reviews


598  College & Research Libraries November 1999

 

Book Reviews 

Breivik, Patricia Senn. Student Learning 
in the Information Age. Phoenix, Ariz.: 
Oryx Pr. (American Council on Edu­
cation/Oryx Press Series on Higher 
Education), 1998. 173p. $ 34.95, alk. 
paper (ISBN 1-57356-000-6). LC 97­
35183. 

Patricia Breivik’s latest contribution to the 
educational literature provides profes­
sionals in higher education with the guid­
ance and tools needed to change tired, 
dated library instruction programs into 
ones that can develop information users 
for the next century—true lifelong learn­
ers. Breivik stresses the importance of 
“[moving] toward a new literacy” in 
higher education. This “new literacy,” 
known to many library professionals as 
“information literacy,” may be new ter­
minology to other campus leaders. This 
easy-to-read volume provides the ratio­
nale and means to promote and create a 
successful information literacy program. 

Breivik, dean of university libraries at 
San Jose State University, is an informa­
tion literacy enthusiast. Author of several 
papers and monographs on the subject of 
learning and libraries, she received the 
G.K. Hall Library Literature Award for In-
formation Literacy: Revolution in the Library 
(1989), cowritten with E. Gordon Gee. In 
her newest work, Breivik brings the revo­
lution out of the library and into the class­
rooms of institutions of higher learning. 

An early chapter in this book describes 
the shift in higher education from an 
emphasis on teaching to one on learning. 
The author relates academia’s resound­
ing move away from traditional methods 
of teaching, such as lecture, that allow 
students to remain passive participants 
in the learning process to methods that 
require students to take an active role in 
the learning process. These new methods 
are grounded in what is known as re­
source-based learning, the foundation of 
information literacy. Breivik highlights 

the important benefits of both 
resource-based learning and in­
formation literacy. 

Especially useful are the 
nuts-and-bolts chapters on es­
tablishing an information lit­
eracy program. Breivik de­
scribes the process and the inherent chal­
lenges of establishing a successful infor­
mation literacy program. These chal­
lenges include, among others, planning, 
promotion, assessment, and financial 
support. As varying entities on campus 
vie for fewer dollars, libraries must more 
clearly articulate their vision and goals 
and how these will be achieved. Breivik 
understands higher education’s increas­
ingly pragmatic approach to outcomes 
and the necessity to demonstrate success 
through reliable means of measurement.

 Perhaps the most important aspect of 
the book is Breivik’s savvy approach to 
the challenges of human resources in and 
outside the library. In any library, new 
initiatives demand time, a precious com­
modity. Breivik stresses the importance 
of planning and clarification before any 
project is undertaken. In the greater cam­
pus community, new initiatives evoke 
familiar responses from within the acad­
emy regarding research needs, incentives 
and rewards, and control. With this po­
litical/financial context in mind, Breivik 
outlines ways to garner support for new 
information literacy initiatives among fac­
ulty and administration.

 The author’s inclusion of examples of 
best practices and models, incorporating 
information literacy, from colleges and 
universities worldwide, gives the read­
ers many ideas and scenarios from which 
to choose. A variety of information lit­
eracy programs are highlighted, whether 
they be in stand-alone courses, discipline-
specific contexts, or introductions 
through a general education requirement. 
Readers can investigate those programs 

598 



Book Reviews 599 

that best fit their institution and can glean 
from them the parts that will best work 
for them. With more than twenty pages 
of appendices, Breivik provides ample 
information to support any new informa­
tion literacy endeavor.

 This volume is an important resource 
for all academic libraries that are looking 
at ways to create information literacy pro­
grams or to enhance existing instructional 
programs. Instruction librarians unsure 
of where to start in the implementation 
of a new literacy program will be well 
served by the information found in this 
book.—Laverne Simoneaux, Southeastern 
Louisiana University, Hammond. 

Chilling Admissions: The Affirmative Action 
Crisis and the Search for Alternatives. Ed. 
Gary Orfield and Edward Miller. Cam­
bridge, Mass.: Harvard Education 
Publishing Group, 1998. 132 p. $15.95 
(ISBN 1-891792-00-8). LC 98-71079. 

Affirmative action is a loaded term these 
days. In some instances, the discussion 
of affirmative action focuses on the wide­
spread discrimination in hiring and pro­
motion practices that it is intended to 
address, as well as the under-representa­
tion of women and minorities in many 
professions and in administrative posi­
tions (including those in academic librar­
ies). At other times, and in other contexts, 
the discussion is focused on what is per­
ceived, by some, to be another type of 
discrimination—which they believe is 
being perpetuated by affirmative action 
policies and “minority set-aside” pro­
grams. In the academic environment, 
there are important considerations both 
with regard to the composition of faculty, 
staff, and student body, but also to the 
representation of diverse perspectives in 
the classroom and library. 

Chilling Admissions, the publication of 
the results of a project funded by the 
MacArthur, Mellon, Rockefeller, and 
Charles Stewart Mott Foundations, 
among others, is the first publication by 
the new think tank, the Harvard Civil 
Rights Project. Working with a variety of 
theoretical perspectives, historical analy­

sis, and empirical research, this book is 
based on the premise that there is a com­
pelling need for the use of empirical data 
in the investigation of issues related to af­
firmative action. It is also based on the 
assumption that there is a need to pro­
vide substantive evaluation of both the 
results of eliminating race, as a factor, in 
admissions and financial aid decisions, 
and of the potential for success of alter­
native strategies—such as affirmative ac­
tion based on class—in achieving a cul­
turally diverse student body. 

The foreword and introduction, writ­
ten by Harvard law and education fac­
ulty, Edley and Orfield respectively, frame 
the discussion in terms of the legislation 
and judicial decisions that have shaped 
civil rights and affirmative action pro­
grams and debate in the U.S., including 
Brown vs. the Board of Education, the Bakke 
case, and Hopwood. Other authors—in­
cluding administrators and academics in 
the areas of law, education, public affairs, 
and sociology—provide historical over­
view and current analysis of the issues. 
They focus on critical legal cases as they 
relate to affirmative action in the states of 
California, Texas, Maryland, and Missis­
sippi. These authors provide evidence 
which disproves many of the widely held 
assumptions about affirmative action, in­
cluding the idea that enrollments of white 
and Asian students will rise sharply with 
the elimination of affirmative action and 
that only admissions, not applications 
and enrollment, of minorities will be af­
fected by the elimination of race-based 
approaches. 

Chilling Admissions  is generally well-
written and relatively comprehensive in 
coverage. The focus is on those states 
which have been most affected by recent 
court decisions and legislation. Major 
shortcomings are the lack of an index, and 
the inconsistent handling of lists of refer­
ences and notes, and in the presentation 
and discussion of data among the chap-
ters—the latter making comparison and 
synthesis difficult.

 This book presents a convincing argu­
ment that the abandonment of affirma­