College and Research Libraries


large project of the American Psychological 
Association, which studied the structure and 
use of the literature of that subject in the 
1950s and early 1960s. 

The first part of the book is devoted to 
definitions, classifi'cation, and discussion of 
the problems involved in using various bib-
liographic elements in the analysis of pri-
mary and secondary literatures. This discus-
sion merely focuses on bibliometrics infor-
mation already familiar to anyone who has 
done library cataloging. The middle part, 
beginning with chapter five on the size and 
growth of the literature, is the meat of the 
book, because it deals with specific applica-
tions of bibliometrics. The final part is a re-
view of standard statistical methods, includ-
ing the application of computers, graphic 
presentations, and sampling. 

An appendix includes a glossary, a list of 
suggestions for projects in the field (which 
is also a useful summary of the scope of the 
subject), a list of references cited in the 
text, and a brief list of suggested further 
reading. The list of DISISS research reports 
(p.179) is useful inasmuch as libraries may 
have missed acquiring some or all of these 
rather fugitive research reports. 

Although one might have wished for a 
more detailed text (the treatment of content 
analysis, for example, is inadequate), most 
research libraries will wish to have this 
book. Interest in bibliometrics extends well 
beyond library and information science. The 
authors are of the opinion-and this re-
viewer agrees-that statistical methods of 
literature analysis are spreading from the 
sciences and social sciences to the 
humanities. In the field of history, the rise 
of cliometric analysis will certainly involve 
the allied field of bibliometrics. 

Bibliometric analysis of Nicholas and 
Ritchie's book would be difficult and proba-
bly unrewarding inasmuch as only twenty-
eight references are cited. One would come 
to the invalid conclusion that nothing was 
done in this field between Hulme's work in 
1923 and Louittit' s in 1955. The numerous 
citation studies done at the Graduate Li-
brary School by, for example, Fussier in 
chemistry and physics (1948), McAnally in 
history (1951), and Hintz in botany (1952) 
are ignored. Nor is the more recent work 
(1971) by Lamb at Case Western Reserve 

Recent Publications I 415 

University in the literature of mathematics 
mentioned or cited. 

As one might expect, the examples drawn 
from the work of Maurice Line and his col-
leagues (including the two authors of this 
book) at Bath are interesting in themselves. 
For example, the discussion of obsolescence 
in literatures (p.122) will give aid and com-
fort to those who oppose "no-growth" 
policies in libraries-i.e., the discarding or 
storing off-campus of older, presumably lit-
tle used, materials. The authors maintain 
that statistics showing decline in use of ma-
terials with age have been "exaggerated or 
misinterpreted." One of the reasons given 
for this is that the corpus of a literature 
published in, say, 1950, is typically only 
half that of 1960. Thus a given number of 
citations or library charge-outs would be a 
larger proportion of the 1950 than of the 
1960 holdings. The other argument is less 
clear to this reviewer. It involved a distinc-
tion between "updating" and "basic" uses of 
a given item. The former declines rapidly, 
but the latter remains constant or decays 
more slowly. 

In short, this is an important manual in 
its own right, another indicator of the sig-
nificance of the Bath University DISISS 
project, and is the only recent book in the 
field.-Perry D. Morrison, University of 
Oregon, Eugene. 

Arnold, Denis V. The Management of the 
Information Department. A Grafton 
Book. Institute of Information Scientists, 
Monograph Series. Boulder, Colo.: 
Westview Press, in association with the 
Institute of Information Scientists, 1977. 
143p. $12.50. LC 76-43375. ISBN 
0-89158-716-0. 
This book is an honest attempt to bring 

together the principles and practices for the 
successful management of an information 
department in an industrial organization. 
The material presented is grouped into 
seven chapters dealing with communication 
patterns, management, planning and de-
sign, organization, coordination, control, 
and analysis. Each chapter has a bibliogra-
phy. 

The treatment of the various topics cov-
ered is brief but to the point. They include 
the objectives and duties of an information 



416 I College & Research Libraries • September 1978 

department, planning of specific functions, 
centralization versus decentralization of in-
formation activities, cost-effectiveness and 
cost-benefit analyses of the services pro-
vided , interactions with users (including 
user surveys) , and standards in control and 
evaluation procedures . .They are certainly as 
useful and timely for the neophyte as for 
the veteran in the profession. 

The presentation is informal and lucid. · 
Nevertheless, the publication is lacking in 
three respects: First, the amount of material 
dealing with the application of computers in 
information processing and dissemination is 
scanty. Second, it is almost unthinkable to 
see a book written on the management of 
an information department with practically 
no reference to the various subject-oriented 
data bases , their availability, use, and man-
agement . This is especially relevant at a 
time when interactive, on-line information 
systems are almost like household items in 
an average-sized research library or infor-
mation department. Third , the half-life of 
the material cited and presented in the text 
is on a steady decline since there are hardly 
any post-197~ references included in the 
end-of-chapter bibliographies. 

Having considered the above. factors, one 
wonders if the manuscript of the book was 
originally completed some years ago and 
then kept in cold storage . There is no doubt 
that any professional who has kept abreast 
of recent developments in the information 
science field will readily notice this serious 
built-in time-lag. Overall, however, this is 
as g od a text as any that covers the 
field -]ata S. Ghosh, Ardmore , Pennsyl-

ouser, Lloyd ] . , and Schrader, Alvin M. 
The Search for a Scientific Profession: 
Library Science Education in th~ U.S. 
and Canada. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 
1978. 180p . $8. LC 77-17563. ISBN 
0-8108-1062-X. 
Surely one of the most interesting recent 

works, this book, through its indictment of 
library education , presents its underlying 
thesis that we need a comprehensive and 
purposeful undertaking to develop a cohe-
rent theory of librarianship based upon 
rigorous research. This outcome, the au-
thors argue passionately, is attainable even 

though previous efforts have been largely 
frustrated. 

To those who have been indoctrinated in 
the folklore of education for librarianship, 
the most startling assertion concerns the in-
stitution known for years without ambiguity 
as "the Graduate Library School, " or, sim-
ply, "GLS. " Veterans of the Chicago doc-
toral wars may be reminded of an exchange 
often heard: 

"GLS isn't like it was in the Good Old 
Days." 

" Yeah, but then it never was. " 
We may have joked in those terms, but 

we knew better. We knew very well that 
GLS , during the golden years of Louis 
Round Wilson's deanship , had introduced a 
new quality to education for librarianship. 
The school, after floundering under the out-
sider, George A. Works, began to examine 
with rigorous logic and precise quantitative 
measurement the fundamental assumptions 
of librariauship. It produced a whole gener-
ation of library leaders. It was a major 
source of borrowing for the shape and con-
tent of the new curriculum introduced 
around 1950. In innumerable ways it raised 
the level of librarianship. 

The accomplishments during the ten 
years of the Wilson deanship are evident , 
and their soundness is secure beyond ques-
tion. It will be unfortunate and wasteful 
if-as seems likely-the attention to this 
book is directed to defending the impreg-
nable or to denouncing the authors and 
elaborating the flaws of their case. For their 
indictment of librarianship is valid. 

The case is partially stated in an 
aphorism: 

Librarianship has been deficient in its Science, 
with the consequence that its Humanity has been 
tainted with sentimentality and its Technology 
with meaningless proliferation, uninformed by 
Theory and unevaluated by Measurement. 

(Though surely a Butlerism, its source has 
escaped me. I shall be grateful for its iden-
tification.) 

This unfortunate condition was somewhat 
ameliorated at GLS under Wilson, but 
Houser and Schrader suggest the advance-
ments were made in spite of Wilson rather 
than because of him. To raise such a charge 
and to countenance it in a review just when