College and Research Libraries


518 / College <Lr Research Libraries • November 1968 

machines, and processes. He points out, 
for example, the economies of micro-
opaques, not generally understood by schol-
ars, or even librarians. He provides spe-
cific addresses from which detailed informa-
tion may be secured. The glossary and 
bibliographical essay (by Allen B. Veaner) 
are useful addenda, although the latter 
could be improved by better coverage of 
European literature. Charles F. Gosnell's 
concise essay on copyright as applied to 
document reproduction pulls together the 
vast body of material on this subject and, 
incidentally, is an effective contradiction 
to an equally large corpus of misinforma-
tion. 

Of special interest to those who still care 
for the physical condition, form, size, and 
even feel and smell of a book is Mr. Hawk-
en's concern for the effect of copying on 
the original. Photographers, circulation peo-
ple, and rare book folk should study these 
sections diligently. Too often microphotog-
raphy as well as full-size facsimile copying 
have been categorically condemned because 
of a careless operator, or a rare book li-
brarian who permitted a book to be copied 
without giving specific handling instructions. 
The clear, sharp photographs and diagrams 
in this section are especially pertinent. 

The one great deficiency of this work, or 
of any comparable one, is that it probably 
will be out-of-date within a year. The rapid 
changes in copying technology will make 
almost any book on this subject virtually 
obsolete soon after publication. The Library 
Technology Project might well consider a 
newsletter adjusted to style and organiza-
tion of the Copying Methods Manual. If it 
is cumulative and well indexed, it could be 
a valuable interim reference tool between 
editions of Hawken.—Lawrence S. Thomp-
son, University of Kentucky. 

Diffusion of Abstracting and Indexing 
Services for Government-Sponsored Re-
search. By Irving M. Klempner. Metuchen, 
N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1968. 319p. (67-
12065). 

To most librarians scientific and technical 
reports are a monstrous nuisance: trouble-

some to locate, acquire, inventory, store, 
and use. The distribution of reports is hap-
hazard, and the amount, kind, and qual-
ity of information in them is extremely 
varied. Nevertheless, the report has be-
come a viable medium among the range 
of devices for recording and disseminating 
information on science. In the field of 
atomic energy, the distribution of AEC re-
ports to depositories and the indexing of 
the reports in Nuclear Science Abstracts is 
considered sufficient dissemination to con-
stitute publication, at least according to 
the editors of a few journals. 

These same channel characteristics create 
problems for scientists and engineers. Sci-
entific and technical reports are known to 
contain a considerable amount of useful 
information, not only for the primary pur-
poses for which it has been developed, but 
also for other, perhaps disparate applica-
tions. The report channel obviously needs 
to have applied to it those elements of 
management (e.g. peer evaluation, an-
nouncement, and control of access by sub-
ject) that will allow the information in re-
ports to pass economically into the hands 
of those who can extract value from it. Be-
cause the traditional indexing and ab-
stracting services are oriented towards for-
mally published information in journals 
and books, and tend to exclude the vast 
number of technical reports, the Federal 
government has assumed the task of an-
nouncing and providing intellectual access 
to information in reports. It does this 
through four published services, namely: 
Nuclear Science Abstracts, U.S. Govern-
ment Research and Development Reports, 
Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports, 
and Technical Abstracts Bidletin. These 
services were the objects of Dr. Klempner's 
attention in this study. 

The important underlying assumptions in 
Dr. Klempner's research are "that the uti-
lization of technical information can be ac-
celerated and intensified through the pur-
poseful exploitation of national documen-
tation center abstracting and indexing serv-
ices," and that "if imaginatively distrib-
uted and used, the services can, in effect, 
act as social instruments capable of pro-



Book Reviews / 519 

moting national technological, economic 
and social goals." Without a doubt Dr. 
Klempner's findings support his hypothe-
ses that the government's abstracting serv-
ices are not being adequately utilized for 
the diffusion of results of government-
sponsored research; that industries and in-
stitutions having no government contracts 
generally do not receive, and frequently 
are unfamiliar with these abstracting and 
indexing services; and that there is a high 
degree of correlation between the extent 
of receipt and use of these services within 
certain regions and industries and the de-
gree of innovation and economic expan-
sion within these regions and industries. 
While Dr. Klempner does not try to prove 
cause and effect, his findings support pre-
viously published evidence that techno-
logical innovation and progress in industry 
seem to center on firms which, among oth-
er things, are aware of and sensitive to 
channels and media for the communication 
of scientific information. 

Dr. Klempner analyzed the patterns of 
distribution of the four services, as evi-
denced by their mailing lists. He obtained 
information on the use of the services 
through questionnaires addressed to sam-
ples of recipients and non-recipients of the 
services. His attention to detail in the de-
sign of his research method and his dog-
gedness in the preparation of his samples 
should belie any lack of confidence one 
might have in his findings. Because this 
book is in the main the text of his doctoral 
dissertation, it is filled with both tabular 
and factual presentation of his data. As 
with all good doctoral projects it is limited 
to a highly specific topic. As a dissertation 
it unfortunately will probably not be wide-
ly read. Dr. Klempner's message is, how-
ever, vital and clear: librarians and infor-
mation offices have an obligation to be ac-
tive and ingenious in promoting the use 
of the tools of their trade, and the Federal 
government must take steps to change the 
distribution pattern of these very important 
announcement and retrieval services in 
order to gain full power from them as 
instruments for the transfer of technology 
in industry.—Russell Shank, Smithsonian 
Institution. 

The Methodist Publishing House, Vol. I; 
From Its Beginnings to 1870. By James 
Penn Pilkington. Nashville: Abingdon, 
1968. xv, 585p. $7.50 (68-21894). 

John Wesley's aggressive publishing pro-
gram, which contributed substantially to 
the success of his religious movement in 
England, was imported with Methodism 
to the British American colonies in the 
1760's on the assumption that it would 
play as important a role here. The as-
sumption was valid, as this fully docu-
mented study shows, for the work of the 
Methodist Publishing House during its first 
one hundred years was crucial to the pros-
elytical and evangelical programs of 
American Methodism. The story of the 
Methodist Publishing House contains ex-
amples of reverses as well as triumphs. 
The house was sometimes divided. Occa-
sionally it suffered from poor management. 
Once or twice it seemed on the verge of 
collapse. Yet its overall history has been 
impressive. Its directors adapted them-
selves with enterprise and imagination to 
the changing times and to the developing 
needs of Methodism during a period in 
which it experienced spectacular growth. 
This work presents a history of which the 
Methodist Publishing House and the Meth-
odist Church can be proud. 

The author, a member of the staff of the 
Methodist Publishing House for over twen-
ty years, has had complete access to its 
records, which must surely be numbered 
among the most extensive and complete 
of any well-established American publish-
ing house. He has supplemented these 
records—which contain information upon a 
wide variety of topics ranging from print-
ing and publishing practices and sales 
figures to reading interests and editorial 
policy—with material gleaned from other 
sources, including newspapers, periodicals, 
and private papers. Effectively selected il-
lustrations add still more flavor to the au-
thor's close re-creation of the period. This 
study promises to be, with the eventual 
publication of the second volume which 
will continue with an account of the sec-
ond hundred years, the most comprehen-
sive history of any American publishing