reviews


380  College & Research Libraries July 2000

 

Book Reviews 

Bowker, Geoffrey C., and Susan Leigh 
Star. Sorting Things Out: Classification 
and Its Consequences. Cambridge, Mass. 
and London, Eng.: MIT Pr., 1999. 377p. 
$29.95, alk. paper (ISBN 0-262-02461­
6). LC 99-26894. 

Written by two professors in the Depart­
ment of Communications at the Univer­
sity of California, San Diego, and issued 
as a volume in the MIT Press Inside Tech­
nology series, Sorting Things Out is a 
scholarly, well-documented discussion of 
classification and its ramifications. The 
tone of the work is set in “Introduction: 
To Classify is Human.” Classification, the 
authors declare, is a ubiquitous activity. 
Although the systems by which classifi­
cation is done are relatively invisible and 
the processes employed are often not con­
scious ones, the action itself pervades all 
aspects of our daily lives and carries con­
sequences.

 Classification occurs when one orga­
nizes work on his or her desk, deciding 
what must be given priority, what will 
wait until tomorrow, what does not re­
quire attention until next week, and so 
on. It is likewise done when dealing with 
e-mail. Headers are scanned. Some mes­
sages may be deleted unopened, others 
are read and given a quick response or 
perhaps no response, and still others are 
read but given no immediate reply be­
cause an answer requires thought and/ 
or information finding. Among the mes­
sages in the final group, some may ulti­
mately go unanswered and, again, clas­
sification will be the determining force.

 Chapter one discusses the analysis of 
classification. The remainder of the book 
is organized into four sections. Part I, 
“Classification and Large-Scale Infra­
structures,” comprises chapters two, 
three, and four, with the International 
Classification of Diseases (ICD) discussed 
as a concrete example. Chapter two deals 
with the ICD text, chapter three with the 

history of the ICD, and chapter 
four with its wide-ranging im­
pact. Part II, “Classification and 
Biography, or System and Suf­
fering,” comprises chapters five 
and six, which explore the in­
fluence of classification on hu­
man experience. Chapter five examines 
the classification systems used by victims 
of tuberculosis and their doctors in the 
1800s and early 1900s. And chapter six 
discusses the racial classification schemes 
employed in apartheid South Africa.

 Part III, “Classification and Work Prac­
tice,” comprises chapters seven and eight. 
The Nursing Interventions Classification 
(NIC) is studied as a classification system 
used in a specific kind of work, with cur­
rent practices and how they have changed 
from earlier times presented. Part IV, “The 
Theory and Practice of Classifications,” 
comprises chapters nine and ten and 
brings together many themes discussed 
earlier in the work. Chapter nine 
“examine[s] classification systems as his­
torical and political artifacts very much 
as part of modern Western bureaucracy.” 
In chapter ten, “Why Classifications Mat­
ter,” the authors emphasize that systems 
must be open to change. The text is fol­
lowed by an extensive bibliography of 
more than three hundred references, a 
name index, and a subject index. 

Although the primary audience for 
Sorting Things Out will be classification 
theoreticians, the work also will be of in­
terest to medical anthropologists, sociolo­
gists, and historians, as well as scholars 
with an interest in social stratification. The 
writers make reference to the eclectic con­
tent of the book in their statement: “We 
would hate to assign a Dewey classifica­
tion number to this book, which straddles 
sociology, anthropology, history and in­
formation systems, and design. Our mod­
est hope is that it will not find its way 
onto the fantasy shelves.” At the moder­

380 



Book Reviews 381 

ate cost of $29.95, Sorting Things Out is a 
bargain.—James Williams, University of Il-
linois at Urbana. 

Challenges Facing Higher Education at the 
Millennium. Ed. Werner Z. Hirsch and 
Luc E. Weber. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Pr. 
(American Council on Higher Educa-
tion/Oryx Press Series on Higher Edu­
cation), 1999. 199p. $29.95, alk. paper 
(ISBN 1-57356-293-9). LC 99-28204. 

This volume is a compilation of papers 
presented at a colloquium held at Glion, 
Switzerland, in May 1998. It is interest­
ing to note that not all the views ex­
pressed at the conference are represented 
here. In the preface, the editors observe 
that two points of view were in evidence: 
David Saxon, president emeritus of the 
University of California extolled the vir­
tues of stability and caution in plotting 
the future of the university, whereas 
“most” others took a more activist stance. 
The book comprises the latter only.

 Many familiar buzzwords anchor the 
discussions contained in the book’s sev­
enteen chapters: Contributors express 
concern about lifelong learning, produc­
ing educated citizens, and the effects of 
new technologies and globalization on 
institutions of higher learning. They 
worry about the deepening gap between 
research and teaching, consider the value 
of distance education, and look at the role 
of the student as consumer. Part 1, “Mis­
sions and Values,” includes a survey 
chapter followed by discussions of the 
university’s role in “meeting the chal­
lenges of the new millennium” and uni­
versities in “the new Europe.” Contribu­
tors to this section include volume editor 
Luc E. Weber, a professor of public eco­
nomics at the University of Geneva; 
David P. Gardner, a foundation president; 
and Paolo Blasi, rector of the University 
of Florence.

 In Part 2, “The Effect of the Changing 
Environment on Higher Education,” Uni­
versity of Michigan president emeritus 
James J. Duderstadt looks at the pluses 
and minuses of current trends affecting 
university life and offers two widely dif­

ferent possible scenarios for the future. 
Stanley O. Ikenberry, former president of 
the University of Illinois and current 
president of the American Council on 
Education, writes about “The University 
and the Information Age” in this section, 
and it is astonishing to note that he does 
not mention the word library once in his 
discussion of new computing and tele­
communication technologies. Indeed, 
libraries appear only three times in this 
volume: once in an offhand sentence sug­
gesting that libraries should share their 
resources, a second time in a discussion 
of the California Digital Library, and a 
third time in University of Geneva Pro­
fessor Dennis Tsichritzis’ chapter, “Re­
search and Education: New Roles, New 
Instrument.” Professor Tsichritzis ob­
serves that: 

First, book libraries will gradually 
be replaced by all-encompassing 
digital libraries available on the net­
works. Libraries will be there, but 
they will play a limited role as rare 
document collections. Most people 
will not need to consult the real 
thing. Second, students will have ac­
cess to too much information. 

One wonders just who Professor 
Tsichritzis imagines will help students 
make sense of all that information.

 Part 2 concludes with a chapter by busi­
nessman Harold M. Williams on the eco­
nomics of higher education in the United 
States and what other “developed coun­
tries” can learn from it. The affiliations of 
the authors mentioned so far is represen­
tative of the entire book—with one excep­
tion, they are men with either academic or 
corporate backgrounds. Without wanting 
to belabor the absence of library conscious­
ness in this volume (well, maybe I do), it 
seems appropriate to note the existence of 
a very fine, similar, earlier book, The Mod-
ern University: Its Present Status and Future 
Prospects (Chapel Hill, N.C.: Wm. Rand 
Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust, 1994). Intro­
duced by library educator Edward G. 
Holley, it also is a compilation of papers