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Recent Publications 
BOOK REVIEWS 

Rowley, Jenny E. and Rowley, Peter J. 
Operations Research: A Tool for Library 
Management. Chicago: American Li-
brary Assn., 1981. 144p. $10. LC 81-
12899. ISBN 0-8389-0337-1. 
Exploitation of sophisticated manage-

ment techniques can be found increas-
ingly common in library management. 
There are several management techniques 
that can produce satisfactory outcomes. 
One of these several options is operations 
research (OR). Military decision makers 
developed and used OR methods during 
World War II. Subsequent peacetime ap-
plications were introduced in the private 
sector and industrial production and other 
organizational decision-making processes 
have also utilized it successfully. It is fair 
to say that OR never became a popular 
management tool in higher education, in-
cluding libraries. OR faced stiff competi-
tion from other available managerial op-
tions that could be easily adapted to suit 
organizational needs. Time and motion 
studies, planning-programming-budget-
ing, cost-effectiveness analysis, and sys-
tems analysis are just a few of these possi-
ble management approaches to the 
decision-making process. 

The authors of this paperback consider 
their work an introduction to operations 
research, with the stated hope that ''this 
brief text will act as an appetizer and that 
the reader will go on to study more de-
tailed accounts of operations research.'' It 
appears that the authors have made a 
good faith attempt to write an introduc-
tory text on OR, but then failed to show 
consistently and convincingly, how these 

principles can be used for library manage-
ment purposes. For example, chapter 4 on 
the subject of "Simulation" uses a hair-
dresser's shop as a model. Chapter 6 on 
''Resource Allocation'' uses an equation 
of profit, and chapter 9 uses an example of 
a merchant delivering tons of grain to cus-
tomers as an effective way to calculate 
methods of transportation. It appears, 
then, that the authors were hard-pressed, 
for reasons of their own, to give illustra-
tions more suitable for the nonprofit edu-
cational institutions. In all fairness to the 
authors, they have included some exam-
ples of library applications. In the opinion 
of this reviewer, however, the unneces-
sary inclusion of profit sector illustrations 
distracts from the full impact this text may 
have on library management literature. 

The datedness of the recommended 
reading material is also of concern. To il-
lustrate, chapter 3 has two citations pub-
lished in 1958 and 1970 respectively. 
Chapter 11, titled "Organization and 
Management,'' is four pages in length and 
has only a single citation, a six-page peri-
odical article written over ten years ago. It 
also appears that the eleven chapters were 
not treated in equal length or in equal de-
tail. 

In spite of its shortcomings, the book 
has its useful points. It would be a reason-
able choice to include, along with other 
reading options, in a course designed to 
introduce students to OR. Certainly the 
mathematics used in this text is simple, 
straightforward, and suitable for intro-
ductory work.-Peter Spyers-Duran, Cali-
fornia State University, Long Beach. 

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