College and Research Libraries


376 I College & Research Libraries • july 1980 

Supported Catalogs," "On-Line Interactive 
Catalogs," "Comparison of Catalog Alterna-
tives," and "Implementation of Catalog 
Alternatives." 

"Traditional · Catalog Forms" is an analysis 
of the catalog's objectives, treating theories 
of Lubetzky, Charles Jewett, Charles Cut-
ter, and Thomas Hyde, plus a discussion of 
the advantages and disadvantages of tradi-
tional catalog forms. "Machine-Readable 
Cataloging Data" describes the Library of 
Congress MARC format, ISBD, authority 
control, and the major networks, OCLC, 
RLIN, and WLN. "Computer-Supported 
Catalogs" deals with alternative catalog 
forms such as the automated book form 
catalog system, printed book catalogs, and 
COM catalogs. "On-Line Interactive Cata-
logs" is a study of the automated catalog 
and how it may be accessed. "Comparison 
of Alternative Catalog Forms" and "Imple-
mentation of Catalog Alternatives" present 
the problems involved when a library closes 
its catalog and chooses alternative forms. An 
especially valuable aid is a hypothetical cost 
analysis for each catalog form. 

The Nature and Future of the Catalog 
and The Future of the Catalog furnish li-
brarians with needed information on how to 
manage the coming changes in catalog for-
mats. Tha volumes complement each other, 
offering different points of emphasis to read-
ers. It should be stressed, however, that 
these works only scratch the surface in re-
gard to the catalog's future. Librarians are 
advised to make a thorough study of the 
literature available. Nevertheless, both 
volumes are recommended for purchase by 
libraries. They will be useful additions to a 
much needed collection on the future of the 
catalog.-Lucy T. Heckman, St. John's Uni-
versity, Jamaica, New York. 

Saffady, William. "The Economics of 
Online Bibliographic Searching: Costs 
and Cost Justifications," Library Technol-
ogy Reports 15:567-653 (Sept.-Oct. 
1979). Single issue $40. ISSN 0024-2586. 
(Available from American Library Assn., 
50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60(>11.) 
The first, and longest, section of this 

report lays out the cost components of an 
on-Line search service in a Library and, by 
making some not unreasonable assumptions 

about volume of traffic, salaries, and over-
head, etc., attempts to build up a model of 
the true and complete costs per search. 

The second section uses concepts from 
value engineering to give an overview of 
the main arguments that can be employed 
to justify those costs.- Either the on-line ser-
vice must produce greater efficiency com-
pared to the same task (bibliographic 
searching by librarians) performed in the 
old way, or it must be justified by its provi-
sion of added value, in the form of en-
hanced library service to patrons. The re-
port deliberately does not address the ques-
tion of how the costs of on-line services 
might be met (the fee-for-service issue). 

To juxtapose the costs of an on-line 
search against the costs of a manual search 
is, of course, to enter dangerous waters. 
First, a regular search service encompassing 
from 250 to 1,000 manual searches per year 
was not a feature of life in most libraries-
not even in most libraries which did adopt 
on-line services when they came upon the 
scene. And, second, when performed at all, 
such a manual bibliographic searching ser-
vice was not often rigorously accounted for. 

Thus, even though Saffady is careful to 
use the same assumptions for costing out a 
manual operation as he does for the com-
puterized version, his model inevitably 
starts to sound somewhat artificial. How-
ever, this is more a reproach to traditional 
library accounting practices than to the au-
thor's determination to pursue his compari-
son to a logically consistent conclusion. Not 
surprisingly, the on-line search is shown to 
be less expensive than its manual equivalent 
would have been-between 37 and 42 per-
cent, on average. 

As long as such figures are used only as 
ratios, for comparison against each other, 
they are unexceptionable, although minor 
discrepancies might be argued over. When 
the author attempts to use the on-line cost 
figures as real numbers, to be compared 
against the real cost of subscriptions to 
printed periodical indexes, then it seems to 
me the methodology becomes questionable. 

Appendix C is presented as a type of de-
cision table, based upon dividing the annual 
printed subscription cost by the cost of an 
on-line search, to yield an approximate 
number of uses per year below which the 



printed subscription should not be can-
celed. Example: if the Social Science Cita-
tion Index costs $1,500 a year and an on-
line search of it costs about $44, everything 
included, then one can buy about thirty-
four such searches a year for the subscrip-
tion price. Thus if the printed version is 
used more than thirty-four times, then the 
printed version is presumed to be more 
cost-effective and should not be canceled. 

Because the author employs only one set 
of his earlier assumptions, the one least 
favorable to on-line searching, and simul-
taneously ignores some major cost factors 
such as discounts for on-line service and the 
almost unavoidable purchase of multiyear 
cumulations if one were to run a manual 
bibliographic searching service, this table 
could be off by more than 100 percent and 
thus is not a reliable tool. But if it acts as a 
stimulus for libraries to do their own analy-
ses, it will have served a purpose. 

Even with these figures, one general con-
clusion seems unavoidable: A small number 
of highly priced indexes (Chemical Ab-
stracts, Excerpta Medica, Science Citation 
Index) are becoming serious candidates for 
cancellation by the smaller libraries which 
presently purchase them, where usage of 
such indexes can be measured in the range 
of 75 to 150 instances per year. Based upon 
the issues which Saffady' s last section raises, 
rather than upon the numbers given there-
in, one may expect the on-line community 
to be studying and discussing this work 
rather closely in the years ahead.-Peter G. 
Watson, California State University, Chico. 

Morrow, Carolyn Clark, and Schoenly, 
Steven B. A Conservation Bibliography 
for Librarians, Archivists, and Adminis-
trators. Troy, N.Y.: Whits ton, 1979. 
271p. $18.50. LC 79-64847. ISBN 
0-87875-170-X. 
In their introduction, Morrow and 

Schoenly state this 1,376-item bibliography 
cites literature that has appeared since 
1966, for it was the devastating flood in 
Florence that year that focused world atten-
tion on the salvage and restoration of the 
works of art and books inundated by the 
water. The volume covers broadly conserva-
tion administration, environmental protec-
tion, information preservation, conservation 

Recent Publications I 377 

techniques, and general works on conserva-
tion. 

While a revised, comprehensive bib-
liography is shortly expected from George 
and Dorothy Cunha to replace their 1972 
listing (found in the Conservation of Lib-
rary Materials), there has been a need for a 
selective bibliography covering the vast 
body of material on conservation published 
in the period 1971-1979. But because of its 
organization, this volume will be most use-
ful for those already familiar with the litera-
ture and in need of checking a reference, 
rather than a larger audience. 

I am puzzled by this bibliography be-
cause I suspect that once the authors com-
piled their card index of entries on the 
preservation of library and archival mate-
rials they published it without determining 
what information they wished to communi-
cate to their audience, who that audience 
might be, and how that audience might 
want to use the material. It is not, and does 
not pretend to be, the comprehensive post-
1972 bibliography that the specialist needs. 
Yet it is too narrow and limited for the 
nonspecialist who needs good, basic in-
formation quickly. What, for example, 
would the compilers consider the basic book 
or article in each section, regardless of pub-
lication date? 

There is a subject index, but it appears 
that most of the citations in the bibliography 
are cited only once. For example, the sub-
ject index cites one specific reference on 
"thymol," but the bibliography includes a 
number of books and articles that contain 
helpful information on the use of thymol for 
fumigation. Thus the bibliography becomes 
of minimal use for someone not already 
familiar with the literature. 

In their introduction the compilers state 
that the literature of book and document 
conservation is diverse and draws from a 
number of allied fields. The compilers have 
carefully reviewed the literature in the 
archival, library, and conservation fields, but 
the literature of the museum community 
has been checked only cursorily. 

This is a serious lack, because the models 
that both librarians and archivists have fol-
lowed in developing sound preservation 
programs over the past decade have been 
museum models. The significant difference