College and Research Libraries


156 I College & Research Libraries • March 1981 

McClure, Charles R. Information for 
Academic Library Decision-Making: The 
Case for Organizational Information 
Management. Contributions in Librarian-
ship and Information Science, no.31. 
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1980. 
227p. $23.95. LC 79-8412. ISBN 0-313-
21398-4. 
Decision making, for some time the dar-

ling of management theorists, has finally 
made its formal debut into librarianship. 
Given the increasing complexity of 
academic libraries both in their organiza-
tional development and in their utilization 
of technology, it is no wonder that investi-
gators should now begin to examine the 
process by which library management deci-
sions are made. This is a useful and impor-
tant research study, derived from the au-
thor's 1977 doctoral dissertation. 

Several underlying assumptions of the 
study bear emphasis. "(1) The most impor-
tant resource of the organization is the indi-
vidual, and (2) every employee is a deci-
sion-maker" (p . 186). McClure examines the 
patterns of factual information exchange 
among library staff members. He demon-
strates that various staff groups access and 
utilize different types of information in a 
situation-specific manner. His concern, 
which is every administrator's concern , is 
that "if an organization employs twenty in-
dividuals who are contributing to the ac-
complishment of goals at only 75 percent of 
their potential, there is a loss of five posi-
tions in the organization" (p.171). He effec-
tively argues that if more staff members 
have a wider and better selection of infor-
mation on which to base their contribution 
to the total decision-making process , better 
and more responsive library services will be 
developed . This is not a new discovery , but 
what is significant in this book is that now 
there are empirical data to describe just 
how information is utilized in a number of 
libraries. Beyond that-without rehashing 
the old shibboleths about participative man-
agement-McClure provides practical guid-
ance on how the opportunities for participa-
tion can be extended to more staff on the 
basis of enhanced " organizational informa-
tion management." 

The study draws on many of the most im-
portant user studies of management and 

technical information that have been pro-
duced over the last fifteen years. It also in-
corporates some useful concepts from, and 
references to, . recent research on com-
munication in organizations. 

McClure points up one important and 
possibly surprising fact that may reflect 
more on the libraries in his sample popula-
tion than on general practice in the field. 
He states with regard to management informa-
tion that "of primary importance is the con-
sideration that for many libraries there sim-
ply are no internal or statistical reports" 
(p.165) . I can see how this may be the case 
in some academic libraries, but in most that 
I have known either as employee or consul-
tant there has been an overwhelming flood 
of internal reports. Perhaps the point is 
really that there are few up-to-date, prob-
lem-oriented reports effectively employing 
empirical data to support management rec-
ommendations . This is certainly the case, 
although ARL 's SPEC Kits (Systems and 
Procedures Exchange ) have helped to 
address this problem somewhat through the 
sharing of certain reports of general applica-
bility. Computer-based management infor-
mation systems (MIS ) are also needed to 
provide detailed library statistical data on 
demand. 

The final point is not a criticism of the 
study , which is outstanding within the 
scope of its coverage. The research , howev-
er, deals primarily with the factual compo-
nents of information necessary for man-
agemental decision making. It is doubtless 
understood, though not explicitly acknowl-
edged , that there are other information 
components of decision making that may in 
some cases be as important as or more im-
portant than concrete facts , i.e., the values, 
experience, and purposes of the contribu-
tors, as well as the historical and political 
characteristics of the setting.-Robert S. 
Runyon , University of Nebraska at Omaha . 

"Special Issue on AACR2." James Thomp-
son , ed. Alternative Catalog Newsletter, 
no.21 (June 1980). $5 (prepaid). ISSN 
0161-7192. (Available from: Milton S . 
Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity, Baltimore, MD 21218.) 
In February 1980, editors of the Alterna-

tive Catalog Newsletter-convinced that