College and Research Libraries allow only one criterion: control over a "symbolic social object" exercised through '1icensing" and a "mandate." For a physi- cian, the symbolic social object is health, and in controlling it he is licensed to act in ways others are not. License implies a man- date which enables the physician to tell others how they have to act. · The second part of the book, measuring academic librarianship, primarily German and American, against Hughes's standards, finds that it falls short of full professional status much as does pharmacology. Relying heavily on interviews with students using the library of the U Diversity of Giessen in 1971, as well as on published reports, Wie- gand concludes that students, insofar as they have any understanding of the role of librarians at all, rank them-and their card catalogs-well behind faculty or browsing when selecting books or following a line of inquiry. Only in the library-college does Wiegand see librarians gain control over the elusive symbolic social object, knowl- edge and its transmission. Appendixes list the questions asked in the Giessen interviews and certain charac- teristics of the respondents. The full bibli- ography is, like the text, divided into a sociological and a library part. About half the. citations are American. Wiegand is himself an academic librari- an, but his book .is for sociologists.-Eric von Brockdorff, Director of Libraries, Hart- wick College, Oneonta, New York. Dranov, Paula. Microfilm: the Librarian's View, 1976-77. White Plains, N.Y.: Knowledge Industries Publications, Inc., 1976. 101p. $24.50. LC 76-17481. ISBN 0-914236-05-9. As the title indicates, this book reports librarians' views on microforms and micro- forril use. Information in the book is based on a literature review (of undisclosed com- prehensive'ness), a mail survey of 800 li- braries ( 157 responded), and telephone interviews in which librarians were encour- aged to talk "off the top of their heads" on the advantages and limitations of micro- form use. Knowledge Industries Publica- tions also publishes the newsletter Advanced Technology/ Libraries. The title under review here is interesting, Recent Publications I 163 well-written, but not as impressive as The Electronic Library, a survey of biblio- graphic data bases produced last year by the same publisher. Although approximate- ly one-third of the book is devoted to a de- scription of basic microforms, it could not be considered a micrographics primer. Much of the text in this section is derived from reported news items in Advanced Technology/ Libraries. Roll microforms, mi- crofiche, and ultrafiche are well treated, but aperture cards, used in some patent infor- mation systems, are dismissed briefly as inappropriate for library applications. Mi- crofilm jackets are not even mentioned, de- spite reports of their successful use in special libraries. With the exception of an interesting section on duplicating film stock, microphotographic technology is glossed over. The description of the creation of computer-output-microfilm catalogs from machine-readable data bases (p.l3) is mis- leading by any standard. The actual report of survey and inter- view results occupies only about sixty pages. Results are presented in the text and summarized in tables. The author offers five major conclusions. Three are supported by the survey results but will surprise no one: (I) The amount of material available and acquired in microform has increased steadily, although there has been no trend toward the acquisition of books and jour- nals directly in microform. (2) Microfiche is now challenging 35mm reels as a signifi- cant microform, while ultrafiche has made little headway, and micro-opaques are in disfavor. (3) Reading equipment remains a serious obstacle to widespread microform use. The remaining two conclusions may be correct but are not supported by the survey results. The survey does not indicate, as the author concludes, that questions about the suitability of non-silver microfilms are ham- pering wider use of microforms by libraries. Although the author concludes that the use of microforms for administrative record- keeping, especially catalog maintenance, is a promising area for libraries, only 24 per- cent responded affirmatively to a question concerning the existence of plans to use microform catalogs in the future; 34 per- cent responded negatively; and 42 percent gave no response.-William Saffady, School 164 I College & Research Libraries • March 1977 of Library and Information Science, State University of New York at Albany. · Advances in Librarianship. Volume 6. Edit- ed by Melvin J. Voigt and Michael H. Harris. New York: Academic Press, 1976. 291p. $16.00. LC 79-88675. ISBN 0-12- 785006-6. Advances· in Librarianship is a major work in the field of librarianship, for col- lected in one volume is a presentation of current trends, issues, and problems on topics that are not only timely, but of in- valuable interest and concern to practition- ers and scholars. The first five volumes of Advances were edited by that meticulous scholar, Melvin J. Voigt. In assembling the sixth volume, he has been joined by an erudite library educator, Michael H. Harris. This welcome new volume to the review literature is significant, for the major thrust of the work speaks to the vexing questions of accountability, productivity, and per- formance. It is the goal of the editors that this emphasis ~'will prove of use to librari- ans struggling with the problem of mean- ingfully assessing the value of the library's services to the community." In this period of mandated budgetary cuts and fiscal crisis, which have made for financially strapped libraries, librarians who must fight for and justify every morsel of funding will find these observations and conclusions very beneficial, The four papers that illuminate the prob- lems are ~'Performance Measures for School Librarians·; Complexities and Potential," by Evelyn H. Daniel, "Productivity Measure- ment in Academic Libraries," by Thomas J. Waldhart and Thomas P. Marcum, "Rele- vance: A Review of the Literature and a Framework for Thinking on the Notion in Information Science," by Tefko Saracevic, and "The Impact of Reading on Human Behavior: The Implications of Communica- tions Research," by Roger Haney, Michael H. Harris, and Leonard Tipton. Apart from their intrinsic merit, if these four essays indicate anything, it is the im- perative need for librarians to have the skills to make an interdisciplinary analysis of the performance of their libraries in meeting the needs of their user communi- ties. The remaining two papers in this volume also represent important contributions to the field. Donald Davinson has done for li- brary education in Europe what Lester Asheim did for library education in North America in volume 5 of this series. In paint- ing a broad picture of library education on the European continent, Davinson exhibits an encyclop~dic familiarity with the litera- hire of several disciplines and the trends in European library education. American li- brary and information science educators as well as others will find this essay an im- mensely -stimulating study that may very well serve as a good background paper for a seminar on comparative librarianship. Beverly Lynch, former Executive Secre- tary of the Association of College and Re- search Libraries, focuses on . a topic of con- siderable interest · to the profession, "The Role of Middle Managers in Libraries." Her essay is a hard-headed, fruitful examination of the current role of that hybrid, "the middle manager," including elements in the library environment that make for coopera- tive or competitive relationships. This com- prehensive analysis of such a timely topic not only sheds much needed light on the subject, but the sources of material for the essay also · constitute one of its major strengths. Turning to the organization of the vol- ume; the editors have followed the ap- proach of previous volumes. Each essay is so structured that the reader is fortunate in that there is an outline of the major sub- jects under consideration. In addition there are copious references, and each essay is well written and documented. The inclusion of the table of contents of previous volumes and the excellent author and subject indexes enhance the reference value of the volume. · Each succeeding year this tome clearly demonstrates its uniqueness as an indis- pensable research tool.-E. ]. Josey, Chief, Bureau of Specialist Library Services, New York State Education Department. Shera, Jesse H. Introduction to Library Sci- ence: Basic Elements of Library Science. Library Science Text Series. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1976. 208p. $10.00. LC 76-21332. ISBN 0-87287-173-8. Designed as a textbook for an introduc-