College and Research Libraries Recent Publications BOOK REVIEWS Meckler, Alan Marshall. Micropublishing: A History of Scholarly Micropublishing in America, 1938-1980. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1982. 179p. $23.95. LC 81- 6955. ISBN 0-313-23096-X. Alan Meckler, the historian, works hand in hand with Alan Meckler, the pub- lisher. In 1976 his firm, then called Micro- form Review, Inc., published Allen Veaner' s Studies in Micropublishing, 1853-1976, an invaluable collection of doc- umentary sources on the development of microphotography and micropublishing. Much of the story told in the mosaic of documents in Veaner' s book may be read in a compact, summarized form in Meck- ler's. Meckler, however, adds new mate- rial: an informative chapter on university press experiments with micropublications and personal interviews with commercial micropublishing pioneers Eugene Power, Albert Boni, Samuel Freedman, and James Adler. Power published the first large reprint collection on microfilm; Boni developed an offset printing technique ca- pable of printing microimages on card stock; Freedman discovered and exploited the money-making potential in filming newspapers. Adler went a giant step be- yond mere reprinting. He provided previ- ously unavailable, much-needed access to government information by creating an index combined with a microfiche edition of the documents he published. Meckler's history would have been more . complete with the addition of details that both inter- viewer and interviewees did not mention, such as the practices adopted by early (and some later) microprinters to mini- mize their investments, and the way the usefulness of microprints was compro- mised by exceeding the technical limits of the process in an effort to increase file den- sity. Meckler's brief section on ultrafiche is factual as far as it goes; the reader does not learn, however, that commercial suc- cess eluded the technically brilliant Ency- clopaedia Britannica micropublishing venture. These omissions are typical. Through- out his work, Meckler appears diplomatic and tactful to a fault. He does not risk an- tagonizing either publishers or librarians by turning a critical eye to either their con- tributions to, or their treatment of, micro- publishing, and as a result the historical picture he presents has certain gaps. In unfolding the story of micropublish- ing, Meckler traced two major themes: user resistance and the failure of micro- forms to become the library panacea some ardent pioneers and promoters predicted. He agrees with numerous librarian writers in attributing "user resistance" to micro- forms to the need for a reading device, and to the alleged unsatisfactory quality of most microform readers. This is a popular misconception. When user resistance ex- ists, it largely results from the misapplica- tion of microforms (the user rejects micro- form material that does not address his needs) and, much more often, to bad de- sign and management of library micro- form systems and facilities. The reader of this book may speculate on the future of electronic publishing in li- braries on the basis of prior experience with microforms. There are similarities: the word and the reader are separated by machinery that is often lacking in sound ergonomic design and that is delivering images of far lower quality than what is 151 152 College & Research Libraries available in even the poorer microform readers. Electronic publishing is a new form of publication that some believe will solve the ''library problem'' and replace publications in both microforms and tradi- tional print. Can the history of micropub- lishing be helpful in assessing how likely this is to happen? In some ways it proba- bly can. Electronic publishing will not re- place traditional publishing, but it will succeed to the extent that it can find appli- cations that will provide useful alterna- tives to print and microforms.-Francis F. Spreitzer, University of Southern California. Maack, Mary Niles. Libraries in Senegal; Continuity and Change in an Emerging Na- tion. Chicago: American Library Assn., 1981, 280p. ISBN 0-8389-0321-5. This is a short history of library, archive, and documentation development in Sene- gal, French West Africa. Senegal is partic- ularly appropriate for historical attention: it has exerted a strong influence on its francophone neighbors, and its archives cover library activities from their early ql NCGR,E~GOR jj < . .._, C/fluppu! ~ "PERSONALIZED" SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE McGregor can simplify complex and time consuming problems of periodi- cal procurement involving research, ordering, payments, renewals and record keeping. Prompt courteous service has been a tradition with McGregor since 1933. Call or write for catalog today 815/ 734-4183 MCGREGOR MAGAZINE AGENCY March 1984 nineteenth century beginnings. Maack ex- plains the heavy and continuous depen- dence on France in education and library science. The book is written in a positive and temperate manner; its aim is to under- stand and explain, not to evaluate or criti- cize. Maack is a University of Minnesota Library School professor, and this is an adaptation and summary of her doctoral dissertation. Chapters are arranged chronologically and by type of library. Lists of acronyms and abbreviations are provided as well as tables, illustrations, glossary, bibliogra- phy, appendix, index, and footnotes. Ac- cording to Maack, Senegalese archives and special and academic libraries more or less have prospered in this period, but public and school libraries have not, a common picture in developing countries and one reflecting priorities in France, also. This is a work to be proud of within its self-imposed limitations. The author's en- ergy and thoroughness in collecting infor- mation through interviews and library search in Senegal, France, and the United States are noteworthy. The book is fair and comprehensive. It is well written, well titled, judicious and meticulous, and seems to be almost completely error-free. It is supported by extensive bilingual notes and citations. The work mentions for the anglophone reader the influence of French policies and practices on West Af- rican development and certain of their contrasts with the Anglo-American influ- ence on other West African nations. The conclusions are logically developed and il- luminating. Most of this reviewer's questions relate to Maack's presentation policies. The book's focus is narrowly on libraries, while their cultural and economic setting are only lightly touched on, perhaps too lightly. Further, Maack nearly omits the Arabic and vernacular Islamic culture, which still dominates the common peo- ple's lives. So the book represents an out- sider's or colonialist's view. Little space is given to comparisons of nearby nations. Nor is the question faced that French li- brary policies may have been applied pri- marily in the best interests of France rather