306 College & Research Libraries May 2012

Alex Murray and Jessica Whyte. The 
Agamben Dictionary. Edinburgh: Edin-
burgh University Press, 2011. 219p. alk. 
paper, $40.00 (ISBN 9780748640584). 
LCCN 2011-431345.

Born in 1942, Giorgio Agamben is consid-
ered a leading figure in philosophy and 
political theory, one who is known for 
challenging the Western political tradition. 
After completing his studies in law and 
philosophy, and earning his doctorate, he 
taught at various universities in Europe 
and was a visiting professor at various 
universities in the United States. Agamben 
is no stranger to controversy. His entry to 
the United States was accompanied by a 
controversy upon his refusal to submit 
to fingerprinting as requested by the U.S. 
Immigration Department following the 
attacks on September 11, 2001. In no un-
certain terms, he stated his objection to this 
“biopolitical tattooing” in an article that ap-
peared in Le Monde: “I have no intention of 
submitting myself to such procedures and 
that’s why I didn’t wait to cancel the course 
I was supposed to teach at New York Uni-
versity in March” (Jan. 10, 2004). His radical 
critique continues to redefine and fashion 
concepts and terminologies in areas such 
as ethics, law, epistemology, language, and 
logic, among others. To this end, Murray 
and Whyte bring together a collection of 
essays written by renowned and emerging 
experts to illustrate Agamben’s influence in 
a broad spectrum of disciplines.

Murray and Whyte are no strangers 
to Agamben. Alex Murray began his ap-
pointment as English Literature Lecturer 
in 2007 at the University of Exeter’s English 
Department. He is extensively published 
in literary studies and critical theories and 
has written several monographs, articles, 
book chapters, and reviews. The Encyclope-
dia of Literary and Cultural Theory (Oxford, 
2011) recently published Murray’s entry 
on Agamben. In addition, he is coeditor 
of The Work of Giorgio Agamben: Law, Life, 
Literature (Edinburgh Press, 2008), an in-
depth treatment of the philosopher’s work. 
Later, in 2009, he wrote “Law and Thought: 
on the Work of Giorgio Agamben” (Law & 

Critique 20:3), and, in 2010, Murray sum-
marized his key ideas in Giorgio Agamben 
(Critical Thinkers Series, Routledge). 
Currently, Murray is cofounder of Parrhe-
sia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy (www.
parrhesiajournal.org). His collaborator, 
Jessica Whyte, is a lecturer in cultural and 
social analysis at the University of Western 
Sydney, Australia. She completed her doc-
torate on the political thought of Giorgio 
Agamben in 2010 and published widely 
on contemporary continental philosophy, 
including Foucault and Ranciere, and 
critical and legal theories. In addition to 
the reviewed publication, she coedited the 
Theory and Event Symposium “Form of 
Life: Giorgio Agamben, Ontology, Politics” 
(2010), as well as the Australian Feminist 
Law Journal special edition “Law, Crisis, 
Revolution” (2010). 

Until now, scholarly publications 
focused on the philosopher’s individual 
works. This is the first attempt to illus-
trate the complexity of his body of work 
as a whole. Carefully researched and as-
sembled, The Agamben Dictionary is a col-
lection of short essays that introduce key 
terms and concepts spanning the gambit 
from Abandonment to Zoē. Each essay 
includes cross-references to other terms, in 
bold type. The dictionary concludes with 
a comprehensive biography of Agam-
ben’s works to date, cited works, further 
readings, and notes on contributors. The 
dictionary is a valuable reference for 
researchers interested not only in Agam-
ben’s work but also in understanding his 
place in contemporary philosophy and 
political critique as overall disciplines.—
Ethan Pullman, Carnegie Mellon University.

Digital Media: Technological and Social 
Challenges of the Interactive World. 
Eds. Megan A. Winger and William 
Aspray. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow 
Press, 2011. 237p. alk. paper, $55 (ISBN 
9780810881969). LC2011-016306.

Compiled by scholars from industry and 
academia in fields ranging from the arts 
and humanities to information studies, 
Digital Media explores, from multiple 



Book Reviews 307

perspectives, the “history, collection de-
velopment, preservation, and ontological 
challenges of digital media.” This anthol-
ogy is based on research presented at an 
invitation-only workshop on digital media, 
hosted by the School of Information at the 
University of Texas at Austin in February 
2009. With the evolution of digital media 
over the past three decades, new challenges 
such as the preservation of information 
regarding virtual worlds and online games 
have emerged. The authors posit that while 
preserving digital media is vital, the preser-
vation of information about digital objects, 
including administrative, descriptive, and 
cultural data, is equally important. 

The book is broken into four parts, with 
each focused on an aspect of digital media. 
The first part discusses the importance of 
preserving digital objects (in particular, 
virtual worlds like The Sims Online and 
others due to the historical value of these 
digital artifacts). Other items examined in 
this section include the necessity of new 
and variable archival models for preserv-
ing, documenting, and accessing digital 
objects, as opposed to models used for 
traditional materials. Examples are also 
given where piracy of copyrighted mate-
rial played a positive role in preservation. 

In the second part, the authors describe 
the challenges of creating, compiling, and 
preserving authoritative metadata about 
a digital object. This section describes the 
retrieval concerns of born-digital items 
and the need for dynamic classification 
standards. Such standards are integral to 
innovative design of new media by bal-
ancing the goals of arrangement with user 
information needs and continue to evolve 
due to “the shifting nature of the field.” 

The third part addresses the human-
centered and interactive relationship with 
digital media ranging from applications 
for mobile devices to blogs. The section 
begins with the proposal of using a 
“personal theory” writing method in the 
realm of the humanities discipline. This 
method is defined as a “personalized 
rendering of theoretical concepts” and 
blends first-person narratives with digi-

tal media. The author proposes that this 
style, while analogous to the first-person 
storytelling blended with philosophical 
writings by authors such as Thoreau and 
St. Augustine, is ideal for use with digital 
media. This section also highlights the 
issue of the “digital media divide” by ana-
lyzing two reports concerning the digital 
divide, one by Henry Jenkins (2006) and 
the other by Larry Snyder (1999). The 
author suggests that the debate about the 
digital divide must focus on the “skillful 
and meaningful use of digital resources” 
rather than a debate about digital access. 

The final part examines the dynamic 
relationship between digital media and 
culture over time. Topics include the 
role and evolution of digital media in the 
creation, dissemination, and reception of 
artistic works, in contrast to traditional ar-
tistic media. The impact of music technol-
ogies for both the artist and audience from 
the late 1950s to the present is discussed. 
The section closes with a discussion of the 
role of digital humanities, a budding field 
“grounded in the theories and methods 
of humanist scholarship.” The interplay 
between digital media and technology 
innovations are evaluated regarding the 
present and future cultural implications. 

This work offers varied perspectives 
and interesting theoretical ideas regarding 
the emerging challenges of digital media. 
The book as a whole will be of interest to 
scholars of library and information science, 
though specific chapters could also be of 
interest to those in other fields such as com-
munications, media studies, and fine arts. A 
definite strength of the book is the diversity 
of backgrounds represented by the authors 
and the unique topics presented. Unfortu-
nately, in a few instances the wide range 
of topics covered within particular parts 
of the book disrupt the transition between 
chapters. Another weakness is the scant 
coverage of proposed solutions and best 
practices to the inherent challenges of digi-
tal media. Practitioners seeking a plethora 
of pragmatic ideas will be disappointed. 
However, readers seeking descriptive 
information about some of the inherent 



308 College & Research Libraries May 2012

challenges of preserving digital objects, 
metadata about these objects, user experi-
ences with these digital objects, and infor-
mation about the dynamic relationship 
between these technologies and culture, 
will find this book useful.—Anders Selhorst, 
Guilford Technical Community College.

Lesley S. J. Farmer. Instructional Design 
for Librarians and Information Profes-
sionals. New York: Neal-Schuman, 
2011. 229p. alk. paper, $80.00 (ISBN 
9781555707361). LC 2011-31233.

Intended as a handbook for working 
librarians as well as a textbook for library 
and information science courses, this 
book aims to improve librarians’ instruc-
tion by making the planning process 
more systematic. Farmer follows Robert 
A. Reiser’s and John V. Dempsey’s 2007 
definition of instructional design as an 
iterative process that moves reflectively 
through the stages of analysis, design, 
development, implementation, and evalu-
ation. Early in the book, Farmer observes 
that the instructional design process has 
several characteristics that makes it well 
suited for the kinds of instruction engaged 
in by librarians. Instructional design is 
learner centered (for individual learners 
as well as groups); goal oriented (both 
learners and instructors know the goals); 
performance focused (learners are asked 
to demonstrate their new knowledge or 

skills); data driven (data is generated by 
both teachers and learners, throughout the 
process); and self-correcting (the instruc-
tor analyzes the data collected and makes 
adjustments to each step in the process). 

Farmer has strong credentials in in-
struction. Her PhD is in adult education, 
she has worked as a K–12 library media 
specialist and currently teaches in and 
coordinates the librarianship program at 
California State University, Long Beach. 
Her publications include more than 
twenty books and numerous articles. 
She received ALA’s Beta Phi Mu Award 
in 2011 for distinguished contributions to 
education in librarianship.

In each of the book’s nine chapters, 
Farmer’s exposition takes a broad view 
of instructional design, while her varied 
examples link the material to libraries. 
Chapter Two, “Instructional Design Over-
view,” illustrates this approach. Farmer 
introduces several instructional design 
models; each either is broad enough to 
apply to libraries or fits particular needs 
that libraries have. Within this survey of 
models, she provides a succinct, highly 
useful case study that illustrates the AD-
DIE (Analysis, Design, Development, 
Implementation, and Evaluation) model’s 
application to a school library setting. The 
case study’s steps are easily transferable to 
other types of libraries. She also introduces 
BLAAM (Blended Librarians Adapted AD-
DIE Model), which better fits the smaller 
scale of most instruction in academic 
libraries. Rapid Prototyping (discussed 
further in the chapter on design content 
decisions) is a technology design process 
that academic librarians might find use-
ful for designing online tutorials. Farmer 
suggests that, for efficiency, libraries adopt 
one model for all their instructional design.

Subsequent chapters (learners in in-
structional design; preplanning; design 
content decisions; instructional delivery; 
technology; instructional systems; and 
management issues) follow a common 
format. Farmer first identifies core fea-
tures and issues that must be considered 
for a given stage or aspect of instruction 

Index to advertisers
AIAA 212
Annual Reviews 211
Bowker/RCL 312
CHOICE Reviews Online 278
Digital Libr. Sys. Grp. cvr 4, 259,261
EBSCO 206
ISTE cover 2
Modern Language Assoc. cover 3
Peter Lang Publishing 232
Peterson Institute 205
Philosophy Documentation Ctr. 216
Society for Industrial &  

Applied Mathematics 208-209
Society for American Archivists 302