College and Research Libraries


480 College & Research Libraries 

the literature dealing specifically with 
technological and organizational change 
in libraries. Managers and library ad-
ministrators will find the ideas challeng-
ing as they confront change in their own 
libraries and institutions of higher edu-
cation.-Susan F. Rosenblatt, University of 
California, Berkeley, California. 

Lingua franca: The Review of Academic 
Life. Mamaroneck, N.Y.: Lingua Franca, 
Inc., 1990- . Individuals: $17.95/year; 
Institutions: $35/year. (ISSN 1051-
3310). 
Lingua franca: The Review of Academic 

Life offers scholars in the humanities, 
broadly conceived, a forum for debate 
on issues in higher education, with the 
reformulation of the liberal arts agenda 
figuring prominently. Launched with a 
successful trial balloon issue in June 
1990, followed with regular bimonthly 
issues beginning in December 1990, Lin-
gua franca is a gutsy, timely, and topical 
review of the academy and might be char-
acterized as a grassroots versidn of the 
Chronicle of Higher Education. Published in-
dependently out of Mamaroneck, New 
York, Lingua franca is the creation of Jef-
frey Kittay, former Yale French professor 
and currently visiting professor at New 
York University. In addition to academ-
ics, contributors so far include primarily 
New York-based journalists with cre-
dentials from Esquire, the New York 
Times, Spy Magazine, the Nation, Dissent, 
and the New Republic. 

Rarely has a new academic rag re-
ceived so much attention from the 
media, leading this reviewer to believe 
that Lingua franca is street-smart and 
market-wise. From the Washington Post 
to the San Francisco Examiner, from the 
Boston Globe to the Chicago Tribune, Lin-
gua franca has been cited and reviewed 
enthusiastically. Lingua franca's ads 
abound with pithy testimonials from the 
likes of Umberto Eco, Catharine R. 
Stimpson (recent president of the Mod-
ern Language Association and Rutgers 
graduate school dean), and Lindsay Wa-
ters (Harvard University Press executive 
editor). Bill Katz, in Library Journal, se-
lected it as one of "The Ten Best Magazines 

September 1991 

of 1990." The Wall Street Journal and 
Harper's have reprinted its articles. 

Why all the fuss? Perhaps because Lin-
gua franca takes us behind the scenes in 
academe and talks frankly about some 
rather delicate issues: the tenure system 
at Harvard, unproductive faculty, the 
great Eskimo "snow" vocabulary hoax, 
Paul de Man and his deconstruction, and 
my personal favorite-undercover in-
side the M.F.A. creativity boot camp-in 
which the author reviews the propensity 
for "groupthink" and political consen-
sus that controls writers' workshops 
across the country. There are also articles 
of a more practical nature: the diary of a 
faculty member serving on an affirma-
tive action search, an interview with a 
faculty member accused of sexual ha-
rassment, and a primer on new TIAA-
CREF retirement plan options. Academic 
librarians long concerned about their 
drab image may be gratified to learn 
from Valerie Steele's article, ''The F-
word" (where F stands for Fashion), that 
they are dressed in vogue for academe. 
A UCLA history professor explains: "To 
dress fashionably is to be labeled frivo-
lous . . .. Dowdy is safe and serious; bad 
dressing, one of the last ways in which . 
academics can project the illusion of oth-
erworldliness." Written in a breezy style, 
Lingua franca is entertaining and easy to 
read. 

Growing from forty (June 1990) to fifty 
(April 1991) pages in length, each issue 
typically has a number of regular col-
umns in addition to the cover story, the 
feature article, and two shorter articles 
or interviews. Academic librarians will 
take special interest in the "Breakthrough 
Books" section of "Field Notes," in 
which a handful of scholars identify the 
most recent significant book in their dis-
cipline. Although the selections are typ-
ically from the mainstream scholarly 
press, the column serves as a timely an-
notated list of top hits. "Inside Publish-
ing" looks forward to new releases-for 
example, announcing The New York Re-
view of Books' plans to initiate an Italian 
edition, Libri & Idee, and to develop 
French and German editions as well, and 
the resurrection of the influential 

I 

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J 
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Africanist review Transition. Appearing 
under the same rubric is a short col-
umn-"What Do Editors Really 
Want?"-in which acquisitions editors 
answer queries about the kinds of manu-
scripts they are seeking in specified 
fields. Anyone living under the illusion 
that authors-not editors-set the pub-
lishing agenda will be reminded other-
wise by reading this column. 

Academic librarians should be pleased 
to read-if not contribute to-the regular 
column "Research File: Documents in 
Search of Scholars." Here we find the 
treasures of our collections-at Michi-
gan State University, the New York Pub-
lic Library, the Library of Congress, 
Radcliffe College, the International Insti-
tute of Social History (Amsterdam), and 
the Franklin Furnace Archive (Manhat-
tan)-begging for scholarly investiga-
tion. Enterprising graduate students 
would be well-advised to package "doc-
uments in search of scholars" with 
"what editors really want" for a sure-fire 
dissertation/monograph success. 

Until the April issue, this little maga-
zine devoted 20 to 30 percent of its pages 
to a regular line called "Jobtracks," trac-
ing the migratory paths of junior faculty 
to their first positions or of seasoned fac-
ulty to senior positions . Academics will 
no doubt lovingly run their fingers 
down the long columns of names in 
search of that lost classmate, colleague, 
or mentor-now found-at last, pro-
moted to tenure at Emory. In April, 
through a font and spacing change, 
"Jobtracks" was reduced to just over six 
pages in length. 

With a circulation of 15,000, Lingua 
franca apparently followed Abbeville's 
advice and thought first of its audience. 
Its modest institutional price, $35, suits 
its desk-top publishing quality and 
newsy content. Worthy of our support, 
yes, but also worthy of our vision. As 
Lingua franca matures-and let us hope 
it does-academic librarians should 
help to make their agenda an integral 
part of its mission. Right now, the mag-
azine is walking a fine line between class 
clown and class act: its reputation hangs 
in the balance. A case in point is the 

Book Reviews 481 

"Field Notes" insert in the April 1991 
issue, "Rad Librarians Track the Zeit-
geist," in which the travails of Hennepin 
County Library's cataloger Sanford Ber-
man to establish new Library of Con-
gress subject headings are listed. Lingua 
franca reprints a selection of sixteen new 
headings from among the 400 initiated 
by Berman. It lists another thirty-most 
of which, like "Cat furniture," are 
largely irrelevant to academics-from 
among the thousands of unique head-
ings in use at Hennepin County Library 
alone. Excluded are more serious and 
surprising examples such as "Marxism" 
(use: "Communism" or "Socialism") or 
"Family planning" (use: "Birth con-
trol''). Lingua franca misleads its readers 
by prefacing the second list with: "Here 
are some of the cultural phenomena that 
the library caught up with during the 
past year. Look for them soon at your 
local library." Only if your local library 
happens to be Hennepin County Library, 
they might have added. More disturb-
ing, howeyer, is that Lingua franca" went 
for the quick laugh and overlooked the 
more important-and academically rel-
evant-questions: How are new subject 
headings introduced and adopted by the 
Library of Congress? How do they re-
flect cultural changes? Lingua franca 
might have investigated recent changes 
resulting from German unification, for 
example. And there would have been 
plenty of room for humor. 

If it can avoid a decline into terminal 
cuteness, Lingua franca will be of interest 
to graduate students, faculty, academic 
librarians and publishers, and consum-
ers and critics of higher education.-
Martha L. Brogan, Yale University, New 
Haven, Connecticut. 

Scholarly Communication and Bibliometrics. 
Borgman, Christine L., ed. Newbury 
Park, Calif.: Sage, 1990. 393p. $38 
(ISBN 0-803903879-9). LC 90-8745. 
Christine Borgman, who teaches in the 

library school and in the Communica-
tions Studies program at UCLA, has 
compiled eight articles from a special 
issue of Communications Research (October 
1989) and eight new essays into a com-