College and Research Libraries systems perspective. The reaction papers grouped at the end offer more personal views and in their references to the main text provide useful entries to interest- ing points in the earlier chapters. On the whole, the emphasis on manage- ment issues keeps the volume refresh- ingly free of the sort of location-specific writing for which library literature has been so often criticized. (It is worth noting, though, that four of the eleven contributors as well as the editor have some connection with the Colorado Alli- ance of Research Libraries or the CARL system.) For those who have kept up with OPACS, NREN, e-mail, and Inter- net, this is hardly an essential text, but one could do worse than to browse here while waiting for the wild vision- ary who will show us what lies beyond the horizon.-Robert Wolven, Columbia Univer- sity, New York. Library Communication: The Language of Leadership. Ed. by Donald E. Riggs. Chicago: American Library Assn., 1991. 188 p. $30 (ISBN 0-8389-0581- 1). LC 91-34565. The sixteen essays in this volume address two obvious themes: libraries need leadership, and leadership re- quires communication. Regrettably, the essays work better separately than as a book. Together they do not define the topic systematically, nor do they move toward any particular end. This book neither persuades us nor demonstrates its point. The words "language ofleader- ship" and their permutations appear re- peatedly in titles and section headings: "Language, Leadership, and Librari- ans," "Leadership Language," ''The Language of Library Leadership." But the reader expecting to learn about lan- guage, written or spoken, will be disap- pointed. Most often the essays consider communication as the transmission of information; some refer to body lan- guage, gestures, and speech; some to the organization of libraries. Repetition serves as the collection's primary rhetorical device. The writers re- iterate the sender-message-receiver model of communication, or repeat popular Book Reviews 471 --""'- Leave no stone unturned! Search BIOSIS Previews~ BIOSIS Previews is the online database pro- viding the most comprehensive bioscientific information, covering biotechnology, phar- macology, biomedicine, ecology, agriculture, biophysics and more! The exhaustive cover- age spans more than 8 million items derived from approximately 7,600 international life science publications. Don't miss out on any of the vital life science information relevant to your research - search BIOSIS Previews. And, to develop search strategies that yield comprehensive results, consult the BIOSIS Previews Search Guide! Call Today! 1-800-523-4806 (USA except PA) 215-587-4800 (worldwide) BIOSIS, Marketing Department CRL992NS, 2100 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103- 1399 USA; Telex 831739; Fax 215-587-2016. BIOSIS® Information for Today's Decisions and Discoveries BIOSIS is a ~gisr~~ uademarkofBiological Abs1racrs, Inc. 472 College & Research Libraries saying ("Managers do things right; leaders do the right things"), or draw on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Not surprisingly, the bibliographies often cite the same sources. Characteristically, many of the essays begin with easy, self-evident, or unsub- stantiated generalizations: "Perhaps no area of library leadership receives so much criticism as the area of com- munication"; "Communication is one of the most discussed topics in libraries"; "Conflict is one of our most difficult areas for communication because we generally feel strongly about the issues involved in the situation." Similarly, many conclude vaguely: "In short, growing to greatness as a library com- municator is a never-ending process"; ''Through the preceding steps and the use of positive communication skills, we can takeourpositionofleadership"; "An appropriate response, then, to those who urge greater leadership from librarians, and for those who desire to exert more leadership in the world outside the pro- fession, is attention to increasing our communication skills." The writers often admonish us: "Being a good listener is the other essential part of communication and should not be forgotten." Urging us to believe that communication is important, the essays exhort us to communicate well, but after reading several, one cries, "Communi- cate what?" A few give practical tips or examples. These range from reorganiz- ing the library to using body language carefully: "If standing, place your feet as parallel as possible (inward indicates subordination)." Five noteworthy contributions pro- vide substance. Eugene S. Mitchell's con- cise "Review of Leadership Research" directs readers through the literatures of management and librarianship. Peggy Johnson writes clearly about openness, trust, and intuition in personal com- munication in "The Role of Empathy in Managerial Communication." John M. Budd's "Leading through Meaning: Ele- ments of a Communication Process" dis- tinguishes between information and meaning. Rosemary Huff Arneson's "Me- September 1992 diation: A Language of Leaders" de- scribes the potential of the formal process of mediation as a management tool. Richard H. Moul' s "Discourses of Vision and Necessity: The Information Age, the Library, and the Language of Leadership" offers concepts with which to perceive and criticize our professional discourse. Unfortunately, this book does not succeed on its own terms and falls short of its pOtential. It probably will not make better leaders. Had the editor articulated a deeper vision and had the writers reflected on one another's work, they might have worked together toward one common end and produced a book that added up to more than the sum of its parts. Rather shamefully, the book lacks an index. Of all people, librarians and the editors of ALA publishing should know the value an index adds to the book. This book exhibits the problem with leadership everywhere in our country today: hollow words and generalities in- stead of deeds and substance. Like bad politicians, we aspiring library leaders stand here mouthing platitudes with our feet carefully parallel, claiming a position of leadership and hoping no one will notice we are doing nothing.-Marcia Pankake, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. From Memex to Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind's Machine. Ed. by James M. Nyce and Paul Kahn. San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, 1991. 367 p. $40 (ISBN 0-12-523270-5). Vannevar Bush could well be to elec- tronic information theory what Panini is to the study of language or Melvil Dewey to library science. As director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Bush oversaw the massive scientific bureaucracy created for weapons research during World War II. An engineer by trade and a pre-war pioneer in the development of electromechanical analog computing devices, Bush grew concerned as the war came to a close about the future of scien- tific research. In a 1945 essay, Bush ex- plained it this way: There is a growing mountain of re- search. But there is increased evidence