ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

PUBLICATIONS

RECEIVED

(Selected items will be reviewed in future issues of College & Research Libraries.)

•The studies of Marcia J. Myers and Jassim M. Jirjees have been published in The Accuracy of Telephone Reference/Information Services in Academic Libraries (Scarecrow, 1983). Forty academic libraries were investigated by the authors for this study, which sought to observe the effectiveness of reference/information services through users’ telephone questions.

•Archival Forms’ Manual,compiled by the Society of American Archivists ($7 to members, $10 to others) ‚ contains over 100 forms from all types of archival repositories and is arranged into five categories: appraisal and disposition, accessioning, arrangement and description, use, and specialized forms. A bibliography of archival manuals is also included.

•Banned Films: Movies, Censors and the First Amendment,by Edward de Grazia and Roger K. Newman (Bowker, 1982, $24.95 cloth), is the drain atic story of movie censorship in the United States and the nation’s struggle for freedom of expression as guaranteed by the First Amendment. The first publication to draw upon the papers of the late Justice John Marshall Harlan of the Supreme Court, Banned Films represents an important contribution to the literature of censorship.

•One of the effects of the information explosion is the proliferation of machine-readable files. To ensure better bibliographic control over this medium, the Council on Library Resources awarded a grant to Sue A. Dodd to support her work on a cataloging manual. Cataloging Machine-Readable

Files: An Interpretive Manual(American Library Association, 1982, $35) is the result of Dodd’s work. The book is divided into three sections: the first answers questions about data files and computers; the second section explains why the files are difficult to catalog and offers interpretations to AACR 2, Chapter 9; and the third section offers guidelines for bibliographic conventions.

•Taking the view that the free and open flow of information is a basic element of effective library communication, Communication Throughout Libraries, by Norman D. Stevens (Scarecrow, 1983, $14.50 cloth), describes in detail various administrative and managerial functions within the library in relation to the communication process. Examples of effective techniques are provided. Appropriate references to other works in the field of librarianship and organizational communication are also given, and suggestions on how to maintain current awareness of significant developments are offered.

•Do library schools educate librarians to meet the needs of their future employers? Blaise Cronin discusses this question in The Education of Library - Information Professionals: A Conflict of Interest? (Aslib Occasional Publication no. 28,1982, £9.50). Areas examined are the objectives of librarian training requirements, British library school prospectuses; and job announcements as a means of determining employer expectations.

•Many of the educational ideals and social goals of contemporary Western civilization were advanced or shaped during the 18th century. The Foundations of the German Academic Library, by Hugo Kunoff (American Library Association,

1982, $15 paper), provides a carefully documented account of the emergence of four major German academic libraries in the second half of the 18th century. The libraries of Leipzig, Halle, Jena, and

Gottingen illlsutrate that scholarly research depended on the commitment of an enlightened central government.

•Seventeen authors contributed to the Librarians' Affirmative Action Handbook, edited by John F. Harvey and Elizabeth M. Dickinson (Scarecrow, 1983). The editors write in their introduction that “This book’s authors.. .collectively share a belief in the importance of affirmative action in fighting certain of American society’s employment ills, and particularly in fighting the employment discrimination problems present in librarianship.” Chapters include “The Legal Basis for Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action” (Robert Mitchell and Shelley Phipps); “Affirmative Action for Native American Librarians and Library Workers” (Lotsee P. Smith); “Affirmative Action for Librarians and Library Workers Who Are Handicapped” (Kieth C. Wright); and “How to Develop a Library Affirmative Action Program” (Silvia D. Watson).

•The Multimedia Library‚by James Cabeceiras (2d edition, Academic Press, 1982), examines the wide variety of media available to libraries, such as motion pictures, slides, audio recordings, television, maps and microforms, and defines the roles of these media in the library’s information system. Applications of materials selection, selection aids and the systems approach to selecting materials are also explored in this book.

•Authors Ching-chih Chen and Susanna Schweizer summarize their book Online Bibliographic Searching: A Learning Manual (Neal-Schuman): “This book is a beginner’s guide to the skills necessary for the retrieval of information from computerized bibliographic files, with special emphasis on techniques of online interactive searching. It is designed to serve as a self-instruction manual, and, as such, to encompass both the theoretical and the practical.” The opening chapter provides an overview of the subject at hand. Chapter 2 discusses the fundamentals of online bibliographic searching, while Chapters 3 and 4 deal with question negotiation and searching database indexes in more detail. Multi-database searching is covered in Chapter 5. The system features of major bibliographic database vendors are addressed in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 considers the information specialist’s role in planning, implementing, evaluating, and marketing online search services within the library.

•The potential market for the end-product of research is explored in Research and the Practitioner: Dissemination of Research Results within the Library-Information Profession, by Peter Lynam, Margaret Slater, and Rennie Walker (Aslib Occasional Publication no. 27, £16.50). Practitioner attitudes towards and expectations of library research were studied. Preferences concerning dissemination of findings were examined. The research process itself and the formal research report did not emerge unscathed from comparison with other professional activities and media. ■ ■