192 Reviews

abstracts are invaluable to the reader in determining the possible value of the work. There is an “Appendix of Publications Catalogs,” which provides references and additional government

publications on numerous topics. There are “see” references to these catalogs by number throughout the text. There are two indexes. One index is to titles, giving their entry number, and the other index is by sub- ject, also by entry numbers. As was mentioned earlier, subject headings and subheadings are highlighted in bold to distinguish them from general subjects included in the index only.

In terms of entry and references correctness, the Guide appears to be flawless. Bailey has obviously gone to a great deal of care to assure bibliographic and content accuracy and integrity. References are detailed. For instance, the Post Reports are indexed by every country in the subject index. Not one title is missing from the title index.

The problem with any guide that tries to cover such a vast array of materials over so many years, is that some very hard choices must be made in terms of what is to be included and what is to be excluded. It is in this area of inclusions and exclusions, which are unexplained, that some questions occur. One is left won- dering why works such as Children’s Television or the Commercialization of Children’s Television were not included. Further, why was the Potential Effects of Global Climate Change from the EPA to be found (as it should have been) but not the congressional hearings on the Greenhouse Effect? Why was a detailed analy- sis of the Marketing in . . . series, a subseries of Overseas Business Reports, included while the parent se- ries was merely mentioned in an entry to the subseries? While these questions remain, it should be stated that compilers have the right to as much license as do poets.

The one major flaw with the Guide lies in its subject index. Since the work is meant for popular use, the intended audience is obviously the general public, who in many cases would be referring to it without the help of a specialist. The subject headings do not make for easy use. Without belaboring a point, one such example is given: there is an entry for Atlas of Comet Halley 1910 II, which is under the subheading of Astronomy under Aeronautics and Space Sciences. In the subject index, this item could be found only un- der Astronomy, which could have been found in the text under the same heading, thus providing little help. It could not be found under Halley or Comet(s) or NASA or Star(s)/Asteroid(s) or even Atlases, if one were looking for these. The general public would be hard put to find this item if they were searching for govem- ment documents on Halley’s comet. There are numerous other similar examples. It would have also been useful to include additional entries for popular names or places. For instance, the congressional hearings on the Iran-Contra Affair was not indexed under either Oliver North or Nicaragua, yet the hearings were inte- grally tied to both the person and the place. In short, the book would have been much more useful if the subjects indexed had been substantially expanded.

Guide to Popular U.S. Government Publications is overall an excellent and useful tool in helping to con- trol the vast array of government publications down to a manageable level for the average person. It is highly recommended for purchase especially for public, school, and specialized libraries. Indeed, it can even fill a void in the undergraduate reference stacks, for it can point students to useful titles they never dreamed existed.

VIVIENNE MONTY Head, Government and Business Library,

York Univeristy, 4700 Keele Street,

Downsview, Ontario, M3.l lP3, Canada

Access to U.S. Government Information: Guide to Executive and Legal Authors and Authority. Com- piled by Jerrold Zwim. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1989. 158~. ISBN: O-313-26851-1. (Bibliogra- phies and indexes in law and political science, ISSN: 0742-6909, no. 12) LC: 89-27373. $35.00.

The first question, after a glance at this book, might well be, “Why? Why would anyone compile a book like this?” In an informative “Introduction” and “User Guide,” the author provides the answers. “This volume endeavors to answer two questions: First, over which aspects of individual, organizational, national, and international affairs does the U.S. government exert authority or influence? Second, which units of the federal establishment are empowered to probe and pursue which matters?” (p.ix).

Zwirn accomplishes his objectives in a compact volume that is arranged in five parts. Part 1 is the heart of the book. This part provides an alphabetical list of spec@c subject headings and a display of agencies,

Reviews 193

subagencies, and congressional committees that have authority for some aspect of the subject. See refer- ences are provided to preferred terms. A sample entry illustrates the format of the guide:

Parent Agencies

Agency Subunits

House Committees

Senate Committees

Appropriations Committees

Lotteries

(2)

JUS GRID JU,PO GA,JU COM FCC PS

A numerical code, (2) in the sample above, refers one to a general subject category in Part 2. An index to agency and committee abbreviations is provided.

Part 2 groups the specific entries in Part 1 under 20 general subject headings. The result is that related terms are grouped together under broad headings such as Social services or Natural resources. This ap- proach provides an “overview of a broad policy sphere” (p.xiii) and, thus, eliminates the need for See also references. Appended to Part 2 is a roster of parent agencies and congressional committees with authority within the sphere of the general subject categories.

“Parts 3 and 4 are aimed at those for whom an administrative agency or congressional committee ap- proach is convenient or necessary” (p.xiv). Parts 3, 4, and 5 assign the spec$c subject categories, respec- tively, to parent agencies, congressional committees, and appropriations subcommittees. A number of lists appended to these chapters sort congressional committees by parent agency, parent agencies by legislative committee, and so forth.

Zwim meticulously outlines his strategy in compiling the guide. The index vocabulary was extracted and modified from four sources: the GAO Thesaurus, Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publica- tions, and the subject indexes to the United States Code and the Code of Federal Regulations.

The author also provides a bibliography of those sources he consulted in establishing the mission and ju- risdiction of government entities: CISlIndex, Congressional Staff Directory, Federal Information Sources and Systems, Daily Digest, Federal Staff Directory, United States Government Manual, Washington Infor- mation Directory, and Who Knows: A Guide to Washington Experts.

Zwim claims, “This guide provides comprehensive coverage of the topics and affairs addressed by all key executive and legislative branch units of the U.S. government. It identifies each entity that exercises jurisdiction over a specific subject” (p.x). Even so, he later devotes a page to exceptions to that claim. Judgement was used in determining whether or not an agency exercised sufficient jurisdiction over a sub- ject area to include it. The author’s approach was methodical and the scope of the work is clearly articu- lated. There is no question about what authorities he chose to include or the criteria by which they were assigned to subject categories.

There are several things that Access to Government Information is not intended to do. First, it does not try to identify a specific publication or series, nor to point one to a shelf location. The Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) classification system is never mentioned. It is not, in fact, even meant to be a guide to agency authors as traditionally defined by the Government Printing Office and the SuDoc system. “In this guide the key to authorship is the responsibility to formulate or implement policy or to monitor or analyze conditions that pertain to a particular matter. Author identification is based on assigned duties.” (p.x). Sec- ond, it is not a directory of government agencies, offices, or committees. And third, it does not provide statistics or other substantive textual data. Thus, the guide does not answer specific bibliographic or refer- ence queries.

To what functions then does this unique format lend itself? According to Zwim, “Subject access is the principal purpose of this guide. A key auxiliary goal is to chart the linkages among subjects, agencies, and committees” (p.xiii).

To this library-rooted reviewer, the guide has little value as a subject access tool. Certainly, it illustrates that the Federal Reserve Bank and National Credit Union Administration, the House and Senate commit- tees on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and the appropri- ations subcommittee for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and independent agencies all have jurisdiction over credit unions. It would seem that one is left, then, with browsing the pub- lications of these committees and agencies to locate relevant material. Depending on how large or prolific the author, this may or may not be a manageable and productive exercise. Zwim does not indicate the spe- cific application he envisioned for the guide. However, because he states that, “This guide is intended to be used primarily for preliminary research purposes” (p.xii), one might infer that its purpose is, indeed, to point one to the general publications of an agency or committee, to make a suggestion for a telephone or mail contact, or to suggest a starting point for more traditional bibliographic research.

The book more successfully achieves its second goal of illustrating the links between subjects and au-

194 Reviews

thors. It is a fascinating study of agency and committee authority. It clearly depicts the overlapping respon- sibilities of various government entities. It illustrates, at a glance, the numerous and eclectic responsibilities of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce compared to those of the Equal Employment Opportu- nity Commission. It provides access points by specific and general subject and by any of the agency or com- mittee names.

Access to U.S. Government Information has been thoughtfully and methodically compiled, with great heed to detail. In the “Introduction” and “User Guides,” Zwim describes at length his objectives and strat- egies and justifies his decisions. He also provides some interesting commentary on the contortions of the government information machine and the pleasures and problems of working with it. The “User Guide” is detailed and helpful. It describes the structure of the book, suggests ways it can be used, and, most impor- tant, charts the relationships between subjects and authors that are then detailed in the book. Both “User Guide” and “Introduction” are informative and also necessary, as the book is nearly incomprehensible without them.

This book is unique in concept and in format. It may engross some and serve a few patrons well, but it is not likely to be a heavily used item in most documents or reference collections.

JANITA JOBE Government Publications Department

University of Nevada Library Reno, NV 89503-0044

USA

Guide to Federal Government Acronyms. Edited by William R. Evinger. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1989. 252~. paper. ISBN: O-89774-458-6, LC: 89-34235. $45.00.

This guide is designed as a ready reference tool. It matches all kinds of shortened forms of words and phrases such as abbreviations (Adj. Gen.), initialisms (FAA), and acronyms (NATO) used in all facets of the federal government with their meaning and the department of origin. The proliferation of abbreviated word forms used in all aspects of the federal government necessitates either knowing what these forms mean or having access to a source that lists them.

Although many of these shortened forms may be found in any acronyminitialism dictionary or in spe- cialized subject handbooks, this guide is the only one exclusively for shortened terms related to all areas of the federal government. It includes 20,000 terms currently in use and greatly expands the coverage of the acronym lists offered in The United States Government Manual or in Joe Morehead’s Introduction to United States Public Documents. It includes agency names (FHA - Federal Housing Administration and USBM - United States Bureau of Mines), project and program names (RCWP - Rural Clean Water Program and CMHC - Community Mental Health Center Program), publication titles (SAMADB - State and Metro- politan Area Data Book and MLR - Monthly Labor Review), laws (PURPA - Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act and AFRA - Armed Forces Reserve Act of 1952, as amended), budget terms (ZBB - Zero Base Budgeting), census terms (MCD - Minor Civil Division and TIGER - Topologically Integrated Geo- graphic Encoding and Referencing system), agency products (MEDLARS - Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System and NNHS - National Nursing Home Survey), agency services (FSIS - Food Safety and Inspection Service and NASS - National Agricultural Statistical Service), Regulations (JTP - Joint Travel Regulations and HUDAR - Department of Housing and Urban Development Regulations), and places (YCNP - Yellow Creek Nuclear Plant and KSC - John F. Kennedy Space Center).

The guide also includes terms from international organizations and programs in which the United States government plays a part. It covers in depth the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and their related agencies. It covers international trade organizations, meteorological organizations, civil avi- ation, and a vast array of other kinds of international organizations. The guide designates each such entry as an international organization and includes its affiliation with other agencies, if any.

The guide does not attempt to give terms related to companies or associations that perform services for the federal government nor does it include terms associated with companies that sell to the federal gov- ernment.

As stated in the preface, some agencies are better covered than others. The Department of the Army, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency had previously prepared lists of acronyms, and these lists were incorporated into the guide. Agency publications, news releases, regula-