reviews


 

 

Book Reviews 383 

for seminars and hands-on instruction. 
The Humanities and Social Sciences Data 
Center contains two small units that were 
designed to support specific research ef­
forts at Rutgers. 

Building a Scholarly Communications 
Center is geared toward library managers 
who may face the same practical concerns 
as the librarians at Rutgers. The authors 
spend little time on reviewing the relevant 
literature but, rather, concentrate on the 
nitty-gritty of how the SCC was created. 
Floor plans, diagrams, and tables are in­
cluded, as well as other useful informa­
tion such as a list of questions asked of each 
architectural firm and fee schedules for use 
of the SCC. The book also Includes infor­
mation about the contributors and an in­
dex. A complete bibliography would have 
been useful, although each chapter in­
cludes a list of references. Also, no URLs 
are listed for the SCC, Rutgers, or any of 
the institutions that were visited as part of 
the planning process.

 This book will be of most interest to a 
small group of academic librarians, 
namely those who hope to embark on a 
similar project. The practical approach 
will make this book a valuable acquisi­
tion for them because it illustrates “the 
typical procedures that any academic li­
brary might expect to undergo in devel­
oping a technology-oriented facility.”— 
Emma Duncan, University of Toronto at 
Scarborough. 

The Evolving Virtual Library II: Practical and 
Philosophical Perspectives. Ed. Laverna 
M. Saunders. Medford, N.J.: Informa­
tion Today, 1999. 198p. $39.50 (ISBN 1­
57387-070-6). LC 95-39544. 

In this sequel to her 1996 book, The Evolv-
ing Virtual Library (reviewed in College & 
Research Libraries 58 [May 1997]:287–89), 
editor Laverna Saunders presents up­
dated scholarship on the virtual library, a 
term that encompasses the digital or elec­
tronic segment of a traditional library’s 
information resources. Using the same 
format as the earlier volume, this book 
begins with Saunders’s essay on the ef­
fects of burgeoning electronic information 

on library staff. Nine essays by different 
library experts follow. These are mostly 
case histories of working library projects 
or theoretical articles that address signifi­
cant issues involved in the constant digi­
tization of information.

 For the academic audience, all but two 
of the essays (which concern public and 
school libraries) are pertinent. One 
standout is Gail McMillan’s chapter on 
the Scholarly Communications Project 
(SCP), a library department she directs at 
Virginia Tech. Now ten years old, the SCP 
is an excellent example of how academic 
libraries can facilitate the creation of digi­
tal resources on campus as well as pro­
vide users with uncomplicated access to 
them. The resources offered by the SCP 
include locally originating e-journals, 
electronic theses and dissertations, elec­
tronic reserves, online news resources, 
and digitized images. Amazingly, SCP 
survives on 1.5 FTE and less than $100,000 
in operating expenses—an exceptional 
value in a 24,000-student university. 

Another first-rate descriptive essay 
concerns the Making of America Web site, 
which is hosted by the University of 
Michigan and currently contains a collec­
tion of digitized primary-source Civil War 
documents. This project is a commend­
able mix of quality content, functional 
conversion technology, and user-friendly 
accessibility, all of which are clearly docu­
mented by Maria Bonn. Materials that 
once sat unused in a special collections 
department now are viewed thousands 
of times monthly on the Internet. Given 
the abundance of such one-of-a-kind re­
sources in academic libraries, there is 
great potential for more projects like this 
one.

 The George Machovec essay is an im­
pressive technological primer on networks 
and telecommunications. Topics covered 
include LANs and WANs, operating sys­
tems, bandwidth and high-speed lines, 
Internet protocols, thin clients, and vari­
ous methods of electronic authentication. 
Although written at a comprehensive 
level, less-sophisticated computer users 
can comfortably understand the material. 



 

384 College & Research Libraries 

The best of the theoretical articles is 
the last chapter, a keynote essay by 
Marshall Keys that contains his thought­
ful speculations on where libraries, vir­
tual and otherwise, are headed. His main 
point—at the end of all this electronic 
upheaval will be unprecedented improve­
ments in user access to information—is 
well taken. The path to this nirvana, how­
ever, is bound to be difficult. Keys ana­
lyzes the tenuous, yet tenacious, grasp 
that journal publishers, electronic infor­
mation aggregators, and online system 
vendors have on their respective high-
profit businesses. Many in the library 
community resent the windfalls enjoyed 
by privately held companies in these in­
dustries and are anxious for library-based 
initiatives that will reduce commercial 
profiteering and strengthen, rather than 
marginalize, traditional libraries. Perhaps 
future editions of The Evolving Virtual Li-
brary will feature case histories of success­
ful freeware-based system solutions or 
project reports on an electronic library 
clearinghouse for scholarly research.

 Both editions of this title are compa­
rable to a “special issue” journal on this 
topic. The price is right (about $4/article) 
and no binding is required. Professional 
librarians dealing with the pressures and 
potentials of electronic resources will find 
useful information here. For those labor­
ing at less-than-progressive institutions, 
it is interesting and even inspiring to see 
what is actually possible, given favorable 
conditions. Of course, the usual caveat 
about electronic topics in print applies— 
beware the short shelf life. The transition 
from cutting edge to historical in the digi­
tal world is a very swift one.—Paul 
Rolland, Mesa State College. 

The Human Face of the Book Trade: Print 
Culture and Its Creators. Ed. Peter Isaac 
and Barry McKay, from the Proceed­
ings of the Sixteenth Seminar on the 
British Book Trade, Edinburgh, June 
1998. Winchester, Eng.: St. Paul Bibli­
ographies; New Castle, Del.: Oak 
Knoll Pr., 1999. 228p. $39.95 (ISBN 
1-58456-003-7). LC 99-30585. 

July 2000

To resurrect pre-twentieth-century book 
activities from dusty volumes to vibrant 
tomes and from deceased book people to 
live (and sometimes whining or conniv­
ing) book entities, the editors have se­
lected essays from the Sixteenth Seminar 
on the British Book Trade, Edinburgh, 
1998. Topics range from a history of books 
about sheep-ear notches to contentious 
journalism to major eighteenth-century 
publishing activities. The excellence of 
these articles (fortuitous proximity?) 
leaves one to wonder about those not sub­
mitted or those rejected.

 Respected authors such as librarians, 
professors, a senior curator, an Honorary 
Fellow, a Master of College, and an anti­
quarian bookseller have highlighted 
auction-house collusion, explored book 
salesmanship, considered the book dis­
tribution patterns, recounted philan­
thropic achievements of the Clark Collec­
tion (Napier College), and mused on 
medical mis- and mal-publishing. Orga­
nization reflects a happy combination of 
sustained scholarly attention (“Henry 
Cotton…”c1813), access to rich resources 
(“William Smellie and the Printer ’s 
Role”), and the capacity of the unusual to 
rivet attention (“Fall of the Hammer: Auc­
tioning of Books in Manchester…”).

 Beyond the diversity of topic and time 
period, the magnitude of detail, and the 
fleshing out of factual skeletons, the 
strengths of this collection include its ex­
tensive documentation (one article of thir­
teen pages has ninety-three footnotes), 
detailed index, and biographical sketches 
that highlight the special qualifications of 
the authors. If one is an incidental learner 
(who reads the word above and below the 
needed dictionary entry), one can expect 
an abundance of grazing. The rear-cover 
blurb and editor Isaac’s editorial are es­
pecially well-written summaries. 

Truly a buffet of riches, these essays 
have something for nearly everyone. Some 
highlights worth mentioning include: co­
operative publishing where one publisher 
lists booksellers in another city (“Charles 
Elliott and the English Provincial Book 
Trade”), analysis of publisher distribution