College and Research Libraries BOOK REVIEWS Case Studies in Systems Analysis in a University Library. Ed. by Barton R. Burkhalter. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1968. 186p. $7.50 (67-12070). This brief volume is a contribution to li- brary administration. In their more sober moments most library administrators admit that their sophistication with the technical aspects of management probably does not approach that of the man of the house in the days of "cottage industry." To improve somewhat on this situation, the administra- tion of the library at the University of Michigan has a program labelled "Opera- tions Research," staffed by graduate en- gineers as supervisors on a part-time basis, using the part-time help of students in the university's engineering school. The program deliberately employs the more conventional tools of industrial en- gineering, such as work measurement and sampling, methods improvement, and breakdown cost analysis. The desire is to profit from the results of the studies, and the proposed engineering applications, if accepted, are always implemented. Fur- thermore, they are considered successful only if specific problems are alleviated or, best of all, solved. This has meant that the libraty depart- ment heads are fully involved in the ap- plication of the "improvements" suggested by engineering techniques, from the first steps of participating in data collection, on into creation, and then to implementation. Thus communication inadequacy is mim- mized and library staff involvement maxi- mized. Twelve case studies are given in detail ranging from a short five pages describing one project up to one case study totalling twenty-nine pages. Calculations in very elementary mathematics, charts, tables, and diagrams abound. The clarity of pres- Recent Publications entation which only comes when a num- ber of writers and users have gone over a report again and again is everywhere evi- dent and in most cases of marked value. No knowledge of advanced statistical tech- niques or linear programming is required to understand the results. The contents relate signillcantly to circu- lation work in libraries-studies of book renewals, overdues, chargeout periods, standardized circulation arrangements in divisional (or departmental) libraries, book reshelving, exterior book return systems, exit controls. Case studies of these make up the specillc content of five of the chap- ters. Accounting and cost analysis for peri- odical replacement, photocopying, and Xe- rox expense are detailed in four studies. Inventory, book re-labeling, and seating deployment problems are investigated in other chapters. In the introduction the editor mentions one very costly library area which is not in- vestigated: "This collection of case studies contains nothing in the area of technical services, a significant shortcoming, simply because no important studies had been concluded in technical services at the time of this writing" (Introduction, p. 8). Perhaps Mr. Burkhalter is telling us more than he says; perhaps techniCal process- ing's key cost, namely salaries, involves a type of intellectual work not easily investi- gated by standard industrial engineering techniques. However, even if this be the case, very substantial among processing functions is the physical transfer of books and cards from "here to there" and some- times back again, unfortunately sometimes on the same path, too. Also, there is too frequent confusion of professional and clerical motion and time elements in proc- essing troubling many acquisition super- visors and head catalogers. This is quite aside from the intellectual levels that should mark the professional from the clerical contributions. We hope Dr. Robert I 63 64 I College & Research Libraries • January 1969 Muller, Associate Director at Michigan, and Mr. Burkhalter may soon also reveal to us some costs of the physical side of processing. The statement above certainly indicates, albeit indirectly, that they have been contemplating this area. In conclusion, this short volume could be the start of a management literature that will meet an unfilled and obvious need of library administrative staffs and library sci- ence professors and their students. It is al- so right now a useful book to show to those important laymen (presidents, trus- tees, foundation directors , government offi- cials, legislators, etc .) who so often tell us they cannot understand why libraries cost so much. This volume shows in a convinc- ing and somewhat frightening way where and how fast the library money goes.-John H. Moriarty, Purdue University. Organization and Handling of Biblio- graphic Records by Computer. Ed. by Nigel S. M. Cox and Michael W. Grose. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1967. xvi, 192p. $12.00 (67-30792). Because of scarce resources and their typi- cal astuteness, the British are straightfor- wardly laying their own preconditions for successful computerization. This volume is a report of activities associated with a leading "center of excellence." It extends on a less abstract plane the instructive primer by Cox, Dews, and Dolby of 1966. It is also a summary of several U.K. ad- vances since the plans announced at the Brasenose Conference at Oxford the same year. In conh·ast to our own relative abun- dance, the biggest danger to the British effort appears to b e a waning of financial momentum. As Professor E. S. Page re- marks in a keynote address, "it must be understood by those with the resources to sponsor research that full scale operation of a computer system on bibliographic problems is necessary for further advance and may demand their support however routine the operation may appear at a cas- ual glance." In technical quality of design work, the British are at pains to avoid a major illness to which their American op- posite numbers have frequently been sub- ject: half-bakedness. This collection of papers was presented at a seminar held at the University of New- castle upon Tyne in July 1967. The pro- ceedings comprise seven sections organized around four themes. Half of the sixteen contributions deal with the Newcastle computer file handling sys- tem and a number of projects to which it is being applied. A remarkable thing about the Newcastle group is that they are both researchers and developers, compared to most similar U.S. activities. As Cox and Dews point out in the lead paper, they wished to create an experimental, flexible string manipulation and analysis system, comprised of generalized routines and ap- plicable to a wide class of data forms , large files, and highly-structured non-nu- meric information handling problems. As have American workers, they found that manufacturer supplied software was in- adequate, and so they undertook to write their own. The panoply of character-han- dling and list processing problems to which their system is addressed is a model sum- mary of requirements for computer spe- cialists new to the library application. A second paper by Dews describes the computer editing and printing of a union list of periodicals which was the first tested use of the Newcastle package. Duncan dis- cusses the upgrading of the output pres- entation capability of the computer in processing language data. He suggests that graphic arts quality intermediate output products will be the wave of the future, derived ultimately from wholly digital stores . Reviewing hardware capabilities and economics, he concludes that compu- ter-produced book catalogs will be simi- lar to newspaper production when volume justifies it. In other applications, Hunt outlines one of the first uses this reviewer has seen of machine records for the preparation of catalogs of older books as a true "bibliog- rapher's tool" complete with an augment- ed descriptive format. Russell presents re- sults on a documentation and dissemina- tion system for literature of interest to the staff of the Newcastle group itself. Of wider interest is the work reported by