College and Research Libraries


Book Reviews 
Buckland, Michael. Redesigning Library 

Services: A Manifesto. Chicago: ALA, 
1992. 82p. alk. paper, $18. (ISBN 0-
8389-0590-0). 
One approaches a book subtitled "A 

Manifesto" with the expectation that it 
will contain an exhortation to embrace a 
radically new vision of the future. Unfor-
tunately, this book, despite its heavily 
italicized, upbeat style, presents neither 
a very original vision nor particularly 
compelling arguments. Although the 
purpose of the book is "to suggest some 
general bases for planning or, at least, to 
provide a general framework for think-
ing about future library services," any-
one who has thought at all about the 
future of libraries will probably have 
considered in much more depth and 
detail most of the issues presented in this 
"Manifesto." 

The book begins by drawing a distinc-
tion between the paper library, the auto-
mated library, and the electronic library. 
In the chapter on the paper library, the 
standard drawbacks of paper as an infor-
mation medium are reiterated: paper 
documents can be used by only one per-
son in one place at a time, they require a 
lot of space and are housed in libraries 
that are closed some of the time; manual 
catalogs consisting of cards are problem-
atic because a separate card is required 
for each entry, and because the catalog 
and the documents to which it refers are 
physically separated. On the other hand, 
the automated library-i.e. one in which 
the documents are on paper but "the 
Libraries' procedures have been com-
puterized" -is an improvement, but it 
eliminates only a few of the impedi-
ments to access that characterize the 
paper library. 

In a chapter entitled "Bibliographic 
Ac~ess Reconsidered," the author pre-

sents a modified version of an article he 
published in 1988, in which he compares 
the nature and uses of bibliographies 
and catalogs. He concludes that bibliog-
raphies and catalogs will eventually coa-
lesce into a single synthetic source that 
. will not only list publications but will 
also include information on their loca-
tion or the process by which they can be 
accessed. 

The chapter on the electronic library 
considers the advantages of electronic 
sources, the drawbacks of paper sources, 
and the potential for digitizing informa-
tion now in paper form. The author does 
not envision the paper, automated, and 
electronic libraries as separate and dis-
tinct phases of library development, but 
rather he anticipates, no doubt correctly, 
that different libraries will combine 
different aspects of these three types 
over time, and that paper and electronic 
sources will exist side by side well into 
the future. 

A chapter on collections in the online 
era compares the advantages of online 
sources to the disadvantages of building 
paper collections. The major challenges 
facing the future of library collections in 
the online era, such as the relationship 
between libraries and the publishing in-
dustry, and the need to redefine intellec-
tual ownership are mentioned but are 
not discussed. A brief review of reference 
services stresses the shift from service to 
self-service. The section on reference as-
sistance contains a description of stan-
dard reference operations, but with very 
little consideration of how such methods 
will be affected in an online environ-
ment. The same is true of the subsequent 
chapter on organization, which appears 
to have been included simply to round 
out the picture: it contains some stan-
dard statements on library management, 

179 



180 College & Research Libraries 

but it makes practically no effort to 
assess how the advent of online sources 
might alter organizational structures or 
management methods. 

After having been presented with 
such simple fare throughout most of the 
book, one arrives at the final chapter, 
entitled "The Challenge," hungry for 
substance. Once again, however, very 
little substance is served up. Instead of 
an action agenda and some original con-
clusions, the reader receives yet another 
recitation of the drawbacks of paper 
publications, followed by a list of "major 
changes" that one can expect to charac-
terize library services in the online age 
(e.g., "assembling local collections" will 
become "less important," and "local 
storage may be desirable but is no longer 
necessary."). And thus the book ends-
noting in conclusion that "[computers], 
networks, and electronic documents" 
will provide library services in the future 
with "interesting possibilities." 

This book is very disappointing for 
many reasons, not the least of which is 
that it gives the impression of having 
been written five or ten years ago, before 
many of the nation's research library cat-
alogs were accessible on the Internet, 
before such systems as NOTIS MDAS 
permitted libraries to mount online bib-
liographies that link bibliographical ci-
tations to local holdings, and well before 
most of what is presented and re-pre-
sented in this book had been examined in 
much more developed form throughout 
the library literature. The book also gives 
the clear impression, to me at least, that it 
was written very quickly, as if the author 
simply sat down and wrote up what he 
knew, drawing heavily and primarily on 
his own previous publications, without 
taking the time to refine or update his 
views. There is in fact very little, if any-
thing, in this book that one would not 
expect to hear in the first few lectures of 
any introductory library school course. 
One also encounters statements like "[re-
search] ... has shown that ... " (p.36), or 
"studies have shown that ... " (p.49), 
without any accompanying information 
as to where these studies were published 
or this research was conducted; it is as if 

the author did not want to take the time 
to look up the documentation. 

Redesigning Library Services can cer-
tainly be read as a basic introduction to 
some of . the key issues facing library 
services, and there can be no doubt that 
the book is sincerely written and well 
intentioned. However, it is also short-
sighted, outdated, hyperbolic, and re-
petitive. It is especially regrettable that 
the American Library Association 
should have seen fit to publish such a 
book with such a title, giving as it does 
the impression that this is the profes-
sion's official view of itself. If this book 
is any indication of the wisdom and 
facility with which libraries are prepar-
ing for the advent of the online age, then 
the future of library services is indeed 
dim.-Ross Atkinson, Cornell University, 
Ithaca, New York. 

Baum, Christina D. Feminist Thought in 
American Librarianship. Jefferson, N.C.: 
McFarland, 1992. 180p. alk. paper, 
$28.50 (ISBN 0-89950-724-7). 
Over the past twenty-five years, femi-

nism has made a significant impact on 
American librarianship, yet very little 
scholarly attention has been paid to this 
topic. It clearly merits research and in-
vestigation from a variety of perspec-
tives, greater publishing activity, and 
focused attention in library school curric-
ula. The reader thus approaches Feminist 
Thought in American Librarianship expec-
tantly, hoping to find in the promise of the 
title answers to questions that scholars 
have not asked before. Indeed, Baum 
might be considered a pioneer for making 
one of the few attempts to date to "trace 
the impact of various kinds of feminism 
on the thought and political agenda of 
American library women." Unfor-
tunately, her recognition of an area in 
need of careful and critical research isn't 
enough; the end result is disappointing 
on most counts. 

The time frame of Baum' s book, 1965-
1985, spans the two decades that marked 
the emergence of the second wave of 
feminism in the United States and the 
increasing involvement of many, includ-
ing librarians, in the women's move-