Reviews 405

on Reagan’s first few weeks in office and how he handled the press conferences. However, she does not come to a conclusion, or make any distinct recommendations. She concludes with several chapters on Reagan’s first few weeks in office and how he handled the press conferences. She calls this a benchmark, and rod and chain, to measure the rest of the president’s terms.

Smoller examines the evolution of news organization coverage of the modem Presidency through the visual and immediate impression age of television. He argues that the medium and message influence each other:

the emergence of television network news as the most important medium in U.S. politics, the corporate structure which underlies the ownership of the major media outlets; the impact of technological breakthroughs such as satellite communications, videotape, and mini-cameras; and the emergence of network correspondents and anchors as powerful political actors in their own right.. . .

The argument advanced in these pages suggests that television news, the nation’s primary source of information about the presidency, may contribute to the decline and fall of modern presidents (p. xi).

The President, from his bully pulpit, demands a great media presence and naturally attracts the attentions of networks and their corporate sponsors. The media, with its own limitations of format and tight time schedules, influence the release of presidential information. Using a word-by-word analysis of evening news transcripts, Smaller examines the content, coverage, quality, and type of coverage given to presidential events. He seeks to determine the nature and depth of what he considers “negative reporting.” He discusses the development of technology, the growing sophistica- tion of both the media and president to manage news events, and discusses the complex interaction between these two institutions. Both these volumes give a sense and perspective on that history.

Although each volume offers a general background and worthy theories that attempt to explain events, each is limited in application by the assumption that major news organizations will continue to dominate as gatekeepers between the citizens and their elected officials. Neither volume recognizes or considers the growing influence of the Cable News Network (CNN) or C-Span’s coverage of Federal events in an immediate, and in case of the C-Span network, unmediated, delivery. Both these forums offer access to government information without the traditional filters of news organizations. Recent technological developments have given the public direct access: from live daily broadcasts of White House press conferences on CNN, gavel to gavel coverage of congressional floor debate or hearings through C-Span, or growing access via Internet and other online information services to transcripts from White House press events and other presidential statements.

Perhaps information technology is rapidly outstripping the researcher’s ability to explain this rich relationship of communication between the governors and the governed.

* John A. Shuler is Documents Librarian, University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago,

Illinois 60680.

Public Libraries and the INTERNET/NREN: New Challenges, New Opportunities. By Charles R. McClure et al. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University School of Information Studies, July 1, 1992. 34 pp. $15.

Reviewed by Patrick Flannery*

This report presents the results of a study conducted between June 1991 and April 1992, and yields a number of interesting observations about current public library involvement in the

406 GOVERNMENT INFORMATION QUARTERLY Vol. lo/No. 311993

Internet. The results of the study are then used to develop a series of recommendations for easing the transition of public libraries to a networked environment.

The report gives substance to some not-so-surprising findings. Public libraries are excited about the Internet and its much-anticipated successor, the National Research and Education Network (NREN). That excitement coexists with a deep confusion about what NREN will actually mean for public libraries and their clientele. Administrators voice concerns about training, funding, and equitable access, at the same time suggesting that libraries should be responsible for the organization of networked information.

Almost all see the distribution of governmental data as one of the primary benefits of the NREN and feel strongly that this is an area where public libraries can make their greatest contributions. The site visit conducted by McClure and his associates to the North Carolina state library reveals that NCIN (the North Carolina Information Network) is already laying an effective groundwork for just such a role for North Carolina public libraries. In addition to union lists of serials and online catalogs, NCIN users (more than 400 public libraries in early 1992) had access to state job information, State Data Center statistics, texts of state bills, and proposed state contracts. Similar initiatives are underway in other states, such as NYSERNet’s New Connections program, and Merit’s M-Link program in Michigan.

The report discusses public librarians’ fears that the network, with its promise of direct citizen access to mountains of governmental information, holds as much threat as promise for public libraries. The rise of “free-nets” (community computer networks such as the Cleveland Free-Net) demonstrates how quickly public library functions can migrate to other bodies in the absence of adequate vision in and funding for public libraries. Indeed, the rise of market competition for public library services and the possible loss of public support and funding for those libraries which are not willing or able to make the transition to a networked environment is the underlying concern running throughout the interviews conducted for this report.

The recommendations of McClure et al. are timely: the need for some model networking projects for public libraries (described as “good examples of good examples’?; a call for coordinated leadership from public libraries, PLA, state libraries, and library organizations such as OCLC; and a wise observation that public libraries must rethink their provision of service to remote users who, unlike traditional public library users, may never enter the facility.

In general, reports on the Internet date rather quickly. With the collective breath-holding over possible policy initiatives in the new administration, many details of this report will no doubt seem old within months. Nonetheless, the underlying concern for the role of public libraries in the networked future is an ongoing one, unlikely to be solved anytime soon. This report serves as a useful snapshot of the problem in mid-1992, and the recommendations go far beyond the scope of any single budget year.

* Patrick Flannery is Assistant University Librarian, The American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue

NW, Washington, D.C. 20016.