College and Research Libraries


384 College & Research Libraries 

avoid information chaos, are thought-
fully described by Bonnie Juergens and 
Gloriana St. Clair. 

And in one of the book's most useful 
chapters, Adrian W. and JulieS. Alexan-
der summarize the transformation of in-
tellectual property rights that may 
accompany the electronic dissemination of 
information. As the Alexanders make clear, 
the traditional business of libraries has 
been the distribution-at both circulation 
desks and interlibrary loan departments-
of copies of printed works. Digital and 
other dynamic media (such as recording 
tape) bring radical change to our notions 
of "distribution" and "copy." These 
changes have prompted many to observe 
that libraries are now in competition with 
other information providers and may not 
survive, except as museums for materials 
that predate the electronic age of informa-
tion distribution. 

Two observations might be offered on 
this vision of the future. The first is that 
someone will have to ensure continued 
access to printed information, and no 
one can do that better than librarians. 
Perhaps librarians should avoid pejora-
tive descriptions of this vital and endur-
ing function of libraries. We have other 
functions as well, one of the most funda-
mental of which is captured in the 
phrase "resource sharing." Ever since li-
braries began to function in the public 
interest about 250 years ago, their eco-
nomic and social function has been to 
enable users to share among themselves, 
rather than to own individually, the books, 
journals, and other materials they need. 
The question before the library profession 
now is not whether we embrace digital 
media (we have!), but whether we will 
continue to deliver the economic and 
social benefits of shared usage to our 
readers. Powerful technological and mar-
ketplace forces are arrayed against such 
service. 

Libraries will not "advance" by com-
peting with the for-profit sector on its 
own terms. Libraries, working in a trans-
formed environment, must instead find 
ways to preserve a different communal 
set of terms for information use that pro-
tects the individual economic benefits 

July 1991 

and the more general public interest that 
have so long been embedded in both 
copyright law and the profession of li-
brarianship._.:._Scott Bennett, Johns Hop-
kins University, Baltimore, Maryland. 

Pool, Ithiel de Sola. Technologies without 
Boundaries: On Telecommunications in a 
Global Age. Eli M. N oam, ed. Cambridge, 
Mass.: Harvard Univ. Pr., 1990. 283p. 
alk. paper, $27.50 (ISBN 0-674-87263-0). 

Ithiel de Sola Pool had a long and 
illustrious career as a political scientist 
and pioneer in the field of communica-
tions research. For thirty years, he was 
on the faculty of M.I.T., where he 
founded and headed both the political 
science department and the interdisci-
plinary Research Program on Communi-
cations Policy. H.e was a prolific writer, 
and his books consistently won acclaim. 
Even in the last two years of his life, he 
published some twenty articles and two 
books. One of these, Technologies of Free-
dom (1983), dealt with the social and po-
litical status of the media in the United 
States. A second volume was to deal with 
the same issue in the international realm. 
This manuscript, edited by Eli M . Noam 
of Columbia University, became Technol-
ogies without Boundaries. 

The extraordinary mental vigor and 
optimism that enabled Pool to continue 
working at an intense. pace after the onset 
of his illness are evident in this book, 
which Noam describes as "a specialist's 
book for generalists, and a generalist's 
book for specialists." Clearly written 
and passionately argued, Technologies 
without Boundaries is the final expression 
of Pool's missionary conviction that the 
new telecommunications and comput-
ing technology will have untold social, 
material, and political benefits, if only 
they remain free of government regula-
tion. To this battle against government 
encroachment, Pool brought an impres-
sive understanding of technology as 
well as a humanistic perspective and a 
close familiarity with social science re-
search in the field of communications. 

Technologies without Boundaries con-
tains a very good introduction to the 
technologies of telecommunications and 



their social and political histories. Pool 
also speculates about the ways in which 
telecommunications will free our lives 
geographically and professionally. Most 
of the book, however, is devoted to refut-
ing charges that global communications 
will destroy indigenous cultures, wreak 
havoc on the economies of the have-not 
nations, and imperil their security. In the 
1970s, these fears led both developing 
and developed nations to create idiosyn-
cratic standards and rates and to enact a 
spate of protectionist legislation control-
ling the importation of both hardware 
and information. In Pool's view, recent 
technological developments and social 
science research have proven all these 
concerns to be unfounded. The charge of 
cultural imperialism, he argues, is but a 
smokescreen for the more real economic 
fears of the business community and the 
political insecurity of those in power. 

Protectionism in economic and cultural 
matters betrays an elitist attitude on the 
part of Third World governments and 
their American supporters. Pool cites cur-
rent social science research that suggests 
that people do not passively absorb in-
formation fed to them, but rather reject 
unsought information not relevant to 
their lives (witness the birth-control 
campaign in India). Research also sup-
ports the notion that the flow of informa-
tion may at first be centralized in one 
area of the world, but then soon becomes 
diffused to other areas, which then de-
velop their own fields of expertise. 

On the economic front, Pool maintains 
that protectionism can only be self-de-
feating for developing countries. It is in 
their interest to adapt the inventions of 
large, well-capitalized countries for local 
use and leapfrog into the next stage of 
development. Pool also argues that global 
telecommunications no longer pose a 
threat to national security. The develop-
ment of minicomputers and intelligent ter-
minals should lay to rest the fears of 
governments wary of storing important 
and sensitive information abroad. 

In fact, the availability of various 
means of telecommunications makes it 
likely that, in the future, businesses and 
governments will employ a mix of cen-

Book Reviews 385 

tralized and local data processing. 
Though data needing large storage facil-
ities and powerful processing may still 
have to be centralized or processed 
abroad-bibliographic data, for exam-
ple-local storage and manipulation of 
most data have become economically 
advantageous. It is in the political 
sphere, however, that global telecommu-
nications will have the most beneficial 
effect, because the development of inter-
active modes of communication makes 
possible the political participation of the 
citizenry inhabiting even the most re-
mote locations. 

Pool's vision of what telecommunica-
tions can do to humanize our environ-
ment, promote cultural diversity, and 
empowertheindividualisprovocativeand 
useful for information specialists to bear in 
mind. Yet how realistic is it? Even with 
desktop publishing and camcorders, can 
a small enterprise compete as a provider 
of information with large, well-funded 
news organizations? How valid is Pool's 
rejection of government regulation in 
any form? Can the marketplace be 
trusted as the only regulator of new tech-
nologies, especially when large telecom-
munications corporations already hold 
an unfair advantage? Pool's passionate 
belief in personal liberty and in the value 
of free access to information is inspiring, 
if not entirely convincing.-Eva M. 
Sartori, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 

Computer Files and the Research Library. 
Gould, Constance C., ed. Mountain 
View, Calif.: Research Libraries Group, 
1990. 59p. 

An outgrowth of a 1989 Research Li-
braries Group (RLG) workshop on ma-
chine-readable data files, this booklet is 
intended to fill a need, in its editor's 
words, for "a succinct publication de-
scribing innovative approaches to col-
lecting, describing, and providing 
service for computer files in research li-
braries." The volume consists of four 
brief essays on specific aspects of com-
puter file management. Also included 
are the agenda and discussion summa-
ries from the RLG workshop, as well as 
an appendix presenting summary results