College and Research Libraries 182 College & Research Libraries With a more rigorous theoretical and methodological framework and a judi- cious editorial hand, this project might well have made a notable contribution to the literature and to our understanding of recent developments in American librarianship. As it is, the publisher ap- parently reproduces here a barely re- worked dissertation, acknowledged nowhere in the book. Further, the pub- lisher neglects even the most basic editing of obvious grammar and spelling errors, let alone redundant, disjointed, and simplistic discussions of complex issues. One can only suspect commercial exploitation of a hot topic in the publica- tion of a book whose promising title alone will carry it into many libraries despite its poor quality. There are enormous potential and need for solid scholarship on this topic. Our profession can only benefit from well-researched, insightful studies of feminism and librarianship and feminist perspectives on librarianship: library applications of feminist critiques of in- formation and knowledge; gender- based values and politics in library workplaces; ways in which feminism in- forms bibliographic instruction or man- agement or rna terials selection; library implications of feminist debates around censorship and media, to name just a few potential areas that warrant investiga- tion. In spite of its definitive-sounding title Feminist Thought in American Librar- ianship skirts the complexities of multi- ple feminisms and their application within a predominantly female but still male-dominated profession. Readers thus must wait still longer for the authoritative study of the impact of fem- inism on librarianship that the profes- sion so critically requires.-Joan Ariel, University of California, Irvine. Australian Studies: Acquisition and Collection Development for Libraries. Ed. by G. E. Gorman. London: Man- sell, 1992. 347p. $80. (ISBN 0-7201- 2134-5.) The Washington Post reported in late November that the Australian govern- ment had lifted its ban on homosexuals in the military. This is just one example of the many issues common to both Australia and the United States. Pub- lished materials on such issues are of current interest to American readers. As Robert Ross, the director of the Australian Studies Center at the Univer- sity of Texas, writes in this volume, inter- est in Australian studies in the United States is growing, albeit gradually. Ross cites the founding in 1978 of the Associa- tion of College and Research Libraries's Australian Studies Discussion Group and the 1985 establishment of the American Association of Australian Lit- erary Studies as evidence. Australian Studies "addresses the needs of librarians charged with collecting and managing collections with an Australian content." The book contains eighteen es- says divided into five broad areas- Demand for Australian Collections; Australian Publishing; Selecting and Purchasing Australian Publications; Australian Collections (Experience in Three Countries); and Special Needs and their Solution. This is the only work that brings to- gether information on Australian pub- lishing, selection, and collections. The essays that cover publishing in Australia are especially helpful. Reference librari- ans can use John Mills's article on refer- ence publishing as a checklist for building a current reference collection on Australia. Michael Harrington's essay on government publishing pro- vides current information about the Australian Government Publishing Service, as well as other government in- formation, including the scientific and technological works published by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). Jerelynn Brown provides a summary of useful sources for selecting Australian materi- als, although this reviewer questions the practice of having an article on selection written by the sales manager of the major Australian book supplier (the ar- ticle does favor the author's employer, the firm of James Bennett). The article by Ross Atkinson, ''Developing an Australian Lit- erature Collection: An American Per- spective," provides an excellent model for developing a literature collection. Al- though the article is about Australian literature, it should be read by anyone charged with building a collection of lit- erature, regardless of its source. It is also an excellent guide to current sources on Australian literature. Several articles also provide informa- tion on Australian collections outside Australia. Two articles describe Australian collections in Great Britain: one is about the British Library and the other treats materials supporting Australian studies in other British libraries. Unfortunately, there is no similar article on Australian collections in American libraries. There are some major weaknesses in the volume. As Brown's article states, ''The Australian publishing output rep- resents only a small percentage (almost certainly less than 5%) of the world's an- nual English-language publishing out- put." Missing from this volume is a rationale for why American libraries should spend their limited resources on this five percent. Also, an article providing a current summary of Australian research and scholarship would have been a useful addition. There is too much emphasis on Australian literature- an important area of interest to American libraries but by no means the only one. There is also a sig- nificant overlap among the articles. For example, the publication Australian Government Publications is mentioned in five separate essays, none of which gives a totally accurate description of it. The major drawback of the work for American librarians (with the notable exception of the Atkinson article) is the lack of evaluative guidance for selection. Knowledge of the selection sources is valuable but by itself does not provide the information on how to build a collec- tion. The book's aim is to "encourage dialogue among those libraries around the world which seek to collect publica- tions from and about Australia." This is an admirable goal but not enough to justify the purchase of this book (with its $80 price) for other than library science collections, libraries wishing to build Australian collections, and the largest Book Reviews 183 research libraries.-William Z. Schenck, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Crawford, Walt. The Online Catalog Book: Essays and Examples. New York: G. K. Hall, 1992. 560p. alk. paper, $35 OSBN 0-8161- 1995-3), $50 (ISBN 0-8161-1996-1). This volume begins with eleven essays by Walt Crawford on the elements of online catalog design. For libraries of all types, these essays cover the full range of issues raised by this topic. They are com- plemented, and challenged, by a series of thirty-two presentations of various elec- tronic catalogs prepared by their developers and/ or users. A more readable, complete treatment of the current state of online catalogs is difficult to imagine. Crawford, a senior analyst at the Re- search Libraries Group, is a highly re- spected author in the field of library technology. His purpose in writing and compiling The Online Catalog Book is "to discuss current issues in catalog design ·and to offer existing catalogs as sources of ideas for new and revised catalogs." Many of the ideas presented in the es- says cover topics he has addressed before in writings and conference pre- sentations, but they are brought together here in one volume and updated. The more traditional design aspects of online catalogs are covered well, and several of the chapters are quite forward-looking, addressing such issues as the implica- tions of remote use, the integration of document delivery services, and the ad- dition of local databases, community in- formation, full text, gateways and images to the catalog. Two related and important themes emerge in the series of essays: the appropriateness of designing catalogs from the user's perspective, and the lack of a single answer about how to do it best. Crawford notes, " ... by now, it should be clear that this book won't say, 'Good online catalogs look like this and work like that."' His biases are always · noted and are quite clear. Readers are urged to become familiar with the litera- ture and to draw their own conclusions based on careful review of research, ex- perience and real examples, and library users' needs.