Organizing Information: Principles of Data Base and Retrieval Systems by Dagobert SoergelReview by: Elaine SvenoniusThe Library Quarterly, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Jan., 1987), pp. 100-102Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4308083 .

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100 THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY

was distributed through the Council on Library Resources to members of Con- gress, cabinet members, the White House, assistant secretaries for administra- tion in federal agencies, governors, state archivists, information managers in the federal government, some faculty members in major universities, some national organizations, and those who requested copies after reading about it in newspa- per articles. It is to be hoped that a report such as this, sponsored by prestigious groups, will gain the attention of government officials who are in a position to enact policy and of groups or individuals who might influence these officials.

Barbara J. Ford, Maddux Libra?y, Trinity University

Organizing Information: Principles of Data Base and Retrieval Systems. By DAGOBERT

SOERGEL. Orlando, Fla.: Academic Press, 1985. Pp. xiv + 450. $49.50. ISBN 0- 12-654260-0.

Some characteristics of the information age are that the study of certain disci- plines is becoming increasingly formalistic; the discussion of issues and problems is becoming increasingly systematic; and generalizations are being formulated at increasingly higher levels of abstraction. Thus, knowledge progresses, and we are indebted to those who lead the way. Dagobert Soergel is such a leader. Gifted with one of the finest minds in the field of library and information science today, he has devoted the last several years to developing a theoretical base for the design of information storage and retrieval (ISAR) systems. This book is the fruit of his labor.

Having grown out of lectures delivered to introductory classes in the organiza- tion and retrieval of information, the book is prefaced with the hope that it will "inspire a modernization and integration of the library/information curriculum" (p. xiii) and that it will overcome the artificial separation of cataloging and reference and give students "wide flexibility in choosing their first position and a sound base from which to strike out in many directions in the further develop- ment of their careers" (p. xiii). Students are the audience for this book, students who will be the systems designers of the future. What the book gives them is a rationale upon which to base their design considerations.

Soergel's approach to integrating cataloging and reference (organization and retrieval) is commendable indeed and fills an important gap in our field. It might be argued, however, that such an approach serves best not as a substitute for a more traditional approach, but as an extension of it. There is much to be said for providing students at the outset of their education with an in-depth understand- ing of a particular system for organizing bibliographic information, such as AACR 2. Both the imagination and understanding require models. A knowl- edge of AACR 2 could stimulate the imaginative design of new (and better) conceptual schema as well as providing a base for the understanding and appre- ciation of the more generalized approach to ISAR system design.

The book is divided into five parts. Part 1 begins with an epistemological discussion of the nature of information. Key to understanding Soergel's view of information is the notion of a mental image that guides the processes of problem solving and decision making. The remainder of part 1 presents an overview of the structure of information systems, which is subsequently refined, in stepwise fashion, in parts 2-5. Simply stated, an information system has two inputs: (1) people with problems and, therefore, needs and (2) information entities; and one output: changes in the people with the needs. It is a systems model that is

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REVIEWS 101

predicated upon the assumption that information systems function within the general context of information transfer and that the purpose of information transfer is problem solving.

Part 2 opens with a broad introduction to the functions carried out in systems analysis; these are then specified by means of examples of particular systems. As an assessment of users' problems and needs is central to the design of ISAR systems, a chapter is devoted to this topic. Part 2 concludes with a discussion of ISAR system objectives. These objectives are not stated in isolation, as sometimes seems to happen, but are directly linked to measures of retrieval performance. Also from these objectives are deduced suggestions for the improvement of information services.

Part 3 addresses the heart of the design problem-namely, the conceptual schema of ISARs. Conceptual schema formalize the information contained in databases in terms of entity types and relationship types. Entity types may include both real-world objects, such as books, as well as surrogates of these, such as bibliographic records. They may also include data elements used in the description of these-for example, values in fields of bibliographic records. The discussion becomes a little difficult at times and might have benefited from a clearer distinction between symbols and what they symbolize, names and their referents, surrogates and the objects they represent. There are essential differ- ences between bibliographic and nonbibliographic databases as well as between databases that describe entities and those that establish relationships among names of entities. Soergel's disjunctive use of "entities," "information," and "substantive data" is indicative of the difficulty of handling different categories of variables at a common level of abstraction.

Part 4 deals with index languages or, more precisely, with index language descriptors, since Soergel seems to equate index languages with their vocabular- ies. While some of the material here repeats matter contained in the author's Indexing Languages and Thesauri: Construction and Maintenance (Los Angeles: Mel- ville Publishing Co., 1974), the exposition is nicely compact and readable. Of special note is the discussion of request-oriented and entity-oriented indexing. In the history of bibliographical control, there are many instances where user considerations conflict with systematic design principles. And so it happens here: for instance, in the choice of system vocabulary, use warrant may be momentar- ily set aside when there is a need for gap filling to bind together orphaned siblings-for example, terms that are frequently ORed together in searching but lack a user-sanctioned, broader term (p. 283).

The final part of the book appropriately deals with the actual design and evaluation of information systems. While "shoulds" and "musts" abound, rea- sons are given and the whole is self-contained, coherent, and well thought out. A question one might be tempted to raise is, How is a theoretical basis for design- that is, a set of design principles-itself to be evaluated?

Two minor points: a leap beyond ordinary modes of discourse to higher levels of generalization necessarily requires the introduction of new terminology. How much new terminology is actually needed and to what extent terms already in use should be used with restricted meanings is debatable. Even though the use of new or altered terminology is signaled in the text, a glossary would have been useful.

The book has a good chapter-by-chapter bibliography. In his introduction to it, Soergel apologizes that it would be difficult to list the sources of each of his ideas. However, some footnoting seems called for, especially when material is quoted (p. 285).

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102 THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY

But these are quibbles. This book, as was the author's earlier one mentioned above, is a personal tour de force and a major step forward in the intellectual growth of library and information science.

Elaine Svenonius, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of California, Los Angeles

Value-added Processes in Information Systems. By ROBERT S. TAYLOR. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing Corp., 1986. Pp. xiii + 257. $39.50. ISBN 0-89391-273-5.

As Taylor points out in his preface, he has spent years thinking, writing, and teaching about information and gaining valuable insight in the process. In fact, he might have used himself as an example of the value-added process in infor- mation systems: his long years of experience, coupled with his detailed knowl- edge of the problems students have in understanding the issues, have given him a unique perspective. He uses the word "culmination," with some misgivings, to describe the conclusions he puts forth in this book, but he might have used "cumulation" as effectively. Taylor's cumulative knowledge of information pro- cesses allows him to step back from any one part of the discipline and attempt to present a unifying principle that covers the individual tasks with which we are all so very familiar.

In the opening chapters, Taylor attempts to define "information," "data," ''user," and a few other troublesome terms and also to describe what he means by "value-added." His guardedness in proposing working definitions is somewhat unsettling, but perhaps if the work is intended for use as a textbook, it is well that students be warned at the outset of the minefields awaiting the unwary. The book would be more effective if Taylor had been a little less self-deprecating in places; for example, he often refers to the main thesis of the book as an "early sketch of the value-added model," and yet it seems obvious that Taylor's idea of the value-added process as applied to information systems is the result of years of careful thought and observation. He might have stated his ideas a little more assertively and thus made his case more convincingly.

Taylor begins by laying some groundwork. He presents background informa- tion and a statement of his assumptions, then describes twenty-three ways in which value may be added to information systems. He groups these into six categories, each representing some feature-such as "Ease of Use" or "Cost- Saving"-that makes an information system more acceptable to its users. He then proceeds to describe how these value-added processes are manifest in libraries, in abstracting and indexing services, in information analysis, and in systems for decision making. Taylor adds a penultimate chapter on "Informa- tion and Productivity" in which he discusses information output and cost-benefit analysis. He concludes with a chapter recapitulating his ideas about the value- added model and extends the discussion to include implications for education and research and the societal implications of information literacy.

An extensive bibliography includes references to many older works that are often unknown to today's graduate students because they are not included in online databases. In this one small area alone, the book has added value to the study of information processes.

Emily Gallup Fayen, Systems, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

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