Information Processing & Management Vol. IS, pp, 265-267

Pergamon Pres Lid., 1979. Printed m Great Britain

BOOK REVIEWS

sdinet Long Range Plan 1978. Southeastern Library Network, Inc. 615 Peachtree Street, NE Atlanta, GA 30308, U.S.A.

The Southeastern Library Network, Inc. (SOLINET) has produced four general planning documents, of which the SOLINET LONG RANGE PLAN 1978 is the fourth and latest.

The initial plan, developed by an ad hoc committee of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries, called for an independent network similar to the Ohio College Library Center (OCLC). The second plan, produced by John P. Kennedy and Elroy W. Eckhardt in 1974, envisioned a full replication of the QCLC system including the copying of OCLC’s bibliographic data. Difficulties in negotiating a replication contract, and the failure of SOLINET’s investigations to find a simple or economical way to import any existing system without modification, led to another document, the SOLINET TECHNICAL PROGRAM SUMMARY 1976 (STEPS). The 1978 plan is a successor to the STEPS program.

In SOLINET’s view, library networking is likely to develop into a three-tiered structure. On the national level, bibliographic utilities such as OCLC will provide shared cataloging services. Regional networks such as SOLINET will handle interlibrary loans and perhaps provide other services. Serials checkin, circulation, and similar functions will continue to be handled by individual libraries.

SOLINET intends to operate a “concentrator” in the OCLC network by fiscal year 1981, meaning that communications between SOLINET members and the OCLC data base will be routed through SOLINET headquarters in Atlanta, which will “concentrate” the messages by sending and receiving them over a special high-speed line. This promises to be more economical than the present arrangement, in which each SOLINET member dials OCLC directly.

SOLINET will also develop its own on-line data base reflecting the holdings of its member libraries. Through this data base, SOLINET will be able to provide products and services to libraries wishing to convert their card-catalogs to book, microfiche, or on-line form. From January 1979 to March 1980, SOLINET will study the problem of enforcing authority control in its data base, and by the end of the five-year planning period, SOLINET envisions that subject access will be available.

As far as funding is concerned, SOLINET makes conservative assumptions. Inflation is expected to continue at a high rate for the next five years (10% annually) and little new federal money is expected within the planning period.

Institutions represented by SOLINET will certainly have an important voice in the decisions that will be made, over the next few years, about the shape of library networks. Anyone with an established interest in this field will benefit from reading this document.

UCLA RICHARD CHANDLER CA 90024 U.S.A.

Microforms: The Librarians’ View, 1978-79. ALICE H. BAHR. Knowledge Industry Publications, Inc., White Plains, New York, (The Professional Librarian Series.) 118~~. $24.50. index, paperbound. ISBN O-914236 25-3 LC 78-10645

Library Networks, 1978-79. SUSAN K. MARTIN. Knowledge Industry Publications, Inc., White Plains, New York, 1978. (The Professional Librarian Series.) 2nd Edn, 144~~. $24.50. index, paperbound. ISBN 0-914236-18-O LC 78-10666

Taken together, these two sources suggest that libraries have too much on one hand and too liffle on the other. Furthermore, both instances seem to require technological responses to the increased economic pressures on libraries.

In the case of the former, more compact storage of material-microforms-may be the solution. The author, however, carefully points out that even this solution has its difficulties, mainly in the physical equipment and in the social resistance to their use. In one respect, this source is more an introduction than an annual review as suggested by the title. Consequently, much of the information presented is retrospec- tive, spanning the years 1971-77. Furthermore, techniques of selecting, acquiring, maintaining, processing, and storing microforms as well as the financial implications are discussed for more than two-thirds of the work. The most vitally important but least well-covered discussion is the role of microforms in the library’s provision of physical and intellectual access to the graphic record. However, there is a survey of twelve

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