College and Research Libraries .• Recent Publications I 183 fective cooperative acquisitions program subjects and the libraries responsible for which would insure that one copy of every them, conclude the volume. A brief Eng- publication of current or potential scholarly !ish-language summary of main points ac- importance would find its way into some companies the volume, but, for thorough German research library and would become understanding of the system and its work- available to all users in the Federal Repub- ing, one must have access to the German lie through efficient information and inter- text. library loan services. A classified subject This description of a fascinating plan to scheme was devised, and certain libraries develop a national research collection is of with staffs capable of selecting and acquir- intrinsic interest but also implicitly raises ing the materials and administrative officers questions related to the general merit of a willing to assume what became national re- decentralized versus a centralized approach sponsibilities were assigned one or more to national resource development. Contrast subject categories. They were urged to col- German federal spending, for example, with lect creatively and comprel:ieiisTvely~ In ie~ ---the -aborted Farmingfon--P1an,- the approxi- turn, the GRS provided funds for acquisi- mate American equivalent of the GRS tions, salaries, and equipment in the par- scheme, which relied solely on local means ticipating libraries and served as the central to satisfy what were defined as national coordinating organization. needs. Although even generous support has This important "Memorandum" analyzes not solved all problems, one does wonder, the program's strengths and weaknesses, de- amid the general discussion of a national scribes the organizational changes and up- information system for the United States dating needed to make it more effective, and the financial potential of revenue shar- and considers such issues as whether a na- ing, whether the GRS plan is not suggestive tional lending library on the British model of a means to help maintain the unique should replace the decentralized system and collections in some research libraries faun- whether additional central subject libraries dering amid rising costs and diminished should be created. Among the weaknesses local financing.-Erwin K. Welsch, Me- are the problems of adequately defining re- morial Library, University of Wisconsin- sponsibilities when traditional subject clivi- Madison. sions are being eroded by new fields, such as environmental studies; the varying in- Veit, Fritz. The Community College Li- tensities of collection development among brary. Contributions in Librarianship and the participating libraries (evidently some Information Science, Number 14. West- were not being sufficiently comprehensive port, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1975. in their collecting); and a cumbersome in- 221p. $13.95. (LC 72-843) (ISBN 0- terlibrary loan system. Judged against these 8371-6412-5) deficiencies were the development and ac- The literature of the community college cess for scholars of subject specialist li- library has been enriched by Dr. Veit's mas- brarians, the future of collections which terful presentation in this state-of-the-art have been developed through this program, volume. It is comprehensive, well docu- and the inability to show that within the mented, and readable. As the author indi- German context centralization would be cates, it is intended not only for students more effective. On balance the GRS opted in the field, but also for community college to continue the present program but recom- library staffs and the general reader. An in- mended many changes to make it more re- dex facilitates the location of references to sponsive to current needs, among them pro- specific aspects of library operation. vision of additional funds for certain tech- Dr. Veit defines his terms explaining that nical services, for travel for specialist li- "community college" refers to all public brarians, and for other costs unique to the postsecondary two-year institutions and that subjects being covered. Discussions of the "library" includes both the traditional li- need for a central lending library are also brary and the learning resource center. The to continue. author points out that the community col- Several appendixes, including the list of lege library is similar in many respects to 184 I College & Research Libraries • March 1976 other college libraries. However, the com- munity college library is diHerent in that it must support the goals and programs of the unique institution of which it is a part. A discussion of the historical develop- ment of community colleges in the United States precedes chapters on personnel;· ad- ministrative organization; technical ser- vices; learning materials and equipment; microforms; user services ; cooperation and extension of service; standards and guide- lines; planning the building; and "Move- ments and Developments with Strong Im- pact." Details abound, including everything from comments on on-approval order plans to a discussion of examples of television operations. Statistical tables, library floor plans, and organization charts illustrate the text. Bib- liographies are included at the end of each chapter. Frequent references to the prac- tices in community college libraries across the country are interspersed in the text. The chapter on standards and guidelines deals specifically with e·fforts of the Associa- tion of College and Research Libraries to formulate national standards for community college libraries~ and there is frequent ref- erence to the 1972 Guidelines throughout the text. Reference is also made to state standards such as those in Washington, California, and lllinois. Although the text is factual for the most part, Dr. Veit interjects his own opinions or recommendations from time to time. In the chapter on technical services, the fol- lowing statement appears (p.93): "It is more difficult to maintain a multi-media catalog than separate catalogs for book and non-book media." Similarly, in the chapter on learning materials and equipment, the following is stated (p.103): "A community college should very closely consider the implications of becoming a government publications depository, especially a federal depository." Some information in the text is unavoid- ably dated. It is hoped that the reader will consult library literature to learn recent de- velopments in the operation of the Ohio College Library Center, for example, or to secure current evaluations of dial-access systems. Dr. Veit has painstakingly assembled a wealth of information which should admir- ably serve the needs of the uninitiated.- Alice B. Griffith, Library Director, Mohawk Valley Community College, Utica, New York. Ingram, K. E., and Jefferson, Albertina A., eds. Libraries and the Challenge of Change. Papers of the International Li- brary Conference held in Kingston, Ja- maica, 24-29 April 1972. Published for the Jamaica Library Association and the Jamaica Library Service. London: Man- sell, 1975. 265p. $20.00. (ISBN 0-7201- 0523-4) Distributed in North America by International Scholarly Book Services, Inc., P.O. Box 4347, Portland, OR 97208. I should admit to begin with that the papers of a conference are not my favorite literature, but since I was prevented by cir- cumstances from attending this conference and had heard good things about it, I agreed to review the publication. rm glad I did. Held under the sponsorship of the Ja- maica Library Association, with the govern- ment of Jamaica and the Jamaica Library Service as cosponsors, the conference was designed to "focus the attention of the public, of government and of other agencies upon the role and value of libraries and upon the nature of the profession of librari- anship ... " with the hope of "winning for them a greater measure of moral and finan- cial support in these tasks"-a noble pur- pose for the Caribbean area where such support is certainly needed~ Each of the ten sessions was devoted to a different topic: public, national, university, and spe- cial libraries; libraries for youth; library ed- ucation; technology; UNESCO; coopera- tion; national plans; and professional asso- ciations. Typically, an internationally rec- ognized representative of the specialty was invited to speak on the topic in general, followed by a Jamaican representative who discussed the local and/ or Caribbean situa- tion. The discussion which ensued in each session was synopsized by the editors from . tape recordings. Without exception, the papers are well constructed and informative. It may, there- fore, be misleading to single out any for ...,, l