College and Research Libraries Book Reviews Guide to Technical Services Resources. Ed. Peggy Johnson. Chicago: ALA, 1994. 313p. $60 (ISBN 0-8389-0624-9). At first glance this book appears to be a very large, perhaps overwhelming bib- liography of material about the technical services. Its structure and content con- trive to· provide something else en- tirely-a workable guide to the most current sources for a wide range of li- brary and information activities. While acknowledging important differences, the introduction to this volume cites the Guide to Reference Books as a model, a work that generations of reference li- brarians have turned to for guidance in identifying the best current sources. This new book is intended to provide a par- allel function with the information needed to develop and organize library collections. Its orientation is functional. It is not a literature review: it is neither exhaustive nor retrospective. The ar- rangement and annotations set the cita- tions in a useful context. Sources across various fields and formats are well inte- grated to better support their use. All the major traditional technical services activities are covered: acquisi- tions, cataloging (including copy cata- loging), subject analysis, serials, collection management and preservation. Sections are also provided for smaller and for newer areas: authority control, filing and indexing, reproduction of library materi- als, and access services (including circula- tion). Marginal areas of interest are also included, for example, short lists of sources on problem patrons in relation to access services and fund-raising as an aspect of collection development fi- nance. A separate chapter is provided for each major area of technical services. Within each the sources are presented from general to specific, moving from guides, dictionaries, and periodicals to specialized topics and specific formats. Brief essays introduce the scope and context of each chapter and major sec- tion. A preliminary chapter covers sources that provide an overview of the technical services. This includes mate- rial on technical services administration such as decision making, costs, and a special section on expert systems. Brief descriptive annotations are pro- vided for each item with emphasis on its use. Addresses and other contact infor- mation are given for organizations and vendors of bibliographic services. For electronic discussion groups, computer network addresses and subscription in- structions are included. In one case a fax number is provided for obtaining up- dated status on a NISO standard. Vari- ous formats are included as appropriate, such as the video recording Slow Fires in the chapter on preservation. Frequent reference is made to professional asso- ciations, conferences, ongoing peri- odical columns, and e-mail lists as the most current sources of relevant infor- mation. Traditional library-oriented publications are brought together with new sources of expertise such as an Arpnet contact for Project SMART, which experiments with automatic · methods for text analysis. A high degree of currency is reflected in every aspect of this book. Neverthe- less some information given will be rapidly outdated. Supplements and cu- mulations to update the present edition are projected. Guidance is given for ob- taining current information through newsletters, discussion groups, and electronic communication. In addition to an author-title index, there is a subject index which effectively brings together related items from across the chapters 463 464 College & Research Libraries for topics such as academic libraries and research libraries. Internal cross-refer- ences are also provided for items cited in more than one chapter. This guide constitutes a valuable re- source for practicing information pro- fessionals not only in the technical services but also in library administra- tion and bibliographic systems. Initially the notion of a technical services parallel to the Guide to Reference Books appears artificial and arbitrary. However the im- plications are tantalizing. Perhaps only time will tell whether the Guide to Tech- nical Services Resources has the capacity to fill the niche it attempts to create. The imagination found in its creative solutions for bringing a measure of order to a dynamic, interdisciplinary body of know ledge is heartening.-/. Brad Young, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. The Black Librarian in America Revisited. Ed. E. J. Josey. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1994. 382p. (ISBN 0-8108-2830-0). When University of Pennsylvania law professor Lani Guinier withdrew her nomination for assistant attorney gen- eral for civil rights, she called on all Americans to recognize the importance of a "public dialogue on race in which all perspectives are represented and in which no one viewpoint monopolizes, distorts, caricatures, or shapes the out- come." E. J. Josey similarly challenges librarianship in The Black Librarian in America Revisited, a new collection of es- says by a range of African American voices in the library and information sci- ence community representing different generations, work environments, and geographical regions. What ties these es- says together is the theme of race and profession in the 1990s. This new volume does not displace its predecessor, The Black Librarian in Amer- ica (1970), or a companion volume to the original work, entitled What the Black Li- brarians Are Saying (1972). In fact many of the essays here represent the work of a generation of African Americans who were inspired by the original collections to enter the fields of library and informa- tion science. And they are an impressive September 1994 group: administrators, faculty, and front-line librarians and allied informa- tion professionals in industry, colleges and universities, government, and in public libraries serving large and small communities. It is sobering to realize that the enduring racism in American society and among professions makes it necessary to revisit many of the same issues more than twenty years later. Stories of professional success seem to be among the most vibrant of the essays with some authors using narrative ap- proaches to relate the individual self to both community and profession. Exam- 1 pies are the essays by Mary Lenox and Marva DeLoach, who use autobiogra- [ phy as a vehicle for understanding their educational choices and their experi- ences on campuses, in communities, and in professional associations and the im- pact of these on their careers. Vivian Hewitt reveals how personal drive and .resilience formed the basis for her elec- tion as president of the Special Libraries Association and as a leader in improving the climate for African Americans in spe- cial libraries. Casper Jordan's essay on the career of Virginia Lacy Jones tran- scends the boundaries of the biographi- cal sketch as he reconstructs her life as a library and information science educa- tor who, through a commitment to raz- ing racial barriers, "worked untiringly to make librarianship a better profession for all." Of particular interest is the section "From Academia," which is the most co- hesive of the entire collection. Jessie C. Smith returns to her theory of the "four cultures," an idea inspired by C. P. Snow that she explored in the earlier volume. Smith's four cultures-as a librarian, woman, African American, and south- erner--create a web of gender, race, pro- fessional, and geographical identity that becomes a framework for understanding the .nexus of personal and professional worldviews that shaped her career as an academic librarian. It is also a frame- work for getting the most from the es- says that follow, particularly the juxtaposition between the essays of a library dean at a historically black col-