A "raisin-pudding" style fix-up of related stories from the late Seventies (copyright 1979 by Shirley Nikolaisen.) In this kind of fix-up, the previously published stories are the "raisins" embedded in a backwards-looking narrative that talks about the history these stories came from, and forms a story in its own right (the "pudding.") By my use of such terminology you can probably tell I think the stories by themselves are much better than the framework. The framework consists of a prologue ("The Q-Pod Tape Begins"), dated interludes between each story, and a "last word" - these total about 88 pages. If I had my own publishing company, I'd re-tool this as a collection of stories, and include the ones written after this book came out.

(the stories):
The Fourth-Stage Polygraph
Get the Lead Out
A Rat of Any Psize
The Copra Population
Actions Speak Louder
Griggs and the Einstein Fallacy
Now You See Her
More Deadly Than the Male?

"The Copra Population" may be original to this book; 5 appeared in Analog from 1976 to 1977, and the last story was in Analog Yearbook (1978.)