College and Research Libraries


448 College & Research Libraries 

Bender nowhere systematically analyzes 
what he means by the public and the 
public sphere. Recent controversies over 
multiculturalism together with contem-
porary advances in the technologies of 
communication and persuasion make 
this a vexed matter indeed. Fortunately, 
the present work serves as a sort of 
parergon to Bender's more extensive ex-
amination of this question, shortly to be 
published under the title History and 
Public Culture.-David S. Sullivan, Stan-
ford University, Stanford, California. 

Sieber, Joan E., ed. Sharing Social Science 
Data: Advantages and Challenges. New-
bury Park, Calif.: Sage, 1991. 168p. $46 
(ISBN 0-8039-4082-3). 
This concise and straightforward col-

lection of essays, written by leading 
authorities who create, document, dis-
seminate, and use social science data, 
builds on the earlier, seminal report of 
the Committee on National Statistics of 
the National Research Council, Sharing 
Research Data (National Academy Press, 
1985). Subsequent conferences focusing 
on social science data sponsored by the 
National Science Foundation (NSF) and 
the American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science in 1988 and 1989 
inspired much of the work in this volume. 

Major archives that organize and dis-
seminate social science research data 
have existed since the 1940s, gaining in 
strength during the 1960s when the In-
teruniversity Consortium of Political 
and Social Research (ICPSR) was 
founded at the University of Michigan. 
However, promotion of data sharing has 
intensified since the mid-1980s, by 
which time most funding agencies, in-
cluding the NSF, systematically required 
investigators to deposit their primary 
data at a public archive within one year 
of project completion. The NSF require-
ment now even extends to data gathered 
by graduate students on NSF-funded fel-
lowships. New policies intended to ad-
vance open scientific research coincided 
with more widespread access to comput-
ers, facilitating data collection, analysis, 
and distribution. The convergence of 
these trends has brought social science 

September 1993 

data increasingly into the mainstream of 
scholarly research. Readers familiar 
with the Research Libraries Group's 
1989 assessment of information needs in 
the social sciences will find that Sharing 
Social Science Data reinforces and illumi-
nates many of its findings. 

Editor Joan E. Sieber, who is professor 
of psychology at the University of Cal-
ifornia, Hayward, has assembled a coher-
ent and compelling case for data sharing, 
concentrating on the need for archived 
data for current research interests. The first 
part of Sharing Social Science Data uses 
three carefully selected case studies to il-
lustrate how different disciplinary trends 
and methodological perspectives in-
fluence scholarly research, drawing on 
investigations in demography, anthro-
pology, and criminal justice. These ex-
amples document the complex issues in 
contemporary social science research 
and are worthy of close consideration. 

V. Jeffery Evans describes a number of 
innovative hybrid projects that blend 
demographic constructs with various 
behavioral and social science methods of 
data collection, resulting in multilevel 
research designs that answer multidisci-
plinary questions. The strengths and 
weaknesses of data sharing in anthro-
pology are ably presented by Douglas R. 
White. White writes: 

Data sharing occurs in anthropology 
when there are shared theoretical, 
methodological, and data collection 
paradigms such as in archaeology 
and physical anthropology, and in 
areas of sociocultural or develop-
ment anthropology ... 
He demonstrates how comparative 

data sets from diverse disciplines like 
environmental science, historical demo-
graphy, and development studies permit 
anthropologists to test hypotheses about 
human populations in new ways. From 
his perspective further progress hinges 
on standardizing documentation, fully 
implementing a computer workstation 
COJ;lcept that "combines advanced meth-
odologies with ease and reliability in data 
management," and maintaining mecha-
nisms for cost-effective, international dis-
semination of information. 



In the final chapter in this section, the 
investigating team uses criminal and 
civil justice research, specifically the 
Spouse Assault Replication Program 
sponsored by the National Institute of 
Justice, to explore how issues of con-
fidentiality and protection of privacy of 
research participants, as well as the pro-
prietary interests of researchers, were re-
solved in a multi-site field experiment 
while still achieving the standards and 
policies of data sharing. 

Part II, on the "Elements of Successful 
Data Sharing," includes three chapters: 
'Pfhe Science of Data Sharing" by 
economist Martin David; "Establishing 
and Operating a Social Science Data Ar-
chive," by Josefina J. Card and James L. 
Peterson; and ''Use of Shared Data Sets in 
Teaching Statistics and Methodology," by 
Sieber and Bruce E. Trumbo. Well-docu-
mented data sets, according to David, 
should permit the user to assess their 
"completeness, reliability, appropriate-
ness of design, error, ambiguity, and porta-
bility." He then elaborates on weaknesses 
of current data documentation, using tech-
nical measures best understood by the spe-
cialist, although his interpretations and 
concepts are accessible to all readers. Card 
and Peterson discuss the purpose and 
structure of a centralized data archive 
from their perspective as professional psy-
chologists who operate a commercial 
facility, Sociometries, Inc., which is 
under contract to various federal fund-
ing agencies to manage social and be-
havioral data. Most of their criteria for 
evaluating a centralized data archive 
transfer to a university setting as well. 
Finally, Sieber and Trumbo discuss how 
the use of real data sets in teaching 
generates student interest and focuses 
their attention on substantive research 
problems rather than statistical tech-
niques. 

In the third section, "Challenges," Sie-
ber poses questions most frequently 
asked by social scientists about the value 
of sharing data. She divides them into 
three groups: the professionally uncon-
cerned who are either naively willing to 
share or reject sharing altogether; the 
concerns of neophyte investigators; and 

Book Reviews 449 

the informed concerns of experienced in-
vestigators. Two key factors will in-
fluence more widespread acceptance of 
data sharing-greater recognition and 
rewards for researchers who do share 
data, and, more systematic training of 
beginning social scientists in the value 
and methods of data sharing. Vivian 
Weil and Rachelle Hollander close the 
volume with ''Normative Issues in Data 
Sharing." Trends toward team research, 
the erosion of boundaries between pri-
vate and public research institutions, 
and the participation of government, in-
dustry, and foundations as funders call 
for the development of standards in data 
sharing. Weil and Hollander identify the 
following seven factors which need com-
mon guidelines: data quality, access, 
proprietary interests, maintenance (or-
ganizational support), privacy interests, 
informed consent arrangements, and as-
sistance to users of data along with lend-
ing criteria. 

Sharing Social Science Data effectively 
distills many aspects of the current de-
bate about data sharing into a cogent 
argument. In many university settings, 
social science data archives are attached 
to specialized research institutes and 
often operate independently from the li-
brary. However, as more and more data 
sets become available in multiple for-
mats or migrate from the domain of 
mainframe computing to the scholar's 
workstation, social science librarians 
need to forge closer alliances with data 
archivists. As this review goes to press, 
Sociometries, Inc. has announced the re-
lease of The American Family Data Ar-
chive, which combines over 20,000 
variables from 10 nationally recognized 
studies on family dynamics and child 
care. It exemplifies recent capabilities in 
the flexible "packaging'' of data and its 
documentation, and, makes the com-
plementary roles of librarians and data 
archivists more visible. 

Librarians who wish to keep current 
of the evolving discussion about data 
sharing might consider joining the Inter-
national Association for Social Science 
Information Service and Technology 
(IASSIST), which also sponsors a lively 



450 College & Research Libraries 

electronic discussion group, or the Asso-
ciation of Public Data Users (APDU)-
neither of which are mentioned by 
Sieber.-Martha L. Brogan, Yale Univer-
sity, New Haven, Connecticut. 

Bibliographic Instruction in Practice: A 
Tribute to the Legacy of Evan Farber. 
Ed. Larry Hardesty et al. Ann Arbor, 
Mich.: Pierian, 1993. 168p. $35 (ISBN 
0-87 650-328-8). 

What Is Good Instruction Now? Library 
Instruction for the 90s. Ed. Linda 
Shirato. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Pierian, 
1993. 184p. $35 (ISBN 0-87650-327-X). 

Working with Faculty in the New Elec-
tronic Library. Ed. Linda Shirato. Ann 
Arbor, Mich.: Pierian, 1992, 195p., $35 
(ISBN 0-87650-291-5). 
Ann Lipow begins a 1991 LOEX con-

ference presentation reproduced in 
Working with Faculty in the New Electronic 
Library by promising her audience that 
"because ours is a practical occupation," 
her talk will quickly tum to the "nitty 
gritty." It is at this level that the collec-
tions under review define their utility. 
Although this turn to the nitty gritty-
rough, pestiferous, and hallowed 
ground of practicrats everywhere-in-
tends to persuade us of the detailed real-
life veracity and value of these volumes, 
it ensures a certain tedium as well. 

These volumes are the three most re-
cent in Pierian's Library Orientation Ser-
ies, which began in 1972 with a collection 
documenting the first of the LOEX con-
ferences. Two of the volumes, Working 
with Faculty in the New Electronic Library 
and What Is Good Instruction Now? Li-
brary Instruction for the 90s, constitute the 
proceedings of the nineteenth (1991) and 
twentieth (1992) LOEX conferences; Bib-
liographic Instruction in Practice: A Tribute 
to the Legacy of Evan Farber includes 
papers presented at the fifth (1992) bib-
liographic instruction conference spon-
sored jointly by Earlham College and 
Eckerd College as successors to a series 
held at Earlham. 

Both LOEX volumes reproduce four 
papers and a dozen "instructive" and 

September 1993 

poster sessions. The papers tend to be 
synthetic, hortatory, and prognosticat-
ing, while the session reports describe 
projects designed around specific user 
groups, technological applications, 
courses and fields, or methodologies 
and "problems." Working with Faculty 
finds Evan Farber rehearsing the argu-
ments for and challenges of working 
with faculty in any environment; Ann 
Lipow discussing how librarians at the 
University of California, Berkeley, com-
municate with faculty; Nathan M. Smith 
et al. describing Project FORE, a hyper-
media library skills program at the Uni-
versity of Utah; and Fred Roecker and 
Thomas Minnick talking about the Gate-
way that provides online guidance in re-
search at Ohio State University, and 
about the Gateway's relationship to the 
"how-to-college" requirement the uni-
versity places on all incoming students. 

The second LOEX volume, What Is 
Good Library Instruction Now? · offers 
Thomas T. Surprenant on teachers and 
students and the library's future place in 
their work; Virginia Tiefel on a number 
of university library projects to enhance 
user services with electronic information 
technologies; Mary Reichel on the com-
plex of issues surrounding develop-
ments in scholarly communication, 
learning theory, and the future of librar-
ies and librarianship; and Hannelore B. 
Rader on the last twenty years' work 
among library instruction practitioners, 
a period during which she sees an evo-
lution from concern with library orienta-
tion to a more broadly conceived 
information literacy. 

Bibliographic Instruction in Practice 
epitomizes the work of Evan Farber and 
others at Earlham College since they 
began their now famous program in the 
1960s. After Farber's introductory paper, 
in which he rehearses the familiar argu-
ments for library instruction and the 
development of the Earlham program, 
the volume reproduces papers that de-
scribe departmental instructional ration-
ales and goals, specific assignments, and 
instructional techniques. Transcripts of 
discussions, presentations,. and testi-
monials cover the librarian's role in