New concepts, new ideas, and new objects diffuse through a society in a fairly predictable, multi-stage process over an indeterminate period of time. In recent years many social scientists representing various disciplines have accepted the methods and findings of diffusion research and it has attained legitimacy and prominence. To make these findings more easily accessible, Musmann and Kennedy have compiled a useful and timely bibliography which contains over 2,300 entries, most of which were published after 1970. Relevant articles and monographs in English were located by the compilers...

This book chronicles the attitudes of librarians toward technological innovations that took place between 1860 and 1960. These years saw the invention and subsequent diffusion of electricity, photography, the telephone, the phonograph, motion pictures, the radio, and television. Many of these inventions had a profound impact on society. Some were adopted by librarians and had an equally significant influence on library services, while others faded away at an early stage and now rest peacefully buried in archives. This monograph records the attempts of a few librarians to integrate a number...