reviews.indd


Book Reviews 

Gordon, Rachel Singer. The NextGen Li-
brarian’s Survival Guide. Medford, N.J.: 
Information Today, 2006. 208p. $29.50 
(ISBN 1573872563). LC 2005-36503. 

The NextGen Librarian’s Survival Guide is 
a must-read for next-generation librar-
ians (aged 25–34), their colleagues and 
administrators. In the face of the rapid 
changes in the field of librarianship and 
in libraries as institutions, this survival 
guide provides a wealth of advice, tips, 
and explanations on how next-generation 
librarians can thrive in diff erent library 
environments. The author, Rachel Singer 
Gordon, is a NextGen librarian who 
documents the ever-changing world of 
libraries. Gordon organized the book into 
ten chapters and also included an index 
and appendices. Examples of questions 
that Gordon attempts to answer include: 
“What is unique about younger librar-
ians’ experiences? What are NextGens’ 
responsibilities to the profession? What 
can NextGen librarians do now to help 
move their institutions—and the fi eld as 
a whole—forward? How can multiple 
generations work together eff ectively in 
today’s library?” In addition to attempt-
ing to answer the questions mentioned 
above, within each chapter Gordon cov-
ers a wide range of general topics as they 
relate to NextGen librarians including 
library school, job hunting, entry-level 
positions, stereotypes, diversity, work 
and life balance, and, in addition, chang-
ing the profession and advising library 
administrators. 

The content throughout the text is 
based on Gordon’s personal experiences, 
survey results, interviews, discussions, 
email groups and listservs, and general 
feedback and comments from the library 
community. In the Introduction, Gordon 
states that “this is a ‘survival guide’ for a 
number of reasons, ranging from many 
NextGens’ growing disillusionment with 
certain aspects of librarianship as prac-

ticed in some institutions 
today, to the recognition 
that our profession is, in a 
number of ways, fi ghting for 
its own survival.” Although 
each chapter contains a fair 
amount of narrative text, 
Gordon has—appropriately for NextGen 
readers’ learning style—also created 
short bulleted lists that emphasize key 
concepts related to the topic being dis-
cussed. 

Regardless of what stage the reader is 
located on the education and/or career 
path, each chapter offers helpful advice. 
For example, the first two chapters are 
primarily geared toward the graduate 
student in library school who is trying 
to figure out whether he or she falls into 
the NextGen librarian category, as well 
as what this categorizing means in terms 
of finding a job and for subsequent job-
related experience. Chapter three offers 
techniques and advice on how to find a job 
and prepare for an interview. Addition-
ally, this chapter provides helpful Internet 
resources, advice on how to stand out and 
still get a good job, things to look out for 
and inquire about during interviews and 
the job hunting process, and personal sto-
ries of how librarians survived interviews 
and found professional jobs. 

Chapter five helps NextGen librarians 
analyze their personal and professional 
lives so they can summarize what positive 
attributes and qualities they can off er in 
the rapidly changing library environ-
ment. Not only should NextGen librarians 
be able to articulate positive qualities 
they can bring to the job, but, once they 
are employed, they need to be able to 
continue to push for positive change 
while confronting the infinite number of 
roadblocks erected by administrators and 
colleagues. This chapter also provides an 
excellent selection of online resources for 
continuing education opportunities to 

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572 College & Research Libraries 

assist NextGen librarians in keeping their 
skills current and marketable. 

The remaining chapters in this book 
offer advice to NextGen librarians on 
what to expect in the workplace, but also 
how to handle different scenarios that 
may arise. Each chapter provides possible 
ideas and strategies a NextGen librarian 
may use in situations in which older col-
leagues and administrators have differing 
viewpoints. Appendix B lists useful Web 
sites and a list of recommended read-
ings that address the constant changes 
in librarianship. Gordon has done an 
excellent job outlining what it takes for 
NextGen librarians to survive in the work-
place and in articulating the profession’s 
expectations that they will be able to move 
libraries into the future.—Katie Nash, Elon 
University 

Newman, Michael. Teaching Defi ance: Sto-
ries and Strategies for Activist Educators. 
A Book Written in Wartime. Foreword 
by Stephen Brookfield, San Francisco: 
Jossey-Bass, 2006. 320p. $35 (ISBN 
0787985562). LC 2006-4175. 

It takes only a few pages of reading this 
book to be moved from curious (about its 
title) to motivated (How can I become an 
activist educator?) to inspired. 

Michael Newman believes that critical 
thinking, a frequent aim of higher educa-
tion, has been tamed. Rather than helping 
people recognize ideology, it has become 
another workplace skill and has lost its 
connection to social justice. Adult educa-
tion itself has become “… simply too nice, 
too self-centered, or too concerned with 
maintaining the status quo.” Instead of 
following the prevailing learner-centered 
focus, adult education should help people 
uncover their anger, examine it, and thus 
look outward to define the enemy, “… 
who is trying to lay our futures for us, 
who is telling us what we should and 
should not do, … who is preventing us 
from acting effectively in our own and in 
others’ interest.” The mission of activist 
adult educators, according to Newman, 
is “to help people become truly conscious 

November 2006 

… to teach choice. … to help ourselves 
and others break free from our pasts, 
plan for the futures we want and resist 
the futures we do not want. Our job is to 
teach defiance.” 

Newman, now retired after twelve 
years as a senior lecturer in adult educa-
tion at the University of Technology in 
Sydney, Australia (UTS), has an extensive 
background of working, teaching, and 
writing in adult education and training. 
Prior to joining UTS, he did community 
education work in London and was a 
national trainer for the Australian Trade 
Union Training Authority. Although 
Teaching Defiance is his first book to be 
released by an American publisher, two 
of his books have won the American 
Association for Adult and Continuing 
Education’s Cyril Houle Award for Out-
standing Literature in Adult Education. 

After articulating his mission, New-
man provides ample material—through 
a combination of concepts, philosophy, 
critical theory, stories, and practical teach-
ing models—to guide those who wish 
to become activist adult educators. One 
example, appearing early in the book, is 
his model for teaching problem solving. 
He illustrates this model with an exercise 
he developed as a trade union trainer. He 
divides his class into groups of three and 
gives each group a sheet of paper contain-
ing a succinctly worded work problem: A 
union representative finds that the factory 
manager has moved the time clocks from 
outside the gate to inside the factory. At 
the top of the sheet is the question, “What 
would you do?” The groups must remain 
completely silent while reading the prob-
lem. Then, they talk for ten minutes. In 
debriefing the exercise, Newman finds 
that groups invariably leap to solutions. 
He shows them the benefits of adhering 
to a simple, three-step discussion process: 
(1) What’s wrong? (2) What can we do? 
(3) What will we do? He follows up by 
helping the class refine each step into 
discrete stages. 

Besides problem solving, Newman 
explores why and how to teach rebel-