College and Research Libraries indexing schemes, recall, preciSIOn , the interface between the user and the com- puter, inverted files , bit codes for data stor- age, and blocks/records/files. Various data base formats are described in terms of cur- rent data bases such as MARC , ERIC , CAIN , and others. Chapter 5 discusses how to process data stored in internal memory , with considera- tion for efficiency in memory space and pro- cessing. Chapter 6 covers the structure of search programs , and chapter 7 investigates the vocabulary characteristics of document data bases and the relationship of those characteristics to search and storage consid- erations. Chapters 8 and 9 look at the information content of textual data and mes- sages and at coding and compression tech- niques. In an excellent chapter 10, the author poses requirements for a hypothetical document retrieval system 1 and with basic assumptions, guides the reader through de- sign considerations. In chapter 11 , a data base is described in which search terms are assigned to describe documents in the data base, rather than indexing attributes of In- formation from the documents . Chapters 12 and 13 take up the question of the optimiza- tion of retrieval effectiveness and automatic document classification techniques. Chapter 14 contains brief concluding remarks. In summary, this text does a very nice job of outlining design and efficiency con- siderations for information data bases and retrieval systems.-Eleanor Montague , Uni- versity of California, Riverside . Tebbel, ·John . A History of Book Publishing in the United States. Volume Ill : The Golden Age Betwee n Two Wars, 1920- 1940 . New York : Bowker; 1978. 774p. $32.50. LC 71-163903. ISBN 0-8352- 0498-7. Like the two previous volumes, the third of Tebbel's promised four-volume History offers both overview and detail, here of what he justly characterizes as the golden age of book publishing. A brief " General View, 1919-1940" precedes two longer chapters, "1919: The Year of Transition'' and " General Trends of the Twenties." This in- troductory section is followed by a series of resumes of the histories of the older houses Recent Publications I 279 during this decade; and these, in turn, are followed by accounts of the emergence of the "New Publishers of the Twenties. " The succeeding chapters in the twenties section deal with a broad range of specific aspects of publishing and marketing: e.g., paperbacks, educational books, reference works, the religious publishing houses , uni- versity presses, book clubs, advertising, manufacturing, and censorship. Essentially the same pattern is repeated when Tebbel moves on to publishing in the thirties, the book then concluding with three appendixes~the most useful a statisti- cal "Economic Review of Book Publishing, 1915-1945"~and a voluminous if somewhat haphazard index . From its beginning in 1972, Tebbel' s His- tory was regarded an endeavor as valuable as it was ambitious. To chronicle in almost awesome detail the growth of an industry that has been so involved with the direction and quality of our cultural life is a contribu- tion that we cannot but acknowledge with appreciation. It is not, however , a work without some flaws . The principal problem with the book is its structure: its failure to organize spe- cific facts, anecdotes, and data so as, on one hand, to support closely many of the histor- ical generalizations or, on the other, to serve as a workable, easily accessible re- source for the researcher. The reader's difficulty in making out the forest amid all the trees is not lessened by the frequent inclusion of material that may be fairly regarded as of marginal sig- nificance. It is slightly annoying, for exam- ple, to find oneself reading that Alfred Har- court's secretary married him "after his first wife, Susan, beset by ill health and depres- sion, committed suicide in 1923 only a few hours before she was to be sent to a private sanitarium in New Rochelle. " One may , of course, criticize Tebbel' s craftsmanship as a historiograph er and at the same time recognize th e historical riches to be found in his book. The index, as was noted , is not an adequate guide to the contents of the volume. The patient reader, however , will be rewarded with fact piled on fact, minor revelations, useful and suggestive statistics, unexpected relation- ships, and, finally , a broad and specific 280 I College & Research Libraries • May 1979 sense of what influenced and what was in- fluenced by these two decades of the American publishing industry. This view of the publishing trade in its wider context does much to compensate for the long trek through the hundreds of pages of detail. The publisher represents one of a soci- ety's primary brokers of ideas and illusions, a point of exchange between what a public thinks and wants and is told. Because of this, Tebbel's History, however much an omnium-gatherum of a single industry it may appear, achieves a further dimension, a further significance that makes it that much more worthwhile an acquisition for any academic library.-Charles Helzer, Univer- sity of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. Gough, Chet, and Srikantaiah, Taverekere. Systems Analysis in Libraries: A Question and Answer Approach. Hamden, Conn.: Linnet Books; London: Clive Bingley, 1978. 158p. $9.50. LC 78-7539. ISBN 0-208-01753-4 Linnet; 0-85157-278-2 Bingley. Despite ongoing arguments whether management is a science or an art, much progress has been made in recent years in our ability to describe scientifically the op- erations and activities of a library. Yet paradoxically, the application of systems analysis techniques appears to be of less importance today than during the early 1970s. Perhaps management science from the business world when applied to libraries loses something in the translation! Nonethe- less, this volume by Gough and Srikantaiah attempts to stress the importance of library systems analysis for scientific analysis of li- brary services. The authors tell us that the volume is in- tended for students and is a guide or con- cise aid that synthesizes common elements of library systems analysis. They emphasize the conciseness of the volume rather than its comprehensiveness. Although the struc- ture of a dialectic conversation throughout the volume adds to its uniqueness, the book is well written and straightforward. This combination of conciseness and the question/answer structure is both the strength and the weakness of the book. The first five chapters, i.e., understand- ing systems, the library as a system, stating goals, methods of description, and systems engineering, are excellent summaries of basic system concepts and applications. They may tend to be too concise for pur- poses of teaching, but they should be re- quired reading for the many academic li- brarians who are not familiar with systems analysis as an ongoing management process in the library environment. The volume falters somewhat during the next three chapters, evolution of computers, programming languages, and library auto- mation. Although the discussions, in them- selves, are useful, they tend to be general essays and are not tied into the systems analysis process. Implications of the com- puter in terms of its usefulness for systems analysis, management information systems, and statistics are not discussed. The tra- ditional role of automated circulation, cataloging, and acquisition systems is de- scribed but not integrated into the concept of systems analysis for library management. The text concludes with excellent obser- vations on cost studies and the evaluation process. After the 102 pages of text, 25 pages of PERT, keeping a flowchart, work sampling, and other exercises are pre- sented. An extensive bibliography and a somewhat limited index complete the vol- ume. The exercises and bibliography them- selves are worth the purchase price of the volume. Because the volume is a concise sum- mary, specific techniques cannot be explained adequately. Furthermore, the process of model building and the induction-deduction process are not ad- dressed although they are critical compo- nents in the analysis and design of library systems . . Nonetheless, the volume accom- plishes its stated objective and provides a useful guide to 'library systems analysis. Readers will look forward to an expanded edition that provides details on specific techniques, research methods, and model building and integrates automated systems into the systems analysis process of the li~ brary as a whole.-Charles R. McClure, University of Oklahoma, Norman. Kirk, Thomas G., · Jr. Library Research Guide to Biology: Illustrated Search Strategy and Sources. Library Research