Page 28 RAIN January/February 1981 5 Nonprofits Enter the Computer Age, by Marc Rotenberg and Iris Rothman, 1984, $4 , - from: · Community Careers Resource Center 1520 16th St.., NW Washington, DC 20036 Several guides for nonprofits entering the computer age have been published recently, including the extensive work of the Public Management Institute, Computer Resource Guide for Nonprofits (600 pages and $175.00). We are reviewing this more informal work because for its price it is a good resource. It is not a comprehensive guide to computerizing a nonprofit organization, buf provides a basic background for nonprofit managers and workers about small c0mputer applica-· tions in the nonprofit organization. How to Buy Software, by Alfred Glossbrenner, 1984, 684 pp., $14.95 from: St. Martins Press 175 Fifth Avenue New York; NY 10010 Glossbrenner's other book, Personal Computer Communications, is the book we recommend for people wanting to grasp the onlihe world of the personal computer. Now he's put together what almost seems impossible to do, a sensible introduction to buying software. Many kinds: database management, integrated, graphics, business and personal finance, educational, games, word processing. Along the way are descriptions of operating software, and programming languages. Each type of software has a very good "Software Buyer's Quick Reference Checklist"- nearly worth the price of the book by itself. It is,a fat book (the size of a world almanac), and may seem like a lot to digest, but it will surely make all the product literature easier to read. Whole Earth Software Catalog, edited by Steward Brand, 1984, 200 pp., $17.50 from: Quantum Press/Doubleday Garden City, New York John Berry starts his review of the Software Catalog in Infoworld with "Is it worth it? After all the hype and hoopla, is the Whole f.arth Software Catalog worth it?" Although Berry's review is_positive, he spends as much time discussing the 1 market potential as the actual content. It's there, it's good. But the question rises to PUBLICATIONS The familiar cover·image of the earth as seen from the moon (FROM: Whole Earth Software Catalog) the surface-has the whole earth audience grown into software along with the Sausalito crowd? It is obvious that many things have changed. Just take for example the fact that this is a 20d-page catalbg, not about the world, but about ~me small tiny bit of it, something we call software. Marketing questions immediately co:qle to mind. Is the Whole Earth Catalog market really into computers so much that'they will plunk down $17.50 for descriptions of software most of which they will never see or use? One of the nice things about the original Whole Earth Catalog was that you could learn a lot by just window shopping. It remains to be seen if readers will feel the same about looking at software. Or is there a new audience for this book? So how does one divide this little microscopic world of software? The Software Catalog includes: playing, writing, analyzing, organizing, accounting, · managing, drawing, telecommunicating, programming, learning. This may be the first book ever that , reflects the electronic communication era in its own format. Some o"f the editorial work was done by Whole Earth staff using electronic communications systems, especially EIES, the Electronic Information Exchange System, and Compuserve. The reviews seem like short comments by several people.listening in. The reviews may not even lead you to a direct answer, as one person's comm~nts sometimes contradict another's. The catalog does cleady make recom- · mendations. For each type.of software reviewed (and for a very short, rather underdone section on hardware) there is a high-to-l9w recommendation list. Recommending the book is easy, but with one caution. If you are looking for ' one book to help you choose software, this might not be it. Somet~mes the reviews are too short to cover all the questions on'e might need to ask. The reviews are often only recommendations. Choosing software to meet a specific need can be a complicated process, and more detailed product comparisons may be necessary. . It is good to remember that the catalog is supplemented by the quarterly Whole Earth Review (PO Box 27956, San Diego, CA 92128, $18/yr). This supple-' ment will hopefully fill in some of the catalog's reviews and update software developments. ' Visual Display of Quantitative Information, by Edward R. Tufte, 1984, 198 pp., $34 from: · Graphics Press POBox430 Cheshire, CN 06410 In this book, Tufte traces the history of graphic display design, provides plentiful and wonderful examples of graphic displays, analyzes how graphs can be misused (intentionally and unintentional-. ly), and lays out qualifications for appropriate uses of different types of graphs. The book is a chart-browser's paradise. Displays of the same information in different format show how influential a graphic representatipn can be. Not always easy reading-you may have ~o second guess the meaning of some jargon·, but the graphs alone are worth pondering.
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