College and Research Libraries


Recent Publications 
BOOK REVIEWS 

Oboler, Eli M. To Free the Mind: Libraries, 
Technology, and Intellectual Freedom. Lit-
tleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1983. 
137p. $15. ISBN 0-87287-325-0. 
Eli Oboler died before he finished writ-

ing this book on a subject that dominated 
his personal and professional life-
intellectual freedom. In this short piece 
the author explores the impact of technol-
ogy on intellectual freedom. · He warns us 
that our present courtship of technology 
must be pursued with extreme caution lest 
we find that the embrace smothers all that 
is best of the humanist heritage in librari-
anship. 

In Oboler' s interpretation of the uneasy 
marriage between libraries and technol-
ogy, danger lurks in every bit and byte. A 
cornerstone of his argument is that since 
computerization and networking cost a 
great deal of money, "access is automati-
cally restricted in relation to the amount of 
money available to any particular library. 
And denial of access is, of course, one way 
of restricting intellectual freedom." 
(p.21). Furthermore, the creation of large 
databases makes possible massive inva-
sions of privacy. 

Were his discourse aimed largely at dis-
cussing the relationship between libraries 
and technology, Oboler's case would be 
clearer, if not stronger. However, we of-
ten find him wandering off to discuss the 
production of information as opposed to 
its dissemination. While there is an obvi-
ous link between intellectual freedom and 
unfettered communication, the role of the 
library is less apparent. As a result of ex-
cursions of this type, the book more re-
sembles a potpourri of semidigested 
thoughts rather than a carefully reasoned 

and argued discourse. This tendency is re-
inforced by the frequent inclusions of ex-
cerpts of his previously published essays, 
some having but the most tenuous rela-
tionship to the intended thrust of the 
book. 

At times the reader will be tempted to 
dismiss Oboler' s cautions as railings 
against "willy-nilly modernization." That 
would be a mistake. His insights about the 
inherent dangers in '' compunication'' 
(the combined effects of computerized 
data processing and telecommunications) 
remind us that only our goodwill prevents 
the use of the machine against individual 
freedom. And since we hesitate to trust 
too much to that goodwill, we need a voice 
such as Oboler' s. In the struggle between 
people and machine, people must 
prevail.-Jay Whaley, University of Califor-
nia, Irvine. 

Dowlin, Kenneth E. The Electronic Library: 
The Promise and the Process. New York: 
Neal-Schuman, 1984. 199p. $24.95. LC 
83-21957. ISBN 0-918212-75-8. 
Most of the serious interest to date in 

''the electronic library'' has come from 
public libraries. The inherent conserva-
tism of scholarship has buffered academic 
libraries from some of the electronic winds 
of change. Community college and under-
graduate libraries, coping with the 

· computer-literate products of secondary 
schools, have been more quickly affected 
than university and research libraries. Ul-
timately, however, all libraries will have to 
deal with the odd shapes and sizes, com-
plex "reading" equipment, and different 
organizations of the newer forms of ''pub-
lication.'' 

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