints a selection of sixteen new headings from among the 400 initiated by Berman. It lists another thirty-most of which, like "Cat furniture," are largely irrelevant to academics-from among the thousands of unique head- ings in use at Hennepin County Library alone. Excluded are more serious and surprising examples such as "Marxism" (use: "Communism" or "Socialism") or "Family planning" (use: "Birth con- trol''). Lingua franca misleads its readers by prefacing the second list with: "Here are some of the cultural phenomena that the library caught up with during the past year. Look for them soon at your local library." Only if your local library happens to be Hennepin County Library, they might have added. More disturb- ing, howeyer, is that Lingua franca" went for the quick laugh and overlooked the more important-and academically rel- evant-questions: How are new subject headings introduced and adopted by the Library of Congress? How do they re- flect cultural changes? Lingua franca might have investigated recent changes resulting from German unification, for example. And there would have been plenty of room for humor. If it can avoid a decline into terminal cuteness, Lingua franca will be of interest to graduate students, faculty, academic librarians and publishers, and consum- ers and critics of higher education.- Martha L. Brogan, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Scholarly Communication and Bibliometrics. Borgman, Christine L., ed. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage, 1990. 393p. $38 (ISBN 0-803903879-9). LC 90-8745. Christine Borgman, who teaches in the library school and in the Communica- tions Studies program at UCLA, has compiled eight articles from a special issue of Communications Research (October 1989) and eight new essays into a com-