- Email: [email protected]
Seeking meaning: A process approach to library and information services
centralization, but these new parameters are not reflected in the book. Most of the essays begin with a disclaimer about alterations of the future due to unforeseen changes, and just such a change is currently taking place. The impact of “the global network of networks” has already been tremendous for all of the issues and ideas presented in Libraries and the Future, but this impact is not assessed in the collection. A few of the essays mention the Internet or the National Research and Education Network (NREN)-already metamorphing into the national information infrastructure (NII)-but the time frame for producing print media would have required that these essays be written before, or perhaps just as, Internet access was becoming widely available. Another significant development not reflected in the collection is the recent and ongoing proliferation of full-text databases and the corresponding creation of search routines that go beyond Boolean capabilities to access their contents. Thus, several of the essays in the collection are, so soon after publication, obsolete for most purposes. One value of the collection, then, is historical. It shows a cross-section of distinguished professional thinking at a significant point in time. Also, the collection is wide ranging; by no means all of its contents are invalidated or out of date. Many of the issues raised are still worth discussing and critiquing, provided they are put into a current perspective. Library school instructors and others in positions of professional leadership might be especially encouraged to use this collection to stimulate their own and others’ thinking about large questions. Rapid change continues, and we as a profession are learning to function in this dynamic environment without losing sight of our socially vital mission and purpose. We realize that we are in a unique position to contribute to the shaping of the future. Despite their limitations, this book can assist in this.-Martha Weil, Humanities Librarian, Library-Information Services, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA 95521. The Native North American Almanac, edited by Duane Champagne. Detroit, MI: Gale, 1994. 1,275~. $95. ISBN O8103-8865-O. ISSN 1070-8014. Permanent paper. Academic and popular interest in Native American subjects has continued to grow phenomenally since the 1960s and publication of reference sources within the field has paralleled that growth. Champagne, director of the American Indian Studies Center at the University of California at Los Angeles, has now produced the best general reference source on the market. Furthermore, he has drawn upon the talents of 58 scholars from anthropology, history, literature, law, sociology, religion, education, and geography to provide the reliable articles. The opening sections on chronology, demography, and cultural areas are excellent, even though they will probably be the most criticized because of page limitations which forced selectivity of coverage. Especially useful within these sections is the chronological coverage of major events between 1966 and 1992. These are followed by individual sections on languages, law, administration, activism, environment, urbanization, religion, arts, literature, media, health, education, and economy. Each of these is very detailed, expertly researched, and artfully written to suit the needs of academics and layperson alike. A concluding massive section provides biographies of prominent Indian people from the past and present. Averaging approximately three paragraphs each, these profiles are especially useful for understanding the diversity of current leaders, but
approximately one-third of the articles deal with historically significant Indian leaders ranging from Handsome Lake to Geronimo. Rather than attempt a hemispheric-wide coverage of Native Peoples, Champagne has wisely confined his treatment to the United States and Canada. His precise conceptualization of the subtopics and tight editorial control have helped blend diverse materials and individual writing styles into a well-integrated volume. Likewise, the extensive index directs attention to all relevant citations within the book, and the more than 400 photographs, maps, tables, and line drawings ably supplement the text. Despite its high cost, this is an essential item for the collections of university, research, and community libraries as well as a handy reference tool for tribal offices.-Michael L. Tate, Department of History, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE 68182. Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library and Information Services, by Carol Collier Kuhlthau. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993. 219~. $45.00 (cloth). ISBN O-89391-968-3. $24.50 (paper). ISBN l-56750-019-6. LC 92-40770. In a technological age that provides access to overwhelming amounts of information, the bibliographic paradigm that has been the foundation of libraries no longer suffices to meet the needs of information seekers. Librarians cannot afford to be content any longer with simply providing access to information. They should develop reference services and instruction that address users’ feelings, thoughts, and actions as they proceed through the search process. Kuhlthau of Rutgers University builds upon her previous research on the Information Search Process (ISP) and borrows from a number of fields (including psychology, education, and the health sciences) to develop a theory which provides the necessary foundation for the development of process-oriented library and information services. The theory rests on an uncertainty principle, which states that uncertainty and anxiety are to be expected in the early stages of the ISP, when information seekers are vague about their topics. Increased confidence results from more focused searches. Librarians have traditionally slighted the affective component of the information search process, but the author argues that understanding the place of a user’s feelings in a search is of critical importance to providing quality assistance. Kuhlthau proposes five levels of intervention for reference (Organizer, Locator, Identifier, Advisor, and Counselor) and for instruction (Organizer, Lecturer, Instructor, Tutor, and Counselor). She emphasizes the need for librarians, as professionals, to diagnose what type of intervention is required, and when, but argues that librarians need to meet the rising demand for extended assistance by increasingly taking on the role of Counselor. Kuhlthau
describes
this role:
The Counselor establishes a dialogue that leads to an exploration of strategy and a sequence for learning. The mediator [librarian] expects the user to return periodically to reestablish the dialogue . The user and the Counselor redefine the problem, determine a strategy, identify additional sources, and a sequence for use. A variety of searches may be conducted with different purposes that match the user’s experience at the different points in the process (p. 144).
The last chapter provides several strategies for counseling users that will assist the reader in implementing her suggestions. In many institutions, however, lack of time will be a stumbling block to following her suggestions.
November 1994
333
The theory and proposals presented are well supported by the author’s previous research involving high school and college students as well as users of public librarians, and deserve careful consideration by public service librarians. The summaries at the end of each chapter and in the last chapter provide a quick review of important points. Librarians pressed for time should read at least the introduction and the final chapter, and then consult the chapters in between for fuller treatment of particular topics. While the issues raised in this book will be of interest to all academic librarians (including administrators) and to library school students, they will have their greatest impact on reference and instruction librarians who have seen that the current paradigm does not work, that helping users locate sources of information does not take into account their need to interpret, formulate, and learn in the process of information seeking. Kuhlthau breaks new ground in this volume and carefully identifies areas where additional study is needed. The fields of reference and instruction will be enriched should others take up the call for more research and for discussion of the points that she raises.--Trudi E. Jacobson, Coordinator of User Education Programs, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222. The State and the Academic Library, edited by Vi&i L. Gregory. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993. 196~. $55.00. ISBN o-313-28108-4. ISSN: 0084-9243. LC 93-130013. Permanent paper. Divided into three parts, this work is a mixture of theory and experiences concerning the interactions between state govemment and libraries in public higher education institutions. Part I describes how state mechanisms affect, to varying degrees, the operations and budgets of academic libraries. Part II, also theoretical in nature, describes state government involvement concerning specific library programs, including automation, resource-sharing efforts such as networking, funding, and program review. Part III has four specific examples contributed by practitioners about state government involvement in library projects in Florida, Massachusetts, Georgia, and Colorado. Chapters in the first two parts describe the types of state coordinating agencies which have developed during the past 40 years. Budget processes and examples of library budget structures (line item and formula) are also described. A case is made by the editor that since the 195Os, there has been a shift of power from mostly autonomous individual public institutions towards entities at the state level. This shift is a result of, among other reasons: l
l
l
334
Rising enrollments at state institutions of high education in the 1950s and 1960s led to increased expenditures which, in turn, led to increased demands on state revenue sources. State governments responded by developing procedures and mechanisms responsible for increased accountability of funds expended. When tax revenues began to fall and costs continued to climb, states increasingly turned their attention to how money was spent. As the federal government expanded its grant programs to public academic institutions, it wanted more statewide coordination from state government.
The Journal
of Academic
Librarianship
As a result, state coordinating agencies for higher education became common. The rise of these state coordinating agencies eroded institutional independence as critical decisions ranging from operational issues to policy matters were being made for public institutions outside those institutions by these empowered branches of state government. This work is generally successful in discussing the interaction of public academic libraries and state government. However, there is an inconsistency in that the editor points out that in states where library cooperative programs are successfully implemented, a position responsible for academic libraries almost always exists at the state coordinating board level. Yet, one of the examples in Part III describes the success of the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL), which boasts that separate state allocations were not critical to its successthe public institution members funded it out of their operating budget. So, what is the editor really trying to tell us? Is direct state coordinating board involvement best for public academics, or not? If not, then an alternative title to this work may be “Why State Academic Libraries Should Avoid the State Coordinating Board.” The book includes three appendices; the state-by-state addresses for the state coordinating agencies of higher education and the state library agencies can be found in other sources. The Appendix of “Acronyms Used in This Work” could have been combined with the index. There is also a selected, unannotated bibliography arranged by broad subjects, and a section with brief professional blurbs about the editor and contributors. The book would be a good inclusion in a professional collection, and the case studies (the state examples) may be interesting to practicing library administrators. However, using the case studies as models may not be successful since one of the points made throughout the work is that state governments all behave differently, and very few borrow structures, especially intact from other states.-Robert Dugan, Associate Librarian, Lauinger Library, Georgetown University, 3700 0 St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20057-1006. Subject Analysis and Indexing: Theoretical Foundation and Practical Advice, by Robert Fugmann. Frankfurt, Germany: INDEKS VERLAG, 1993.250 p. $25.00 (paper). ISBN 3-88672-500-6. ISSN 0944-8152 (Textbooks for Knowledge Organization, Vol. 1). This challenging, sometimes witty, textbook derives from a series of lectures that Fugmann gave as a visiting professor at the School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, in the summer of 1992. The author of numerous articles on indexing and information science, Fugmann presents a theoretical and practical approach to the creation of information systems. He disputes the traditional premise of information theory, namely that information transmission is always objective and quantifiable; instead, he posits the essential subjectivity of information. Individual concepts (color of eyes, date of birth, and profession) are easy to index (and can be done by machine) because they can be represented by “lexical expressions,” which have an agreed-upon meaning. Non-lexical expressions, on the other hand, represent general concepts, which are highly prone to ambiguity. It is the role of the indexer to “translate” the essence of a document (its non-lexical language) into a predictable set of index terms, without succumbing to the desire for the unpredictability of expression which so delights the reader. The indexer, rather,
approximately one-third of the articles deal with historically significant Indian leaders ranging from Handsome Lake to Geronimo. Rather than attempt a hemispheric-wide coverage of Native Peoples, Champagne has wisely confined his treatment to the United States and Canada. His precise conceptualization of the subtopics and tight editorial control have helped blend diverse materials and individual writing styles into a well-integrated volume. Likewise, the extensive index directs attention to all relevant citations within the book, and the more than 400 photographs, maps, tables, and line drawings ably supplement the text. Despite its high cost, this is an essential item for the collections of university, research, and community libraries as well as a handy reference tool for tribal offices.-Michael L. Tate, Department of History, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE 68182. Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library and Information Services, by Carol Collier Kuhlthau. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993. 219~. $45.00 (cloth). ISBN O-89391-968-3. $24.50 (paper). ISBN l-56750-019-6. LC 92-40770. In a technological age that provides access to overwhelming amounts of information, the bibliographic paradigm that has been the foundation of libraries no longer suffices to meet the needs of information seekers. Librarians cannot afford to be content any longer with simply providing access to information. They should develop reference services and instruction that address users’ feelings, thoughts, and actions as they proceed through the search process. Kuhlthau of Rutgers University builds upon her previous research on the Information Search Process (ISP) and borrows from a number of fields (including psychology, education, and the health sciences) to develop a theory which provides the necessary foundation for the development of process-oriented library and information services. The theory rests on an uncertainty principle, which states that uncertainty and anxiety are to be expected in the early stages of the ISP, when information seekers are vague about their topics. Increased confidence results from more focused searches. Librarians have traditionally slighted the affective component of the information search process, but the author argues that understanding the place of a user’s feelings in a search is of critical importance to providing quality assistance. Kuhlthau proposes five levels of intervention for reference (Organizer, Locator, Identifier, Advisor, and Counselor) and for instruction (Organizer, Lecturer, Instructor, Tutor, and Counselor). She emphasizes the need for librarians, as professionals, to diagnose what type of intervention is required, and when, but argues that librarians need to meet the rising demand for extended assistance by increasingly taking on the role of Counselor. Kuhlthau
describes
this role:
The Counselor establishes a dialogue that leads to an exploration of strategy and a sequence for learning. The mediator [librarian] expects the user to return periodically to reestablish the dialogue . The user and the Counselor redefine the problem, determine a strategy, identify additional sources, and a sequence for use. A variety of searches may be conducted with different purposes that match the user’s experience at the different points in the process (p. 144).
The last chapter provides several strategies for counseling users that will assist the reader in implementing her suggestions. In many institutions, however, lack of time will be a stumbling block to following her suggestions.
November 1994
333
The theory and proposals presented are well supported by the author’s previous research involving high school and college students as well as users of public librarians, and deserve careful consideration by public service librarians. The summaries at the end of each chapter and in the last chapter provide a quick review of important points. Librarians pressed for time should read at least the introduction and the final chapter, and then consult the chapters in between for fuller treatment of particular topics. While the issues raised in this book will be of interest to all academic librarians (including administrators) and to library school students, they will have their greatest impact on reference and instruction librarians who have seen that the current paradigm does not work, that helping users locate sources of information does not take into account their need to interpret, formulate, and learn in the process of information seeking. Kuhlthau breaks new ground in this volume and carefully identifies areas where additional study is needed. The fields of reference and instruction will be enriched should others take up the call for more research and for discussion of the points that she raises.--Trudi E. Jacobson, Coordinator of User Education Programs, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222. The State and the Academic Library, edited by Vi&i L. Gregory. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993. 196~. $55.00. ISBN o-313-28108-4. ISSN: 0084-9243. LC 93-130013. Permanent paper. Divided into three parts, this work is a mixture of theory and experiences concerning the interactions between state govemment and libraries in public higher education institutions. Part I describes how state mechanisms affect, to varying degrees, the operations and budgets of academic libraries. Part II, also theoretical in nature, describes state government involvement concerning specific library programs, including automation, resource-sharing efforts such as networking, funding, and program review. Part III has four specific examples contributed by practitioners about state government involvement in library projects in Florida, Massachusetts, Georgia, and Colorado. Chapters in the first two parts describe the types of state coordinating agencies which have developed during the past 40 years. Budget processes and examples of library budget structures (line item and formula) are also described. A case is made by the editor that since the 195Os, there has been a shift of power from mostly autonomous individual public institutions towards entities at the state level. This shift is a result of, among other reasons: l
l
l
334
Rising enrollments at state institutions of high education in the 1950s and 1960s led to increased expenditures which, in turn, led to increased demands on state revenue sources. State governments responded by developing procedures and mechanisms responsible for increased accountability of funds expended. When tax revenues began to fall and costs continued to climb, states increasingly turned their attention to how money was spent. As the federal government expanded its grant programs to public academic institutions, it wanted more statewide coordination from state government.
The Journal
of Academic
Librarianship
As a result, state coordinating agencies for higher education became common. The rise of these state coordinating agencies eroded institutional independence as critical decisions ranging from operational issues to policy matters were being made for public institutions outside those institutions by these empowered branches of state government. This work is generally successful in discussing the interaction of public academic libraries and state government. However, there is an inconsistency in that the editor points out that in states where library cooperative programs are successfully implemented, a position responsible for academic libraries almost always exists at the state coordinating board level. Yet, one of the examples in Part III describes the success of the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL), which boasts that separate state allocations were not critical to its successthe public institution members funded it out of their operating budget. So, what is the editor really trying to tell us? Is direct state coordinating board involvement best for public academics, or not? If not, then an alternative title to this work may be “Why State Academic Libraries Should Avoid the State Coordinating Board.” The book includes three appendices; the state-by-state addresses for the state coordinating agencies of higher education and the state library agencies can be found in other sources. The Appendix of “Acronyms Used in This Work” could have been combined with the index. There is also a selected, unannotated bibliography arranged by broad subjects, and a section with brief professional blurbs about the editor and contributors. The book would be a good inclusion in a professional collection, and the case studies (the state examples) may be interesting to practicing library administrators. However, using the case studies as models may not be successful since one of the points made throughout the work is that state governments all behave differently, and very few borrow structures, especially intact from other states.-Robert Dugan, Associate Librarian, Lauinger Library, Georgetown University, 3700 0 St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20057-1006. Subject Analysis and Indexing: Theoretical Foundation and Practical Advice, by Robert Fugmann. Frankfurt, Germany: INDEKS VERLAG, 1993.250 p. $25.00 (paper). ISBN 3-88672-500-6. ISSN 0944-8152 (Textbooks for Knowledge Organization, Vol. 1). This challenging, sometimes witty, textbook derives from a series of lectures that Fugmann gave as a visiting professor at the School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, in the summer of 1992. The author of numerous articles on indexing and information science, Fugmann presents a theoretical and practical approach to the creation of information systems. He disputes the traditional premise of information theory, namely that information transmission is always objective and quantifiable; instead, he posits the essential subjectivity of information. Individual concepts (color of eyes, date of birth, and profession) are easy to index (and can be done by machine) because they can be represented by “lexical expressions,” which have an agreed-upon meaning. Non-lexical expressions, on the other hand, represent general concepts, which are highly prone to ambiguity. It is the role of the indexer to “translate” the essence of a document (its non-lexical language) into a predictable set of index terms, without succumbing to the desire for the unpredictability of expression which so delights the reader. The indexer, rather,