College and Research Libraries coming well known and understood by librar- ians in many corners of the world. Those in the United Kingdom, and to a growing degree Australia, are confronted less with the whims of an electorate than with specific directives to keep a lid on library costs. The 1976 Atkinson Report, crlmed at libraries in the United King- dom, while moving these institutions closer to the ranks of endangered species, may awaken librarians to the fact that "the old indepen- dence of the individual library and librarians" has gone the way of the dodo bird. Colin Steele's Steady State, Zero Growth and the Academic Library is an important stimulant to examining the problems facing all librarians. And while "the essays in this book do not offer any radical solutions," readers will find it a welcome relief to the more-of-the- same philosophy that seems to dominate much current thinking about libraries. Elizabeth Watson's opening essay is by far the most re- freshing. She not only discusses the meaning behind steady-state growth but also explores why librarians seem incapable of useful action , namely, "the paucity of information we pos- sess about questions of central concern": the areas of costs, user behavior, and information needs. Watson poses a "value position" that should be carefully -considered. Most impor- tant , she suggests actions librarians must take. Following the point of view expressed by John Horacek, that "one can also take the At- kinson Report positively, as a sign of the time·s and consequently as a stimulus to thought and planning for remedial action ," most of the au- thors in this collection attempt to provide something more than palliatives . Peter Durey stresses the need oflibrarians to be more effec- tive managers and propagandists (are library schools listening?) . John Dean writes a brief text on evaluating and controlling the size of collections. His "trends at Johns Hopkins Uni- versity" curiously begs the question of a li- brary in steady-state. Bernard Naylor, in as- sessing the factors involved in library coopera- tive programs , sounds an accurate warning in his penultimate sentence: " ... it will need a very great change in libraries' present at- titudes towards cooperation, if this is to have a substantial impact on libraries' current finan- cial and space problems." One could fuss over much that is said-or not said. The primary focus of the book, how- ever, is to raise questions, demand attention to Recent Publications I 173 very real problems , explore the dimensions of possible alternatives, and, above all , to think-probably in terms in which librarians have not felt compelled to think before. As Norman Higham concludes, "Whether indi- vidual libraries pursue previous policies, or change course, librarians will be working in a different environment with a sharpened awareness of the issues involved."-John C. Heyeck, Stanford University . Neal, K. W. British University Libraries. 2d ed. Cheshire: The Author , 1978. £3.80. LC 78-40372. ISBN 0-901570-11-7. (Available from the author: 59 Redesmere Drive , Alberley Edge , Cheshire SK9 7UR, England.) This second edition is intended as an intro- ductory text for library school students and newcomers to university library work. Al- though the thirteen chapters cover all aspects of university librarianship in the United King- dom, the depth of coverage is very uneven. For example, as much space is given to de- partmental libraries as to government and communications , or the financing of British universities and their libraries. The content is also very variable in quality; the chapter on library planning is a good re- sume of the methods and problems associated with the design and furnishing of new librar- ies , illustrated with examples from recent British practice . However, the standard of this chapter is rarely matched in the rest of the book. It is inevitable that an introductory text has to include much detail of basic routines and methods, and this is present in this work. But there is a tendency to highlight idiosyn- crasies in the practices of individual libraries at the expense of clearly indicating good general practice, an approach which must be confusing and unhelpful to librarianship students and newcomers to the profession . They would do better consulting the works cited in the bibli- ography at the end of each chapter. The author appears to have a lack of under- standing of the working relationships within a university library, between the library and its parent institution, within the university itself, and between the university and the University Grants Committee, the provider of80 pe rcent of British university income . For example , many who have actually experienced the hard work put into preparing for a U. G. C. visitation 174 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979 would disagree strongly with the quoted view that these visits border on the farcical. The real problems facing British university libraries-finance , space, matching literature supply to reader demand, critical performance evaluation, adoption of systematically eval- uated computer-based methods and routines, etc.-are largely skated over. In general , this is not a book I would recommend. I consider much of it would confuse and mislead its in- tended audience, the student and newcomer.-] . K. Roberts, University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology, Cardiff. Hyman, Richard J. From Cutter to MARC: Access to the Unit Record. Queens College Studies in Librarianship, no. 1. Flushing, N.Y.: Queens College of the City University of New York, 1977. 40p. $2. LC 77-089466. ISBN 0-930146-10-7. ISSN 0146-8677. Hyman, Richard J. Analytical Access: History, Resources, Needs. Queens College Studies in Librarianship, no. 2. Flushing, N.Y.: Queens College of the City University of New York , 1978. 68p. $5. LC 78-18413 . ISBN 0-930146-12-3. ISSN 0146-8677. The Queens College Studies in Librar- ianship series has made its debut with two monographs by R. J. Hyman. These mono- graphs complement each other and are jus- tified by the same rationale. Even though the demise of the card catalog may seem immi- nent, the unit entry in book or card format must continue to provide access to biblio- graphic resources for a long, long while be- cause of the high cost of converting retrospec- tive records to MARC format. Therefore, it behooves us to realize the full potential of this instrument. From Cutter to MARC , the first of these- ries, deals with the problem of access to "the work." Hyman points out that the unit entry can yield more than mere finding-list informa- tion if it is approached with the same search strategies as are used with an automated data base. His suggestions for " manual coordinate retrieval" are practical, should be required reading for every neophyte reference librar- ian, and are especially applicable in the academic environment where the needs of the scholar often require sophisticated searching techniques. This monograph deserves special commendation because it offers sensible methods for the efficient use of readily avail- able resources. Analytical Access is concerned with the problem of access to the content of" the work." It consists primarily of descriptions of the kinds of tools available: the "in analytics" au- thorized by cataloging codes since Cutter's day but seldom made; the analytical entries in nineteenth-century book catalogs; periodical indexes, some of which include books as well; indexes to composite works; and the com- puterized data bases that now provide the major access to the content of monographic materials. The author might well have mentioned another type of useful tool, the stepping- stones to serial indexes , which are provided not only by the mandatory notes on serial en- tries (see AACR rule 170) but also by tools like the Guide to Special Issu es and llldexes of Periodicals, the second edition of which was issued by the Special Libraries · Association, New York Chapter, Advertising Group in 1976. The inadequacy of these modes of access prompts the author to conclude that abstracts of all works , monographic and serial, should "be included in all computerized data bases, all printed catalogs and cards, and also in the works themselves." Though many will agree with this proposal, Hyman doesn't address the difficult questions that such a recommenda- tion poses, such as the high cost of profession- ally prepared abstracts , the uneven quality of author-prepared abstracts , and the fact that only the reader can define relevance. At least half of each of these monographs is dedicated to appendixes , notes, etc. Although a scholarly approach is laudable, when the tail threatens to wag the dog, the reader is likely to ask, "Is this appendix necessary?" Since the historical background has been well documented in the "Notes," this reader won- ders what purpose is served by a "Chronology" that the compiler characterizes as "not in- tended to be comprehensive, for either events or publications." Of marginal value also is the "Glossary, " which gives the customary definitions for li- brary terms appearing in the text, even such elementary terms as "dictionary catalog." Each term when it first appears in the text is italicized and asterisked , a practice this re- viewer found distracting. With the target au-