reviews 376 College & Research Libraries July 2002 376 Book Reviews Hockey, Susan. Electronic Texts in the Hu- manities: Principles and Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Pr., 2000. 216p. $70, cloth (ISBN 0198711948); $19.95, paper (ISBN: 0198711956). I recently had a meeting with a freshly minted MLIS who had been hired to bring up a “digital library” for a local consor- tium of schools. Among the long list of tasks that comprised her agenda was a re- quest to mark up sets of transcribed docu- ments from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I asked her why they wanted them “marked up.” So they could be searched, she replied. Searched for what, I came back. That was not clear to her— nor, I suspect, to those who made the re- quest in the first place. I should have given her my copy of Susan Hockey’s impres- sive review of humanities computing. There, she would have received a detailed introduction to the history and practice of text encoding. Reading Hockey’s thick descriptions of various encoding practices and projects may have induced her into vertigo, but at least she would never again be naive about Hockey’s topic. Despite its subtitle, Hockey’s book is more of a conspectus of humanities com- puting projects since the later 1960s. Her- self an accomplished member of the tribe of encoders, Hockey has a sure grip on the field, its achievements, and its limitations. Her book, she asserts, fills a niche: “It ex- plains how computers can help research- ers and teachers in the humanities, par- ticularly those who work with text-based material.” It is resolutely NOT, she con- tinues, a book about the Web or the Internet, relative latecomers to the field of the electronic text. Although she is confi- dent that more and more projects will mi- grate to Web-based formats and that Web tools will improve to facilitate this process, her book focuses more on earlier, stand-alone projects than on recent ones. Thus, readers expecting an extended look at, say, the Rossetti or Blake elec- tronic archives at the University of Virginia will not find it in Hockey. On the other hand, she is superb in sketching out the theoretical and technical prehis- tory of contemporary examples. Text encoding is a relatively simple, straightforward process. It involves mark- ing or tagging words and/or phrases ac- cording to some descriptive convention such that the words will be recognizable and retrievable by a computer pro- grammed accordingly. That said, nothing else is simple or straightforward about electronic texts. What does one encode, and why? What text, texts, or corpus? Which words? How does one interpret the retrieved series? At every point in the encoding process, decisions are made and interpretations rendered. Far from being reifications of objectivity, Hockey reminds us, encoding projects are really layers of interpretation and judgment. Retrieving words and phrases may seem neat and clean, but on analysis they are anything but that. In fact, studies based on encoded texts have always been, in and of them- selves, quite problematic. Encoding par- ticipates in Heisenberg’s uncertainty prin- ciple: To study the object, you necessar- ily change the object. The encoded text has been invaded, violated. It has been preinterpreted. Hockey reviews many examples of this phenomenon as she tours us through the large concordance projects—the Bible, the Bard, dictionaries, et alii—and national corpus projects that have accounted for a substantial chunk of electronic text projects. She also examines major editing projects (e.g. Gabler’s Ulysses) and various attempts at stylometric analyses and attri- bution studies. Through each of these genres, Hockey proves to be both a sym- pathetic and a critical guide. She is sym- pathetic with the aspirations of the Book Reviews 377 projects, the nuances of encoding practices, and the discipline and rigor of the work. She is less happy with the results of these projects, the limitations of available tools, and the fact that many of the best data- bases are now legacy systems with uncer- tain futures. Most readers should find her an even-handed and judicious guide who is careful to stress that electronic texts and corpora represent but one approach to a variety of linguistic and stylistic issues and that they should always be used in con- junction with other tools and approaches. Moreover, she is frank about the labor-intensive nature of encoding: It is not an inexpensive textual tool by any means. And this makes it all the more crucial to be able to evaluate the benefits of text-en- coding projects in comparison with costs. I cannot resist sharing at this point my wish that the people who imposed EAD on us had as much foresight. But that is another conversation. As much as I learned from Hockey’s book, I thought it flawed in one respect. Readers coming to it without sufficient background in the subject will be put off and probably discouraged by its long passages on encoding practices. For Hockey, this sort of thing is probably sec- ond nature. For many readers, however, it may only confirm their worst suspicions of text encoding as an arcane, nerdish pastime, best avoided by serious schol- ars who know how to think, read, and write. If the book has a second wind, per- haps Professor Hockey could edit out the more tedious examples of encoding prac- tices from an otherwise admirable and commendable text.—Michael Ryan, Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. Urgo, Marisa. Developing Information Lead- ers: Harnessing the Talents of Generation X. London: Bowker-Saur (Information Services Management Series), 2000. 221p. $70 (ISBN 1857392531). Although numerous books and articles have been published about Generation X, this one is unique in that it relates the tal- ents of Generation X to the world of li- braries and information centers. This gen- eration should not be ignored: It brings new perspectives to the twenty-first-cen- tury workplace and will confront a whole new set of challenges as its numbers grow in the library profession. A Gen Xer her- self, Marisa Urgo is knowledge manager at the U. S. Office of Minority Health Re- source Center. One of her ongoing pro- fessional priorities includes researching and writing about the recruitment and re- tention of the next generation of informa- tion professionals. Her passion for this subject is apparent. Her writing style is clear and readable. Urgo begins by addressing the various definitions of Generation X; the Gen Xers’ reputation as slackers who care little about society or its future is soundly re- futed. On the contrary, Gen Xers bring innovative ideas concerning technology, communication, and library promotion to the working world. Throughout the book, Urgo stresses that although technology is influencing change in the library world, it will ultimately be people, especially Gen Xers, who will introduce and sustain the most meaningful changes. Gen Xers are prepared; they’ve grown up in a soci- ety characterized by constant change and welcome its challenges. Urgo explains that Generation X librar- ians have a different perspective on work than those from previous generations; they see their relationship with their em- ployers as being “an even exchange of expertise for pay and benefits.” If employ- ers are willing to invest in their Gen X employees, their employees will be will- ing to invest in them. Gen Xers desire a workplace that allows them flexibility, skills development, and the opportunity to be creative. Urgo outlines the ways in which managers can improve their rela- tionship with their Generation X employ- ees and, at the same time, improve their library or information center by taking advantage of the zeal and creativity that Gen Xers possess. 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