Book Reviews
Managing Institutional Archives: Foundational Principles and
Practices. R. Cox. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press; 1992: 306 pp.
Price: $55.00 (cloth). (ISBN O-313-27251-4.)
Managing archives is complicated in part because the term
itself variously refers to an administrative unit, a building, or the
historical materials contained therein. In his latest synthesis on
current theory and practice, Richard Cox is primarily concerned
with archives as documents created or accumulated by institutions
in the normal conduct of their affairs, and preserved because
of their continuing value to the institution. Historically, the
term has referred more narrowly to the noncurrent records of
an organization, but Dr. Cox takes the broadest possible view
in order to breach intellectual barriers that heretofore seemed
insurmountable. Managing Institutional Archives is a well-crafted
addition to a growing list of book-length studies by archivists on
the foundations of their profession.
One of the most fundamental characteristics of a profession
is the existence of a distinct body of knowledge and theory
codified in a shared literature and transmitted to new prac-
titioners through a formal educational system. For archivists,
the codification of archival theory and common knowledge has
not come easily, in part because of the absence of a viable
graduate educational system supported by properly credentialed
faculty actively engaged in research and writing for publication.
Until recently, book length studies of archival issues have been
collective efforts by practitioners generalizing from their unique
institutional settings. The primary problem with this approach is
absence of structure and vision-frameworks that organize what
we think we understand around a set of intuitively meaningful
theories.
This volume succeeds in its modest goal of providing a unified
and balanced portrait of the state of archival practice today and
offering that portrait to administrators in institutions who undoubt-
edly need it. One of the few archival administrators to make
the transition to academic teaching and research, Cox serves on
the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Library and
Information Science and has recently completed a dissertation on
the challenge of managing electronic records, a nearly intractable
issue facing the leadership of all large organizations. Dr. Cox
brings to his work the conviction that the archival profession
has not sufficiently articulated the need to protect that portion of
the country’s documentary heritage located in public and private
institutions. Whether or not one chooses to agree with this sense
of failure, the book is a significant contribution.
The intended audience is “those who are called upon to start
or develop and archival program” and those who do the calling,
namely administrators of the institutions themselves. The author
persuasively argues that the concept of “institutional archives”
is a distinctive species of organization separate in character from
government archives (local, state, and federal), which have a clear
public service mandate, and historical records programs, such as
historical societies and other units built around topical collecting
themes. More specifically, the book addresses its message to
administrators in business organizations, colleges and universi-
ties, museums, and religions organizations of all denominations.
Cox seeks to identify basic principles of practice, all the while
0 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE.
eschewing rudimentary narrative. By and large he succeeds in
articulating “those approaches that are absolutely essential to the
adequate performance of an institutional archives” (p. viii).
The author claims that his book is neither a basic text nor
a management treatise, and while both are desperately needed,
readers who seek either will be disappointed. None of the central
four chapters on archival functions (selection, preservation, pro-
cessing and reference, and outreach) contains sufficient “how-to”
detail to satisfy the beginning practitioner or student in search
of practical guidelines. Nevertheless, the text is peppered with
excellent excerpts from path-breaking studies, manuals, guides,
and other publications (many of them ephemeral but essential
reading) that illustrate the major themes in the text. However, few
of these valuable illustrations are indexed or discussed directly by
the author, lessening their usefulness for the fledgling archivist
or librarian.
Administrators and educators alike may choose to sidestep the
somewhat cursory treatments of archival functions and contem-
plate the many important ideas presented in three widely dispersed
chapters. Chapter 2 describes the essential elements of a viable
archival program and, as such, is required reading for anyone who
feels that establishing an archival program in an institution whose
primary “business” is not archives is a casual matter. In Chapter 8
the author leaves all these essential elements behind in examining
the recent efforts of archivists to define their particular contribu-
tion to the management of institutional information, especially in
the face of emerging information echnologies that may render the
notion of “collecting” or “keeping t ’ records obsolete. Cox’s handy
summary in chapter 10 of the mht significant literature in the
archival profession is another solid demonstration of the author’s
particularly expert command of relevant information sources.
Dr. Cox argues that a single-volum+summary of archival
procedures is not possible because the knowledge underpinning
practice is constantly changing and expanding. While his assertion
may hold for the details, the need and the possibility exist
for the construction of a coherent theoretical framework that
considers present practice, the heritage from which it emerged,
and the implications of the profound technological changes that
are coming more clearly into view as the 21st century approaches.
This volume is not that work, but it does provide the thinking
archivist, the curious information professional, and the needy
administrator with the guidance needed to lay the groundwork
for a functioning, successfully archival program.
Paul Conway
Preservation Department
Yale University Library
New Haven, CT 06520
Automated Information Retrieval in Libraries: A Manage-
ment Handbook Vicki Anders. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press;
1992: 248 pp. Price: $55.00 (cloth). (ISBN O-313-27361-8.)
The world of online searching is considerably more complex
than it was when databases were first made commercially available
odf7):428-42g. 1993 CCC 0002-8231193/070428-02
over two decades ago. Information provision, its access, scope,
speed, delivery, have all changed and these changes have impacted
virtually every aspect of professional life. This is hardly news
to JASIS readers, many of whom have been responsible for
the theoretical advances and practical innovations in the field.
For the average library manager, however, these years of rapid
and relentless technological advances have been challenging.
Vicki Anders, an Associate Professor at the Stirling C. Evans
Library of Texas A&M University has herself witnessed the
information revolution and has written an excellent book that can
help practitioners manage their automated information retrieval
services more effectively.
The book is divided into eight chapters, preceded by a preface
and followed by an index. The chapter titles are as follows:
chapter 1: Automated Information Retrieval: Integrating the Op-
tions; chapter 2: Operation of an Automated Information Re-
trieval Service; chapter 3: Finance and Budget; chapter 4: Staff,
chapter 5: End-User Services; chapter 6: Databases and Ven-
dors; chapter 7: The Technology: Hardware and Software; and
chapter 8: Planning for the Future. These brief titles only hint at
the wealth of material that each chapter contains. For example,
chapter 1 discusses the variety of ways in which retrieval services
can be offered by a library: through a mediated search service,
as a fee-based service, for discretionary professional use, as an
end-user service, as an on-disk operation, or via locally mounted
databases. Each option is discussed in terms of the procedures
to be put in place to set it up and keep it running smoothly,
the advantages and disadvantages likely to accrue, and the setting
and equipment that will likely be needed. It is recognized that
academic libraries may have combinations of these options.
Chapter 2 covers the day-to-day management of the service.
Beginning with the responsibilities of the person in charge, Anders
goes on to discuss the many issues and concerns that should be
covered in a policy manual: the appropriate setting for the service,
relations with vendors, promotion and advertising, forms, record-
keeping, statistics, and evaluation. A few illustrative examples of
forms are provided.
Chapter 3 compares the costs of providing the various types of
services and suggests ways of paying for them. Chapter 4 details
the “people” aspects of running the service, including a thoughtful
review of the attributes of a good search analyst, the stages of
the search process, the selection, training, and evaluation of staff.
Aspects of the end-user are dealt with in chapter 5 and include
their commonly held misconceptions of databases, preparation
and searching errors, mental models, service options, and training
methods. Descriptions of databases and their vendors, including
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN
directories and selection tools are presented in chapter 6, while
chapter 7 outlines specific types of equipment and the software
necessary for the provision of the types of services discussed
earlier. The final chapter ties the book together nicely by taking a
look at the options, problems, and trends that have been mentioned
in previous chapters to see how they will affect the retrieval
service of the future. At the end of each chapter there is an
extensive, annotated bibliography.
Throughout, the book resonates with the practical experience
that the author brings to bear on her discussion of the various
topics. One senses that she has lived through many of the changes,
choices, and problems that she describes and that she has resolved
to share her hard-earned knowledge with others. For this we
should be grateful, for she has provided us with a sensible,
readable, even at times humorous resource to draw upon. I intend
to use her book in my online course and suspect that other
instructors may also find it fills the gap left by the standard texts
on searching and the edited volumes of readings.
While the content of the book is a genuine contribution to the
field, there are some production lapses that an experienced copy
editor and designer should have caught. The sparseness of the
chapter headings fails to describe clearly and in adequate detail
the extensive coverage of the book. The index provides some clues
but it is not as comprehensive as it could be, lacking the names of
authors referred to in the text. Headings within chapters are also
fewer than desirable making casual reading more difficult than
it ought to be and browsing nearly impossible. The impression,
compounded by the small type and scarcity of illustrative material
is one of density. Then there are the stylistic lapses and spelling
errors. The former are especially annoying. I refer to the seemingly
indiscriminate references to gender: sometimes the text uses the
male pronoun only, sometimes the male and female, sometimes
neither. Consistency and gender-neutral language are surely not
too much to expect these days. Finally, as a Canadian, I really
cannot ignore the reference to our nation’s capital as “Ottowa.”
Authors labor long and hard to produce their work. They
should be able to rely on their publishers to present it in an
attractive manner at a reasonable price.
Ethel Auster
Faculty of Library and Information Science
University of Toronto
140 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S IA1
SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE-August 1993 429