Book Reviews

Abstract

Upon opening the first issue of this journal one reads 'experts in the field applaud the charter issue of PASQ.' Reading further, John Brewster Smith, Director of Libraries and Dean, State University of New York, Stony Brook states, 'An excellent selection of highly relevant and useful articles on this field of librarianship.' Evelyn Silverman, Reference Librarian, Queens College, CUNY states, 'The articles show this journal to be a welcome addition to the literature of library science.' More testimonials follow. This reviewer, however, does not concur with the high praise for the journal by American reviewers. I find it hard to accept that in this day and age any library science journal is being published in hard copy format. Although there is lots of information from the publisher on how to acquire single copies of articles (post, fax, etc) there is no mention of any electronic version of the journal. This is unusual for a new journal which places emphasis on access. Upon examination of the articles and their content I am sceptical about the need for this journal in any format. The range of articles in the first issue does not form any cohesive theme. There are five articles in the issue. They are: 'Holocaust-Denial Literature in Public Libraries'; 'Libraries as Educators: Assessing Our Self Image'; 'The Institute of Jazz Studies and Rutgers University'; 'Circuit Rider to Industry' and 'The Reserve Department Revisited.' So one can see there are some interesting case studies and yet another review of reserve departments in an academic library. Surely all of this could have been published in existing library science journals? While the price of PASQ is reasonable, most libraries would think twice about subscribing to any new journal and would expect much more new and relevant content that PASQ has to offer in its first issue. Each of the articles in themselves is informative, well written and authored by authoritative people in the field. The article on holocaust-denial literature was written by four authors and presents some interesting results comparing the likelihood of public libraries acquiring holocaust-denial literature in comparison with such controversial subjects as abortion, AIDS, suicide, etc. In reading their methodology one notes that 200 public libraries in Nassau County were surveyed. This makes it hard to determine the validity of the results outside that area of the US. Indeed, one of the authors concluding remarks is 'the researchers believe that the findings of the present project are valid and that the sample surveyed is representative of suburban public librarians in the Northeastern United States.' In 'Circuit Rider to Industry' Carol Hochberg describes an interesting project originally funded by the Long Island Library Resources Council. This program sent a librarian (circuit rider) into the business community to supply information and foster cooperative endeavours. It was successful, but do to funding constraints it has now been cancelled. In 'The Reserve Department Revisited', Stephen H...