College and Research Libraries 78 I College & Research Libraries • January 1973 libraries. The only worthwhile pages (three) are excerpts from Richard DeBury's famous Philobiblion. They give the flavor of DeBury' s times and convey his concern about books. In his essay on Alexandrian Libraries Dunlap mentions Callimachus' Pinakes, but he. neither describes them, nor do we learn about the contributions of the Alexandrian Librarians to the production and organiza- tion of documents, which are of such amaz- ing actuality today. About the Middle Ages we read at best some details of monastic book production, but the library development of the Caro- lingian period remains totally dark. The Petrac selection is taken from Mary Elton's The Great Book- Collections published in 1893, when much of the currently available Petrac material was not known. The obsolescence of the book is also re- flected in the bibliography: Of the twenty- six titles from which the author has taken his selections, twelve have been published prior to World War I. In addition, the bib- liography is incomplete, since it does not include the great number of sources which are quoted in the authors own essays and his commentary. Only one of the nine illustrations shows a library. The others show a few writing utensils and famous authors. Among the latter is a charming picture of a round- headed St. Jerome in his cell, nonauthentic, of course, and reproduced with a blur. For five pictures the sources are identified. I understand that a practicing and highly respected librarian retains a love for his- tory, and that he wants to share what he has collected in "innumerable hours of browsing and gleaning" in the "extensive collection of the University of Iowa." I do not understand a publisher who accepts a manuscript that shows neither adequate knowledge of the subject, nor the informa- tion currently available. The only purpose of this book is the setting of a sad example for what should not be perpetuated in li- brary literature.-Antfe B. Lemke, Syracuse University, School of Library Science. Palmer, Richard P. Computerizing the Card Catalog in the University Library; A Survey of User Requirements. Little- ton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.; 1972. $8.50. This book is the result of work done by Dr. Palmer on a dissertation for the Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Michigan. I think the title of the disserta- tion (User Requirements of a University Li- brary Card Catalog) more aptly describes the content of the book than does the title of the printed book. There are several typo- graphical errors in the text. Having made the negative comments, there is much posi- tive comment to make. Dr. Frederick H. Wagman, director of University Libraries, University of Michi- gan, requested Dr. Palmer to undertake a use study of the union catalog at the Uni- versity of Michigan for the purpose of de- termining what data elements now appear- ing on a catalog card would be necessary in a computer catalog in order to satisfy the users' requirements. Dr. Palmer proceeded to do the study by reviewing twenty card catalog use studies and two surveys of use studies. Each of these studies is listed and synthesized un- der the headings "Purpose," "Methodolo- gy," "Relevant Findings." This section of the book is very useful as a research tool for persons interested in the use of the card catalog studies that have been done. The remaining sections of the book con- sist of a report of methodology used by Pal- mer in his survey, the findings, and the con- clusion. Dr. Palmer has made a valuable contri- bution to the body of literature available on the use of the card catalog. Kenneth Shaffer, in his introduction to the book, states: "Dr. Palmer's findings ... , are startling. He learned that 84 percent of all users found what they were seeking in the cata- logue, and that a preponderance of cata- logue use was by graduate students. Again, the preponderance of use of the catalogue, 70 percent, was for known-item searches, a statistic which he points out is higher than was found in previous studies. But paramount to his principal objective, he found that 84 percent of those who used the card catalog during the survey period would have found a five-item computer cat- alogue sufficient. [The five-items looked for most frequently were title, author, call number (including location), subject head- ing, date of publication.] If a contents note were added to make a sixth-item, 90 per- cent of users would have found a computer catalogue sufficient for their purposes." The above statement sums up the major points of the study relevant to a computer- ized catalog. The complete study, however, contains a great deal more information that will be of interest to catalogers, reference librarians, library administrators, and all li- brarians concerned about the usefulness of the card catalog. Dr. Palmer has been absolutely honest in his text about the relevance of his study to computerizing the card catalog. He ad- mits that his study does not answer a num- ber of questions that must be answered be- fore we can make wise decisions to develop reduced-data records for a computer cata- log. He strongly recommends that much ad- ditional research and a great deal of cost- ing be done before decisions are made. Some of the questions he poses are ( 1) Would the cost of adding certain informa- tion to a computer catalog be offset by in- creased benefits to the user? (2) Is the most economical place to provide certain types of bibliographical information in card catalogs, book catalogs, bibliographies, or in the materials themselves? ( 3) Is the val- ue of certain catalog information to a small number of users, such as faculty [faculty re- ported using a greater number of data ele- ments on catalog cards than other groups of users] so great that the information must be included in future catalogs, regardless of the catalog's type or configuration? ( 4) Should only a portion of the catalog be computerized? In short, Dr. Palmer has provided us with a useful compilation of card catalog use studies, a valid catalog user study that is meaningful because the methodology em- ployed was sound, and a discussion of what we will have to do before making decisions regarding computerizing catalogs. Dr. Palmer does not touch directly on all the facets of the computer catalog question, but his book does bring to mind such ques- tions as ( 1) How complete must the cata- log record be? What data must be includ- ed? ( 2) What is the relationship of the na- tional bibliographic record to the local in- house bibliographic record? Should these Recent Publications I 79 duplicate each other or can they compli- ment each other? Should they both be in machine-readable form? ( 3) Is the catalog a research tool or a location/ identification tool? ( 4) How relevant is the experience of the National Lending Library of Great Britain to us? (The user is required to con- sult printed bibliographies issued by bodies other than the National Lending Library to identify books before requesting them. ) ( 5) Should we in North America adopt the same philosophy as the British regarding retrospective conversion of catalog records? (The BNB MARC records begin at a given time and will be developed from that time forward. No effort will be made to convert catalog records earlier than the determined date. The user will have to use the printed bibliographies or the card catalog for pre- MARC records.) I recommend Dr. Palmer's book as a use- ful and thought-provoking contribution to the existing body of card catalog literature. -Ralph E. Stierwalt, University of West- ern Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. OTHER BOOKS OF INTEREST TO ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS Dupuy, T. N., and Blanchard, W. The Almanac of World Military Power. New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1972. 373p. $22.50. (72-2636). (ISBN: 0-8352-0587-8) . Leyda, Jay. Dianying: Electric Shadows. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1972. 515p. $12.50. (78-175719). (ISBN: 0-262-12046-1). Hawley, Willis D., and Svara, James H., eds. The Study of Community Power: A Bibliographic Review. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC, Clio Press, 1972. 123p. $4.85. ( 72-83287) . ( SBN 0-87 436- 978-7). Wasserman, Paul, ed. Library and Informa- tion Science Today List 1972. New York: