College and Research Libraries Recent Publications BOOK REVIEWS Women in Higher Education Administra- tion. Ed. by Adrian Tinsley, Cynthia Se- cor, and Sheila Kaplan. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1984. 96p. (New Directions for Higher Education no. 45). $8.95 pa- per. LC 83-82747. ISBN 87589-995-1. ISSN 0271-0560. The pervasive theme of this slim volume is that universities and colleges have a re- sponsibility to place talented women and administrators in administrative posi- tio~s, thereby enriching the expertise ~vailable to. th~ university in its quest for mcreased v1tal1ty and for new vision. A score of women who have been lead- ers in organized efforts to strengthen the status of women in higher education ad- ministration systematically detail pro- grams since 1971 designed to identify, prepare, and promote talented potential women administrators. While the efforts have been substantial, and have certainly resulted in individual advancement for many women, it is less clear, as the editors point out, that commitment to advance- ment of women and minorities has been ins~tutionalized by American higher edu- cation. Millions of dollars (in excess of $3 mil- lion each from the Carnegie Corporation and the Ford Foundation) in foundation and institutional support have gone into such programs as the National Identifica- tion Program of the American Council on Education (ACE/NIP) and the Higher Ed- ucation Resource Services (HERS) Sum- mer Institutes and Administrative Skills Program. Still, the number of women in the upper reaches of academic administra- tion remains small. The Leaders in Transi- tion Study (1982), here described by inves- tigator Kathryn Moore, found that 20 percent of its sample of line administrators in four-year, accredited, degree-granting institutions were female. However, those women tended to be clustered at the lower levels of administration, in smaller liberal arts colleges, and in positions such as ''head librarian, registrar, and director of financial aid.'' Moore's analysis of the current status of women in higher education administra- tion and the factors affecting careers in ad- ministration leads into descriptions of the various programs. Career mapping, skills development, networking, increased visi- bility within higher education and on indi- · vidual campuses, and meetings that bring together senior male administrators and identified women in high visibility situa- tions are basic components of the pro- grams described. The most significant chapters may well be the concluding three, which deal with the philosophy behind support for special programs for women, the responsibilities of senior women administrators to other women, and an analysis of emerging is- s?es and reco~ended strategies. Espe- Cially valuable 1s Sheila Kaplan and Dorothy 0. Helly's contribution, ''An Agenda for Senior Women Administra- t~rs," which wisely dispenses not only a hst of areas of responsibility for other women-faculty, staff, and students-but also describes political realities that make the task more difficult and potential strate- gies for implementation. Alison R. Bernstein, a program officer at the Ford Foundation, critiques the strate- gie~ underlying foundation support for proJ~C~s to advance women and minority adiDIDlstrators-identification, strength- 85 86 College & Research Libraries ening skills, promotion of potential candi- dates. She concludes that mobility for these individuals is severely limited by the way in which academic administrators are chosen. Selection from the ranks of faculty may well not be the best way to acquire competent administrators. Similarly, movement from community college ad- ministration to a college or university, or from a black college to a comprehensive university is very limited, and is particu- larly discriminatory to women and minor- ities whose administrative credentials might otherwise qualify them for serious consideration. The editors list the following five-point agenda for the future. (1) Commitment to the advancement of women and minori- ties has diminished; new intervention strategies need to be designed. (2) Finan- cial support for new strategies is crucial; where it is to come from must be ad- dressed. (3) Longitudinal studies of both men and women administrators are needed to provide information about fac- tors which hinder or promote advance- ment. (4) The reward structure and the status structure of higher education may change dramatically as the issue of compa- rable worth is addressed. (5) The first gen- eration of leaders of the organized move- ment to advance women and mi- norities-among whom are the contribu- tors to this volume-have largely moved on to other stages of their careers, and a new generation of leaders has yet to be identified. This is an important source book on the status of organized efforts to advance women. It is essential reading for women and other library administrators who want to further their understanding of col- leges and universities as social organiza- tions. As a librarian, one finds that the po- sition of women in academic admin- istration, in general, is not unlike their po- . sition in libraries, and that the barriers and the strategies for overcoming them are much the same.-foanne R. Euster, San Francisco State University, California. Cronin, Blaise. The Citation Process: The Role and Significance of Citations in Scien- January 1985 tific Communication. London: Taylor Graham, 1984. 103pp. £10. ISBN 0- 947568-01-8. The use of citations is a crucial part of the creation and dissemination of information in both the natural and social sciences. Some sociologists of knowledge (the nor- mative school) have held with Robert K. Merton that the citation process, like other aspects of scholarly communication, is conducted with widespread adherence to commonly accepted standards. But more recent work has contended that scholars, in their lust for rewards and recognition and with normal human carelessness and inconsistency, usually fail to adhere to standards. (The latter view is called the microsociological or positivist.) Blaise Cronin's The Citation Process re- views the controversy between the nor- mative and microsociological schools. Most of the book summarizes theoretical arguments and perspectives that have been brought to bear on various aspects of the controversy. While many of the argu- ments of the opposing sides are backed by powerful rhetoric, none are fully persua- sive. All finally fail, Cronin reminds read- ers several times, because no student of the citation process can ascertain the moti- vation that inspired a citation at the mo- ment it was made. In his review of the literature, Cronin re- counts some interesting research. He points to studies that high citation counts of the work of individual scientists have correlated positively with recognized quality indicators such as honorific awards and Nobel laureateships. At the same time, he describes research that con- tends that between one-fifth and two- thirds of citations are not essential to the papers that refer to them. Perhaps most revealing is his own experiment that tests for the degree of commonality of views on when an author should cite. In his experi- ment he distributed ''unpublished journal articles denuded of their original citations to carefully selected samples of readers, asking them to suggest where citations were required." This resulted in "some evidence of a shared understanding as to how and where citations should be affixed