College and Research Libraries Recent Publications COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES Conant, Ralph W. The Conant Report: A Study of the Education of Librarians, re- viewed by Samuel Rothstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532 Slater, Margaret. Career Patterns and the Occupational Image: A Study of the Li- brary/Information Field, reviewed by Janet L. Ashley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535 Johnson, Edward R., and Mann, Stuart H . Organization Development for Academic Libraries: An Evaluation of the Management Review and Analysis Program, re- viewed by Warren B. Kuhn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536 Copyright, Congress and Technology: The Public Record, reviewed by Jerome K. Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538 Patton, Warren L. An Author's Guide to the Copyright Law, reviewed by Meredith A. Butler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 The Scientific journal, reviewed by David Kaser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540 1979 SSP Proceedings: First Annual Meeting, Boston , Mass., june 4-6, 1979, re- viewed by David Kaser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540 Casterline, Gail Farr. Archives & Manuscripts: Exhibits, reviewed by Nancy E. Peace 542 Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. Glaister's Glossary of the Book: Terms Used in Papermak- ing, Printing, Bookbinding and Publishing with Notes on Illuminated Manuscripts and Private Presses, 2d ed., reviewed by Howard W. Winger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543 National Libraries, reviewed by Mathilde V. Rovelstad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544 Downs, Robert B. Australian and New Zealand Library Resources, reviewed by Wil- liam Vernon Jackson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546 Australian Official Publications, reviewed by Murray S. Martin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547 Lancaster, F. Wilfrid. Information Retrieval Systems: Characteristics , Testing and Evaluation, 2d ed., reviewed by Ben-Ami Lipetz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548 Van Rijsbergen, C. J. Information Retrieval, 2d. ed., reviewed by Ben-Ami Lipetz . . 548 Knight, G. Norman . Indexing, The Art of A Guide to the Indexing of Books and Periodicals , reviewed by Eldon W. Tamblyn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551 CLIP Notes: College Library Information Packets. #1-80: Performance Appraisal, re- viewed by Thomas M. Gaughan .......... ...... .. ..... .. ·. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552 Strawn, Richard R. Topics, Terms, and Research Techniques: Self-Instruction in Us- ing Library Catalogs, reviewed by Anne F . Roberts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554 Davinson, Donald. Reference Service, reviewed by Jean Herold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555 March of Library Science: Kaula Festschrift, reviewed by Ravindra N. Sharma . . . . . . 555 Lane, Jack C. America's Military Past: A Guide to Information Sources , reviewed by Richard B. Harrington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556 Ashby, Peter, and Campbell, Robert. Microform Publishing, reviewed by Carl M. Spaulding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558 Abstracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560 Other Publications of Interest to Academic Librarians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566 I 531 532 I College & Research Libraries • November 1980 BOOK REVIEWS Conant, Ralph W. The Conant Report: A Study of the Education of Librarians. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1980. 210p. $17.50. LC 79-2867. ISBN 0-262- 03072-1. "At last!" This will undoubtedly be the first reaction of many readers to Ralph Con- ant's long-awaited study of American library education. Planned since 1968, "in process" since 1972, circulated in draft form since 1977, the Conant Report must be judged not just on its own merits but also in the · light of the hopes and fears and con- troversies that have been building up about it for more than a decade . The Report had its genesis in the desire of the Advisory Committee of the ALA's Office for Library -Education to obtain a "good solid, constructively critical examina- tion of library education [which] . . . might do for library education in the 1980s what the Williamson report had done in the 1920s" (p. vii). For this task the committee wanted a nonlibrarian, who would be "not influenced by the desire to . . . make li- brary education look good" (p. vii) and who would be a qualified researcher. Dr. Con- ant, an urbanologist who had had consider- able involvement with public libraries , was the committee's unanimous choice. Assisted by a research team and an ALA advisory committee, Conant launched the study in 1972. His group examined fourteen accredited graduate library schools , one nonaccredited graduate school, and one undergraduate program . At each institution, Conant's team conducted "in-depth, open- ended" interviews with all full-time faculty members, the administrative officers, twelve to fifteen students, and two or three recent alumni. Interviews also were con- ducted with fifteen libraries (representing the "employers of librarians") and with "a selection of leaders in the library profes- sion" (p.6-7) . Some additional information · was obtained from class visits and tours of the facilities and from the documentation gathered by the Committee on Accredita- tion. Since Conant's investigation relied so heavily on interviews, the Report reflects this emphasis. In the very brief first chapter (7% pages), Conant indicates the "functions and responsibilities of professional education and of library education" and identifies the "issues" that served as focus for the inter- views. The next four chapters , which make up three-quarters of the book, give a de- tailed recounting, with rather little analysis or commentary by Conant, of the views elicited from the four groups interviewed. In chapter 6 ("Reforms"), Conant presents liis overall findings and recommendations for change, including a model curriculum. Last, there is a section called "Conclusions and Recommendations," which largely re- capitulates chapter 6, and a bibliography and an index. Just what did Conant find out and what does he advocate? Though he has no direct praise for the library schools, his criticisms are not all that severe. Still, they are cer- tainly numerous enough and include the fol- lowing: failing to separate "professional from subprofessional training" ; giving inadequate place to "practical instruction" ; insufficient specialization ; weakness in research; dull teaching; underdeveloped programs of con- tinuing education ; allowing a " damaging gap" (p.195) to exist between the library educators and the working profession ; an unchallenging and insufficiently comprehen- sive curriculum . -By way of remedy for all these deficien- cies , Conant relies mainly on an extension of the library school program to encompass about five semesters . "Foundation courses" would be taken in an undergraduate semester; then would follow four semesters of graduate study , the last two of which would give two-fifths time for an internship . He would have a number of schools closed down or converted to " paraprofessional'' programs, so " the total number of graduates ... each year approximates the number of professional positions available " (p.195, Conant' s italics). To achieve all this, he would have established a " permanent national forum for library education" that would develop a "national plan." Under this national plan, there would be "a common educational format -(curriculum)" for the schools (p.193), an allocation of specializa- tions among them (p.194) , and a much more powerful accreditation system (staffed by Library of Congress National Union Catalog on MICROFICHE • Cost Savings up to 70°/o • Reduces Shelf Space by 94°/o • Easier to use Advanced Library Systems provides the LC NUC on microfiche to hundreds of libraries throughout the world- offering the above advantages over the paper edition. 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ALS is a single source for complete, compatible, continuing, and cost saving microfiche NUC service. Also available, the Library of Congress AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS and MUSIC, BOOKS ON MUSIC AND SOUND RECORDINGS supplements from 1973 forward, including the 1973-1977 Quinquennium. ,---------------------------------------, Advanced Library Systems Inc. C&RLJ-80 93 Main Street, Andover, Mass. 01810 Please rush me complete information on ALS's NUC microfiche service, plus microfiche sample. NAME _________ TITLE ____ _ ORGANIZATION------------- ADDRESS'-------------- D Please have your representative telephone me at (_ )_ __ 1 ---------------------------------------~ 534 I College & Research Libraries • November 1980 "professional evaluators") that would serve as an "instrument of reform" (p.l74-77). What do I make of all this? As a Canadian and therefore not so likely to be charged with the "self-interest bias" that the fore- word warns against (p. viii), I can permit myself some candor. To put matters blunt- ly, then, I think that the Conant Report says some things that are sensible and thought-provoking, too much that is naive and illogical, and is generally so deficient in its research procedure and actual writing as to invoke little confidence in its conclusions. Conant's criticisms of American library education are actually the easiest part of the Report to accept, if only because they are long since familiar to any experienced li- brary educator. Mind you, Conant might well have been more critical about the validity of the charges leveled by students, alumni, and employers. But no matter: the body of testimony he has collected on these matters is certainly large enough and consis- tent enough to make any conscientious li- brary educator give serious consideration to the weaknesses that the testimony points up. Conant's recommendations-his "re- forms"-are much more suspect. Though I agree with him about the advisability of ex- tending the length of the MLS program (af- ter all, the Canadian schools have been on a two-year program since the early 1970s), I find most of his other recommendations quite unrealistic or even ill informed. Given the autonomy of American universities, it does not make much sense to me to even consider imposing a common curriculum on library schools, or allocating specializations among them, or regulating enrollment in strict accordance with employment opportu- nities. Similarly, Conant seems to miscon- strue the nature and purposes of the accre- ditation process; he ignores the cost factor in continuing education programs; he forgets that universities are reluctant about accepting advice from "the field." Need I say more? Admittedly, however, all of the above points are debatable and therefore have some warrant. What is clearly not accept- able, it seems to me, is the poor quality of Conant's research and presentation. To be- gin with, he never addresses the crucial question of how reliable and representative his data are. For example, are we simply to assume, as Conant appears to do, that his fourteen accredited library schools fairly typify the whole group or that interviews with fifteen employers and thirty-six alumni adequately represent the opinions of em- ployers and alumni generally? Second, Con- ant's data, which were mostly gathered from 1973 to 1975, obviously are of very doubtful accuracy in portraying the present-.day situation, but Conant never deals with this major consideration. Indeed he muddles matters by occasionally fetching in some ref- erences to developments in 1979; the read- er is thus never sure whether a given de- scription is intended to represent the situa- tion as of 1973-75 or of the present. Worse still, there are whole areas, very much germane to his enquiry, that Conant did not tackle at · all. For example, he is much concerned with paraprofessional train- Brockhaus/GerrnanBooks Publications from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Complete Periodical Service: traditionally reliable and efficient. For information write to us. Rapplenstra:Be 20 POB 1164 D-7000 Stuttgart l W-Germany ing but he never examined the library tech- nician training programs, which exist for just that purpose. Conant advocates a two- year program but ignored the experience of the Canadian library schools (accredited by the COA), which have been giving a two- year MLS program for about a-decade now. Library schools are professional schools, but Conant never investigated the degree to which the criticisms he heard made of li- brary schools paralleled or differed from those leveled at other professional schools. Last, I complain strongly about the inept- ness or carelessness of the presentation it- self. The book is badly misproportioned, with the key first chapter being far too brief to make its point and the interview reports given three times the space they warrant. There are no bibliographical citations what- soever. The bibliography is so lamentably incomplete (e.g., it does not include Dan- ton's major study on sixth-year programs) as to suggest that Conant was not well in- formed about previous studies on his sub- ject. The index is simply laughable; for ex- ample, there are entries under "graduate library schools" and "gatekeepers of the profession" but none under "library schools" or "librarianship." There are typos aplenty and some outright unintelligibilities. Why, for example, would Conant's model curricu- lum include--as required courses, no less- such topics as "serial files maintenance" and "reproduction" (p.179)? Even the printer has nodded over this book-there are at least seven instances ·of text being badly misaligned on the page! I spoke at the outset of the hopes and fears that attended the publication of the Conant Report. My judgment is that nei- ther emotion is warranted by this dis- appointing study. The Williamson report for the 1980s remains to be written.-Samuel Rothstein, The University of British Co- lumbia, Vancouver. Slater, Margaret. Career Patterns and the Occupational Image: A Study of the Li- brary/Information Field. Occasional Pub- lication no.23. London: Aslib, 1979. 334p. UK £18 (£15 Aslib members); overseas £22.50 (£18. 75 Aslib members). ISBN. 0- 85142-122-9. Margaret Slater has gathered a Recent Publications I 535 tremendous amount of statistical data for this study of the library/information pro- fession in Great Britain. Her goal was to de- scribe career patterns set in the context of the professional image as perceived by em- ployer, librarian, and the general public. To do this she analyzed 307 organization charts and surveyed 1, 770 unit heads and 303 members of the profession as well as 100 members of the general public. A less for- mal evaluation of the public image was gleaned from the media as mirrored in books, films, advertising, and pornography. A profile of the librarian/information officer in Great Britain emerges from this study. Women predominate in the pro- fession (63 percent were women). The aver- age age was 37.6 and the average length of time in their current job was 5.5 years. Job satisfaction was surprisingly low. Asked if they would choose the same career if they were given a hypothetical second chance, only 47 percent said yes. The patterns of mobility delineated in the study were representative of the year 1977. Slater found that mobility in the profession was sluggish, with only a 16 percent turn- over rate. Curiously, only 45 percent of the libraries surveyed had any turnover at all. Unit heads, asked to conjecture about the reasons for staff departures, identified domestic commitments, the desire for bet- ter jobs, and return to school as the primary factors. Although the image of librarians is a re- curring topic for research, Slater fails to compare her findings with many earlier studies on the subject. However stale the topic, her approach is novel and the study reveals some interesting facts. She asked members of the library profession and the general public to place about twenty occupations in rank order from the most im- portant to the least important. Librarians were ranked similarly by the profession and the general public, about twelfth out of the twenty. Despite this apparent agreement, Slater concludes from her survey and her impress- ionistic appraisal of the image of librarians · in the media that there is a divergence be- tween the profession's self-image and the public's perception of librarians. Librarians view themselves as a people-directed com-