Nancy R. John is assistant university librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Edward J. Valauskas is affiliated with the consulting firm Internet Mechanics. Their particular emphasis is immediately revealed by the table of contents, as the chapter titles reveal a clear motif: Troubles with E-mail, Troubles with Using LISTSERVs, Troubles with FIT, and Troubles with Mosaic. This book focuses sharply on helping Internet travelers to resolve problems that they will likely encounter while using the most common Internet facilities.

The authors assume that the reader has already managed to acquire access to the Internet, and they devote little space to basic information for beginners. Their introduction includes a short discussion of what to expect when dealing with commercial access providers, and at the back of the book they have appended a useful glossary of terms related to the Internet and computer networking. Beyond these sections, however, the authors make few concessions to Internet neophytes.

The greatest challenge in offering advice to users of the Internet may well be that the advisor often cannot know exactly what the users local system looks like. As John and Valauskas write in their introduction:

Since there are so many different entrance ramps to the superhighway, so many software configu- rations, its just not possible for us to know exactly what your screen will look like. How- ever, we know that many troubles are universal, and weve tried to address many of them here(p.ix).

~roughout the book, well-chosen repr~uctions of screen displays help to clarify the advice offered in many sections, but the reader will often rely mainly on the textual explanations for checklists of possible sofutions to various problems. The first chapter, for example, addresses the annoying problem of ~gu~ng out how to disconnect from a system by providing a list of common exit and escape sequences.

Checklists suggest possibilities and prompt ones memory, but there is probably no perfect substitute for experience when it comes to the successful navigation of the Internet. Experience brings a more visceral understanding of the structure of the Internet, and it encourages the occasional intuitive hunch that connects one to the source of the information sought. In other words, time spent hacking remains crucial to mastering the Internet. The Internet Trou~l~sh~~ter best serves the reader as a tool to manage the more mechanical

aspects of using the Internet, thus giving one more freedom to explore its vastness.

The Internet Trua~~esh~ater delivers on its promise very well. Chapter two, Troubles with E-mail, offers an excellent explanation of the information found in E- mail headers and how it relates to sending a message to the desired destination. Chapter eight, Troubles with Files, explains some of the vagaries of different file formats and offers some good pointers to managing compressed files. I found only a couple of places where I would have added additional advice. Chapter nine, Troubles with Internet Gopher, would benefit from at least a mention that one can invoke E-mail while using a Gopher to send documents to oneself or to others. While not a problem in itself, this particular capability is central to the utility of Gophers. The chapter does include accurate explanations of why Gopher connections sometimes do not work properly. I would add that one should make mental notes and bookmarks for Gopher sites which appear to be more consistently stable and subject to regular maintenance. Finally, the lack of a chapter or section on Netscape software for accessing the World Wide Web demonstrates how the pace of change on the Internet runs ahead of most efforts to track and explain it.

John and Valauskas are to be congratulated for writing a remarkably good and useful book about using the Internet. They provide lucid explanations for many of the vagaries one might encounter while working with various Internet facilities. They also suggest potential solutions to many common problems. The Internet Troubleshooter can be used productively and pro~tably by those who have already acquired at least modest experience in travelling the Internet.

Shaw is the Social Sciences Reference Librarian at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.

Collection Management and Development:

Issues in an Electronic Era Constance Foster

Collection Management and Development: Issues in an Electronic Era, edited by Peggy Johnson and Bonnie Ma&wan (ALCTS Papers on Library Technical Ser- vices and Collections, no.5). Chicago and London:

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American Library Association, 1994. $27. 148~. ISBN O-8389-3447- 1.

For the past twelve years a collection m~agement committee of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) has sponsored annual collection management and development institutes. Collechon Management and Development: Issues in an ~Zect~njc Era, a slim volume and fifth in a series of ALCTS monographs on varied topics, contains the proceedings of the tirst advanced institute for ALCTS, held in Chicago, March 26-28,1993, program planners changed the structure from a series of workshops with a core curriculum to major sessions attended by all registrants. The goal was to shift from the practitioner level to an expansive, visionary arena for this new subdiscipline of librarianship.

The institutes theme of managing the convergence of print and electronic info~ation systems in libraries focuses on three areas: Ad~nis~ative Aspects, Impact of New Technologies, and Financial Issues. In addition to the papers presented at the institute, editors Peggy Johnson and Bonnie MacEwan include two invited papers (Branin and St. Clair) to form the published proceedings. For the most part the papers are philosophical and narrative, illustrated occasionally with charts and diagrams rather than heavily endowed with surveys or statistical analyses. A brief index and list of acronyms and abbreviations used complete the volume.

In a succinct introduction to the volume Branin (University of Minnesota) stresses that technology is a tool, a means to an ambitious end. He urges collection development librarians towards a transition to knowledge managers in order to attain *a shareable, lasting, and comprehensive record of scholarship and knowledge (xvi).

Mosher (University of Pennsylvania), was a presenter at the first institute in 1981. While reflecting on the issues of that inaugural meeting, he also scans the higher education environment and notices changes on the horizon for research libraries and collections. He foresees a ferment of change and collective study, formation of new communities, coalitions, and alliances. Many other presenters echo these elements of change. With italicized wording, Mosher asserts that we are moving from the age of the library as an ordered and ordering institution to . . . an adaptive culture characterized by change. New forms of ordering, indexing, situating, and ending info~ation wiil be needed, and our colleagues will need to provide

them (10-l 1). His paper serves aptly as an overview to the eleven others which follow.

The papers on the Ad~~strative Aspects cover the collection development role within a library and a university. Cline (Penn State) stresses the need to actively shape the future of libraries, scholarly communication, resource sharing programs, scholarship and research with a~ention to collaboration, teamwork, and human resources. She includes Penn State Libraries mission and lengthy organizational chart to illustrate the efficacy of widespread involvement.

With checklists, ideas for alliances, and tips for becoming powerful within an institution, Ferguson (Columbia) contends that politics is the essential activity for collection development managers. Zar (University of Chicago) follows this theme by working through a hy~~etic~ scenario involving power and politics from the trenches. She concludes that political skills will always be valued and wonders if there is a common objective and a purpose to the struggle between the generals and those in the trenches.

As a librarian and writer, St. Clair (Penn State) introduces the second section, Impact of New Technologies, with her perspective on copyright issues. She notes that scholarly communication changes the emphasis on assignment of rights and forces thinking quite different from that in the current system, one designed for paper and dysfunctions in an electronic environment.

Johnson (University of Minnesota) gives a primer on the Internet and briefly relates its impact on collection development. She states the obvious f~s~ation that the Internet has no single authority or set of guidelines for access. Using vivid Nintendo allusions, she supports the tenet that collection development managers must wrestle with products after navigating the Internet. Her clear explanations of Internet protocol and capabilities and notes are useful aside from collection development implications.

Computing resources, so essential to support the delivery of any selected databases and information systems, significantly and increasingly affect collection development decisions. Eaton (Iowa State) remarks that the user of an electronic product makes no distinction among method, software and content. To the user, information is a single entity rather than a complex set of relationships resulting in successful searches. P~erships, therefore, are essential for a viable Iibrary system. Eaton cites the Iowa State

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University library architecture as an example of a technical relationship.

Atkinson (Cornell) underscores some ideas about blurring of lines administratively and access versus ownership and then quickly moves on to more thought- provoking, engaging possibilities. Viewing the discussion about the role of the collection manager as abstract, Atkinson reshapes the nature of the selection process. He envisions a never-ending ranking of items rather than a to buy-not to buy situation. As some databases and systems move in, others disappear, and those waiting in the wings (or on the ramps) may overtake those already in use.

Atkinson further notes that in an online environment, acquisition actually occurs the moment the user reads and not at the point of ordering-a monumental change in the service sequence. The user actually becomes the selector. He envisions full-text retrospective conversion with everything online. What paper remains as a residual collection will be ranked with the decision scan-do not scan. Selectors, catalogers and reference services will inevitably fuse.

Financial Issues completes the volume. Four papers range from achieving and maintaining credibility within the administration for financial support to collection development librarians as fundraisers. Wiemers (Northwestern) shares his fund~ent~ lesson, based on local experience, that money always follows credibility. The collection development officer has the inside track and sound, reliable information that other decision makers need. He and later Dannelly mention that materials prices historically outstrip the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Faulty comparisons to or sole consideration of the CPI by financial officers is an educational challenge for library administrators. The climate within a university today carries intense competition for information delivery resources, with computer centers and libraries as principal contenders. Shared understanding of the progress made in keeping up with the information revolution is the desired outcome.

MacEwan (Penn State) and Dannelly (Ohio State), co-chairs of the institutes planning committee, give case studies from their own institutions. These contributions border on the practitioner level, as do earlier papers by Cline and Eaton. Both state the effects of their negotiations and education processes and extract general principles. Dannelly compiles a virtue- like list of eight successful negotiation qualities for collection development managers.

Farrell (UC Berkeley) concludes with Fundraising for Collection Development Librarians, a role that triggers uneasiness among many librarians. He pushes collection development officers into the fundraising arena because they, more than anyone else, can articulate the needs of the library. He appends a resource checklist and bibliography.

In suck the proceedings offer those who did not attend the institute a chance to read and reflect on the challenging future of collection development within an academic library. For those who did attend, this volume is a quality substitute for notes stashed in files and provides a second chance to critique the major sessions approach.

The editors did a commendable job in blending the contributions into a balanced, readable collection. With the next institute, however, a participant might seek more diversity in presenters. Five of the thirteen papers were from Pennsylvania or Minnesota.

Any academic librarian and chief financial officer with responsibilities for library operations will benefit from the broad views presented and from the challenging concepts. Collection development officers in particular will linger on points raised by Atkinson, Wiemers, and Farrell. Virtually every contributor, however, offers a springboard for discussions, and presumably publications, on yet another changing aspect of librarianship.

Foster is the Serials Supervisor at Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky.

~~versi~ and Multiculturalism in Libraries

Ron Rodriguez

Diversity and Mu~t~cultur~~~srn in Libraries, edited by Katherine Hoover Hill. Greenwich, Conn: JAI, 1994. 264 p. $73.25. (Foundations in Library and Information Science, Vol. 32.) ISBN l-55938-75 l-3.

This work is Volume 32 in a series of monographs, texts and treatises called Foundations in Libruty and Information Science. The strength of this work is the overall quality of its 15 chapters. A critical point emphasized throughout the essays is that efforts to eliminate racism and disc~mination in the library workplace require the dedication of all library staff, and the library administration must serve as the primary

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