College and Research Libraries


Book Reviews 
Primer for Agricultural Libraries. By 

Dorothy Parker, Frank C. Hirst, Theo-
door P. Loosjes, and Gerrit Koster. Ox-
ford: International Association of Agri-
cultural Libraries and Documentalists, 
1967. 72p. 

The authors of this slender volume (two of 
whom would more properly be called com-
pilers) have produced an admirable guide 
for secretaries and others who have had 
thrust upon them the task of organizing 
and operating an agricultural library serv-
ice, without previous training or expe-
rience. The number of such individuals 
must be very large indeed, for agricultural 
research stations have multiplied rapidly 
these past two decades in the urgent quest 
for ways to produce enough food to sup-
port vastly increased numbers of people. 

Dr. Parker's introductory chapter makes 
abundantly clear the widely diversified 
fields of science embraced in agricultural 
practice and research. It also underscores 
the tremendous challenge confronting ag-
ricultural librarians in assisting researchers 
to chart paths through the ever-thickening 
forest of the literature of agriculture and 
related sciences. 

Her description of the ways in which agri-
cultural scientists use publications, and of 
the role librarians can play in making that 
use fruitful and effective, will effectively 
broaden the horizons of persons coming 
untrained to the task. The practical aspects 
of building a collection of materials and of 
developing reference and other services 
are outlined in a helpful and stimulating 
way. 

The specifics of library practice are dealt 
with in Frank Hirst's section of the Primer 
with great thoroughness and clarity. From 
suggestions concerning selection of materi-
als and their acquisition, he moves on to 
measures designed to exploit book-and-
journal information and create an aware-
ness of current research developments. He 
treats also, in relatively simple terms, of 
classification, cataloging, and storage of 

library materials. Rounding out this section 
is a somewhat less explicit, although quite 
helpful, consideration of reference and cir-
culation functions in the small agricultural 
library. 

The final section of the volume is an in-
valuable compilation of tools put together 
by Messrs. Loojes and Koster. Librarians of 
large as well as small agricultural libraries 
will do well to consult this list of biblio-
graphical tools, abstracting journals and serv-
ices, and broad annual reviews, because 
of its comprehensive coverage. 

This edition is labeled "preliminary," for 
IAALD definitely plans to revise and ex-
pand this Primer. A good beginning has 
been made, one that admirably meets a 
pressing need.—Fleming Bennett, Univer-
sity of Florida. 

Copying Methods Manual. By William R. 
Hawken. ("LTP Publications, no. 11" 
[Chicago: ALA 1966].) 375p. $15. (66-
25095). 

In 1936 Robert C. Binkley published his 
now classic Manual on Methods of Repro-
ducing Research Materials. Long out of 
date from a purely technical standpoint, 
Binkley's work is still valuable for its many 
fundamental insights into basic aspects of 
reprography (a silly word, but apparently 
well grafted into the vocabularies of Eu-
ropean languages). 

Mr. Hawken, one of the most respected 
technicians in the business, has written a 
literate and highly dependable work 
which covers the field comprehensively. It 
is in four major sections, viz., factors affect-
ing the characteristics of copies; the physi-
cal characteristics of research materials; 
processes; and methods and techniques. It 
is extensively illustrated, and even the 
novice in any branch of reprography will 
be able to use the work without difficulty 
in understanding terminology or technical 
explanations. 

The author makes cautious evaluations and 
explanations about specific equipment, 

/ 517 



518 / College <Lr Research Libraries • November 1968 

machines, and processes. He points out, 
for example, the economies of micro-
opaques, not generally understood by schol-
ars, or even librarians. He provides spe-
cific addresses from which detailed informa-
tion may be secured. The glossary and 
bibliographical essay (by Allen B. Veaner) 
are useful addenda, although the latter 
could be improved by better coverage of 
European literature. Charles F. Gosnell's 
concise essay on copyright as applied to 
document reproduction pulls together the 
vast body of material on this subject and, 
incidentally, is an effective contradiction 
to an equally large corpus of misinforma-
tion. 

Of special interest to those who still care 
for the physical condition, form, size, and 
even feel and smell of a book is Mr. Hawk-
en's concern for the effect of copying on 
the original. Photographers, circulation peo-
ple, and rare book folk should study these 
sections diligently. Too often microphotog-
raphy as well as full-size facsimile copying 
have been categorically condemned because 
of a careless operator, or a rare book li-
brarian who permitted a book to be copied 
without giving specific handling instructions. 
The clear, sharp photographs and diagrams 
in this section are especially pertinent. 

The one great deficiency of this work, or 
of any comparable one, is that it probably 
will be out-of-date within a year. The rapid 
changes in copying technology will make 
almost any book on this subject virtually 
obsolete soon after publication. The Library 
Technology Project might well consider a 
newsletter adjusted to style and organiza-
tion of the Copying Methods Manual. If it 
is cumulative and well indexed, it could be 
a valuable interim reference tool between 
editions of Hawken.—Lawrence S. Thomp-
son, University of Kentucky. 

Diffusion of Abstracting and Indexing 
Services for Government-Sponsored Re-
search. By Irving M. Klempner. Metuchen, 
N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1968. 319p. (67-
12065). 

To most librarians scientific and technical 
reports are a monstrous nuisance: trouble-

some to locate, acquire, inventory, store, 
and use. The distribution of reports is hap-
hazard, and the amount, kind, and qual-
ity of information in them is extremely 
varied. Nevertheless, the report has be-
come a viable medium among the range 
of devices for recording and disseminating 
information on science. In the field of 
atomic energy, the distribution of AEC re-
ports to depositories and the indexing of 
the reports in Nuclear Science Abstracts is 
considered sufficient dissemination to con-
stitute publication, at least according to 
the editors of a few journals. 

These same channel characteristics create 
problems for scientists and engineers. Sci-
entific and technical reports are known to 
contain a considerable amount of useful 
information, not only for the primary pur-
poses for which it has been developed, but 
also for other, perhaps disparate applica-
tions. The report channel obviously needs 
to have applied to it those elements of 
management (e.g. peer evaluation, an-
nouncement, and control of access by sub-
ject) that will allow the information in re-
ports to pass economically into the hands 
of those who can extract value from it. Be-
cause the traditional indexing and ab-
stracting services are oriented towards for-
mally published information in journals 
and books, and tend to exclude the vast 
number of technical reports, the Federal 
government has assumed the task of an-
nouncing and providing intellectual access 
to information in reports. It does this 
through four published services, namely: 
Nuclear Science Abstracts, U.S. Govern-
ment Research and Development Reports, 
Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports, 
and Technical Abstracts Bidletin. These 
services were the objects of Dr. Klempner's 
attention in this study. 

The important underlying assumptions in 
Dr. Klempner's research are "that the uti-
lization of technical information can be ac-
celerated and intensified through the pur-
poseful exploitation of national documen-
tation center abstracting and indexing serv-
ices," and that "if imaginatively distrib-
uted and used, the services can, in effect, 
act as social instruments capable of pro-