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Book Reviews 575 

ence books, Web sites of various kinds, 
and discussions with various categories 
of people. For each, people were asked 
which they had used to seek health in­
formation, in which they’d come across 
such information, how useful they’d 
found information from each category, 
and how reliable they considered each 
source. Similar details were elicited about 
demographic, economic, and education 
factors. All the questions are given in an 
appendix, in English and in Icelandic. 

Since the study investigated “everyday 
life information behaviour,” sources and 
methods of information seeking were 
all-encompassing: Internet, print and 
broadcast media, professional consulta­
tions, and conversation with kin, neigh­
bors, friends, and colleagues. Again, from 
an academic librarian’s perspective, the 
value lies in the attempt not merely to in­
vestigate how users interact with us and/ 
or our resources, but whence and how 
information is sought or encountered any­
where in society. Since the reviewer is an 
anthropologist as well as a librarian, I ap­
prove of letting what research subjects do, 
or, at least, report, structure the findings. 
Since Pálsdóttir didn’t directly interview 
her respondents, much less observe them 
in their lives and information seeking, the 
study can’t be called ethnographic. It is, 
however, closer to ethnographic than too 
much library research, which takes us and 
our arena as the focus of user behavior 
and expectations. The questionnaire was 
pretested with small samples and was 
modified on the basis of respondent ques­
tions and suggestions. 

Because the book is a dissertation, the 
author avoids problems of ambiguity 
or imprecision—every concept, every 
method, every interpretation is explicitly 
grounded in prior scholars’ analyses and 
definitions. This makes for slow progress 
for the reader, but one does understand 
what’s being discussed and how succes­
sive researchers have refined those mean­
ings. The nature of the study also means 
that the reader should know more than 
many will about the fairly refi ned sta­

tistical techniques that Pálsdóttir uses to 
analyze her data, most especially within 
“clusters.” 

The nature of the book is such that no 
one except another dissertation writer 
could imagine sitting and reading it 
through. I would doubt that many read­
ers of this review will rush to buy a copy, 
and the percentage of selectors who’ll 
add it to their collections will likely be 
low. The thoroughness of the literature re­
view means, however, that librarians can 
benefit from awareness of the substantial 
body of research for which “information 
science” is a real term and not merely a 
euphemism for “librarianship.” People 
are trying to sift out meaningful distinc­
tions between what information people 
think they want, what they think they 
can do to get it, and—not least—what, if 
anything, they do with it once they obtain 
it. If, as librarians, we want not merely to 
measure “outcomes” of our work, out­
comes we ourselves define, but instead 
want to understand how what we do 
articulates real needs of real users, studies 
like Pálsdóttir’s will be necessary. They 
won’t be fun to read, and won’t translate 
into bullet points easily, but they could 
provide a deeper and more substantial 
understanding of our profession and 
what we do.—Gregory A. Finnegan, Har-
vard University 

Sonn, William J. Paradigms Lost: The 
Life and Deaths of the Printed Word. 
Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow, 2006. 393p. 
alk. paper, $35 (ISBN: 0810852624). LC 
2005-23073. 

Upon seeing a steam-driven printing 
press for the first time, a Leipzig printer 
commented that: “This machine will 
make many impressions, but nothing 
beautiful.” This clash between printing 
purists and print-cheapening innovators 
and the liberation/dissemination of in­
formation to the masses came in several 
cycles, from before Gutenberg to the In­
ternet, and is the subject of this amazingly 
detailed book by William Sonn. Sonn is an 
independent historian and professional 



 

 
 

 
 

 
 
 

 

 
 

 

 

 
  

 
 

 
 

  

 
  

 
 
 
 
 
 

  
 
 

  

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 

 
 

 
 

  

576 College & Research Libraries 

writer and has worked as a consultant for 
publishing companies. 

The book is divided into four parts, 
each describing an era in printing. Part I, 
“The Birth of Type: From Hand to Lever,” 
begins with the genesis of writt en com­
munication—cave painting—and then 
brings the reader up through Gutenberg’s 
struggles to the Reformation. Obviously 
Sonn outlines only the main develop­
ments along the way, but a researcher will 
find that the footnotes provide an excel­
lent starting point for a study of print’s 
history. Gutenberg’s family background is 
described, as well as the diffi  culties he had 
with his invention. Technical struggles 
were not enough; he had to work con­
stantly to secure funding for his work, 
keep it a secret from competitors, while 
constantly moving because of political 
unrest in the region. Unfortunately, due to 
the lack of information about Gutenberg, 
Sonn must often speculate about how the 
work actually proceeded. 

The author makes the point in Part I, 
repeated throughout the book, that the 
greater availability of the printed word 
caused revolutions in thinking and daily 
life. After Gutenberg, people began to think 
more for themselves instead of relying on 
others’ interpretations. The church reacted 
by banning “objectionable” books, mean­
ing books that were not in Latin. Some 
local religious leaders forbade reproducing 
religious works by machine at all. Secular 
leaders also became involved in censor­
ship; to preserve profits and gain control of 

Index to advertisers 
ACRL 582 
Annual Reviews cover 2 
Archival Products 570 
Blackwell’s Book Services cover 3 
CHOICE 491 
EBSCO cover 4 
Emery-Pratt 509 
Haworth Press 488 
Idea Group Publishing 487 
Library Technology Alliance 554 

November 2006 

the printed word, Henry VIII granted the 
first patents, controlling who could own a 
printing press. In doing so, he gained the 
upper hand over the clergy, pioneering the 
separation of church and state. The new 
technology helped ignite the Reformation, 
when a widely distributed printed book of 
Erasmus’ ideas inspired Martin Luther to 
doubt church teachings. After having his 
famous questions printed in Nuremberg, 
Luther posted them on a church door in 
Wittenberg, and the list was reproduced 
and sent all over Europe. 

Part II, “The Type Age: From Lever to 
Machine,” would be useful to those study­
ing the history of labor relations, as Sonn 
documents the start of problems that were 
to hamper the printing industry until the 
20th century. In America, it wasn’t much 
of an issue at first; more urgent was the 
problem of finding experienced printers. 
In Europe, however, where the availabil­
ity of abundant, cheap reading material 
had given birth to the Enlightenment, 
entrenched class boundaries meant that 
printing was controlled by an “oligarchy 
of masters” who exploited workers ter­
ribly and protected themselves by stifling 
innovation. Sonn, in fact, goes as far as to 
say that the class system that exported la­
bor unrest to the New World was created 
by the European printing industry. 

In the early 1700s, for the first time, the 
book market began to resemble what we 
see today, as authors began to sell their 
works to booksellers instead of to print­
ers. Copyright legislation debuted in 1709 
in England. While it protected authors, it 
also guaranteed a steady flow of taxes to 
the monarchy. 

Most striking about Part III, “The End 
of Type: From Machine to Math,” is the 
ongoing relevance of the work of Vanne­
var Bush, the “scientific cyclone” of the 
post- Second World War era. Aft er the 
war, he helped to develop a phototypeset­
ter, a machine that eliminated metal type 
altogether, and used only photography 
paper and light to create print. One of the 
innovations made possible by the new 
machine was a precursor to today’s online 



 
 

  

 

 
 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

   

 
 
 
 
 

  

 

 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 

  
 

  
 

 
 

 

  

 
  

databases—in 1962, a company called 
Photon found a way to hook its photo unit 
onto a mainframe and uploaded the Na­
tional Library of Medicine’s Index Medicus. 
Phototypesetting sounded the death knell 
for the unionized press operators. 

In the last section, “Life Aft er Type,” 
Sonn discusses the development of the 
computer and its impact on the printed 
word. In explaining how computer net­
works are modeled on the human brain, 
he makes a complex topic fascinating 
and easy to understand. He observes that 
computers have brought us full circle; 
religious leaders point out today, just as in 
Martin Luther’s time, that modern meth­
ods of communication are ruining society. 
Also, computers and desktop printers 
have freed us to produce our own work 
like the cave painters, with no need to 
send it to a print shop. Just as in the inven­
tion of the printing press, though, the real 
revolution that computers have wrought 
is in our thinking—Sonn observes that 
“once again, our place in the cosmos 
shifted when the way we retrieved and 
used information changed.” 

In outlining the history of printing, 
Sonn touches on a great variety of subjects, 
humanizing previously one-dimensional 
historical figures and events. While indi­
vidual stories are interesting and the tone 
refreshingly lighthearted and at times 
hilarious, the sheer amount of detail is 
often overwhelming. The result is a book 
that can be a little tedious if read as a nar­
rative, but it would be extremely useful as 
a research tool. Sonn provides extensive 
footnotes and a detailed and accurate 
index and bibliography.—Henriett a Thorn-
ton-Verma, DeVry Institute of Technology 

Last One Out Turn Off the Lights: Is This 
the Future of American and Canadian 
Libraries? Eds. Susan E. Cleyle and 
Louise M. McGillis. Lanham, Md.: 
Scarecrow, 2005. 227p. alk. paper, $45 
(ISBN 081085192X). LC 2004-20419. 

Despite the rather pessimistic tone of its 
title, the contributors to this collection of 
essays are, for the most part, true believers 

Book Reviews 577 

in the mission of libraries and the work of 
librarians. What they do insist upon is the 
need for libraries to transform (or perhaps 
continue to transform) themselves as the 
world and our users change. Two Cana­
dian librarians edit the collection: Susan 
Cleyle is associate university librarian at 
Memorial University of Newfoundland; 
Louise M. McGillis serves at Sir Wilfred 
Grenfell College, also in Newfoundland. 
But aside from the preface on the future 
of Libraries and Archives of Canada by 
former national librarian Roch Carrier, 
the questions and concerns raised by the 
book’s Canadian and U.S. contributors 
seem to differ very little. The real point 
here is not that Canadian librarians of­
fer a diff erent point of view, but that we 
Americans need to listen and learn from 
our professional counterparts elsewhere in 
North America and the world. The pointed 
title of this volume is a gentle reminder that 
we Americans, who regard ourselves as 
world leaders in everything (even librari­
anship!), perhaps need to walk along with 
others more and lead a litt le less. 

The introductory essay to the volume is 
entitled “Change the Lightbulb or Flip the 
Switch—Our Choice!” Cleyle and McGillis 
muse about why, when librarians claim to 
be so confident of our future, we keep writ­
ing about and agonizing over our place in 
the information age. They note that the 
“come to us” ethic of service will no longer 
work; instead, we need a “get the service 
to you” model. Each essay in the book of­
fers a different perspective on how to get 
services to users—all those nonusers and 
lapsed users who have fled to the Internet, 
and even our fellow professionals and 
paraprofessionals. Some are more practi­
cal, “how-to” articles; others are thought­
ful pieces on the roles of libraries and how 
we as librarians can move forward and yet 
also “preserve what is good.” 

The collection is divided into five 
parts, each focused on a diff erent theme 
or concern. The first part, “The Tug of 
War between Libraries and the Web: Who 
Will End Up in the Dirt?,” is the most 
practical, offering suggestions on how