College and Research Libraries 414 College & Research Libraries puters. The problem is further compli- cated by diminished library budgets as well as cost increases for books and library materials. Indeed, the latter factors may be the most persuasive in convincing li- brarians that conservation is the responsi- bility of every librarian, including the li- brary administrator, and not just that of the archivist, curator, or special collec- tions librarian. · For those librarians who want to take an active conservation role in the care and maintenance of their collections, Conserva- tion in the Library: A Handbook of Use and Care of Traditional and Nontraditional Materi- als will be a valuable tool. The editor and contributors are recognized preservation specialists, and most of them are also prac- ticing librarians. Each devotes a chapter to a specific medium: paper, books and bind- ings, photographs, slides, microforms, motion picture film, and sound record- ings. Chapters on newer nonprint media-videotape, videodiscs, and computers-are also included. Each chap- Heritage on Microfilnt Rare and out-of-print titles and documents on 35mm silver halide microfilm. • French Books before 1601 • Scandinavian Culture • 18th Century English Literature • Victorian Fiction • Literature of Folklore • Hispanic Culture Send for catalog and title information today. ~ll~~~ ~CQ\AP?NY 70 Coolidge Hill Road Watertown, MA 02172 (617) 926-5557 September 1984 ter follows the same format: inclusion of a brief history of the medium, a definition of its characteristics, and an outline of there- quirements for its ideal care and preserva- tion followed by a short, annotated bibli- ography of suggested readings. The chapters are aptly, though not lavishly, il- lustrated, and, when appropriate, they in- clude sample guidelines for the selection of equipment and the handling of materi- . als as well as descriptions of simple con- servation techniques. A list of suppliers and supplies, in addition to sources of or- ganizational advice and assistance, are welcome additions to the text. The topic of conservation, like the prob- lem itself, can easily overwhelm anyone . trying to learn more about it. Swartzburg and the contributers present a broad range of information, much of it highly special- ized, and they do so simply and clearly. Each author takes care to distinguish be- tween those practical conservation mea- sures the librarian can practice and the point at which the professional conserva- tor or specialist ought to be consulted. This is a carefully edited book; the chap- ters tend to build on one another with little duplication of information. Conservation in the Library will be valu- able to a variety of readers, including the librarian who wants a single compendium of practical and up-to-date information on the care and handling of materials found in the modem library, an overview of cur- rent conservation problems and practices, a reference to suppliers and organizations offering assistance, and additional biblio- graphic sources. While the book's pur- pose is to present practical preservation information on conventional materials as well as nonprint media (which it does), each author raises questions, either im- plicitly or explicitly, about the future pres- ervation needs of libraries and the role to be played by librarians in determining how these needs will be met. Any individ- ual concerned about the future of libraries can read this book with profit.-Gretchen Lagana, University of Illinois at Chicago. Morehead, Joe. Introduction to United States Public Documents. 3rd ed. Little- ton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 198J. 309p. $28.50 cloth, $19.50 paper. LC 82- 22866. ISBN 0-87287-359-5-1 cloth, 0- 87287-362-5 paper. There have been many important devel- opments in U.S. public documents since the previous edition of this book in 1978, developments which librarians, research- ers and students must take into account if they are to use documents efficiently. Morehead has done the documents com- munity a great service by incorporating the most important of these changes into this new edition of his guide, a work which has long been recognized as the leading one in the field because of the ex- tensive knowledge of the subject it dem- onstrates and the vigorous and entertain- ing style in which it is written. One of the most important changes has been, of course, the present administra- tion's drive to reduce publishing costs, a program that has, as Morehead points out, been "transformed into a systematic assault on access to public information.'' In response to these cutbacks in publish- ing and services, Morehead has added a new chapter, "Public Documents; an Overview," which describes government information policy and attempts to offer a definition of a public document. New indexes and other improvements in the Monthly Catalog and changes in the content and classification numbering sys- tem of the serial set have also been incor- porated, while the sections on geo- graphic, audiovisual, and Census Bureau materials have been removed from the ap- pendices, expanded considerably, and in- tegrated into the text. A new feature in this edition is a synoptic chart showing Census Bureau programs and products. Unfortunately, the material in the chart is not always up-to-date. For example, two international population reports series transferred to the Bureau of Economic Analysis in 1972 are listed as Census Bu- reau publications, as is Monthly Depart- ment Store Sales in Selected Areas, a series discontinued in 1981. Discussions of databases and microform materials have also been expanded andre- organized, and a summary of some thirty- Recent Publications 415 two databases, containing the name and type of base, the distributor, and the chap- ter in which it is described at greater length, has been added. It would have been more useful if a brief description of the content of the database and citations to page numbers on which Morehead dis- cusses them had been included. The section on the legislative process and tracing legislation has been more than doubled and now features completely new material on private legislation, as well as descriptions of a number of new biblio- graphic aids. The book is not without shortcomings, however. One of the most serious is the description of Guide to Presidential Advisory Commissions, 1973-1981, which states that the work was compiled by Richard Kor- man and published by Meckler Books in 1982. The fact that this work, which has not yet been published, could not possibly have been examined by the author, leads one to wonder if there are other materials described as though the author had exam- ined them but which have not actually been viewed. There are a few cases in which certain classes of documents that deserve better are given short shrift. Budget documents, certainly a group of documents that re- quires guidance in use, receive less than a page, and the publications of the Joint Publications Research Service and the For- eign Broadcast Information Service are hardly adequate to enable one to use these documents effectively. The brief section on the CIA omits mention of its monthly directory, Chiefs of State and Cabinet Mem- bers of Foreign Governments, an indispens- able tool for anyone needing up-to-date information on foreign government offi- cials. Two agencies, which were treated in earlier editions and which produce anum- ber of valuable publications, the General Accounting Office and the Congressional Budget Office, have been dropped from this edition. The organization of a book like this al- ways produces problems because of the tendencies of documents to transcend the neat compartments one attempts to fit them into. Reorganization plans, which 416 College & Research Libraries are discussed in at least four different places in the text, are an example of this. Unfortunately, the index, which might have been expected to bring them to- gether, contains only one page reference to them. The author has partially compen- sated for this omission by including them in a table showing sources of presidential texts on p. 200-01. More complete bibliographical informa- tion in the captions for the illustrations, possibly even the inclusion of SuDocs numbers, where applicable, would have been a help to readers who wish to consult the items shown. While Morehead's style is usually clear, he is sometimes carried away. As an ex- ample, I cite this sentence (p. 31), which could surely have been expressed more tersely: "The words 'diminished re- September 1984 sources,' that shibboleth of the current decade, find their quintessential para- digm in the appropriations for the deposi- tory library enterprise." There are also times when descriptions offer little eluci- dation. If the reader does not already know what an ''engrossed bill'' is, I defy him to figure it out from the information given on p. 137, which simply states the color of paper it is printed on. It is true that the persevering reader will find a defini- tion of such a bill on p. 146, but he must get to it without help from the index. In spite of these defects, the work does present a masterful compilation of infor- mation on current U.S. federal govern- ment documents and presents what could easily be an overwhelming mass of detail in a clear and logical fashion. -Gloria West- fall, Indiana University Library. ABSTRACTS The following abstracts are based on those prepared by the ERIC Clearinghouse of Infor- mation Resources, School of Education, Syra- cuse University. Documents with an ED number here may be ordered in either microfiche (MF) or paper copy (PC) from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service, P.O. Box 190, Arlington, VA 22210. Orders should include ED number, specify for- mat desired, and include payment for docu- ment and postage. Further information on ordering documents and on current postage charges may be obtained from a recent issue of Resources in Educa- tion. Technical Services Costs in ARL Libraries. Kit 89. By Peter S. Graham. Association of Research Libraries, Washington, D.C., Office of Management Studies. 1982. 144p. ED 232 670. MF-$0.83;PC- not available from EDRS. Designed to assist library managers in con- ducting effective cost studies, this document provides a summary of the data for the eighty- one member libraries that responded to a sur- vey of technical services cost studies conducted by the Association of Research libraries (ARL) in April1982 and seven reports of such studies. These reports, which range from terse state- ments of overall costs to detailed time-and- motion studies, with examples of both top- down and bottom-up approaches, are as follows: (1) "Cataloging, Binding, and Process- ing Costs 1980/81," Syracuse University; (2) "The Year's Work: Resources Used, Benefit/ Cost, 1981, '' University of Maryland; (3) ''Pro- jected Cost Study for Technical Services for 1982-83; Unit Activities, Statistics, and Auto- mation Developments; and Staff Costs by Unit," University of Kentucky; (4) "Statement of Desired Data for Determining the Costs of Maintaining RL Catalogs, 1976-77," Research libraries Group; (5) "Technical Service Divi- sion Work Assignments Staffing Profile, 1978," Washington State University; (6) "Cost Study of the Central Technical Services Department; Cost of the Serials Currently Received Process, 1980," Cornell University; and (7) "Review of Collection Policy Alternatives, 1980," New York Public Library. Library Services for the Distant Learner, the Clarion State College Libraries' Ex- perience. By Gerard B. McCabe. 13p. 1983. ED 232 684. MF-$0.83;PC-$1.82. This paper presents the experience of Clarion State College libraries in supporting an off- campus program offered for graduate library science students in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and discusses the rationale for off-campus con- tinuing education library service. Descriptions are given of the development of the off-campus \