About the ReviewerLibrary Research Models: A Guide to Classification, Cataloging, and Computers. By Thomas Mann. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. 248 p. ISBN 0‑19‑508190‑0. $22.50.
Thomas Mann has written a concise summary of the way in which libraries and information centers are organized, the ways in which researchers look for information, and the differences between them. He provides an introduction to information search behavior, as well as an excellent statement of the rationale behind the way in which libraries and librarians organize access to literature. Much of the knowledge of how to assist users in locating books, journal articles, and other information—which practicing librarians absorb in library school and through actual experience—is described in a very readable style by a practitioner with a background as a private investigator and 12 years of experience as a general reference librarian in the main reading room of the Library of Congress.
Mann’s experience allows him to supplement his models of how users approach libraries with their research questions, as well as his suggestions regarding the best strategies to find the needed information, with examples of specific questions, the failure of specific search results, and the types of literature, subject headings, and the organization of specific library collections which can better answer these questions. His experience gives Manna broad perspective on different disciplines and a wide‑ranging knowledge of sources. Although many readers in Third World countries will have much smaller libraries and far less abundant resources to draw upon in assisting users, the search methods described will still be useful to them. Furthermore, it would be very interesting to test how well the models that Mann describes hold across the various cultures in the Third World.
Mann‑s models are useful for viewing user approaches to information searches. He describes the “specific subject or discipline approach,” the “traditional library science model (divided into classifications and the vocabulary‑controlled catalog),” the “type of literature model,” and the “actual practice model.” The “actual practice model” is supplemented by a separate chapter on the principle of least effort, which research into information seeking has identified as the underlying approach used by most researchers in all disciplines.
Mann continues his discussion with the development of the “computer‑workstation model.” He describes the strengths and weaknesses of this model, discussing how issues concerning copyright law, cost, preservation, and psychological factors limit its usefulness. Mann argues that key word or natural language searching on computers can supplement but not replace Library of Congress Subject Headings, and that it is important to maintain classification schemes whose purpose is to collocate printed books in browsable subject groupings, to retain the predictability, serendipity, and depth of access they provide.
A “methods‑of‑searching model” is postulated, with eight elements, each of which is “capable of turning up information or knowledge records that cannot be found efficiently—if at all—by any of the others” (p. 157). This combined approach therefore addresses the weaknesses of the earlier models he described. The eight elements are 1) controlled‑vocabulary searches in manual or printed sources, 2) key work searches in manual or printed sources, 3) citation searches in printed sources, 4) searches through published bibliographies, 5) searches through people sources, 6) computer searches, 7) related‑record searches, and 8) systematic browsing, especially of full‑text sources arranged in predictable subject groupings. To facilitate the use of all eight elements, Mann proposes rearranging reference collections to collocate these sources, enabling researchers to more easily follow the principle of least effort in finding information.
Two ways in which Mann could have substantially improved the work are a more thorough summary of the literature of information‑seeking behavior, and inclusion of the research on mental modeling. For a work which bases its central premise on researchers’ mental models, e.g., “When their own mental sets expect nothing more than a Subject/Discipline arrangement or records, researchers tend too readily to accept the classification scheme’s array as the entire universe of what is available” (p. 23), it is a serious oversight not to mention the seminal work of Christine Borgman, “The User’s Mental Model of an Information Retrieval System: Effects on Performance” (Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1983). One must wonder whether Mann followed his own model in his literature search.
This volume is recommended for its thoughtful insight into the ways library users approach an information search, and for its summation of the theory and practice of the organization of library collections. It will be useful to students and as a refresher to those with long practice in the field. Mann&38217;s “methods‑of‑searching” model deserves serious discussion among all reference professionals and implementation to test its merits.
Maxine H. Reneker is Director, Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. For biographical information see TWL 4‑1.
© 1994 Dominican University
Citation
Reneker, Maxine H. “Book Reviews: Library Research Models: A Guide to Classification, Cataloging, and Computers” Third World Libraries, Volume 4, Number 2 (Fall 1994).