This collection of notes, cautions, suggestions, and anecdotes about the installation of microcomputers in public libraries for use by ordinary citizens (rather than by the staff) is written for librarians. The chapter titles give the outline of the process:
Public Access: What and Why?
Planning for Public Access
Selecting Hardware and Software
Circulating Software and Hardware
Running a BBS and Other Online Services
Programs for All
Managing the Microcomputer Center
Examples of Public Access Projects
Academic and School Libraries
Wall Charts and Other Miracles
Model Project Proposals
Software Sources
Computer Journals
Bulletin Board Software Vendors
The goal Dewey sets is to explain how to administer and organize a few microcomputers and provide the supporting information, documentation, and journals needed to help citizens, especially children, learn about computers, and to use them to do projects when they cannot afford computers of their own. The orderliness of the outline in the chapter titles, the inclusion of sample documents and forms, and the index belie the fact that the text gives an overwhelming feeling of disorder. It is as if Dewey had jotted down notes of problems, important points to remember, and sample forms; sorted them into boxes with the chapter titles written on them; and later transcribed the contents. All the points are valid, but they are just disconnected enough that they are hard to remember. A test of the index on several items that are mentioned, but not the specific subject of a paragraph, showed that the indexer had not managed to overcome the problem by seeing the subtext. Fortunately, the book is short, and it can and probably should be reread several times before a librarian embarks on the task of introducing publicly available hardware and software into a library.
The best aspect of the book is that it describes actual experiences of Dewey and others in setting up just this sort of center in a community, particularly for use by children. It is, after all, the minutiae of the process that will become oppressive, not the big ideas. Dewey frequently explains how he overcame inertia and trivial but annoying problems. His experience is mainly with Apple IIs, and he often introduces new terms unknown to the computer community as a whole, such as ROM explained as “Random Output Memory” (p. 20) and dot matrix printers with 27 “needles” instead of pins (p. 21). All diskettes (always called disks) are 51/4-inch diskettes, never the sturdier and more sensible 31/2-inch ones. All of this leads one to believe that while the bibliography has been updated in places, the text is mostly left over from the 1984 first edition, when Dewey’s choice of equipment was only somewhat conservative, not antiquated.
The text contains some good advice about dealing with children, a great deal of mothering about choosing appropriate software, and much useless information about hardware that is probably only available on the secondhand market now. For librarians, the book is invaluable as a survey of early experiences in bringing information manipulation into libraries, rather than just texts, but it should not be depended on as a step-by-step guide to the job. Too much is changing even while you read this review. For other readers, the book brings into question the whole purpose of libraries--are they a repository for recorded culture or a collection of educational toys to entertain our children?
