reviews.indd Book Reviews 199 Despite her record of achievements, Hasse’s professional life was fi lled with obstacles and controversies, and this book covers them in detail. Hasse’s abil- ity to stand out made her a target for men who felt threatened by her visibility as a new kind of single, ambitious, and independent woman, deemed by Beck the “New Woman.” (Beck states that the phrase “New Woman” was first used in Hasse’s day in an interview with famous songwriter Jessie Bartlett Davis.) Hasse and other women library profes- sionals of this era endured hostile work- place environments, sexual harassment, the glass ceiling, and other forms of dis- crimination throughout their careers. This biography shows how an enthusiastic, hardworking, and energetic individual could be kept from reaching her potential, was treated unfairly, and suff ered damage to her reputation because she did not con- form to a woman’s role as subordinate. Hasse’s sexual harasser was none other than library icon Melvil Dewey. Chapter nine, entitled “The Crisis,” is especially poignant, because it details her turbulent downfall and removal after twenty-one years as Chief of New York Public Library’s Economics Division. It is also ironic that Hasse, unlike her male counterparts, did not have a pension on which to rely in later years, despite the fact that she had worked approximately sixty years. Each of the twelve chapters, as well as the prologue and the epilogue, ends with an extensive notes section. The text is also complemented by a preface, a list of abbreviations, acknowledgments, and a comprehensive index. Beck compares and contrasts her findings with Dee Garrison’s Apostles of Culture: The Public Librarian and American Society, 1876–1920 (Wisconsin, 2003), which examined the impact of historical events on current li- brarianship and society’s view of libraries. It should also be noted that Beck penned an earlier essay about Adelaide Hasse for Suzanne Hildenbrand’s Reclaiming the American Library Past: Writing the Women In (Ablex, 1996). Beck is to be praised for this impressive and long overdue biog- raphy of Adelaide Hasse.—Caroline Geck, Kean University. Briet, Suzanne. What Is Documentation? English Translation of the Classic French Text. Trans. and ed. Ronald E. Day and Laurent Martinet with Hermina G.B. Anghelescu. Lanham, Md.: Scare- crow, 2006. 84p. alk. paper, $25 (ISBN 0810851092). LC 2005-23628. In 1951 Suzanne Briet published Qu’est-ce que la documentation?, a forty-eight page pamphlet consisting of three essays that defi ned the field of documentation and placed it within the scholarly context of the era. The translators of this English edition argue Briet’s work continues to be relevant because it offers compelling al- ternatives to the positivistic att itudes that the translators believe pervade today’s information science. Briet was born in 1894 and qualified as a librarian in 1924. At the time she published these essays, she was chief of the reference service at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. She had already been heavily involved in the development of the documentation profession, including being one of the founders and leaders of the Union Francaise des Organismes de Documentation. However, only three years aft er publishing Qu’est-ce que la docu- mentation?, Briet took early retirement and until her 1989 death pursued numerous nonlibrary interests, including writing po- etical, historical, and biographical works. Michael Buckland contributes a bibliog- raphy of Briet’s writings and a brief but interesting biography. As Buckland points out, Briet’s three essays are manifestos, the fi rst defining the boundaries of the field, the second distinguishing documentation from traditional librarianship, and the third examining societal needs for vigor- ous, proactive documentation services. Briet defines a document as “any con- crete or symbolic indexical sign, preserved or recorded toward the ends of represent- ing, of reconstituting, or of proving a 200 College & Research Libraries physical or intellectual phenomenon.” So while a star, a pebble, and a living animal are not documents, photographs and catalogues of stars are documents, stones in a museum of mineralogy are docu- ments, and animals that are cataloged and shown in a zoo are documents. Books and similar written works are types of docu- ments, and, given Briet’s understanding of documents, it follows that librarians are a type of “documentalist.” But Briet believes the documentalist profession also includes the roles of archivist and curator. While librarians preserve and conserve books (the exhibits of acquired facts), documentalists preserve, conserve, and interpret. The documentalist identifies, interprets, and disseminates documents relevant to researchers and subject spe- cialists. This is similar to the role some special librarians play within research institutes or corporations. Most of Briet’s second essay expands on her concept of the documentalist profession. Much attention is given to the documentalist’s methods and instruments (most of which, she acknowledges, are borrowed from old techniques developed by similar profes- sionals: e.g., librarians), and to the kind of education necessary for documentalists. In her final essay, “A Necessity of Our Time,” Briet considers how the docu- mentation movement contributes to the progress and unification of civilization. Premising her remarks on the belief that humanity strives toward unity, she discusses how an international network made up of local document centers is the most feasible model for developing a unified, worldwide knowledge system, as contrasted with the “universal bibliogra- phy” envisioned by many of her prede- cessors. Ronald Day, assistant professor of library and information science at Wayne State University, offers a provocative in- terpretation of the significance of Briet’s views and their implications for today’s information scientists. Day argues that Briet anticipated the enormous challenges to traditional library practices from new technologies, and as a result developed March 2007 a broader understanding of what consti- tutes a cultural document. Briet’s vision of the future of documentation is rooted in an understanding of the world as a patch- work quilt of cultures producing myriad kinds of documents. Each culture and its documentation centers will require techniques and technologies suited to the different kinds of documents. Instead of seeking the universal library, Briet advo- cates creating a network consisting of the documentation centers from every cul- ture. According to Day, “Just as Culture is transformed in cultures, so the Library is dispersed into documentary techniques and technologies. This is something that still needs to be seen and reckoned with in library education and in library institu- tions. Briet wrote of it a half century ago, and these changes have only increased since then.” A worthwhile read for librarians, infor- mation scientists, and students.—W. Bede Mitchell, Georgia Southern University. Lanham, Richard A. The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information. Chicago: Univer- sity of Chicago Press, 2006. 312p. alk. paper, $29 (ISBN 0226468828). LC 2005-22857. Like many before him, Richard Lanham is impressed by one of the big technologi- cal changes of our time. For centuries, we have relied on various forms of paper and, to a lesser extent, other hardcopy surfaces to record, preserve, and transmit texts. But now we appear to be in the midst of an epochal shift, from these more fa- miliar surfaces to an increasingly digital “expressive space.” Lanham began the inquiry reported in The Economics of At- tention with the question “What’s next for text?”; but this narrower question of the movement from page to screen seemed to invite and perhaps even require reflection on an even broader one: “What’s new about the ‘new economy’ and what’s not?” The movement back and forth between these two issues creates the central ten- sion of the argument.