College and Research Libraries


and that everyone else would be im-
proved by adopting their frame of 
mind.-Julie Still, Rutgers University, 
Camden, New Jersey 

Short Notices 
The Economics of Information in the 

1990s. Ed. Jana Varlejs Jefferson. N.C.: 
McFarland, 1995. 93p. $15.95, paper. 
(ISBN 0-7864-0130-3.) 

These proceedings of a 1994 symposium 
at Rutgers University contain five contri-
butions, an introduction and conference 
discussion, and an annotated bibliogra-
phy. Its central concern is to assess the 
impact of digital technology on the eco-
nomics of information production, stor-
age, and dissemination. The papers come 
from five very different perspectives: an 
economist (Malcolm Getz), a library 
school researcher (Paul Kantor), a pub-
lisher (Janet Bailey), a public interest ad-
vocate (James Love), and a library direc-
tor (Arthur Curley). Although each is of 
some interest, they are all quite short-
barely scratching the surface of such a 
complex (and crucial) topic. (BW) 

McDermott, Patrice. Politics and Scholar-
ship: Feminist Academic Journals and the 
Production of Knowledge. Champaign, 
Ill.:Univ.oflllinoisPr.,1994.197p.,alk. 
paper, $13.95. (ISBN 0-252-02078-2.) 

Politics and Scholarship examines the his-
tory of three feminist academic journals 
and traces their evolution and transfor-
mation: Feminist Studies, Frontiers, and 
Signs. McDermott chooses journals af-
filiated with major research universities 
in order to investigate the different 
ways they address both the feminist 
and the scholarly communities. She 
shows how, increasingly, feminist 
scholars choose to publish in feminist 
journals that replicate traditional aca-
demic publishing standards because of 
the recognition afforded them by tenure 
and promotion review committees, as 
well as their wider audiences and more 
stable financing. (E W) 

Book Reviews 465 

Journal of Electronic Publishing. Ann 
Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Pr. (ISSN 
1081-2711.) URL: http:/ /www.press. 
umich.edu/ jep. 

As of June 1995 this "electronic archive" 
on electronic publishing included thirteen 
articles, divided into six categories: Copy-
right Issues, Digital Issues, Economic Is-
sues (with FAQs on "usage-based" pric-
ing by two University of Michigan econo-
mists), Imaging Issues, Policy Issues ("In-
stitutional and Policy Issues in the Devel-
opment of the Digital Library"), and Tech-
nical Issues (e.g., a critique of HTML by 
Philip Greenspun). Some of the articles 
provide hypertext links. The phrase "a 
lawyer has at his touch" connects, aptly 
enough, to the homepage of Cornell Law 
School's Legal Information Institute, and 
the terms "adze" and "diazo" to dictio-
nary definitions. Unlike much of what 
one finds on the Web, however, this par-
ticular publication is clearly more inter-
ested in providing substance rather than 
flash. (SL) 

Haricombe, Lorraine J., and F. W. Lan-
caster. Out in the Cold: Academic Boy-
cotts and the Isolation of South Africa. 
Arlington, Va.: Information Resources 
Pr., 1995. 158p. $29.50. (ISBN 0-87815-
067-6.) 

Stemming from Haricombe' s dissertation 
at the University of Illinois, this study 
"was designed solely to determine to 
what extent scholarship in South Africa 
may have sufffered as a result of various 
manifestations of an academic boycott." 
These manifestations included the ban-
ning of South African scholars from con-
ferences, rejection of manuscripts by 
South African scholars for publication, 
nonrecognition of South African degrees, 
etc. Access to information played a key 
role in the boycott, and the authors de-
vote some attention to the debate among 
librarians (especially at the 1987 ALA con-
ference and its aftermath), and to the ac- _ 
tions they and publishers took to isolate 
South African scholarship. The bottom