College and Research Libraries stream of the information and communica- tion network locally, regionally, and nation- ally. If it fails to overcome its isolation and provincialism, it will disappear and will be replaced by more viable and dynamic insti- tutions. That thrust is achieved.-John T. Eastlick, Graduate School of Librarianship, University of Denver, Colorado. / Wynkoop, Sally. Subject Guide to Gov- ernment Reference Books. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1972. $11.50. vWynkoop, Sally. Government Reference Books, 70/71. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1972. $8.50. The introduction states that Subject Guide to Government Reference Books is essentially a general orientation guide to the most important reference books pub- lished by the Government Printing Office and government agencies. Ms. Wynkoop has done an admirable job in choosing, list- ing, and annotating some 1,016 books and serials with reference value. The resulting compilation is a good introduction for the occasional user and provides an insight into the variety and scope of subjects covered in official publications. The very qualities which go into making a good orientation guide limit the useful- ness of such a guide for reference and re- search purposes. Obviously, the high degree of selectivity necessary to provide coverage for many subjects prevents comprehensive coverage of any particular subject. In or- der to list the most important government reference books, many of the most common also had to be included. The practicing ref- erence or document librarian hardly needs another description of the Statistical Ab- stract or the Year book of Agriculture. Each entry gives all essential biblio- graphic information and a descriptive anno- tation. The annotations are well done, par- ticularly in giving data about previous edi- tions, related volumes, etc·. On the whole, the information is accurate, with a few mi- nor errors which really do not affect the usability of the information. The index in the back of the book is also geared for general purposes. It is made up of the subjects which appear in the table of contents, a title entry for each book or series included, and personal authors when Recent Publications I 487 mentioned. The use of several descriptors for each entry would have done much to increase the value of the guide for refer- ence purposes. Government Reference Books 70/ 71 is the second in a biennial series which forms a record of the most important reference books published by the government during 1970 and 1971. Unlike the Subject Guide this listing is intended to be comprehensive. The format is essentially the same as in the Subject Guide and the 68/ 69 edition with the books arranged by subject. The ar- rangement of the subject headings has been somewhat changed, and while the new ar- rangement is useful in this volume, it is dis- concerting if the three publications are being used as a set. A great deal of repetition of titles is in- cluded in the one thousand-plus entries in this edition. In my opinion this is detrimen- tal rather than helpful. In a biennial survey it is wasteful at best to include two entries for books published annually, four entries for books published semiannually, and in some cases five and six entries for the same title. There are also forty separate entries and annotations for Army Area Handbooks, each entry repeating essentially the same information with slight variations from country to country. One entry describing the series, plus a list of those handbooks pub- lished in 1970 and 1971 would have been sufficient. For people having limited contact with documents, these biennial compilations will be a reminder of the on-going and tremen- dously worthwhile contribution of the gov- ernment in the field of reference materials. For purposes of research, or as a helpful aid to documents librarians, this series has the same drawbacks as does the Subject Guide -an unsophisticated index, general rather than in-depth coverage, and a great deal of space devoted to what every documents librarian should know already or be able to find easily.-]oyce Ball, Head, Refer- ence Department, University of Nevada, Reno. v\Veihs, Jean Riddle; Lewis, Shirley; and Macdonald, Janet. Nonbook Materials, the Organization of Integrated Collec- tions. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Library Association, 1973. 107 p. $6.50.