College and Research Libraries


172 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979 

welcome addition to a group of new books on 
technical processing. -Neal L. Edgar, Kent 
State University, Kent, Ohio. 

Unipersity Library Buildings in Southeast 
Asia. Proceedings of a Workshop Held in 
Singapore, 22-26 November, 1976. Editor: 
Peggy Wai-chee Hochstadt. Assisted by: 
Maria Ng Lee Hoon. Singapore: University 
of Singapore Library, 1977. 62p. + 6 mi-
crofiches. S$14 (Asian countries excepting 
Japan); US$12 (other countries). (Available 
from: University of Singapore Cooperative 
Bookstore Society Ltd., Bukit Tima Road, 
Singapore 10, Republic of Singapore.) 
This volume is of some value to those who 

collect materials on library buildings, but for 
those who are interested in fast information for 
the planning process this book is not recom-
mended because of its poor organization. 

As the title indicates, it is a record of the 
proceedings of a building workshop. Abstracts 
of all the papers are included in the sixty-two-

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page book along with the "discussion" that 
followed the presentation of each paper. But 
the papers themselves, the real meat of this 
publication, appear on microfiche in a pocket 
at the back. Thus, this little book does contain 
a lot of information, but it's hard to find. 

One must read the abstract to determine the 
extent of one's interest in a given paper and 
then _go on to the microfiche reader to get 
further information. Then one must alternate 
between the "discussion" pages of the book 
and the text of the microfiche to obtain a 
critique of a particular building plan. The con-
stant referral from hard copy to microfiche is so 
inconvenient that it becomes frustrating. 

Two fold-out pages containing a summary 
"Table of Statistics of University Library 
Buildings in Southeast Asia" appear to be use-
ful, except that U.S. readers will find it 
difficult to convert linear meters to linear feet, 
square meters to square feet, and cost per 
square meter to cost per square foot. It seems 
this could have been done once for all readers 
by the editor. 

The book does record evidence of good li-
brary building planning in Southeast Asia, and 
the fiche even include some drawings of floor 
plans. It is a volume of principal importance to 
libraries with in-depth collections on building 
planning or as a record for those who attended 
the 1976 Singapore conference.-Hal B. 
Schell, University of Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Steady-State, Zero Growth and the Acad~mic 
Library. A Collection of Essays Edited by 
Colin Steele. London: Clive Bingley; Ham-
den, Conn.: Linnet Books, 1978. 148p. $11. 
LC 78-7030. ISBN 0-85157-243-X Bingley; 
0-208-01680-5 Linnet. 
In the United States the fate of libraries 

appears to be in the hands of a disillusio.ned 
general public. Commencing in California, 
the reaction of concerned citizens to seem-
ingly uncontrollable governmental spending 
at all levels has aroused heretofore passive 
legislative bodies into vigorous reaction to 
slash spiraling budgets. At institutions of 
higher education the budgeter's scalpel has 
been sharpened by an apparent cautious at-
titude on the part of potential college goers 
about the real returns from education. It is 
therefore a period of retrenchment and reex-
amination. 

Steady-state and zero growth are terms be~