College and Research Libraries


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-



ment. In a brief introductory paragraph, 
she dismisses out of hand "obtrusive 
techniques of data gathering such as sur-
veys and interviews," and makes vague 
and undocumented references to inter-
nal debates about the "nature of 'library 
feminism"' and "defensiveness among 
library women" in an effort to justify her 
design of an "empirical, unobtrusive 
study." She proposes to "test the impact 
of various kinds of feminism" in three 
ways: 1) content analysis of literature 
"about library women by American li-
brary women" published during this pe-
riod (some 250 books and articles); 2) 
citation analysis of this literature with an 
aim to classify the feminist authors out-
side librarianship who have been cited 
by library women; and 3) content analy-
sis of "all programs devoted to women's 
issues" at the American Library Associa-
tion annual meetings during these same 
two decades. 

If this methodology and source mate-
rial are peculiarly limited given the 
scope and complexities of her topic, they 
are further weakened by a lack of sophis-
ticated and informed analysis of the data. 
The work is replete with vague references, 
broad assertions, and questionable as-
sumptions (e.g., " ... many kinds of sex 
discrimination have been outlawed, and 
the requirement of affirmative action 
programs and the legal right to abortion 
have been established.") The "analysis" 
presented is confined to a categorization 
of the literature on "library. women" and 
ALA conference programming as either 
liberal/ mainstream feminist or radical 
feminist. 

Baum argues, accurately albeit simplis-
tically, that liberal feminism strives to inte-
grate women into existing institutions on 
an equal basis with men, while radical 
feminism seeks to transform those very 
institutions. But these arbitrary and 
problematic categorizations into "lib-
eral/ mainstream" or "radical" -as if all 
feminist activity, let alone all feminist 
librarians, can be defined and labeled with 
these very narrow terms-severely restrict 
the analytical potential of this study. 
Moreover, Baum fails to define these cate-
gories in a way sufficient even to her 

Book Reviews 181 

limited purposes. Among the many vague 
and contradictory assertions encountered 
in this work, she places such revolutionary 
initiatives as comparable worth (efforts ex-
tending far beyond liberal equal pay for 
equal work formulas) in the liberal cate-
gory and at the same time flatly asserts that 
"liberal feminists stress transforming so-
cial institutions, such as the law, the 
economy, and the schools, in ways that 
would liberate women." (italics mine). 
She seems to trip herself up with a lib-
eral/ radical dichotomy which ignores 
not only other types of feminism (social-
·ist feminism is one notable example) but 
also the fact that most issues-affirma-
tive action, pay equity, maternity rights 
(labeled here as liberal) or pornography, 
homosexuality, sexual harassment, repro-
ductive rights (labeled here as radical)-
can and should be addressed from 
multiple theoretical and political frame-
works. librarians have tackled such issues 
using a variety of approaches, but Baum, 
firmly entrenched in her arbitrary classifi-
cation scheme, fails to explore the implica-
tions of these efforts. She also fails to 
recognize the many issues in librarianship 
that are not neatly categorized as 
"women's issues" but which have been 
approached and shaped through librari-
ans' feminist perspectives and activities 
(such as cataloging and classification 
practices, bibliographic instruction, and 
implementation of new technologies). 

This work rests on the premise that an 
uncritical examination of library litera-
ture and conference programming will 
somehow reveal the impact of feminism 
on American librarianship. ·For more 
than twenty years, feminist librarians 
have brought a variety of philosophical, 
political, and analytical perspectives to 
their work in libraries, their publica-
tions, and their ALA activities. Lamen-
tably, little analytical acumen is applied 
to the literature and the programming 
examined here, resulting in a study that 
is both shallow and incomplete. If this 
study provides evidence of anything, it 
is the limitations of simple content and 
citation analyses to represent and ana-
lyze complex phenomena that elude 
neat categorization. 



182 College & Research Libraries 

With a more rigorous theoretical and 
methodological framework and a judi-
cious editorial hand, this project might 
well have made a notable contribution to 
the literature and to our understanding 
of recent developments in American 
librarianship. As it is, the publisher ap-
parently reproduces here a barely re-
worked dissertation, acknowledged 
nowhere in the book. Further, the pub-
lisher neglects even the most basic 
editing of obvious grammar and spelling 
errors, let alone redundant, disjointed, 
and simplistic discussions of complex 
issues. One can only suspect commercial 
exploitation of a hot topic in the publica-
tion of a book whose promising title 
alone will carry it into many libraries 
despite its poor quality. 

There are enormous potential and 
need for solid scholarship on this topic. 
Our profession can only benefit from 
well-researched, insightful studies of 
feminism and librarianship and feminist 
perspectives on librarianship: library 
applications of feminist critiques of in-
formation and knowledge; gender-
based values and politics in library 
workplaces; ways in which feminism in-
forms bibliographic instruction or man-
agement or rna terials selection; library 
implications of feminist debates around 
censorship and media, to name just a few 
potential areas that warrant investiga-
tion. In spite of its definitive-sounding 
title Feminist Thought in American Librar-
ianship skirts the complexities of multi-
ple feminisms and their application 
within a predominantly female but still 
male-dominated profession. Readers 
thus must wait still longer for the 
authoritative study of the impact of fem-
inism on librarianship that the profes-
sion so critically requires.-Joan Ariel, 
University of California, Irvine. 

Australian Studies: Acquisition and 
Collection Development for Libraries. 
Ed. by G. E. Gorman. London: Man-
sell, 1992. 347p. $80. (ISBN 0-7201-
2134-5.) 
The Washington Post reported in late 

November that the Australian govern-
ment had lifted its ban on homosexuals 

in the military. This is just one example 
of the many issues common to both 
Australia and the United States. Pub-
lished materials on such issues are of 
current interest to American readers. As 
Robert Ross, the director of the 
Australian Studies Center at the Univer-
sity of Texas, writes in this volume, inter-
est in Australian studies in the United 
States is growing, albeit gradually. Ross 
cites the founding in 1978 of the Associa-
tion of College and Research Libraries's 
Australian Studies Discussion Group 
and the 1985 establishment of the 
American Association of Australian Lit-
erary Studies as evidence. 

Australian Studies "addresses the needs 
of librarians charged with collecting and 
managing collections with an Australian 
content." The book contains eighteen es-
says divided into five broad areas-
Demand for Australian Collections; 
Australian Publishing; Selecting and 
Purchasing Australian Publications; 
Australian Collections (Experience in 
Three Countries); and Special Needs and 
their Solution. 

This is the only work that brings to-
gether information on Australian pub-
lishing, selection, and collections. The 
essays that cover publishing in Australia 
are especially helpful. Reference librari-
ans can use John Mills's article on refer-
ence publishing as a checklist for 
building a current reference collection 
on Australia. Michael Harrington's 
essay on government publishing pro-
vides current information about the 
Australian Government Publishing 
Service, as well as other government in-
formation, including the scientific and 
technological works published by the 
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial 
Research Organization (CSIRO). Jerelynn 
Brown provides a summary of useful 
sources for selecting Australian materi-
als, although this reviewer questions the 
practice of having an article on selection 
written by the sales manager of the 
major Australian book supplier (the ar-
ticle does favor the author's employer, the 
firm of James Bennett). The article by Ross 
Atkinson, ''Developing an Australian Lit-
erature Collection: An American Per-