College and Research Libraries


590 College & Research Libraries 

strategy that reads as if it were originally 
written for a class of eighth-graders (''First, 
find a topic you find interesting and 
would like to learn more about .... "). The 
content and quality of the chapter are 
reflected quite nicely in its final sentence: 
"By undertaking LIS research, librarians 
can assure for the future of being a vital 
and socially responsible profession [sic]." 

Fortunately, the book also contains an 
excellent chapter by Joe Hewitt on ''The 
Role of the Library Administrator in Im-
proving LIS Research" that is particularly 
applicable to academic libraries and that 
most academic librarians will probably 
find to be the most informative and use-
ful chapter in the volume. Hewitt ac-
knowledges how difficult it is for the 
current practitioner to undertake research 
and how little help research now provides 
for library decision making. He, neverthe-
less, makes a number of credible and prac-
ticable suggestions for integrating research 
into the real world of librarianship. 

The book appears to have been hastily 
edited and contains, as can be seen from 
the above quoted final sentence from the 
chapter on academic libraries, an unusu-
ally large number of typographical over-
sights. In the "Contributors" section at 
the end of the book, to cite another espe-
cially unfortunate example, the first 
lines of two of the paragraphs containing 
biographical information have been de-
leted, so that the names of the authors to 
whom the biographical information re-
fers are missing. At $69.50 for 400 pages, 
one expects a more professional job. 

The book clearly does achieve its ob-
jective of providing, from a wide variety 
of perspectives, some useful insights 
into the presumed purposes and present 
state of LIS research. While many of the 
chapters skillfully describe some of the 
fundamental weaknesses of LIS research, 
a few-perhaps rather more eloquently-
actually show us those weaknesses 
through the self-important triviality of 
their own content. In either case, aca-
demic librarians concerned about the 
health and future of LIS research will 
find much in this book to think about.-
Ross Atkinson, Cornell University, Ithaca, 
New York. 

November1991 

Peters, Thomas A. The Online Catalog: A 
Critical Examination of Public Use. Jef-
ferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1991. 266p. 
alk. paper, $36.50 (ISBN 0-89950-600-
3). LC 90-53602. 
Thomas Peters's stated goal is to 

"focus on actual user behavior and [on] 
the theoretical implications of online cat-
alogs, especially regarding the use of re-
mote access." The goal is an ambitious 
one. Peters undertakes a review of the 
literature in the first eight chapters of the 
book, citing much of what has been pub-
lished on online catalogs. Topics include 
the history of online catalogs, their pur-
poses and traits, the flow of information 
from producers through middlemen to 
consumers, the philosophy of OPACs, 
the problems with these catalogs, and 
possible solutions. In other sections, Pe-
ters reviews methodologies for evaluat-
ing online catalogs and their use. 
Emphasis is given to transaction log 
studies, the approach Peters used in con-
ducting his analysis of remote access 
use. Several chapters are then devoted to 
reporting the results of the study Peters 
undertook of dial-up use of the online 
catalog at the University of Missouri-
Kansas City. The final chapters relate 
online catalogs to the academic and in-
formation environments in which they 
exist. 

Although the bibliography and biblio-
graphic references are useful, the indi-
vidual arguments frequently interesting, 
and the study of dial-up access a contri-
bution to what is known about online 
catalog use, the purpose of the book as a 
whole remains unclear. The literature re-
view, in partiCular, poses serious prob-
lems. The style in which it is presented 
makes it difficult to sort out the argu-
ments used in the works being cited 
from Peters's own arguments. Para-
phrasing-where, in many cases, more 
obvious direct citation might have been 
better-makes it difficult to determine 
where one author's ideas begin and end. 
In a number of cases, difficult conceptual 
issues are presented with too little expli-
cation, particularly in Peters's references 
to the nonlibrary literature relating to 
philosophy and technology. In some of 



the references to actual research studies 
on the online catalog, the inclusion of 
more data would have been useful. In 
some controversial areas, Peters makes 
rather opinionated statements without 
providing balancing arguments, as in his 
condemnation (or is it the source's?) of 
the use of icons. In short, to make sub-
stantive use of the literature review, it 
would be necessary to return to the 
sources listed to understand their argu-
ments and intentions. 

One point, in particular, that is not 
well documented and that needs more 
discussion is Peters's statement, re-
peated in one way or another several 
times, that " ... online catalogs do not 
fulfill specific needs and ends. They are 
systems that were designed without spe-
cific needs and uses in mind." Part of his 
argument, and a theme throughout the 
book, is that designers of catalogs do not 
know from the outset all of the uses to 
which the catalog will be put and that the 
notion of the catalog is changing. It does 
not, however, necessarily follow that li-
brarians did not have any "specific needs 
and uses in mind" as they developed the 
catalog. 

Peters's discussion of remote access is 
well done. Certainly, this area deserves 
significant attention as librarians move 
into the future of network information 
use. Remote access use of libraries and 
library catalogs will have a significant 
impact on libraries and their traditional 
role. These potential effects are well 
identified. Because much of Peters's 
book builds to this discussion, and be-
cause the research effort explored relates 
to this topic as well, it might have been 
more explicitly identified in the title, 
purpose, and focus of the earlier parts of 
the book. Another useful part of this 
study is the summary of methods for 
examining public use of catalogs. Peters 
identifies the advantages and disadvan-
tages of these methods, transaction logs 
in particular, for getting at the use that 
actually is made of the catalog. He em-
phasizes the importance of considering 
the search session rather than individual 
search statements as the study element. 

With the tools available, then, Peters's 

Book Reviews 591 

study of remote access search sessions is 
limited to dial access in order to be able 
to identify a session with a discrete be-
ginning and end. Unfortunately, as Pe-
ters notes, this probably skews the 
results because of the nature of the pop-
ulation making use of the catalog by dial 
access. Peters looks at search type, zero-
hit rates, likely causes of problems, and 
temporal patterns of dial access use and 
relates these to findings of previous 
studies not limited to dial access. He also 
undertakes a description of the broader 
contents of those search sessions that in-
clude subject searches. Our knowledge of 
catalog use will be enhanced by the accu-
mulation of more studies of this type, 
particularly those that examine all re-
mote use, including that over local, cam-
pus- or universitywide, and national 
networks-presumably each used by 
quite different populations. 

In the final two chapters of the book, 
Peters helpfully summarizes his argu-
ments and addresses the future of librar-
ies and library catalogs as they are 
affected by technological and environ-
mental developments. Librarians with 
some familiarity with the literature on 
online catalogs and their public use will 
want to focus on these latter sections and 
the dial access transaction log study. Those 
librarians seeking more background on 
the literature might delve into the items 
listed in the bibliography.-Flo Wilson, 
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. 

Lillet, Remy. Pour une Europe du livre, 
rapport a secretaire d'Etat aux Relations 
culturelles internationales. Paris: La 
Documentation Fran~aise, 1990. 158p. 
FF75.00. (ISBN 2-11-002319-8). 
It is refreshing these days to read a 

book about business that concludes that 
the United States is more of a threat than 
Japan. The growing importance of English-
language publishing in Europe and U.S. 
dominance in electronic information 
causes French publisher Remy Lillet to 
reach just this conclusion. The French 
foreign ministry commissioned his book 
as part of its planning for the European 
single market, which, by the end of 1992, 
will remove all trade barriers between