College and Research Libraries 438 I College & Research Libraries • September 1977 tion, System) model. His best contribution is found in his explanation of the EFDR . chain (Evaluation, Feedback, Decision, Re- cycling). Although this, too, is already in library planning literature, it has never been explained better. Goldberg's result is very similar to a 1965 framework for plan- ning and control systems. Of course, that was done by a "business" person. Few librarians will question the value that intellectual methodology offers library decision makers in selecting among alterna- tive models for library planning. All that Goldberg develops is correct. It has to be, for it is well documented in the litera- ture. The result is a reinvention of the wheel. Admittedly, it is nicely reinvented. What bothers me most about the book is that it runs the risk of being used as a rea- son not to plan. That is, potential planners might question the value of planning if it took a whole volume just to describe a model. Planners might become so involved with the intellectual process that they end up not able to do any planning. The fact is, there are many planning models being used by library planners. This was true when Goldberg began his re- search. I would have much preferred it if Goldberg had spent his time and energies describing how planning was being done successfully. Planning was alive and well in Nebraska, Washington, Tulsa, New York, and other places. Librarians could have benefited from a study of these successful models, and most importantly, librarians could have benefitted from Goldberg's pen being put to this activity. Library management is moving forward in new ways which will affect far more than program development. Every activity is al- ready being affected. Not only are pro- grams being planned, so are projects. It is not a matter of choosing a "closed" or "open" model, but a matter of getting start- ed with any model. Borrowing from an English proverb-goose, gander, and gos- ling are three sounds, but one thing.-Rob- ert E. Kemper, Director of Libraries, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff. Bryan, Harrison. University Libraries in Britain: A New Look. London: Clive Bingley; Hamden, Conn.: Linnet, 1976. 192p. $8.50. LC 76-15273. ISBN 0- 85157-218-9 Bingley; 0-208-01532-9 Lin- net. Granted leave from the University of Queensland in 1957-58, Harrison Bryan undertook a six-month visit to university li- braries in Great Britain, preparing a thesis recording his views of English academic librarianship. Unfortunately for the profes- sion, eight years were to pass before the Li- braries Board of South Australia published his report, entitled A Critical Survey of University Libraries and Librarianship in Great Britain. Eighteen years later in 1975, Harrison Bryan, now university librarian of the U ni- versity of Sydney, again had a study leave to survey English university libraries. Hap- pily, only one year was to pass before the report of his new survey, the volume under review, was published. It is an .excellent re- port. In his introduction Bryan warns of the problems of covering adequately the sixty- one libraries he visited in a six-month period. He terms himself a "taster of librar- ies," albeit one who has supplemented his brief visits with further reading and study. There are two particular features to this volume which give it a very special value. First, as "a new look," the volume uses the previous report from 1957-58 as a base against which comparisons are made of English academic library development. It was a period of major growth for all aca- demic libraries, reaching its peak with the Parry Report of 1967, giving official sup- port to the need for increasing financial support to university libraries, but coming back rudely to earth less than a decade later with the 1976 report of the Atkinson committee (reviewed in the July 1977 issue of C&RL) with its concept of the self-re- newing library. Bryan anticipates the con- clusions of this committee in his discussions of collections and buildings. Second, throughout the volume Bryan compares the state of English academic libraries with the condition of those in his homeland. Bryan's pride at Australian achievements is evidenced throughout. But for the non-English non-Australian reader this volume has a double value as it intra- duces one to the libraries of two different, yet related, nations. There is a short introductory chapter on the development of higher education in Great Britain. The volume then is divided into two principal parts. The first features individual chapters on such topics as fi- nances, collections, buildings, staff, tech- nical services, reader services, automation, and relations outside the university. Bryan has prepared a number of tables to sum- marize some of this data, including sever- al comparisons with Australian institutions. The second part discusses in several chapters individual libraries, according to basic type-Oxbridge, Scottish greystone, London, civic universities (divided among "the big four," "the lesser five," and "the second generation"), Wales, the "new foun- dations" (primarily those schools estab- lished since the time of Bryan's earlier visit), and the "translations" (universities which were formerly colleges of advanced technology or similar instilutions). Al- though this section may have a particular reference value, the reader unfamiliar with the territory will find it less rewarding as the many libraries, each too briefly dis- cussed, lose their individual identities. Maps and photographs would have proved a major asset. Although the volume is less than 200 pages in length, the author has assembled in it a wealth of information, and it is thus a valuable resource for all academic librari- ans wishing an introduction to English and Australian academic librarianship.-Rich- ard D. Johnson, State University of New Y01·k, College at Oneonta. Orr, J. M. Libraries as Communication Sys- tems. Contributions in Librarianship and Information Science, number 17. West- port, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977. 220p. $14.95. LC 76-8739. ISBN 0- 8371-8936-5. This collection of interesting, well-writ- ten essays on library science is organized according to a pattmn suggested by "gen- eral systems theory," which, the author feels, makes it possible to construct a philosophy of libraries and librarianship. Orr's discovery of this theory has offered him "the opportunity of organizing many Recent Publications I 439 random ventures from previous work." Thus seventeen essays are grouped under such headings as "The Nature of the Store," "Feedback from the Memory," and "The Effect of the System." In the first chapter, "Systems Theory," he explains the seven laws of general sys- tems theory and then postulates a definition of a library based on these laws. Again in the "Resume" at the end of the book, the postulated definition, which the author feels the intervening chapters have supported, is rephrased as follows: A library is a communicatory tool cre- ated by man to complement his own deficient memory. It is a store for his graphically produced records no mat- ter what their format. Its relationship with man is cyclic; it feeds his mind with information, much of which is reprocessed and returned to the li- brary. The library system therefore exhibits growth. Its real effect on so- ciety is probabalistic, but over a length of time it undoubtedly helps it to change. In the long term, it is a com- plementary system to other communi- catory tools of man, but in the short term it is competitive with other com- munication media. Despite this somewhat forbidding theo- retical framework, the reader need not fear that it is necessary to be a systems analyst or a philosopher to benefit from this book. The chapters cover such familiar subjects as the history of the book; the history of li- braries; the growth of recorded informa- tion; problems of preservation, access, and classification; and the effects on the public of reading, pornography, and libraries themselves. Most chapters conform to a pattern pro- viding a brief explanation of how the topic fits into general systems theory, a historical survey of the subject, and contemporary ex- amples, where relevant, chosen mainly from British sources but including some others, particularly American. Citations in the notes are all to well-known texts mostly fa- miliar to library science collections. Head- ings can be somewhat misleading. The sec- tion called "The Nature of the Store" might be expected to discuss principally books,