College and Research Libraries 402 . College & Research Libraries manner. Riggs' treatment of the subject, however, is at once complex and superfi- cial. He is fond of list making and enumer- ative prose that makes for disjoined read- ing. One trips over endless lists of things to do or not to do, to consider or to avoid, of questions to ask, of criteria to apply. While this list making could be seen as comprehensiveness of coverage (almost to the point of making the presentation a cookbook approach), this reviewer feels these lifted (and footnoted) lists are an in- adequate substitute for original thinking and felicitous prose, that they fractionate the presentation and contribute to an un- even quality throughout. The impression is one of breadth of coverage but of insuffi- cient depth. Riggs' book is not really a cookbook. The paucity of strategic planning mate- rial in library literature is accurately re- flected in Riggs' selected bibliography and chapter references. Charles McClure is a librarian who has written on the planning process in libraries . For a shorter treat- ment of the subject see McClure's article in the November 1978 C&RL; his edited collection of papers, Planning for Library Seroices: A Guide to Utilizing Planning Meth- ods for Library Management (New York: Ha- worth, 1982) is a useful compendium of contemporary planning approaches. In this generally successful application of a complex business procedure to li- braries, Riggs makes certain explicit and implicit assumptions, some of which may attenuate the usefulness of the book to particular libraries. He assumes a library of moderate to large size and one that is hi- erarchically structured for authority and decision making. He also assumes one characterized by strong, centralized man- agement and control process and by a high level of rationality: to wit, a stereo- typical (and idealized) bureaucracy. In- deed, the closer one's library is to General Motors in size, complexity, and structure, the more valuable Riggs' book will be .- Albert F. Maag, Capital University Library, Columbus, Ohio. Changing Technology and Education for Librarianship and Information Science. Ed. by Basil Stuart-Stubbs. Greenwich, July 1986 Conn.: JAI, 1985. 188p. (Foundations in Library and Information Science, V.20). $23.75, individuals; $47.50, institutions. LC 84-21330. ISBN 0-89232-515-1. What takes two-and-a-half years to pro- duce, costs libraries twice as much as indi- viduals to purchase, and is outdated by the time it is marketed? Answer: this book. This latest volume in the Founda- tions in Library and Information Science series is an edited transcription of a June 1983 invitational conference hosted by the University of British Columbia's School of Librarianship. It is both ironic and symp- tomatic of the technological challenge fac- ing librarians that the proceedings of such a conference took so long to reach a wider audience and that they came traditionally packaged-in a clothbound photo-offset printed edition complete with justified margins . This small conference of research librari- ans, information scientists, and educators met to examine and discuss ''the impact of changing technology on the recording and dissemination of knowledge, on research libraries as agents in that process, and on education for librarianship and informa- tion science." The volume includes the full text of six major theme papers, eleven formal commentaries, and very brief sum- maries of informal discussions. The con- verstational style of the commentaries and the personal style of oral presentations are faithfully recorded. Given the delay in publication one might have expected in- stead to see a heavily edited and tightly or- ganized monograph that succinctly pre- sented the most important elements of the conference . John Black opened the conference with an overview of changing technology's re- lationship to scholarly communication and its implications for research libraries. He illuminates his discussion of technolo- gies by examining three functional areas in which innovation has been extensive and rapid-distribution, ·Computation, and storage. While he could not have pre- cisely anticipated all the new technolo- gies, such as CD/ROM, he charts the di- rection of that change and highlights the implications for libraries. One obvious, but still sobering, conclusion is that re- search libraries as they are presently con- stituted will no longer monopolize access to recorded information as completely as in the past. That realization alone should prompt serious rethinking about the fu- ture role of research libraries and the edu- cation necessary for professionals who staff them. Reflecting his earlier training and expe- rience in computing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, commentator Rich- ard McCoy observes that new organiza- tional structures are being developed to oversee and coordinate Black's changing technologies, but they seldom include li- brarians. That is apparently still true three years later. The prominence that the Chronicle of Higher Education accorded Pa- tricia Battin's appointment as Columbia University's new ''computer czar'' in ad- dition to her responsibilities as university librarian simply confirms the novelty. As might be expected of the president of a consortium of institutions with a substan- tial investment in a large centralized data- base such as RUN, McCoy singles out op- tical disk technology, with its implications for offline distribution of great quantities of data, as an especially promising techno- logical development. The implications of the new technolo- gies on the personnel requirements of re- search libraries was the second major theme of the conference. Those familiar with Carlton Rochell' s recent research will recognize ideas he has developed in other forums-especially the idea that new tech- nologies will require an organizational change within libraries. The need to pull together people from various strata and areas of the library with particular knowl- edge or skills to work on specific projects for brief periods will force libraries to abandon a traditional hierarchical organi- zational pattern in favor of a flatter, more decentralized matrix organization. Re- garding the preparation of professionals to operate effectively in that new environ- ment, Rochell states explicitly what many practicing librarians say privately, that ''li- braries cannot afford to leave the educa- tion of librarians entirely up to the schools" (p.31). Library schools, he feels, often perpetuate a traditional approach at Recent Publications 403 the very time when library administrators actively seek talented young professionals with new ideas. He predicts a bright fu- · ture for librarians who serve as custodians of access to information in an age "where data is marketed, purchased and retained as a commodity ... " (p.35). He also feels, however, that as libraries train more non- professionals to operate technological sys- tems, those libraries will lose staff to the more lucrative business world. Richard Dougherty's remarks are less a commentary on Rochell's paper than a point of departure for his own observa- tions. He points to the debate over the na- ture and use of database as the most recent manifestation of the traditional tension. between public services and technical ser- vices. For Dougherty, the emerging infor- mation age requires multipurpose data- base supporting cataloging, collection development, and resource sharing and a shift in emphasis from bibliographic con- trol to access. Another tension is the com- petition between libraries and computer centers for the same share of the univer- sity's budget, a competition that must be converted to cooperation and integration. In a second commentary Margaret Beck- man contrasts the Canadian research li- brary experience with that of its southern neighbor. She notes, for instance, that Ca- nadian research libraries generally receive a larger portion of the university budget and allocate a smaller percentage of their staff to professionals, who, in turn, earn comparably higher salaries. A two-year M.L.S. is also becoming the recognized standard. In the third major theme paper Edward Holley reviewed current developments in library education, including two-year pro- grams, joint degree and sixth year certifi- cate programs, and doctoral programs. He remains convinced of his earlier judgment that fewer, larger, stronger library schools will produce better students, a trend that already appears well under way. Whether one is prepared to go quite as far as Hol- ley, few can gainsay his basic point. Com- mentator Evelyn Daniel does, however, register her concern over the possible con- sequences of ''a small number of fairly large schools control[ling] entry to this di- 404 College & Research Libraries verse profession" (p.82). A second educa- tor, William Cameron, stresses the need for graduates who anticipate and plan for technological change, rather than simply react and adapt to it. Restructuring the curriculum, he suggests, will result in schools producing the kind of graduates who will keep librarianship vital and cur- rent. Library educator Bernard Franckowiak opened the fourth theme session appro- priately with a look at the future educa- tional needs of librarians. His lengthy list of computer-based core courses and mini- mal competencies is impressive, but unre- alistic. Graduates with those skills will not likely accept even a generous librarian sal- ary when much more is available in busi- ness and industry. In his commentary Thomas Galvin points out the drab reali- ties of present school budgets. Those reali- ties suggest that schools cannot be all things to all people and that differentia- tion is probably necessary. Edwin Gleaves adds his personal experience with micro- computers to buttress Franckowiak's computer emphasis for learning about new technologies and for teaching with new technologies. Another closely related theme session dealt with the faculty and students of li- brary schools. In his paper Michael Buck- land argues that library faculty are forced to meet a double standard atypical of other faculty: wide practical experience as well as scholarly rigor and conceptual vision. They are not free to concentrate on tradi- tional academic research that is the basis for status and promotion in the academic community, nor can they afford to con- centrate exclusively on the practical and applied aspect of the subject. At the same time faculty face these pressures, the number of graduate students is dropping precipitously. Apparently, too, fewer li- braries are requiring theM. L. S. degree for professional positions, a fact that runs contrary to general impressions. In the concluding theme session Dean Robert Stueart of Simmons College dis- cussed strategies for adapting to change. One obvious way is to recruit potentially better professionals who, as a result of their education, are "flexible, adaptable, July 1986 capable of critical judgement and edu- cated to face and discern the patterns of future change" (p.130). While that is un- doubtedly true, the same could be said of any school training students for profes- sional and managerial positions. And therein lies the problem-we are compet- ing for the best and the brightest with schools that offer their graduates higher status, better incomes, greater psychic sat- isfaction, and more security. It is uniikely that the next few years will dramatically alter that picture. Three concluding presentations sum- marize the conference from the perspec- tive of an information scientist (Neal Kaske), a research library director Oames Govan), and an educator (Charles Davis). Although differences in point of view are apparent, the summaries emphasize agreement rather than differences. Most of the challenges and problems discussed at the conference are not new; nor are the suggested responses and solu- tions. The latter, to be sure, were fresher when discussed in 1983, but by the time they appeared in print those ideas had al- ready received considerable public atten- tion. What is significant is that the confer- ence proceedings represent a general consensus among the leadership of the major library schools and research li- braries in North America about the pros- . pects for both in the near future. Since these are the very individuals and institu- tions that can shape that future, their com- ments deserve attention.-Nicholas C. Burckel, Washington University Libraries, St. Louis, Missouri. Reynolds, Dennis. Library Automation: Is- sues and Applications. New York: Bowker, 1985. 615p. $37.50. LC 84-6272. ISBN 0-8352-1489-3. The author describes the current state of library automation by tracing historically the progress of library fundions such as acquisitions, cataloging, circulation, seri- als check-in, public catalog, interlibrary loan, and the retrieval search services. The beginnings of automation started with the IBM unit-record equipment found in early circulation systems and advanced to to- - day's sophisticated integrated online cata-