College and Research Libraries


502 I College & Research Libraries • November 1978 

"Changes in Sexual Identities" are , with 
comments by Jane Cooney and Gerald 
Shields, interesting, but like Atkinson and 
Ely on the process of change, the material 
is somewhat familiar if well encapsuled. 
Shane's paper, based on his own research 
and the opinions of leaders in education and 
futurists, leads one with ideals of excellence 
almost to despairing conclusions but is well 
worth reading. 

The presentations of the nonlibrarians 
are, on the whole, generally more thought-
ful, more scholarly, and more intellectually 
satisfying than the responses by the 
librarians-perhaps because the latter had 
little time to study them and, in any case, 
were not really expected to write scholarly 
critiques, but rather to respond in public, 
almost extemporaneously, to them. As such, 
they reflect a much more immediate 
perspective , rather than a futuristic one. 
There were also a few comments on our col-
leagues that jarred a bit as, for example, I 
have found librarians, in the pragmatic tra-
dition inherent in the profession , to be 
rather more receptive to change than we 
are given credit for, and certainly more so 
than, say, the faculties and students many of 
us serve. 

I was disappointed a bit in what I saw as 
a curious lack of value considerations in the 
discussions (excepting Thompson's), even 
though I recognize that our society is in-
creasingly valueless. There were, rather , 
perhaps as there should have been, simply 
·the authors' perceptions of reality: "This is 
what we think we know .... " But this dis-
interested approach seems to imply to this 
reviewer an almost fatuous optimism which 
I believe misplaced. 

There was little recognition of the fact 
that changes in librarianship, while of both 
immediate and future importance to us, are 
very small beer in the grand design (if there 
is a grand design) of the future. There was 
little sense of the decline of the West, if 
you will, of the graying of society, of the 
submergence of the individual and the de-
cline of individualism , of the present and fu-
ture lack of privacy, and of the diminishing 
ability of modern men and women to con-
trol their own destinies. 

It is not fair to review a book for what it 
is not , of course, and even in the re-

gimented life of, say, China, I suppose li-
braries function and librarians may even be 
happy in their work. Western man would 
not-will not!-be so happy in our world of 
the future. Perhaps he doesn't deserve to 
be ... . -Stuart Forth, The Pennsylvania 
State University, University Park. 

The Library of Congress in Perspective. A 
Volume Based on the Reports of the 1976 
Librarian's Task Force and Advisory 
Groups. Edited by John Y. Cole. New 
York: Bowker, 1978. 281p. $21.95. LC 
78-5000. ISBN 0-8352-1055-3. 
When a library engages in self-study, the 

first area of investigation tends to be the 
historical context of the institution. This his-
torical understanding of the forces giving 
shape to an organization becomes particu-
larly important when the institution is the 
Library of Congress. In 1976 , Daniel 
Boorstin , then newly appointed Librarian of 
Congress, ordered a self-study of the library 
by creating a task force on goals , organiza-
tion, and planning. Over a one-year period, 
the task force, chaired by John Y. Cole, in-
vestigated the library's past, discussed the 
present with a large number of staff, and 
outlined recommendations for its future. 
The findings and recommendations com-
prise the bulk of this volume. 

The book serves two purposes: it provides 
a history of the Library of Congress , and it 
outlines the recommendations of the task 
force. The historical section focuses on the 
four earlier organizational assessments con-
ducted by the Library of Congress in 1940, 
1947, 1962, and 1967. The results of these 
studies indicate the political and economic 
trends that have contributed to the charac-
ter of the Library of Congress. 

The question of the appropriate role for 
the Library of Congress has been haunting 
the various Librarians of Congress since the 
beginning. The discussion of the legislation 
and recommendations of various groups is a 
particularly noteworthy contribution of this 
publication. Equally useful is the chronol-
ogy of the most important events in the in-
stitution's history , beginning with its estab-
lishment in Washington in 1800. 

The findings and recommendations of the 
1976 task force have been available for some 
time now, and that section of the book is 



not really new; yet, the recommendations 
set in historical perspective make for pro-
vocative reading. 

What will prove most interesting is the 
implementation of these recommendations. 
One obvious result of the study was the 
opening of an office of planning and de-
velopment. This office has been given the 
task of establishing mechanisms for imple-
menting the recommendations approved by 
the Librarian. Some of them can be accom-
plished in this way. Other concerns, such as 
the question of LC' s national role, remain 
unanswered. 

This book is an excellent contemporary 
view of the Library of Congress. It offers 
descriptions of the multitude of programs 
and services and provides insights into what 
can be expected in the next few years. The 
most encouraging aspect of reading the 
work is learning that the Library of Con-
gress is approaching the future with logic 
and purpose. 

The price of the book seems exorbitant, 
but librarians will be pleased to have the in-
formation about the Library of Congress' 
plans for the future. Both for historical pur-
poses and a current view this book will 
prove usefuL-Deanna B. Marcum, Associ-
ation of Research Libraries, Washington, 
D.C. 

Butler, Brett; Aveney, Brian; and Scholz, 
William. "The Conversion of Manual 
Catalogs to Collection Data Bases," Li-
brary Technology Reports 14:109-206 
(March-April 1978). $40 for single issue. 
(Available from: American Library Associ-
ation, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 
60611.) 

Hewitt, Joe A. OCLC: Impact and Use-A 
Study of The Charter Members of the 
Ohio CoUege Library Center. Columbus, 
Ohio: The Ohio State University Librar-
ies, Office of Educational Services, 1977. 
188p. $8.95. LC 77-620000. ISBN 
0-88215-043-1. (Available from: O.S. U. 
Libraries Publications Committee, Room 
001, Main Library, 1858 Neil Ave. Mall, 
Columbus OH 43210. Prepaid orders sent 
postpaid.) 
During the past few years a number of li-

braries have departed from the traditional 
card catalog to provide access to their col-

Recent Publications I 503 

lections by means of an automated system. 
In the future a great many more libraries 
will make this change. To do so, the librar-
ies involved will require information on the 
techniques available for data base conver-
sion and understanding of the impact of au-
tomated systems on libraries. These two re-
ports provide much of the information 
needed by a library contemplating the de-
velopment of an automated access system. 

The intent of the Butler/Aveney/Scholz 
report is to provide a "summary of re-
sources available to local libraries, and a 
guide through the cumulative experience of 
a number of libraries which ha:ve converted 
their catalogs." This report is not so ambiti-
ous an undertaking that the reader is over-
whelmed. Neither is it so cursory that plan-
ning information needed to make a useful 
judgment is lacking. The authors have 
strived to develop a timely handbook for 
those beginning the process of converting 
from manual to machine data bases. They 
have structured the report into four parts 
that deal respectively with: (1) the nature 
and meaning of the concept of machine-
readable data bases; (2) the evaluation 
criteria required to examine data bases, 
vendor products, and conversion ap-
proaches; (3) the various conversion ap-
proaches available; and (4) the capabilities 
and limitations of the major vendors and 
their data base systems. 

As the authors point out, the most likely 
way to convert a catalog is to make use of a 
"resource data base" such as OCLC. They 
provide a concise definition of the concept 
involved and a description of the criteria 
and tools required to handle a conversion. 
Their thrust has been to concentrate on 
providing evaluation criteria and conversion 
approaches. However, they have also pro-
vided a section on vendor capabilities that 
contains a summary table of the various ser-
vices available from eight vendors, including 
OCLC. 

Although the Hewitt report is intended to 
provide an in-depth analysis of the impact of 
OCLC on library operations, it also pro-
vides some insights into the kinds of 
changes that will occur as libraries convert 
their data bases. OCLC will probably pro-
vide the major resource data base for con-
version projects, if it doesn't already. Many