College and Research Libraries


178 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979 

zation of the LRC-its evolution, organiza-
tion, and operation. There is no singular 
heuristic LRC model since local conditions 
and service philosophies differ for each institu-
tion. Many of the service components, how-
ever, can be applied or modified to fit a par-
ticular situation. 

Numerous organizational charts of existing 
programs are included. The difference be-
tween them underscores the uniqueness of the 
environment of which each is a part. An under-
lying current of the book is functionalism 
through humanism. Some insight into the 
LRC as a process can be gleaned from the 
notion that it should be humanistically 
oriented and not strictly goal centered. Public 
service and user accessibility are keynotes, 
and systematic planning and intelligent deci-
sion making, according to the authors, are a 
significant part of the process and underlie 
good service. 

Instructional technology services, instruc-
tional development, and faculty development 
are also included with definitions for each. 
These discussions seem simplistic in the as-
sessment of these fields; nonetheless, they 
provide a good overview. MBO for LRCs is 
also discussed with a brief procedure for its 
implementation. MBO (management by ob-
jectives) is a complex technique, and it would 
be difficult to apply its -principles or even 
understand its value or potential use from this 
brief treatment. The concluding section 
explains various personnel and budgeting con-
siderations , and a synopsis of their workings 
and interrelationships is included. 

These books are good introductory as-
sessments of the current status of college 
learning resource centers. The books manage 
to provide a good blend of theory and practical-
ity. The success of the Bock and LaJeunesse 
book is predicated on doing what it purports to 
do; that is, it offers an overview of program 
planning. The Burlingame book is compre-
hensive in scope and is clearly written. In view 
of subject coverage and price they both should 
be recommended for professional reading and 
reference.-William A. Mcintyre, New 
Hampshire Vocational-Technical College, 
Nashua. 

Washington University. School of Medicine 
Library. Archives Procedural Manual. 2d 
ed. rev. St. Louis: Washington University 

School of Medicine Library, 1978. 143p. 
$7.25. ISBN 0-912260-08-4. (Available from 
Archives Section, Washington University 
School of Medicine Library, 4580 Scott 
Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110.) 
The Archives Procedural Manual of Wash-

ington University's School of Medicine Li-
brary consists of 143 pages, printed on only 
one side and bound with one of those awkward 
plastic loose-leafbinders, and includes twenty 
flow charts and eighteen forms devoted to ar-
chives, manuscripts, microfilming, and oral 
history. A little more than half is devoted to 
the microfilmed (all collections, now totaling 
nearly forty, are apparently microfilmed after 
processing) and computer-indexed oral history 
programs. 

This manual shares a common fault with 
many other library and archival procedure 
manuals. The emphasis is necessarily on the 
documentation of trivial steps in the process, 
the filling out of forms and the completion of 
procedures in the proper order. Slighted is the 
intellectual activity that marks the heart of the 
process, in part because it is not amenable to 
flowcharts and forms. Because of this, it would 
be a mistake to expect a procedures manual to 
teach a novice how to process a manuscript or 
archival group. 

Nevertheless, an understanding of the 
theory basic to the process is a necessary 
component-one that is lacking here. For in-
stance, a flowchart, after the importance of 
provenance and original order has been cited, 
directs the processor to divide the material 
into "subgroups" based on formats. In addi-
tion, the processing of loose papers, "sub-
group #3," indicates that they are to be specifi-
cally described at the item level in the inven-
tory. This is particularly ironic, considering 
the claim that it is the general applicability of 
this manual that caused it to be published. 

While nearly every page in this manual is 
dated August 1, 1978, indicating that it is a 
current revision, archaic practices and princi-
ples abound. For a nonarchival example of a 
living fossil, see the job descriptions in which 
the archivist, a "he," supervises the archives 
library assistant II, a "she," as well as the 
"microfilm camera operator in her work." 
Most of the reportedly twelve hundred pur-
chasers of the first edition will probably not 
need this second edition; the preface indicates 
that the only major change has been the addi-



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180 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979 

Special Report: 

Library 
Catalog 
.Conversion 

The key to library automation is the 
conversion of the card catalog to 
machine-readable form. This 
conversion process can involve the 
commitment of many thousands of 
dollars of the library's budget-not 
only in the current year, but in ye~rs 
to come, since decisions which are 
made initially can have far-reaching 
consequences. 

The March/ April1978 issue of 
Library Technology Reports 
contains a full-length report on the 
costs, problems, strategies, and 
techniques of conversion by Brett 
Butler, Brian Aveney, and 
William Scholz. 

March/ April 1978 issue .... $40 

Annua-l subscription 
(6 issues) ............... $125 

Library Technology Reports 
American Library Association 
50 East Huron Street 
Chicago, Illinois 60611 · 

tion of the oral history program and the dele-
tion of the section on rare books. Examination 
reveals that few of the reviewers' criticisms (in 
American Archivist [July 1974] and College & 
Research Libraries [Sept. 1974]) have been 
addressed by this revision.-Terry Abraham, 
Washington State University, Pullman. 

Cameron, William J. Bibliographical Control 
of Early Books. Sarada Ranganathan En-
dowment for Library Science Series 10. 
Sarada Ranganathan Lectures, 10, 1976. 
Bangalore: Sarada Ranganathan Endow-
ment for Library Science, 1978. 78p. $6.50. 
In this series of five lectures, William 

Cameron, director of the Hand Printed Books 
Project and dean of the School of Library and 
Information Science, University of Western 
Ontario, develops his theory of bibliography 
and illustrates his argument with descriptions 
of several bibliographic searches. 

The argument is the more significant aspect 
of the lecture series, but the descriptions of 
bibliographic searches compose the more 
striking and memorable and enjoyable aspect 
of the series . The descriptions include, for 
example, a quest for works printed by H. 
Hills, Jr., and a second quest for data about 
eighteenth-century coffeehouse libraries. 
They will confirm many beginning librarians 
in their decision to become rare-book librar-
ians . 

The argument, in brief, is that the usable 
substitutes for a single universal bibliography 
compose a complex pattern of separate listings 
(resembling the picture side of a jigsaw puz-
zle). The author asserts (p.13) that these list-
ings fulfill two conceptually distinct functions, 
namely: (1) lists of" neutrally descriptive items 
within objectively definable limitations"; and 
(2) control devices that "optimize the exercise 
of the appraisal powers of potential users or 
their agents." 

But Cameron demonstrates in the sub-
sequent discussion that, at least when 
machine-readable files are considered, it is 
convenient to redefine the-first function as two 
functions. 

A secondary but significant strain in the au-
thor's argument is the fact that humanistic 
scholars need access to publications in terms of 
selective criteria that are not well described in 
terms of ordinary subject bibliography. They 
often, for example, need to see lists of publica-