College and Research Libraries


and public libraries (a pattern which the 
report does not openly acknowledge) . The 
survey data base therefore rests upon a 
highly irregular foundation which includes, 
for example, responses from 86 percent of 
the large libraries in the survey universe 
but less than 6 percent of the school and 
public libraries in this universe. Another 
questionable feature of this survey was the 
limitation of the personal interviews to pro-
cessing centers and large libraries. 

This study offers much to the reader, in-
cluding a series of thought-provoking com-
ments, such as Comaromi's observation, "in 
most libraries visited . . . the DDC is now 
used in a mark and park fashion" (p.59); 
however, this study is marred by various 
shortcomings, including not only those men-
tioned above but also numerous lesser flaws 
such as the ill-conceived wording of survey 

· question 21 and the erroneous reference to 
Table 10 on page 30. Despite such short-
comings, this study should not be over-
looked by anyone who is vitally concerned 
with the present state and future prospects 
of the DDC.-Robert L. Mowery, Human-
ities Librarian, Illinois Wesleyan U niversi-
ty, Bloomington, Illinois. 

Woodbury, Marda. A Guide to Sources of 
Educational Information. Washington, 
D.C.: Information Resources Press, 1976. 
371p. $25.00 plus postage and handling. 
(LC 75-37116) (ISBN 0-87815-015-3) 
Naturally, the bulk of any "guide to the 

literature" must necessarily be devoted to 
annotated lists of reference resources. In my 
opinion, however, those guides succeed or 
fail on the introduction they give to the 
use of the literature, i.e., the searching 
process. Woodbury's book makes a refresh-
ingly unique and quite literate stab at pro-
viding the library novice with a practical 
guide to searching the education literature. 

She starts with a useful table of catego-
ries such as "yearly summaries," "hot news," 
"government documents," etc., which direct 
one to the correct type of reference re-
source, thus effectively indexing the chap-
ters on resources. A detailed outline of the 
searching process and a checklist of ques-
tions asked when negotiating a reference 
question follow. Some of the tables and fig-
ures reflect the excellent information ser-

Recent Publications I 11 

vices work done by the Far West Labora-
tory for Educational Research and Develop-
ment and other regional labs. 

The traditional, although well written, 
annotations of printed resources are supple-
mented by a section on nonprint sources, 
such as agencies and computerized biblio-
graphic searching services, 

The index of this book is good as is the 
technical quality. Its strong point, however, 
is definitely the innovative approach to ex-
plaining searching. Its weak point is the 
outrageous price, $25.00~ which is out of 
line even considering inflation. All in all, 
Woodbury's manual is clear and concise 
and should be an excellent source for 
those users of educational resources who 
can afford it.-]ames Doyle, Learning Me-
dia Center, Macomb Co. Community Col-
lege, Warren, Michigan. 

Langridge, D. W. Classification and Index-
ing in the Humanities. London: Butter-
worths, 1976. 143p. $11.95. (ISBN 0-
408-70777-1) . (Available from Butter-
worths, 19 Cummings Park, Woburn, 
MA 01801.) 
This title is a bit misleading-the book 

is p:r;imarily a treatise on the application of 
faceted classification principles to human-
ities subjects, with a brief nod to other ap-
proaches to indexing. 

The author begins with a general discus-
sion of the value of classification, especially 
for bibliography, followed by an attempt 
to define the "humanities." The main part 
of the work is a detailed discussion of the 
special features of each humanities subject, 
the consideration necessary in classifying 
it, and its treatment in the major schemes 
now used in libraries. A special classifica-
tion for the sport of cricket provides a dem-
onstration of the principles elucidated. The 
author concludes with brief comments on 
thesaurus construction, book indexing, and 
the like. 

The British approach appears not only 
in the theory presented, and in such things 
as the use of cricket as an example and the 
inclusion of history as a humanity, but also 
in the denigration of postcoordinate index-
ing and an almost total disregard for the 
computer, with the only mechanized system 
noted in any detail a peekaboo card file. 



72 I College & Research Libraries • January 1977 

On balance, this is a useful addition to 
the literature of classification, which has 
been heavily weighted toward the hard sci-
ences, and provides the long needed com-
plement to the works on classification in the 
sciences of B. C. Vickery and social sciences 
of D. J. Foskett by the same publisher . . We 
still need, however, an approach to the hu-
manities storage and retrieval which recog-
nizes the advances in technology of the 
postwar period.-]ames H. Sweetland, Li-
brary Services Division, The Boys Town 
Center for the Study of Youth Develop-
ment, Omaha, Nebraska. 

Kilgour, Frederick G. The Library and In-
formation Science Cumlndex. The Infor-
mation Access Series, V.7. Los Altos, 
Calif.: The R&D Press, 1976. 722p. 
$55.00. (LC 72-86076) (ISBN 0-88274-
006-7) 
Immediate access through an interfiled 

cumulation of the back-of-book indexes of 
the basic sources in one's discipline would 
seem to be a boon for research among the 
ideas of the masters while also providing 
the quick reference for an immediate ques-
tion. In using such a tool, one would as-
sume that historical background as well as 
fairly current information could be located 
for important subjects although the newest 
information, understandably, would still be 
the purview of journal literature. 

In this case the theory has merit but, un-
fortunately, some basic assumptions about 
accuracy, editorial work, and data base se-
lection are questionable. The basis for this 
volume is a group of ninety-six library and 
information science works of which one 
(the newest) is a 1972 imprint. The 
sources have an average publication date 
of 1966. As might be expected, recent ideas 
are absent from the work. The one entry 
found .indexed under "Ohio College Library 
Center," for example, is located in a 1964 
library trustee's handbook. On the other 
hand, several descriptions are available for 
the older Union Library Catalogue of Penn-
sylvania. One can find the "Congressional 
Set" or the "Sheep Set" but not the "Serial 
Set." 

Without a doubt the editorial work and 
computer programs required to- merge nine-
ty-six different lists of index · terms repre-

sent a tremendous effort. The final product, 
however, is less than adequate. Entries on 
data processing are found under that term 
and under at least seven other terms but 
with cross references to only five of the 
seven. Under "ALA" the user is told to 
"see" and to "see also" the American Li-
brary Association (page 17) but under the 
"American Library Association" (page 24) 
there is no reference to "ALA" as a possible 
subject heading. 

In some cases the work is misleading. 
The Cumlndex entry "Smith, E.," for ex-
ample, yields upon inspection of the cited 
books, a Mrs. Eleanor Smith, a Eugene R. 
Smith, and a reference to S. E. Smith. 
Clearly these do not represent the same 
person and should not have been grouped 
together. There are some interesting list-
ings such as the "abandonment of place-
ment service" by ALA but no entry under 
"placement service" for the association. Are 
we to believe that ALA does not aid unem-
ployed librarians? There is the intriguing 
"pitty pat" and even the "Zmpact factor" 
(actually the impact factor). There are use-
less headings such as "Do's and don'ts of 
book repairing" (look under "Do") that 
have been inherited from less than ade-
quate original indexes. Such questionable 
entries appear in sufficient quantity to be-
come bothersome. 

The idea has potential. Because it groups 
together, in one easy-to-read listing, the 
topics of several basic texts, the Cumlndex 
might be considered for purchase by library 
school libraries. For other collections, how-
ever, it is not recommended.-Scott Brunt-
jen, Associate Professor · and Head, Refer-
ence-Circulation Departments, Library, 
Shippensburg State College, Shippensburg, 
Pennsylvania. · 

Schell, Hal B., ed. Reader on the Library 
Building. Reader Series in Library and 
Information Science. Englewood, Colo-
rado: Microcard Editions Books, 1975. 
359p. $18.95. (LC 73-93967) (ISBN 
0-910972-43-5) 
The library building boom in the United 

States has all but ended with only a trickle 
of projects still being planned or construct-
ed, albeit some of these are big ones-the 
James Madison Building of the Library of