College and Research Libraries


64 I College & Research Libraries • January 1969 

Muller, Associate Director at Michigan, 
and Mr. Burkhalter may soon also reveal 
to us some costs of the physical side of 
processing. The statement above certainly 
indicates, albeit indirectly, that they have 
been contemplating this area. 

In conclusion, this short volume could be 
the start of a management literature that 
will meet an unfilled and obvious need of 
library administrative staffs and library sci-
ence professors and their students. It is al-
so right now a useful book to show to 
those important laymen (presidents, trus-
tees, foundation directors , government offi-
cials, legislators, etc .) who so often tell us 
they cannot understand why libraries cost 
so much. This volume shows in a convinc-
ing and somewhat frightening way where 
and how fast the library money goes.-John 
H. Moriarty, Purdue University. 

Organization and Handling of Biblio-
graphic Records by Computer. Ed. by 
Nigel S. M. Cox and Michael W. Grose. 
Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1967. 
xvi, 192p. $12.00 (67-30792). 

Because of scarce resources and their typi-
cal astuteness, the British are straightfor-
wardly laying their own preconditions for 
successful computerization. This volume is 
a report of activities associated with a 
leading "center of excellence." It extends 
on a less abstract plane the instructive 
primer by Cox, Dews, and Dolby of 1966. 
It is also a summary of several U.K. ad-
vances since the plans announced at the 
Brasenose Conference at Oxford the same 
year. In conh·ast to our own relative abun-
dance, the biggest danger to the British 
effort appears to b e a waning of financial 
momentum. As Professor E. S. Page re-
marks in a keynote address, "it must be 
understood by those with the resources to 
sponsor research that full scale operation 
of a computer system on bibliographic 
problems is necessary for further advance 
and may demand their support however 
routine the operation may appear at a cas-
ual glance." In technical quality of design 
work, the British are at pains to avoid a 
major illness to which their American op-
posite numbers have frequently been sub-
ject: half-bakedness. 

This collection of papers was presented at 
a seminar held at the University of New-
castle upon Tyne in July 1967. The pro-
ceedings comprise seven sections organized 
around four themes. 

Half of the sixteen contributions deal with 
the Newcastle computer file handling sys-
tem and a number of projects to which it 
is being applied. A remarkable thing about 
the Newcastle group is that they are both 
researchers and developers, compared to 
most similar U.S. activities. As Cox and 
Dews point out in the lead paper, they 
wished to create an experimental, flexible 
string manipulation and analysis system, 
comprised of generalized routines and ap-
plicable to a wide class of data forms , 
large files, and highly-structured non-nu-
meric information handling problems. As 
have American workers, they found that 
manufacturer supplied software was in-
adequate, and so they undertook to write 
their own. The panoply of character-han-
dling and list processing problems to which 
their system is addressed is a model sum-
mary of requirements for computer spe-
cialists new to the library application. 

A second paper by Dews describes the 
computer editing and printing of a union 
list of periodicals which was the first tested 
use of the Newcastle package. Duncan dis-
cusses the upgrading of the output pres-
entation capability of the computer in 
processing language data. He suggests that 
graphic arts quality intermediate output 
products will be the wave of the future, 
derived ultimately from wholly digital 
stores . Reviewing hardware capabilities 
and economics, he concludes that compu-
ter-produced book catalogs will be simi-
lar to newspaper production when volume 
justifies it. 

In other applications, Hunt outlines one of 
the first uses this reviewer has seen of 
machine records for the preparation of 
catalogs of older books as a true "bibliog-
rapher's tool" complete with an augment-
ed descriptive format. Russell presents re-
sults on a documentation and dissemina-
tion system for literature of interest to the 
staff of the Newcastle group itself. Of 
wider interest is the work reported by 



Grose and Jones on an acquisition system 
in the Newcastle University Library, al-
though no mention is rpade of extension 
of the system to automated bibliographic 
checking other than of receipts not item-
requested through the order subsystem. A 
paper by Coates and Nicholson on automa-
tion in the production of the British Tech-
nology Index is very germane, in particu-
lar the progress on an inversion algorithm 
for auto-generation of cross references to 
composite subject entries. Lastly, a report 
by Millar gives an example of use of the 
Newcastle system in statistical analysis of 
data collected in a maternity survey, with 
implications in terms of techniques for li-
brary management. 

The second theme revolves around gener-
al issues of the library as an environment 
for computer innovation. Vickery stresses 
perspectives on economic realities vs. user 
satisfaction and the functions of machine 
records. Jolliffe, Line, and Robinson dis-
cuss standardization of library systems and 
bibliographic records, concluding that nu-
merous constraints militate against ex-
change of library program packages above 
a limited subroutine level. They assert 
that "compatibility without rigidity" in 
records is necessary to a carefully planned 
library data interchange concept. Haw-
good completes the section with a prospec-
tus for a quantitative study intended to 
derive a "single benefit index" to guide al-
location of hypothetical added funds for 
library resource development. 

A section on the MARC idea in Great 
Britain yields what may be the best think-
ing yet in print on the nature of national 
and local catalog services based on cen-
tralized machine record distribution. Cow-
ard outlines the U.K. MARC Project status 
at the British National Bibliography, em-
phasizing requirements beyond those of 
detailed format of the machine record. 
Bregzis relates patterns of experience and 
future extensions of MARC data in per-
haps the most advanced local pilot project 
among the sixteen North American librar-
ies participating in the LC MARC experi-
ment. The remarks by Brown in a further 
seminar session reveal some thoughtful 

Recent Publications I 65 

consideration of the organization and use 
of national machine-readable data banks 
of bibliographic information. The melding 
of developments in national union catalogs, 
shared cataloging, and automation recw·-
ring in these discussions give the impres-
sion of vastly more synergism occurring in 
this group than in comparable American 
technical meetings. 

Two separate contributions by Barraclough 
on file structures for experimental 
MEDLARS tape searching and by Lannon 
on the IBM System/ 360 version of the 
Document Processing System developed 
for generalized textual searching at the 
U.S. Food and Drug Adminish·ation were 
included as a counterpoint to the more 
traditionally-oriented presentations. Both 
papers are food for thought for librarians 
who have been able to accept MARC but 
are skeptical about so-called information 
retrieval applications. 

This is, in sum, a remarkable and level-
headed survey of some current British 
work in library automation, well organized 
into a body of materials whose factual and 
pertinent observations are a valuable ad-
dition to the handful of titles on the "must" 
list. The publishers are to be commended 
for making it available on this side of the 
"Atlantic river."-Jay L. Cunningham, Uni-
v e?'sity of Califo1'nia, Berkeley. 

Telefacsimile in Libraries. By William D. 
Schieber and Ralph M. Shoffner. Berke-
ley: Institute of Library Research, 1968. 
137p . 

Recent months have seen considerable pio-
neering in new media by libraries. Com-
puter use and instantaneous transmission 
of library materials are at hand. Several 
experiments in facsimile transmission have 
taken place in various states. Among these 
have been projects by M.I.T., New York 
State Library, Houston Research Institute, 
University of Nevada, and University of 
California. The last one mentioned is the 
subject of this review. 

The California experiment, carefully mon-
itored, proposed: ( 1) to develop a set of 
procedures; ( 2) to analyze three elements,