REVIEW

Fiction Acquisition/Fiction Management: Education and Training. Ed. By Georgine N. Olson. New York: Haworth Press, 1998. 120 pp. US$29.95 hard ISBN 0789003910 (also published as The Acquisitions Librarian 19)

This collection consists of a number of articles under the broad theme of fiction in libraries. Topics covered include the training of library staff for fiction acquisition, some good practical advice from a public librarian on selection and management issues, discussion of Conspectus modifications to make it a useful tool for evaluating fiction, and the benefits or otherwise of book lease plans. These contributions make up the first half of the book and are interesting, useful and relevant to any librarian handling fiction or wanting a better understanding of how it is dealt with.

Unfortunately, the remaining contributions then veer off into the esoteric or the personal, having little relevance to the majority of readers. Thus three academic librarians describe how they select titles, relate with faculty members and maintain their sense of �self�. For instance, Caroline is lucky in that �the faculty were very kind, very welcoming to me...�, Bethany feels �incompetent with electronic sources� but is working to get over this, and Dan notes he is �not personally close to any of the faculty�. Hmmmm.

There follows an extensive survey of modern Czech literature with an emphasis on censored and banned writers during the communist years - no doubt very learned and worthy but not what most librarians would expect from a volume on fiction management. The book closes with a lengthy essay, straight from an honours class in English Literature covering modern critical theory and works of fiction that deal with this. Again, no doubt worthy, but inappropriate in this collection.

This small volume is well presented and bound. Unfortunately, it suffers from a lack of focus and purpose common to a number of Haworth simultaneously published monographs and journal issues. While some of the material offers broad, useful and practical advice, much is so specific that it would only appeal to a small minority of librarians concerned in the proper provision of fiction. While there is not a huge amount of material out there dealing with �the fiction problem�, there are certainly better and more useful titles than this. John Dixon�s Fiction in Libraries from the 1980s and Margaret Kinnell�s Managing Fiction in Libraries from the 90s are both worthwhile, and there are many interesting and useful journal articles on the topic. This particular volume is of very limited appeal and not generally recommended.

Bob Pymm
ScreenSound Australia

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