College and Research Libraries upon electronic materials that cannot be owned. Bibliographic records for coop- erative resources such as the Center for Research Libraries' hardcopy collections are being added to local catalogs. As own- ership becomes more difficult to define, local collections may no longer be particu- larly meaningful units for evaluation. White's clear, provocative, and con- vincing account breaks new ground in a number of areas. But, as the author ar- gues, collection evaluations are political artifacts as well as objective statements. In the final analysis, the politics of collec- tions cooperation will determine whether the brief test methodology resuscitates the Conspectus as a collaborative tool. It's not at all clear that this should still be our goaL-Dan Hazen, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Reference Assessment Manual. Comp. and ed. the Evaluation of Ref- erence and Adult Services Committee, Management and Operation of Public Services Section, Reference and Adult Services Division (RASD) of ALA. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Pierian Pr., 1995. 372p. $35 paper. (ISBN 0-87650-344x). This publication is the product of a ten- year effort by a committee of the Refer- ence and Adult Services Division (RASD) of ALA. It reflects a commitment on the part of a series of astute committee mem- bers and chairs to pull together a thor- ough inventory of instruments that have been developed in the field of reference services assessment. The thrust of this work is to support systematic and complementary assessment across librar- ies rather than leave the field to the cur- rent piecemeal approach. According to the preface, theirs is a two-part goal: (1) to provide one place for those in the field (practicing librarians, reference manag- ers, researchers) to find all the instru- ments that have been developed for as- sessing reference activity, and (2) to en- courage library administrators to support and promote evaluation of these services. Book Reviews 307 The structure and extensive scope of this manual should ensure that both goals are met. The fifteen chapters cover the full array of reference service components, for example, library users and reference pa- trons, reference environment, electronic databases and reference assistance, refer- ence training, costs and outcomes, and reference effectiveness. Each chapter clearly defines its scope, conveys the im- portance of research in the area covered, and goes on to evaluate the state of the field; describes outstanding research needs; and lists instruments that are more fully described elsewhere. Also, each chapter's organization makes it easy to identify and explore particular areas of interest. For example, an administrator could easily pull out the information wanted on training or cost analysis, while a reference supervisor could work with the sections on duties and responsibili- ties or "question classification." The Summaries of Instruments section is impressive. In most cases the actual instruments are provided on an accom- panying disk (not available to this re- viewer). When the instrument is not pro- vided, full information about acquiring it is noted. The summaries also include information about reliability and valid- ity testing for each instrument, when available (and specific experience with the instrument is also given). The clear intention is for new assessment to build on what exists. The work is also clearly intended to promote further testing of the reliability and validity of the instruments. Another impressive section is the 140- page annotated bibliography that covers a broadly defined array of reference as- sessment works. Although it is presented as a "selected bibliography," it in fact of- fers extensive coverage of articles and monographs from the 1960s through the 1990s, as well as some unpublished works and, providing a historical perspective, some older items dating back as far as 1902. The sources cover both public and academic libraries and, more selectively, 308 College & Research Libraries ~ 1>e. yea luw8 a8IIU!flciq fa. aay fa. aeadeA ~'I ACRL would like to hear from you! 5 Steps for submitting your program idea for the ACRL 8th National Conference April 11-14, 1997, Nashville 1. Obtain the "Call for Participation." 2. Identify a topic and select the conference program track most appropriate for your proposed program. 3. Complete the program proposal application. * 4. Attach a 250- to 500-word abstract that dearly Identifies the focus of your presentation. 5. Mall or e-mail two copies of your completed proposal to the session subcommittee chair (addresses listed In the "Call for Participation") by July 1, 1997. *Get the complete "Call for Partldpatlon" In the january 1996 C&RL News at http:/ fwww.ala.org/acrl.html or by contacting ACRL, 50 East Huron St., Chicago, IL 6061 1 Tel. 800-545-2433, ext. 2519 ddavls@ala.org May 1996 special libraries. The topics include gen- eral information-seeking studies, user be- havior, communication issues, ''burnout" studies, effectiveness measurement, train- ing, collection issues, and tools and tech- niques. This bibliography will serve as a resource in its own right, given its breadth of coverage. The annotations vary consid- erably in length, perhaps betraying the bibliography's compilation by committee. The editors clearly note topics that have been excluded from the manual such as BI materials, reference by appointment, and database searching for a fee. They also choose to exclude performance evaluation of reference staff, citing the extensive body of material to be dealt with in that area-enough for a whole other volume it would seem! There is a general statement that most of these instruments can be easily adapted for the electronic environment, and some have clearly been tested in that new en- vironment (primarily with OPACs or commercial databases). Since we know so little as yet about the ways in which the Internet, electronic reference tools, or ex- pert systems will affect the reference trans- action and its assessment, it seems prema- ture to assume that what has been tested and used effectively in a paper-based world will be entirely valid and useful"as is" or with minimal change in the emerg- ing electronic and networked world. It is possible that we will need new tools or ad- aptations of these instruments to capture and evaluate the user's interaction with reference staff in their new environment. With that caveat, this manual is recom- mended for anyone who wishes to do evaluation of nearly any aspect of refer- ence work. By gathering together so much material, it makes a substantial contribu- tion to our field. This volume should be- . come the place to start any reference as- sessment and the basis for sorting through possible tools and methodology. The au- thors and RASD are to be thanked for their persistence in bringing it to fruition.- Margo Crist, University of Michigan.