504 College & Research Libraries September 2011 centuries since their original manufacture and offer librarians and curators an inter- esting look at historical market conditions and collecting practices. In the section covering the book trade, Lotte Hellinga draws upon surviving records describing four fifteenth-century Burgundian book auctions to shed light on the processes and conditions underlying early orga- nized book sales. Hellinga’s essay points out the importance of records like these as sources for specific data on historical book prices, the respective desirability and popularity of certain works, the names of specific buyers, and contemporary read- ing habits and tastes. Moving forward 400 years, David McKitterick’s account of the bankruptcy of Sotheby’s in 1836 reveals the precarious nature of the book trade by showing how broader national and international economic trends, unreli- able buyers, overambitious commercial activity, the solicitation of patronage, and the constantly shifting expectations and interests of monied collectors directly impact the sale and distribution of books and manuscripts. And Sam Fogg’s article describing his own (successful) attempt to acquire and then resell an important thir- teenth-century illuminated Psalter paints a vivid picture of the fascinating, complex, mysterious, and sometimes ethically uncomfortable world of the modern high- stakes manuscript trade. Each of these articles addresses a range of issues that librarians should consider in their own collection development work, including their professional obligation to preserve acquisition records to provide primary testimony in the future to contemporary institutional collecting practices, as well as the necessity of recognizing the complex economic, social, and personal dynamics that influence the demand for and supply and distribution of books on the market. Other articles of particular interest to library professionals appear in the volume’s third and final section on manu- script collectors and collecting from the medieval period to the present. Nigel Morgan examines a little-explored aspect of information provision in the Middle Ages by analyzing how the placement and distribution of chained books within medieval English cathedrals and churches illustrates the ways liturgical books were actually used in their original ecclesiasti- cal settings. Roland Felter’s identification and listing of all 143 dealer and auction catalogues issued over a period of 120 years describing Sir Thomas Phillipps’ massive collection of more than 110,000 manuscripts for the first time provides a “union catalogue” of sorts that scholars and librarians can use to track down information about Phillipps’ now widely dispersed manuscript holdings. Stella Panayotova’s account of Sydney Cock- erell’s patient and meticulous work with donors during his tenure as Director of Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum offers curators a captivating and suggestive look at how to pursue development ini- tiatives. And Lawrence J. Schoenberg’s and Robert Weaver ’s complementary personal accounts of their own activities as collectors of manuscript codices and fragments, respectively, attest to the schol- arly and curricular virtue of developing well-balanced collections that include manuscripts of all types. To g e t h e r, t h e a r t i c l e s I m e n t i o n above—as well as all the others I do not have the space to comment upon in more detail here—comprise a diverse but uni- fied body of scholarship addressing the multiplicity of approaches inherent in the broad field of manuscript studies. Curators, librarians, and scholars will find this collection to be an extremely informative, readable, and useful re- source; and, as befits a volume dedicated to Christopher de Hamel, it provides an admirable model illustrating both how and why medieval manuscripts are—and ought to remain—indispensable scholarly resources today.—Eric J. Johnson, The Ohio State University. Michael J. Aloi, Marjorie Fusco, and Susan E. Ketcham. Digital Collections Worldwide: An Annotated Directory. Book Reviews 505 New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2011. 345p. alk. paper, $250 (ISBN 9781555707019). LC2011-000445. Compiled by three academic librarians, Digital Collections Worldwide provides an exhaustive and valuable annotated listing of the world’s most authoritative and comprehensive digital collections. The authors describe over 1,400 digital collections and include an extensive subject index. The Internet is full of digi- tal collections that allow users to easily access information quickly, but it can be challenging and time consuming to sift through multiple links generated by a search engine such as Google. Digital Collections Worldwide is designed to help the user identify which digital collections are best for their needs. The authors ac- complish this by organizing the book in a logical and succinct way. For example, the directory only includes digital collections from the following established organiza- tions: governmental body, library, ar- chives, educational institution, museum, corporation, or a scholar’s personal Web site. In addition, the book will never be outdated because the authors maintain a companion Web site that updates broken links and incorporates new collections. The book is organized into eight chap- ters, each accompanied by annotations. These annotations provide information regarding what has been digitized (in- cluding photographs, documents, maps, illustrations, artifacts, audiovisual items, and so on), as well as the name of the host institution and its most current URL for the collection. The purpose of each anno- tation is to document why a collection is online, what the collection includes, who is responsible for the collection (both the physical and digital), and tips on the best way to explore the collection online. The annotations also include excellent infor- mation about topics such as copyright. One of the more valuable aspects of this directory is that non-English sites are included. The authors carefully selected foreign language sites that include digital collections that are easy to translate using one of the many free online translating resources, and they state in the annota- tions if there are any language restrictions for collections. Chapter 1, “World Initiatives,” intro- duces the audience to collections on Web sites that represent broad subjects and geographical contexts that encompass the entire globe or multiple countries. The remaining seven chapters are arranged al- phabetically by the seven continents and, within each chapter, alphabetically by country. Each chapter helpfully includes an introduction to the continent by pro- viding useful facts and figures, as well as information about digitization practices and available technology resources. Even though the primary audience for Digital Collections Worldwide is skilled researchers, a layperson can benefit from this directory. The book is described as “an unprecedented advancement in scholarship and research, enabling a high school student in Kenya to view the Dead Sea Scrolls in the exact same detail as a full professor at Oxford.” Those who work in a library, archive, museum, cultural or educational institution, etc. will benefit greatly from this directory by expanding their knowledge about digital collections but also will be able to provide inquisitive customers with an invaluable resource to begin their exploration of digital col- lections around the world.—Katie Nash, Elon University. S. David Mash. Decision-Making in the Absence of Certainty: A Study in the Context of Technology and the Construc- tion of the 21st Century Academic Library. Chicago: ACRL (ACRL Publications in Librarianship, no. 63), 2010. 160p. alk. paper, $38 (ISBN 9780838985717). LC2010-049544. Decision-Making in the Absence of Certainty explores the interplay of dynamic vari- ables involved in the decision-making process of five American universities that constructed new multimillion-dollar library facilities between 2006 and 2007. The aim of the work is to provide a de-