not as useful. Unique in its treatment, the book is recommended for librarians seeking to improve career information services using the Internet, though, like most works dealing with the Internet, currency will be a concern as time passes. Job seekers will primarily find the appendix listing URLs on information sources of value.-Barbara I. Dewey, Director, Information and Research Services, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, IA 52242 cbarbara-dewey@uiowa.edu>.

The Copyright Primer for Librarians and Educators, second ed., by Janis H. Bruwelheide. Chicago: American Library Association 1995. 160~. $25.00 (pbk); $22.50 for ALA members). ISBN O-8389-0642-7.

To those familiar with the Bruwelheide’s first book, it should come as no surprise that she has once again produced a first-rate guide to understanding the complexities of copyright law designed specifically for librarians and educators. The Copy- right Primer is easy to read and understand, succinct but thor- ough, and, above all, accurate.

In a brief amount of space, she addresses all of the copyright areas and issues facing librarians and educators in higher edu- cation. A general overview of copyright basics and the fair use doctrine lays the foundation for the more specific discussions regarding library photocopying, print photocopying, music, audiovisual works, and off-air recording of broadcasts. Specific examples and questions commonly encountered are included and particularly helpful.

Following these more traditional copyright arenas, the author then bravely takes on cutting edge issues in copyright, namely, multimedia, the Internet, e-mail, distance education, and digital issues. (I say bravely because these areas are evolv- ing so rapidly that this part of the book may quickly become outdated.) Nevertheless, it good to find someone willing to deal with these issues and to give the much needed practical advice on ways to deal with them.

One of the more valuable qualities of the primer is the straight-forward practical advice interspersed throughout, such as the advice on developing multimedia work. The author has a talent for translating complicated, frequently vague material into easy-to-understand guidelines and suggestions. If I were a librarian or educator and could only have one book on copyright on my shelf, this would probably be it.-Peggy E. Hoon, Copyright Specialist, Washington State University, Pull- man, WA 99164-5910 <peg@wsu.edu>.

Customer Service Excellence: A Concise Guide for Librarians, by Darlene E. Weingand. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1997. 136~. $27.00 (paperback); $24.30 (ALA members). ISBN o-8389-0689-3.

This book’s main thesis is founded in the currently popular business premise that quality customer service is the key to sur- vival in today’s competitive market. The author advocates that, to succeed in the next millennium, librarians must think and act in similarly business-like ways to continue to attract library use from among people’s multiple choices for sources of informa- tion.

To help librarians do so, this guidebook’s eight chapters include both conceptual discussions and pragmatic advice. The first three chapters discuss the “philosophy of customer ser- vice,” the customer’s centrality to the library’s mission, and the importance of excellence to customer satisfaction. The next

four describe proactive steps to develop successful customer service, including formation of teams, problem solving to man- age conflicts, 10 “magic” phrases to augment active listening and feedback in communicating customer service, and eight strategies for success. The concluding chapter adopts five prin- ciples from a futurist’s research to suggest the future survival of the library and its importance to customers.

Each chapter closes with a “what would you do?” case study, and includes a scenario, many of which attempt to outline worst and best case interpretations of a theme in the chapter. These boxed asides might stimulate discussion either among staff groups or students using the text as a workbook. A bibliography and index conclude the volume.

Highlighting customer service as a means of survival for libraries is appealing, particularly to those attuned to think of libraries as service organizations. The book’s thesis raises an expectation for guidance on how to achieve excellence in cus- tomer service. However, the expectation is not fully met either in the clarification of the conceptual framework for service quality or in the ways to influence a library organization to become a customer-driven quality service provider. Three top- ics of particular concern are noted here: an underlying assump- tion, theoretical framework, and advice for success.

A motivating assumption behind this book is that the profes- sional library literature offers nothing on customer services or how to achieve excellent services. Only three of the citations in the bibliography are library publications from the 1990s and none of these focus on services or techniques for improvement. Yet in the past few years, a growing interest in the quality improvement movement is emerging in the profession’s litera- ture and offers a variety of introductions to the profession. Among these are articles such as A. F. Sirkin’s “Customer Ser- vice: Another Side of TQM” (Journal of Lihrury Administru- tion 18 (1993): 7 1-83); compilations such as Integrating Total Quality Munagement in u Library Setting, edited by Susan Jurow and S. B. Barnard (Haworth Press, 1995), and a specific monograph such as Peter Hernon and Ellen Altman, Service Quality in Academic Libraries (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publish- ing Corp., 1996).

Weingand’s bibliography is heavily skewed toward non-library contexts and is rather dated, with nearly half of the 75 references pre-dating the 1990s. None of the published dia- log over the quality service movement which has extended to the library field is acknowledged in this set of readings.

Though chapter headings raised this reader’s hopes for clar- ification of the “philosophy” of customer service and a defini- tion of excellence, the contents lack a clear theoretical framework to relate the centrality of the customer to a service organization and the ambitions for excellence. An equation is presented with implied precise relationships of excellence, changing environment, customer needs, survival and prosperity, and yet “customer satisfaction” and “customer service” are used interchangeably (p. 8). Furthermore, unclear distinctions are made between quality factors in products and those in services, and between customer satisfaction and perceptions of service quality. The literature of service quality, resident largely among marketing research publications, is not insignificant to the the- sis of this book, and yet is not tapped. For example, no mention is made of the pioneering work of one of the most cited research teams [Berry, Parasuraman, and Zeithaml] working for over a decade on developing the Gap Model of Service Quality and an instrument, the SERVQUAL, to measure service quality from

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