192 College & Research Libraries March 1997 Ness, the Implication

192 College & Research Libraries March 1997 ness, the implication being that these Finally, a book published in 1996 sectors are more service oriented than should surely give great emphasis to are libraries. Because this reviewer be- networked information and the digital lieves strongly that the service ethic has library, because one can reasonably ex- declined precipitously in all segments pect that users will exploit such re- of society (including libraries) over the sources in ways different from the ways past forty years (try to reach any hu- they exploit print resources and, thus, man being by telephone today; try to criteria relating to “service quality” get a reply to any business correspon- could be different. Although some dence), he finds this almost entirely rather oblique references occur in the platitudinous. A statement of commit- text, the topic is never really addressed ment to excellence does not, in itself, head-on and the terms digital library, elec- guarantee even adequacy. tronic information, Internet, or even net- Chapter 8 gives us a few pages on work do not appear in the index (which, what “leadership” means in libraries in any case, is rather pathetic). and chapter 9 tells us that service qual- This is not a book I can recommend ity is a critical issue in academic librar- to either library managers or students ies and in higher education in general. of library science. Both the theoretical None of this is new or inspiring. discussion and the survey instruments Chapter 7 presents a hodgepodge of have been done better before. A methods that libraries could use to ex- hardbound version (ISBN 1-56750-209-1) amine quality of service, everything is also available at an almost unbeliev- from reshelving surveys to OPAC trans- able price of $52.50 for fewer than 200 action logs; and chapter 6 (which seems pages.—F. W. Lancaster, University of Illi- out of place logically) discusses how nois, Urbana-Champaign data collected could form the basis for a Service Quality Information System. Olson, Michael P. The Odyssey of a Ger- Although not stated explicitly, the au- man National Library: A Short History thors seem to draw their inspiration of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the from Total Quality Management. They Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, the Deutsche prefer the subjective impressions of li- Buecherei, and the Deutsche Bibliothek. brary users to more objective and quan- Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (Beitraege tifiable measures of user success (e.g., zum Buch- und Bibliothekswesen, Bd. shelf availability). 36), 1996. vii, 122p. DM78. ISBN They also are prone to wild asser- 3-447-03648-6. tions that they fail to substantiate, such No previous book has been published as “thinking of library users as custom- addressing the subject treated in this ers is a new concept for many librar- volume. For a German reviewer, it is ians.” As someone who has worked in surprising to see that a book about the or around libraries for more than forty German library system was published years, this reviewer believes that librar- in English in a well-known German ians once thought of users as custom- publisher’s series. At the outset, this re- ers (see, for example, S. L. Wallace’s viewer should acknowledge his respect 1956 Patrons Are People) but forgot this for the author for tackling this subject. important principle as they fell in love It must be difficult for someone from with technology and saw “automation” outside Germany and its specific (li- as an end in itself—compare the num- brary) history to understand that this ber of books written today about library idea is one that is influencing librarians’ users with the number written about li- work today. Although Olson does not brary technology! emphasize the fact that this discussion Book Reviews 193 impacts the daily work of librarians, The aim of the book is described well: many decisions for planning a national, it is to present a historical description or even a regional or local library struc- of the libraries in question. Each library ture, and for offering adequate library has had a discrete historical develop- services for patrons, depend on this his- ment, and Olson summarizes each torical development and its conse- library’s history through such topics as quences for the present situation. financial support, holdings, director- A national library, in the traditional ships, buildings, cooperation, and ser- sense of the term, never existed in Ger- vices. Fortunately, the description is not many. For his presentation, the author standardized; it is always flexible created a virtual library consisting of enough to give adequate attention to more than one institution. It could be the respective special features of indi- argued whether this special choice of vidual libraries. It is a well-written com- institutions—as indicated by the subtitle bination of historical facts and derived of the book—fits all of the characteris- conclusions. However, in some parts the tics of a national library. But one has to presentation becomes too enumerative confess that Olson’s choice is well justi- and broken; one gets the impression it fied and that he presents a detailed dis- would have been easier to write a book cussion of his understanding of a na- with twice as many pages. tional library for the period from 1558 The book contains the following chap- until today. The author considers the ters: “Mephistopheles,” “Monads,” many political changes in Germany and “Imperialists,” “What If,” “Dark Years,” their consequence for the library infra- “Four Two One,” “Forward to the Past,” structure, especially for the periods of and “What Remains.” These headings the World Wars and, most recently, af- are neither easy to understand nor well ter the Unification of 1990. There can be suited to automatic indexing, but each no doubt that the latter development chapter treats an important historical has made Olson’s job much more com- period and the headings become under- plicated. On the other hand, it is doubt- standable after reading the chapters. ful that the subject would have been of The author does not claim to be com- such interest before the Unification. prehensive but, rather, focuses on the Throughout the book, Olson takes the primary historical trends. For more de- view of a social historian; he always sets tails, the reader is referred to an ample the special events of library history in bibliography. the larger social and political context. If Any reader of the book will under- the late nineteenth and the twentieth stand why Germany never had a na- centuries had been in better focus, tional library, and what events and ob- Olson would have realized that some stacles—even during the period of the typical duties of a national library were, Third Reich or in the phase of recon- and are still, organized by cooperation struction after the Second World War— among dozens of libraries. This espe- prevented its establishment. The author cially includes a form of approval plan emphasizes that strong resistance from for non-German books and periodicals, librarians played a significant role in this and interlibrary lending services. This process. The Deutsche Bibliothek in cooperation is supervised through a Frankfurt was established as the only complicated network of responsibilities new institution after the War, but with and funding within the federal organi- only some of the duties of a national zation of Germany and has its roots in library; and even with this limited role, the historical absence of a national li- its establishment was not an easy task. brary. The founding of a real national library 194 College & Research Libraries March 1997 would have diminished the significance answer. In that librarians are members of the existing libraries, each with its of the society and therefore have so- own tradition and status. Such a devel- cial and political responsibility, this as- opment was opposed by politicians and sumption may be correct. But once librarians. There are no signs that this more, it needs to be emphasized that situation will change within the foresee- this is not the time for discussing and able future. realizing visions that go beyond techni- The actual situation after the unifica- cal improvement. tion of Germany in 1990 is treated in the Optimistically speaking, one can say last chapters, and this last part of the that the improved technical means book can be read as the question: Does make it more practical to distribute the Germany need a national library? There duties of a national library to the shoul- is no doubt that in former times library ders of its many partners. An impor- work would have been more effective if tant lesson learned from Olson’s discus- there had been a national library in the sion of a German national library is that conventional sense. After unification, there must be a well-organized library many leading librarians, as well as oth- system that fulfills all the duties of a ers in Germany, were of the opinion that national library for the benefit of all its work must go on, rather than wasting patrons. time and effort with building up entirely The purpose of creating a virtual na- new structures. Olson addresses this tional library goes beyond satisfying the question in a general and sensible way desire for national prestige. German when he explains the difficulties in find- librarianship has been, and in large part ing agreement on names for the uni- still is, isolated in the international set- fied libraries. (It is worth mentioning that ting. But globalization will change this the unification of the Deutsche situation. Whether intended by the au- Buecherei in Leipzig and the Deutsche thor or not, this reviewer thinks that this Bibliothek in Frankfurt is called Die book will be a valuable contribution for Deutsche Bibliothek or “The Deutsche further development of supranational Bibliothek.” It is doubtful whether any- virtual libraries (e.g., the project one not familiar with the German lan- GABRIEL for European libraries).

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