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Union Catalog A Checklist and Union Catalog of Holdings of Major Library Catalogs in METRO Libraries. $10.00, $15.00 is invoice is required. Mimeographed. (METRO Miscellaneous Publications No. 27.) Editor: George Thompson. New York: New York Metropolitan Reference and Research Agency, 1980. METRO, 33 W. 42d St., New York, NY 10036. 65p.

As libraries and information centers grow in complexity and, in many cases, become big business, financial management skills take on increased importance for librarians and other information workers. External and internal pressures like reductions in library budgets, escalation of costs faster than revenues, pressures from outside agencies for increased productivity, accountability, organizational efficiency and effectiveness have all pushed librarians to expand their competencies in the financial arena.

Concerns of nursing literature today reflect the aspirations and changing character of the profession as it seeks to:

Journalism is concerned with the reporting, writing, editing, broadcasting and the photography of news. Editorial or print journalism is limited to writing, editing and reporting and it is one factor in the ever‐growing list of diverse opportunities open to the modern day journalist. Photojournalism, radio and television broadcasting, editorial and newspaper cartoons, public relations and telecommunications are other aspects. All of these are part of “mass media” or “mass communication,” phrases that will be repeated throughout this article. Other areas considered part of the mass media are cinema, advertising, book publishing and sometimes photography.

It's been three years since my previous survey in RSR. Superb reference books in pop music have been appearing so frequently that I've been having trouble keeping up. Let's hope “next year's” survey will only be 12 months in the making and not 36.

Although the telephone constitutes an important aspect of reference service in many libraries, it is frequently taken for granted or overlooked by both patrons and professional staff alike. Often, it is seen by librarians as merely an adjunct service, or even something of a nuisance. In this view, telephone reference is considered secondary and subordinate to serving on‐site patrons.

At a time when pessimism is the prevailing mood and the outlook for Australian publishing is generally held to be uncertain, the Australian Bookseller and Publisher reports a record number of 2,790 books published in Australia during 1980. This quantitative growth in production was complemented by improvements in the quality and in the diversity of the titles produced. The total figures for the last six years have been 1975: 2001, 1976: 1781, 1977: 2243, 1978: 2183, 1979: 2412 and 1980: 2790. This trend of steady growth in the volume of book production has been attributed to a number of factors. One is the continued expansion of educational publishing for the secondary and tertiary levels; another is that Australian publishers are finding themselves in an increasingly advantageous position compared with overseas publishers. The rise in prices of imported books due to increased costs of production overseas, unfavorable exchange rates, high postage and shipping costs, coupled with the aid of the Book Bounty, has meant that the smaller editions necessary for the small Australian market can be published at a price that competes reasonably favorably with the imported product.

The increasing dominance of electronic media in our society compels today's librarian to maintain and develop a well‐rounded reference collection in this field. Indeed, this is one area where the patron's interest is guaranteed by the rising level of participation with the medium. According to the 1981 International Television Almanac there are 76,300,000 TV homes in the United States with 15,500,000 of those homes subscribing to cable. These figures represent a 50 percent increase over the 1975 statistics. This has resulted in panic‐stricken competition within the industry and a less paternal attitude towards CATV systems. Radio, too, is a pervasive element due to its mobility and its function as surrogate companionship. It is imperative, therefore, that the book librarian be able to provide information should the media junkie decide to learn more about his or her habit.

“Pamphlet material has some definite functions in college libraries and therefore should be accorded more consideration than it usually receives. Often librarians give this part of the collection very little thought, sometimes because of lack of time, but more often because they are not interested in such material and they fail to see the values of it.”

It has been close to two years since the last survey of art reference materials in Reference Services Review. Consequently this column will cover as much as possible of the intervening period, roughly from the winter of 1979–1980 until early fall of 1981. It has been a relatively lean period in volume of material produced, but the art reference sources which have appeared are all of high quality and cover aspects of the field which are in need of coverage or of updating.