College and Research Libraries Libraries for the Future: Planning Build- ings That Work: Proceedings of the Li- brary Buildings Preconference, June 27 and 28, 1991. Ed. by Ron G. Martin. Chi- cago: American Library Assn., 1992. 98p. $25 (ISBN 0-8369-0597-8). LC 92-2252. The purpose of the Library Adminis- tration Management Association's Build- ings and Equipment Section (BES) 1991 preconference on planning library build- ings was to provide "solid, practical guidance in designing libraries that will meet the future demands for library facili- ties and services throughout the country." The intended audience was both public and academic librarians. The published proceedings from this conference in- clude papers on both broad planning issues and specific tasks associated with planning library buildings. These cover the role of building consultants and plan- ning teams; writing program statements; using space inventories, projections, and standards; technical requirements and building criteria; functional requirements and space relationships; selecting an ar- chitect; and architectural symbols and specifications. A three-page selected bib- liography on library building planning is also included. Among the contributors are academic and public librarians, consultants, and facilities planners. With the exception of the first paper, which is jointly authored and compares and contrasts academic and public library building issues and trends, most papers in the compilation focus either on public or on academic libraries exclusively. Because there is overlap for almost every topic covered, the same information is sometimes re- peated in more than one chapter. This fact, coupled with the informal writing style appropriate to papers delivered at a preconference, make it more difficult to find a concise description of a specific topic than might be the case with a "clas- sic text" on the subject (such as Planning Academic and Research Library Buildings by Keyes Metcalf, David C. Weber, and Philip Leighton). While having more than one person provide similar or iden- tical information on a given topic is use- ful in a conference setting, the same Book Reviews 363 repetition is annoying and distracting when printed in a book. Despite this shortcoming, the pro- ceedings do provide useful descriptions of the processes involved in planning a library building, illustrated with ex- amples from the authors' personal ex- periences. The description of the process used to plan a public library building in Superior, Wisconsin (found in Bob Car- mack's chapter "Outline of the Building Planning Process"), is a fascinating look at a design methodology that insured inclusiveness and creativity. This book does not provide specific answers to what "libraries for the fu- ture" will require in terms of building design. Nowhere is there a discussion of the specifics of cabling, telecommunica- tions, or other technical subjects, nor are there visionary musings on the "virtual library." What is provided are the ques- tions that should be asked throughout the planning process to insure the right technical and design solutions. The first author, Joel Gemmer, makes the following statement: "A building project should begin with reexamination of the mission, goals, collection philosophy, needed staffing and service changes, and overall management of the academic library." This seemingly simple statement articu- lates a fundamental truth which, if heeded, will result in "libraries for the future" that are more than just variations on the same theme. For those readers who take the time to rethink the assump- tions on which their present model of library service is built, the reward will be a building that can adapt to the enormous changes ahead.-Jean Walstrom Haley, Uni- versity of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota. SHORT NOTICES Preservation of Electronic Formats & Electronic Formats for Preservation. Ed. by Janice Mohlhenrich. Fort Atkin- son, Wise.: Highsmith Pr., 1993. 144p. $25 (ISBN 0-917846-17-6). This very useful book contains six papers from a 1992 conference sponsored by the Wisconsin Preservation Program. In view of the enormous amounts of money (and hope) currently being invested by 364 College & Research Libraries libraries in electronic data and text-digi- tizing projects, it behooves librarians to have a clear idea of the preservation is- sues involved in electronic formats. The double title of the book neatly summarizes the paradoxical situation: electronic data present large (and largely uncharted) pre- servation problems while, on the other hand digitizing processes hold the pro- mise of helping libraries cope with our vast brittle-books problem. The papers in this volume are a mix of case studies (Cornell, Marquette, and the National Archives) and state-of-our-knowledge presentations on the durability and lon- gevity of specific electronic formats, the best current preservation methods, costs of imaging techniques and the appro- priateness of these formats for specific library applications. Dettmann, Otto L Bettmann: The Picture Man. Gainesville, Fla.: Univ. Pr. of Florida, 1992. 178p. (ISBN 0-8130-1153-1) In this wry and charming autobiogra- phy, Otto Bettmann, who turns ninety in October, traces a career that began in the Prussian State Art Library in Berlin and, after a life running the Bettmann Archive (a three million item image-provision company), has come full circle at the Florida Atlantic University Library in Boca Raton, where he works as curator of rare books. When Bettmann, a Jew, was fired from his library job in 1933, he applied his training in cataloging and classification to his own collection of pic- tures, providing them with a powerful and sophisticated indexing system and transforming a hobby into a highly successful business. Endlessly enterpris- July1993 ing, Bettmann arrived in the United States just as "pictorialism" was coming into its own in publishing and, especially, in advertising. In 1980 the Bettmann Ar- chive was sold to Kraus-Thomson. Sur- prisingly, Bettmann tends to dismiss the communicative and informational value of images relative to language, but he im- plicitly concurs with the wisecrack, "A good picture is worth a thousand bucks." The book is generously illustrated. After the Electronic Revolution, Will You Be the First to Go? Ed. by Arnold Hir- shon. Chicago: American Library Assn., 1993. 62p. $18 paper, ALA member price $16.20 (ISBN 0-8389-7650-6). The four papers that made up the pro- ceedings of the 1992 ALCTS President's Program demonstrate, if nothing else, the value of knowing one's audience. The keynote speech by hypertext developer and visionary Theodore Nel- son demonstrates ignorance about li- braries and patronizes librarians. Nor does the final talk, by biologist Thomas Duncan on scholars' need for and development of the information tech- nology infrastructure, advance any rea- sonably informed librarian's under- standing of the issues. Peter Graham, on the other hand, presents a most informa- tive discussion of the problems relating to the physical and especially intellec- tual preservation of electronic informa- tion, and of the role of librarians in finding good solutions. In addition, Susan K. Mar- tin offers a provocative and concrete agenda for the library profession if it is to have a voice in an environment increas- ingly dominated by electronic media.