- Email: [email protected]
Tools of the serials trade
Sharon Bonk, Column Editor
International Subscription Agents." An Annotated Directory, compiled by Wayne R. P e r r y m a n and Lenore Wilkas. 5th Edition Chicago: American L i brary Association, 1986. $12.95 pa. 133p. ISBN 0-8389-3326-2.
The f i f t h edition of International Subscription Agents is welcomed by all active in acquisitions and collection development. It has been eight years since the fourth edition was published, too long a gap for the ever-changing international book and serial trade. This edition contains 319 entries, 69 more than the previous edition. One h u n d r e d sixty seven entries have been revised, and 136 are new. There has been a change in the n u m b e r of subscription agents active in d i f f e r e n t regions of the world. T h e r e are entries for Latin A m e r i c a n c o u n tries that were not included in the previous edition. Fewer agents are listed in this edition for t w e n t y - t w o countries; the members of the Soviet block have seen the greatest reduction in the n u m ber of agents. Many countries have more agents listed. Latin America, the United K i n g d o m , the U n i t e d States, West G e r m a n y , and France have seen significant increases in the n u m b e r of agents. The compilers asked agents to note when their firms began, and to respond to questions about automated functions. When supplied, this information is included in the descriptive i n f o r mation about the firm. This edition retains the note field that includes editorial information and information supplied by the vendors. (For example, it might be noted that an agent will not accept orders f r o m South Africa, or that a d i f f e r e n t address was given for an agent in a previous edition.) The geographical index is key to the use of the book as an acquisitions reference tool. Some will wish to read the book c o v e r - t o - c o v e r to revise local files or to keep up their general acquisitions knowledge. Entries are indexed by c o u n t r y or region. Vendors who supply materials from the country or region are listed alphabetically with an entry n u m b e r for the vendor and a notation of the c o u n t r y in which the vendor is located. An asterisk indicates those vendors that supply backfiles, including a few that do not handle subscriptions or standing orders. If the backfile supply is a vendor's sole business, or if it is part of a variety of serials-related services, the des-
Tools of the Serials Trade
cription of the vendor makes note of that fact. This is a valuable tool for any library interested in collecting materials f r o m beyond its national borders. In the interest o f keeping information u p - t o - d a t e , it is suggested that the American Library Association begin working on the sixth edition today. Sharon Bonk Bonk is Head of Technical Services at the S U N Y - A l b a n y U n i v e r s i t y Libraries. She previously edited the "Tools of the Serials Trade" column of Serials Review and is the present editor of the "Collection Development and Administration" column.
Thomas, Nancy G. and O'Neil, Rosanna, compilers. Notes for Serials Cataloging. Edited by Arlene G. Taylor. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1986. $17.50. 123p. ISBN 87287-535-0.
Notes for Serials Cataloging is a welcome complement to the literature available to serials catalogers. Its usefulness in large part will be determined by the status o f the person using it: the student or new cataloger will probably find it immensely valuable; the experienced cataloger, probably less so. Although notes o c c u p y a very important place in serials cataloging under AACR2, the cataloger has had few sources for either samples of notes or guidelines to formulate them apart from a few cataloging manuals and textbooks. This is, of course, in keeping with the nonprescriptive spirit of AACR2, which instructs the cataloger to present notes in a required order but leaves the exact wording of most notes to the cataloger, with the single provision (rule 1.7A3, "Informal Notes") that they be as brief "...as clarity, understanding, and good grammar permit." Writing such notes can often be quite a task, given the convoluted history of some serial titles. Other published compilations of cataloging notes either are long since out of date or cover mostly monographic cataloging. Notes Used on Catalog Cards by Olive Swain (Chicago: American Library Association, 1963, 1970 4th printing), although still valuable in some circumstances, does not include notes for AACR2. Two other publications are more useful to the serials cataloger. Florence
SERIALS REVIEW
WINTER 1986
69
Salinger and Eileen Zagon's Monograph Cataloging Notes (White Plains, New York: Knowledge Industry Publications, Inc., 1981) has evolved into Notes for Catalogers." A Source Book for AACR 2 (White Plains, New York: K n o w l e d g e Publications, Inc., 1985); this book contains notes for both monographic and serials cataloging. Notes Selected
from Library of Congress Serial Records Appearing in "New Serial Titles" (Jan 1981-Feb 1984) was compiled by Ann B. Vidor and Leslie M. Dees (Atlanta, GA: Georgia Institute of Technology, Price Gilbert Memorial Library, August 1984). This publication, although it contains fewer examples than are f o u n d in Thomas and O'Neil's book, nevertheless contains m a n y excellent, representative examples of A A C R 2 notes divided by the M A R C field tag. Notes for Serials Cataloging is an ambitious work that exceeds the content and size of previously published works. The second edition of Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, the third edition of OCLC's Serials Format, and other manuals provide only a few examples of ways to construct notes (and generally cover only the clearest of cataloging questions). In contrast, Thomas and O'Neil have compiled sixty-six pages of notes that reflect the more complex situations a serials cataloger might encounter, and have included notes for audio-visual and m i c r o f o r m serials as well. Notes for Serials Cataloging is specifically designed for the serials cataloger who uses the M A R C f o r mat; the authors have compiled notes taken from actual OCLC cataloging records and New Serial Titles records and listed them by M A R C field tag (as d e f i n e d by the second edition of OCLC's Serials Format and the L i b r a r y of Congress's MARC Serials Editing Guide. Where no examples were f o u n d for a type of notes, the authors supplied examples f r o m their own original cataloging. The book is divided into two sections of approximately equal length: the notes and the sources for those notes. The first section presents the notes divided by the M A R C field tag. Each field tag contains the scope note taken from the second edition of OCLC Serials Format and an outline showing how the various types of notes in the field are arranged. For example, under the 500 field, the notes are subdivided into Informal S u m m a r y / S c o p e Notes Notes about Titles Imprint Variation Notes Issuing I n f o r m a t i o n Miscellaneous General Notes Each of these subdivisions is further divided into categories of specific types of notes. "Informal S u m m a r y / S c o p e Notes" is divided into
70
SERIALS REVIEW
W I N T E R 1986
Summary Statements General Contents Information "Includes" Statements Proceedings Information General Coverage Information General Translation Notes U n d e r each of these subdivisions the authors list numerous notes illustrating the kinds of notes a cataloger would find or use on a M A R C serial record. The second section lists the sources of the notes. The structural hierarchy of this section is the same as that of the first section. To find the source of the note, the cataloger turns to the corresponding element in the second section and finds the number of the note. The authors have listed the title of the serial, the L i b r a r y of Congress card number, and the OCLC record number. The book lacks a subject index. This is unfortunate, because choosing the correct M A R C field tag can often be just as difficult as writing the note. The authors present notes only for the following fields: 500 ("General Notes"), 515 ("Numbering Peculiarities Note"), 525 ("Supplement Note"), 530 ("Additional Physical Forms Available Note"), 533 ("Photoreproduction Note"), 546 ("Language Note"), 550 ("Issuing Bodies Note"), 555 ("Cumulative Index N o t e / F i n d i n g Note"), and 580 ("Linking E n t r y Complexity Note"). T h e y omit fields 310/321, certain 500 notes ("Description Based o n : " ) , 246 notes ("Cover Title:"), 520 notes, and 780/785 notes. The authors omit the 520 field notes because the definition of this field has been changed, and the notes found on the records no longer belong in this field. They also omit field 310/321, stating that their reason for doing so was that "the frequency information for a serials record is taken directly f r o m the piece itself" (p.xvi). A A C R 2 does not instruct the cataloger to do this; in fact, in rule 12.7B1, it merely directs the cataloger to "make notes on the frequency...." This general statement has not been updated in any Library of Congress Cataloging Service Bulletin through n u m b e r 34. Because there are differences in the way frequency notes were expressed before A A C R 2 and the way they are expressed in AACR2, perhaps the authors should have included this field also. Although the authors' reasons for omitting the "Description Based on: " note are understandable, the confusion catalogers experience in formatting this note would seem to warrant a few examples. The 246 and 780/785 notes were omitted because the form of the note is m a c h i n e - g e n e r a t e d using a print constant. A puzzling aspect of the book concerns the notes themselves. Certain statements in the preface and introduction lead the reader to assume that
all the notes are in A A C R 2 form. Some of the notes are t a k e n f r o m p r e - A A C R 2 records, and although the authors state that "many notes, though having current and useful i n f o r m a t i o n , had to be updated according to present punctuation standards" (p.xvii), numerous examples do not display the u n i f o r m i t y of f o r m a t and p u n c t u a t i o n characteristic of A A C R 2 . For example, page 44 the 550 field tag (official organ, publication, and so on) shows the following similar notes in two d i f f e r e n t forms: Official publication of the National Society for P e r f o r m a n c e and Instruction. Official organ of: the Imperial Society of teachers of Dancing (with which the Cecchetti Society is incorporated), Oct. 1925-Sept. 1939. The first e x a m p l e lacks 12.7A1 of A A C R 2 . When'information not apply to all issues, the cataloger to place tions following the data. is given:
a consistent way, the user should be aware that not all the notes are in strict compliance with A A C R 2 . This is an i m p o r t a n t point to make, since a large portion o f the audience could be either students or novice catalogers, who might be tempted to use nonstandard notes on new, original records. I f these f e w problems are kept in mind, this work, with its a r r a n g e m e n t b y M A R C tag, its many notes dealing with the m o r e complicated cataloging situations, and the b r a c k e t e d explanatory notes p r o v i d e d by the authors, can serve as an important r e f e r e n c e and learning tool for the student and novice cataloger. The serials cataloger with years of experience in writing notes will p r o b a b l y find it useful less often. James Holmes H o l m e s is a Serials Cataloger at the General Libraries of The U n i v e r s i t y of Texas at Austin.
the colon required by rule included in a note does A A C R 2 generally instructs the chronological designaOn page 42 the following
Vol. for 1979 issued with: Oficina de Planificaci6n Agricola. The p r e f e r r e d A A C R 2 f o r m should be: Issued with: Oficina Agricola, 1979.
de
Planificaci6n
Rule C.3, "Numerals Beginning Notes," states, "Spell out a n u m e r a l that is the first word of a note that is not quoted." On page 18 the 515 field tag ( n u m b e r i n g peculiarities) includes the following note: 37th o m i t t e d in numbering. This note should read: T h i r t y - s e v e n t h omitted in numbering. These are indeed very minor points, but the underlying assumption for having a guide to notes is that a certain amount of standardization in the way notes are constructed should exist. In works that a t t e m p t to compile and present cataloging practice based on a very large, c o m p l i c a t e d body of rules, the audience should be r e m i n d e d that what is a fait accompli on a cataloging record m a y not in fact be in accordance with the rules. D e s pite the authors' intent to present the notes in
Collection Assessment Manual for College and University Libraries. Phoenix, AZ: Hall, Blaine H.
Oryx, 1985. $36.50. 0-89774-148-X.
212p.
LC 85-13694.
ISBN
Rereading Hall's w o r k r e m i n d e d me of how well he seems to meet the objectives stated in the p r e f a c e of the book. T h a t is, first, the manual synthesizes a great deal of literature on collection evaluation; second, the assessment techniques and measures included are practical in nature; and third, he manages to p r o v i d e c a r e f u l l y defined and highly valuable cautions and a b r o a d e r view than each described technique, so that the librarian conducting the evaluation can develop a plan that meets specific assessment objectives. The book progresses f r o m chapter to chapter in an orderly, satisfying way. The first chapter deals with planning the assessment and is deceptively brief; the author has condensed the evaluation literature so that only the core of the basic concepts need be illuminated. In the process of a recent evaluation, I returned several times to the basic points the author advises one should keep in mind in the planning stage. This saved the evaluation f r o m digressing d o w n m a n y potentially interesting but tangential paths. Especially instructive to novice evaluators is the author's warning that "subjectivity of j u d g m e n t as to collection quality or adequacy can be reduced by a careful selection of both collection-centered and c l i e n t - c e n t e r e d m e a s u r e m e n t techniques." The second and third chapters provide information about c o l l e c t i o n - c e n t e r e d measures and clientcentered measures. These chapters are the heart
SERIALS REVIEW
WINTER 1986
71
of the manual. L i k e the first chapter, they are clear and concise, w e l l - o r g a n i z e d , and easy to f o l low. The f o u r t h chapter deals with assessments for special purposes, and the f i f t h shows how to organize and d o c u m e n t the results of the assessment. The appendixes o f this manual are especially useful. The b i b l i o g r a p h y is divided into three sections: sources cited, surveys and reviews of the literature, and s u p p l e m e n t a r y sources. The first two sections can save an evaluator a great deal of original research time. The other appendixes cover statistical aids, accrediting groups, sample survey instruments, and various library standards. The statistical aids a p p e n d i x includes both a sample size table and a r a n d o m n u m b e r table. The a p pendix containing the sample survey instruments is indicative of the n o n p r e s c r i p t i v e a p p r o a c h taken by the author t h r o u g h o u t the manual; some of the worst questions I have ever read in a survey are included, as are some of the b e s t - c o n s t r u c t e d
questions. It is h a n d y to have so m a n y library standards in one place, but naturally the Standards f o r College Libraries were superseded shortly after Hall's book was published. (See College Library Standards C o m m i t t e e , "Standards for College Libraries, 1986," College & Research Libraries News, 47 (March 1986), 189.) By their nature, manuals are subject to obsolescence more quickly than m o r e theoretical works. Because Hall is careful to avoid prescribing detailed p r o c e d u r e s that must be followed in e v e r y evaluation, and because he has done such an a d m i r a b l e job of s u m m a r i z i n g the literature on this topic, this b o o k should retain its usefulness for m a n y years to come. And, despite the title, librarians working in public and special libraries will also benefit f r o m reading Hall's Collection Assessment Manual for
College and University Librarians. Barbara Van Deventer Van Deventer is the Curator for Social Science Collections at Stanford U n i v e r s i t y Libraries.
@
72
SERIALS REVIEW
WINTER 1986
International Subscription Agents." An Annotated Directory, compiled by Wayne R. P e r r y m a n and Lenore Wilkas. 5th Edition Chicago: American L i brary Association, 1986. $12.95 pa. 133p. ISBN 0-8389-3326-2.
The f i f t h edition of International Subscription Agents is welcomed by all active in acquisitions and collection development. It has been eight years since the fourth edition was published, too long a gap for the ever-changing international book and serial trade. This edition contains 319 entries, 69 more than the previous edition. One h u n d r e d sixty seven entries have been revised, and 136 are new. There has been a change in the n u m b e r of subscription agents active in d i f f e r e n t regions of the world. T h e r e are entries for Latin A m e r i c a n c o u n tries that were not included in the previous edition. Fewer agents are listed in this edition for t w e n t y - t w o countries; the members of the Soviet block have seen the greatest reduction in the n u m ber of agents. Many countries have more agents listed. Latin America, the United K i n g d o m , the U n i t e d States, West G e r m a n y , and France have seen significant increases in the n u m b e r of agents. The compilers asked agents to note when their firms began, and to respond to questions about automated functions. When supplied, this information is included in the descriptive i n f o r mation about the firm. This edition retains the note field that includes editorial information and information supplied by the vendors. (For example, it might be noted that an agent will not accept orders f r o m South Africa, or that a d i f f e r e n t address was given for an agent in a previous edition.) The geographical index is key to the use of the book as an acquisitions reference tool. Some will wish to read the book c o v e r - t o - c o v e r to revise local files or to keep up their general acquisitions knowledge. Entries are indexed by c o u n t r y or region. Vendors who supply materials from the country or region are listed alphabetically with an entry n u m b e r for the vendor and a notation of the c o u n t r y in which the vendor is located. An asterisk indicates those vendors that supply backfiles, including a few that do not handle subscriptions or standing orders. If the backfile supply is a vendor's sole business, or if it is part of a variety of serials-related services, the des-
Tools of the Serials Trade
cription of the vendor makes note of that fact. This is a valuable tool for any library interested in collecting materials f r o m beyond its national borders. In the interest o f keeping information u p - t o - d a t e , it is suggested that the American Library Association begin working on the sixth edition today. Sharon Bonk Bonk is Head of Technical Services at the S U N Y - A l b a n y U n i v e r s i t y Libraries. She previously edited the "Tools of the Serials Trade" column of Serials Review and is the present editor of the "Collection Development and Administration" column.
Thomas, Nancy G. and O'Neil, Rosanna, compilers. Notes for Serials Cataloging. Edited by Arlene G. Taylor. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1986. $17.50. 123p. ISBN 87287-535-0.
Notes for Serials Cataloging is a welcome complement to the literature available to serials catalogers. Its usefulness in large part will be determined by the status o f the person using it: the student or new cataloger will probably find it immensely valuable; the experienced cataloger, probably less so. Although notes o c c u p y a very important place in serials cataloging under AACR2, the cataloger has had few sources for either samples of notes or guidelines to formulate them apart from a few cataloging manuals and textbooks. This is, of course, in keeping with the nonprescriptive spirit of AACR2, which instructs the cataloger to present notes in a required order but leaves the exact wording of most notes to the cataloger, with the single provision (rule 1.7A3, "Informal Notes") that they be as brief "...as clarity, understanding, and good grammar permit." Writing such notes can often be quite a task, given the convoluted history of some serial titles. Other published compilations of cataloging notes either are long since out of date or cover mostly monographic cataloging. Notes Used on Catalog Cards by Olive Swain (Chicago: American Library Association, 1963, 1970 4th printing), although still valuable in some circumstances, does not include notes for AACR2. Two other publications are more useful to the serials cataloger. Florence
SERIALS REVIEW
WINTER 1986
69
Salinger and Eileen Zagon's Monograph Cataloging Notes (White Plains, New York: Knowledge Industry Publications, Inc., 1981) has evolved into Notes for Catalogers." A Source Book for AACR 2 (White Plains, New York: K n o w l e d g e Publications, Inc., 1985); this book contains notes for both monographic and serials cataloging. Notes Selected
from Library of Congress Serial Records Appearing in "New Serial Titles" (Jan 1981-Feb 1984) was compiled by Ann B. Vidor and Leslie M. Dees (Atlanta, GA: Georgia Institute of Technology, Price Gilbert Memorial Library, August 1984). This publication, although it contains fewer examples than are f o u n d in Thomas and O'Neil's book, nevertheless contains m a n y excellent, representative examples of A A C R 2 notes divided by the M A R C field tag. Notes for Serials Cataloging is an ambitious work that exceeds the content and size of previously published works. The second edition of Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, the third edition of OCLC's Serials Format, and other manuals provide only a few examples of ways to construct notes (and generally cover only the clearest of cataloging questions). In contrast, Thomas and O'Neil have compiled sixty-six pages of notes that reflect the more complex situations a serials cataloger might encounter, and have included notes for audio-visual and m i c r o f o r m serials as well. Notes for Serials Cataloging is specifically designed for the serials cataloger who uses the M A R C f o r mat; the authors have compiled notes taken from actual OCLC cataloging records and New Serial Titles records and listed them by M A R C field tag (as d e f i n e d by the second edition of OCLC's Serials Format and the L i b r a r y of Congress's MARC Serials Editing Guide. Where no examples were f o u n d for a type of notes, the authors supplied examples f r o m their own original cataloging. The book is divided into two sections of approximately equal length: the notes and the sources for those notes. The first section presents the notes divided by the M A R C field tag. Each field tag contains the scope note taken from the second edition of OCLC Serials Format and an outline showing how the various types of notes in the field are arranged. For example, under the 500 field, the notes are subdivided into Informal S u m m a r y / S c o p e Notes Notes about Titles Imprint Variation Notes Issuing I n f o r m a t i o n Miscellaneous General Notes Each of these subdivisions is further divided into categories of specific types of notes. "Informal S u m m a r y / S c o p e Notes" is divided into
70
SERIALS REVIEW
W I N T E R 1986
Summary Statements General Contents Information "Includes" Statements Proceedings Information General Coverage Information General Translation Notes U n d e r each of these subdivisions the authors list numerous notes illustrating the kinds of notes a cataloger would find or use on a M A R C serial record. The second section lists the sources of the notes. The structural hierarchy of this section is the same as that of the first section. To find the source of the note, the cataloger turns to the corresponding element in the second section and finds the number of the note. The authors have listed the title of the serial, the L i b r a r y of Congress card number, and the OCLC record number. The book lacks a subject index. This is unfortunate, because choosing the correct M A R C field tag can often be just as difficult as writing the note. The authors present notes only for the following fields: 500 ("General Notes"), 515 ("Numbering Peculiarities Note"), 525 ("Supplement Note"), 530 ("Additional Physical Forms Available Note"), 533 ("Photoreproduction Note"), 546 ("Language Note"), 550 ("Issuing Bodies Note"), 555 ("Cumulative Index N o t e / F i n d i n g Note"), and 580 ("Linking E n t r y Complexity Note"). T h e y omit fields 310/321, certain 500 notes ("Description Based o n : " ) , 246 notes ("Cover Title:"), 520 notes, and 780/785 notes. The authors omit the 520 field notes because the definition of this field has been changed, and the notes found on the records no longer belong in this field. They also omit field 310/321, stating that their reason for doing so was that "the frequency information for a serials record is taken directly f r o m the piece itself" (p.xvi). A A C R 2 does not instruct the cataloger to do this; in fact, in rule 12.7B1, it merely directs the cataloger to "make notes on the frequency...." This general statement has not been updated in any Library of Congress Cataloging Service Bulletin through n u m b e r 34. Because there are differences in the way frequency notes were expressed before A A C R 2 and the way they are expressed in AACR2, perhaps the authors should have included this field also. Although the authors' reasons for omitting the "Description Based on: " note are understandable, the confusion catalogers experience in formatting this note would seem to warrant a few examples. The 246 and 780/785 notes were omitted because the form of the note is m a c h i n e - g e n e r a t e d using a print constant. A puzzling aspect of the book concerns the notes themselves. Certain statements in the preface and introduction lead the reader to assume that
all the notes are in A A C R 2 form. Some of the notes are t a k e n f r o m p r e - A A C R 2 records, and although the authors state that "many notes, though having current and useful i n f o r m a t i o n , had to be updated according to present punctuation standards" (p.xvii), numerous examples do not display the u n i f o r m i t y of f o r m a t and p u n c t u a t i o n characteristic of A A C R 2 . For example, page 44 the 550 field tag (official organ, publication, and so on) shows the following similar notes in two d i f f e r e n t forms: Official publication of the National Society for P e r f o r m a n c e and Instruction. Official organ of: the Imperial Society of teachers of Dancing (with which the Cecchetti Society is incorporated), Oct. 1925-Sept. 1939. The first e x a m p l e lacks 12.7A1 of A A C R 2 . When'information not apply to all issues, the cataloger to place tions following the data. is given:
a consistent way, the user should be aware that not all the notes are in strict compliance with A A C R 2 . This is an i m p o r t a n t point to make, since a large portion o f the audience could be either students or novice catalogers, who might be tempted to use nonstandard notes on new, original records. I f these f e w problems are kept in mind, this work, with its a r r a n g e m e n t b y M A R C tag, its many notes dealing with the m o r e complicated cataloging situations, and the b r a c k e t e d explanatory notes p r o v i d e d by the authors, can serve as an important r e f e r e n c e and learning tool for the student and novice cataloger. The serials cataloger with years of experience in writing notes will p r o b a b l y find it useful less often. James Holmes H o l m e s is a Serials Cataloger at the General Libraries of The U n i v e r s i t y of Texas at Austin.
the colon required by rule included in a note does A A C R 2 generally instructs the chronological designaOn page 42 the following
Vol. for 1979 issued with: Oficina de Planificaci6n Agricola. The p r e f e r r e d A A C R 2 f o r m should be: Issued with: Oficina Agricola, 1979.
de
Planificaci6n
Rule C.3, "Numerals Beginning Notes," states, "Spell out a n u m e r a l that is the first word of a note that is not quoted." On page 18 the 515 field tag ( n u m b e r i n g peculiarities) includes the following note: 37th o m i t t e d in numbering. This note should read: T h i r t y - s e v e n t h omitted in numbering. These are indeed very minor points, but the underlying assumption for having a guide to notes is that a certain amount of standardization in the way notes are constructed should exist. In works that a t t e m p t to compile and present cataloging practice based on a very large, c o m p l i c a t e d body of rules, the audience should be r e m i n d e d that what is a fait accompli on a cataloging record m a y not in fact be in accordance with the rules. D e s pite the authors' intent to present the notes in
Collection Assessment Manual for College and University Libraries. Phoenix, AZ: Hall, Blaine H.
Oryx, 1985. $36.50. 0-89774-148-X.
212p.
LC 85-13694.
ISBN
Rereading Hall's w o r k r e m i n d e d me of how well he seems to meet the objectives stated in the p r e f a c e of the book. T h a t is, first, the manual synthesizes a great deal of literature on collection evaluation; second, the assessment techniques and measures included are practical in nature; and third, he manages to p r o v i d e c a r e f u l l y defined and highly valuable cautions and a b r o a d e r view than each described technique, so that the librarian conducting the evaluation can develop a plan that meets specific assessment objectives. The book progresses f r o m chapter to chapter in an orderly, satisfying way. The first chapter deals with planning the assessment and is deceptively brief; the author has condensed the evaluation literature so that only the core of the basic concepts need be illuminated. In the process of a recent evaluation, I returned several times to the basic points the author advises one should keep in mind in the planning stage. This saved the evaluation f r o m digressing d o w n m a n y potentially interesting but tangential paths. Especially instructive to novice evaluators is the author's warning that "subjectivity of j u d g m e n t as to collection quality or adequacy can be reduced by a careful selection of both collection-centered and c l i e n t - c e n t e r e d m e a s u r e m e n t techniques." The second and third chapters provide information about c o l l e c t i o n - c e n t e r e d measures and clientcentered measures. These chapters are the heart
SERIALS REVIEW
WINTER 1986
71
of the manual. L i k e the first chapter, they are clear and concise, w e l l - o r g a n i z e d , and easy to f o l low. The f o u r t h chapter deals with assessments for special purposes, and the f i f t h shows how to organize and d o c u m e n t the results of the assessment. The appendixes o f this manual are especially useful. The b i b l i o g r a p h y is divided into three sections: sources cited, surveys and reviews of the literature, and s u p p l e m e n t a r y sources. The first two sections can save an evaluator a great deal of original research time. The other appendixes cover statistical aids, accrediting groups, sample survey instruments, and various library standards. The statistical aids a p p e n d i x includes both a sample size table and a r a n d o m n u m b e r table. The a p pendix containing the sample survey instruments is indicative of the n o n p r e s c r i p t i v e a p p r o a c h taken by the author t h r o u g h o u t the manual; some of the worst questions I have ever read in a survey are included, as are some of the b e s t - c o n s t r u c t e d
questions. It is h a n d y to have so m a n y library standards in one place, but naturally the Standards f o r College Libraries were superseded shortly after Hall's book was published. (See College Library Standards C o m m i t t e e , "Standards for College Libraries, 1986," College & Research Libraries News, 47 (March 1986), 189.) By their nature, manuals are subject to obsolescence more quickly than m o r e theoretical works. Because Hall is careful to avoid prescribing detailed p r o c e d u r e s that must be followed in e v e r y evaluation, and because he has done such an a d m i r a b l e job of s u m m a r i z i n g the literature on this topic, this b o o k should retain its usefulness for m a n y years to come. And, despite the title, librarians working in public and special libraries will also benefit f r o m reading Hall's Collection Assessment Manual for
College and University Librarians. Barbara Van Deventer Van Deventer is the Curator for Social Science Collections at Stanford U n i v e r s i t y Libraries.
@
72
SERIALS REVIEW
WINTER 1986