Enduring paradigm, new opportunities: the value of the archival perspective in the digital environment

teria to be considered when evaluating the reference collection and applying a thoughtful approach to integrating electronic resources. She offers suggestions for ways to gather information from library users about their reference service needs. Finally, she provides a number of sample electronic resources policies that may be adapted for reader use. Developing Reference Collections and Services in an Electronic Age is a working guide for librarians facing the pre-eminent professional issue of the day (i.e., how to deal with the changes to library services wrought by information technology). As an introduction to this topic, it is a serviceable addition to any collection. There are other works that might be considered ahead of this one, however, including Christopher W. Nolan’s Managing the Reference Collection (American Library Association, 1999), and Diane Kovacs’ Building Electronic Library Collections (Neal-Schuman, 1999). Nolan places the question of information technology within the broader context of reference services as a whole, and provides a useful annotated bibliography of the relevant literature (a feature missed in the Cassell volume). Kovacs provides a more detailed discussion of electronic collection development, especially in the subject areas, a larger list of electronic resources for the librarian, and a better review of the literature of “e-librarianship.”—Scott Walter, Information Services Librarian and Collection Manager for Education, The Ohio State University, 1813 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43210 . Effective Management of Student Employment: Organizing for Student Employment in Academic Libraries, by David A. Baldwin, Frances C. Wilkinson, and Daniel C. Barkley, Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2000. 334p. $45.00. ISBN 1-56308-688 –3. As one of the opening pages of this monograph states, student assistants are a critical part of the staffing of today’s academic library. Within the Association of Research Libraries, 1,915 staff members have student supervisory responsibilities. Student staffing frequently makes up one-fourth of the staffing of a major academic library. Students are a unique and important part of our operations requiring an organized approach to supervision. Despite the presence of student assistants in academic libraries, few monographs focus on their supervision. This new work adds important information and guidance to the field. Although this book grew out of the academic library setting, the information on supervision, discipline, performance appraisal, and training, is applicable to other types of libraries as well. The questions posed by new supervisors are particularly helpful in offering a resource to those just starting out. In fact, many of the principles of effective supervision and the qualities of a good supervisor can apply to a variety of personnel, not just student assistants. This monograph uses a well-organized format. Chapters on hiring, training, compensating, evaluating, and overseeing students can serve as an effective supervisory handbook. An in-depth chapter on financial aid attempts to offer a primer on student financial aid programs, policies, and procedures. This monograph does a particularly good job of covering questions commonly asked by new supervisors. Each chapter contains a handy bibliography for further reading and the definitions at the end of the book help to clarify some of the

terms used in the discussion, particularly those regarding financial aid. Of particular note are sections on the qualities of an effective supervisor, organizing for student employment, recruitment and legal issues, and orientation. Although I would have liked to have seen more on how to initiate the job classification structure for students and building an effective relationship with university human resources, the chapter on classification lends new insight into this topic. Classification of student positions continues to be an active discussion topic in the field, and the authors do a good job of defining the issues and writing persuasively in favor of job descriptions and classifications. The section on dealing with personnel problems provides a well-designed and helpful discussion of discipline, employee rights, the discharge process, and common mistakes made in termination. This section could be used as a reference guide in dealing with specific issues that might arise in daily supervision. Library and managerial ethics are covered in a welcome reminder of supervisor responsibilities. This monograph is a revision and expansion of the 1991 monograph, Supervising Student Employees in Academic Libraries by David A. Baldwin. Two areas in particular have received attention in the 2000 work: job descriptions for students, and funding for student employment. The new work benefits from the addition of the two new co-authors, incorporates new management techniques, as well as new research in the field, and offers an effective resource for student supervision.—William K. Black, Administrative Services, Middle Tennessee State University Library, Murfresboro, TN 37132 . Enduring Paradigm, New Opportunities: The Value of the Archival Perspective in the Digital Environment, by Anne J. Gilliland–Swetland. Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2000. 37p. $15.00. ISBN 1-887334-74-2. The underlying premise of this slim volume should be shouted from many an institutional rooftop—namely, the meta-community of librarians, archivists, preservationists, museum professionals, information system designers, technical information specialists, and even information creators needs urgently to learn from and to teach one another. In this work, Gilliland–Swetland concentrates on the potential for an archival perspective to give shape to a new, or enduring, paradigm for the design, management, preservation, and use of digital resources. She describes how this perspective, unfamiliar to many in the information sciences and allied professions and by necessity of the discipline, brings an important, evidence-based approach to the management of recorded knowledge. The audience for this work is primarily the non-archivist. Therefore, the first half of the 37 pages is devoted to familiar ground to many archivists: the societal role of archives and the genesis and rationales of archival principles and practices. The inclusion of these archival basics is wise and laudable, however, for it is impossible for non-archivists to understand the purpose of a discourse on evidence-based approaches without some exposure to basic archival concepts or terminology such as respect des fonds, provenance, original order, the life cycle of records, the organic nature of records, and hierarchy in records and their descriptions. The

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author also addresses the current re-evaluation of archival principles in a digital environment. The basic concepts of the profession are not easy to grasp, even for fledgling archivists, so a few brief, concrete examples of the principles in action would have made their introduction to this audience even clearer. This is particularly true of the section on archival description where the sample encoded archival description document type definition (Figure 3) will have little meaning to those unfamiliar with the content and shape of traditional archival finding aids. The second half of this work is devoted to a description of the utility of the archival paradigm in the digital environment. The author concentrates on the ways in which the archival community is making significant contributions to research and development in areas such as integrity, metadata, knowledge management, risk management, and knowledge preservation. Each area is introduced briefly and followed with references to recent and ongoing projects demonstrating the ways in which the archival community has played a leading role in setting the agenda or integrating the archival perspective into the digital information environment. One wishes the volume could have been longer, for it is here that readers will find the real issues of the day. Fortunately, the author provided an excellent bibliography, with URLs to many of the projects mentioned. This inclusion should entice non-archivists and archivists alike to venture out for further information.—Megan Sniffin–Marinoff, Head, Institute Archives and Special Collections, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 14N-118, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139 . Evaluating Reference Services: A Practical Guide, edited by Jo Bell Whitlatch. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 2000. 226p. $39.00 ($35.10, ALA members). ISBN 0-8389-0787-3 (alk. paper). According to the preface, “this practical guide is designed to get people started [in doing an evaluation study] by not only providing information on the basic techniques that are commonly used to collect data for evaluating reference service, but also by providing examples of studies readers can use to get started” (p. v). Furthermore, the editor suggests that “an excellent way to begin is to replicate, at least in part, other studies in the field” (p. v). Omitted from inclusion in the work is coverage of “the evaluation of library instruction in a classroom or laboratory setting and of online searching by appointment” (p. v). This guide, to which the editor and 16 others contributed, is divided into four sections: “Planning the Evaluation of Reference Services;” “Selecting Appropriate Evaluation Methods;” “Collecting, Analyzing, and Communicating Study Data and Results;” and “Reference Assessment Annotated Bibliography.” Half of the work comprises the annotated bibliography, biographical statements on the contributors, and the index. This means that a total of 112 pages is devoted to the topics addressed in the first three sections. Consequently, many points are mentioned very briefly without examples and reference to the research methods literature for clarification and amplification. Furthermore, the sources in the annotated bibliography were often not integrated into the first three sections. Any evaluation of reference, in the opinion of this reviewer, should acknowledge

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more the World Wide Web and electronic services provided remotely to library users. The discussion of “quality” is simplistic, especially given the work of Danuta A. Nitecki and others. In the opinion of this reviewer, any discussion of evaluation, and by extension planning, should address vision and mission statements and continuous quality improvement, and should relate benchmarking to the meeting of goals and objectives. I would have also liked inclusion of customer satisfaction and a better explanation of outcomes. Regrettably, this guide cannot be recommended. Its weaknesses far outweigh its strengths. The guide does not provide sufficient guidance to the novice investigator and ignores key factors in the conducting of a study (e.g., a statement of the evaluation problem, justification of that problem’s value to the organization, research design, statistics, and methods of data display). Simple random sampling differs from a systematic sampling (Chapter 4). How did the author of that chapter reach the conclusion that “a sample size of 100 to 300 people is sufficient to ensure confidence in the results” (p. 30); there is no discussion of the concept of confidence. Nancy Van House, Beth T. Weil, and Charles R. McClure, in the source cited on page 34, for instance, suggest a sample size of approximately 400. Yet, there is no acknowledgment of (or disagreement with) their recommendation. Fortunately, pages 42– 45 mention e-mail and online surveys, but the discussion is not particularly good. Pages 48 – 49 mention URLs for some Survey Web sites. There are other basic methods of data collection (some of which are passive, rather than pro-active, approaches), and the conduct of a survey involves an imposition on those intended to complete it. In today’s environment of overuse of self-reporting surveys, how can researchers most likely get the survey sample to complete the instrument? Discussions such as these would have been useful. It would seem that there is still need for a good guide for novice researchers on evaluating reference service in the unfolding millennium. Until such a guide materializes, there is a high-quality literature on the evaluation of library services in general, which, for whatever reason, was not mentioned—Peter Hernon, Professor, Simmons College, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115-5898 . Introduction to Automation for Librarians, 4th ed., by William Saffady. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1999. 339p. $60.00. ($54.00 for ALA members.) ISBN 0-8389-0764-4. Ever wish you knew more about the technology in your library? This meticulous overview of library automation examines the history and issues surrounding technology in libraries. Like earlier editions, the book is organized in two parts. The first part, basic-computing technologies, covers computer hardware, software, data management and communications, and automated office systems. The second part, library automation systems and services, covers cataloging, integrated library systems, automated reference, and digital libraries. Although the focus is on U.S. libraries, technologies and services from other countries are also briefly discussed. As in the third edition, the book contains brief summaries at the end of each chapter. Unfortunately, the fourth