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Book Reviews

Curriculum Materials Collections and 
Centers: Legacies from the Past, Vi-
sions of the Future. Ed. Rita Kohrman. 
Chicago: American Library Associa-
tion, 2012. 265p. alk. paper, $48 (ISBN 
9780838986028). LC 2011-45087.

It would be hard to imagine a better 
book on the past, present, and future of 
Curriculum Materials Centers (CMCs) 
than this timely collection of articles by 
authors from thriving centers through-
out the country. Rita Kohrman of Grand 
Valley State University and Suzan A. 
Alteri of Wayne State University provide 
illuminating histories of the develop-
ment of curriculum laboratories at 
normal schools (vocational schools for 
teacher preparation) and subsequent 
changes in higher education that led to a 
devaluation of practical teacher training 
and hence the closing of many CMCs. 
Alteri maintains, however, that CMCs 
are more important than ever in the cur-
rent K–12 climate, which calls for greater 
use of technology and accountability for 
student learning. 

The book contains a series of articles 
that could function as a handbook and 
guide for librarians who manage cur-
riculum collections or centers. These 
articles outline the basics of collections 
and functions such as the role of children’s 
literature, textbook collecting, library in-
struction, budgets, staffing, mission state-
ments, and outreach. The authors share 
their experiences integrating e-books and 
the Internet into the CMC; collaborating 
with school of education faculty, local 
schools, and community groups; and 
justifying the existence of the center to 
the parent institution. These themes will 
sound familiar to all academic librarians. 
But, as laboratories and resource centers 
for teachers, curriculum centers have as 
much in common with public and school 
libraries as they have with the traditional 
scholarly academic library.

The future of Curriculum 
Materials Centers should be 
bright. As Shonda Brisco of 
Oklahoma State University 
proposes, CMC librarians 
with classroom experience 
can create model school li-
braries that provide preservice teachers 
with the technological expertise needed 
today. Jo Ann Carr of the University of 
Wisconsin-Madison also maintains that 
national trends in teacher education indi-
cate that CMCs can serve as “educational 
technology resource centers.” They must 
provide access to materials but also cre-
ate them by adapting to the “new role of 
the teacher as an instructional guide and 
leader for the digital age.” Kathy Yoder 
of Bowling Green State University and 
Linda Scott of the University of Mount 
Union offer a reminder that students and 
teachers also appreciate the human touch 
that CMCs can offer. 

Yes, the future of CMCs should be 
bright, and this book might help to make 
it so. But will it be read by the library 
school faculty and administrators who 
need to be preparing specialists for this 
kind of work? Will it be read by the 
faculty and administrators of schools 
of education who need to be promoting 
centers and integrating them into the 
curriculum? Will it be read by the library 
and university administrators respon-
sible for funding? By school librarians, 
teachers, and principals? School board 
members, parents, and politicians? All 
of these groups are dedicated to improv-
ing education in America’s schools, but 
they are sadly isolated from each other. 
Without a better understanding of each 
other ’s needs and the ability to work 
together toward a common goal, these 
disparate groups may remain vulnerable 
and unable to realize the potential that 
each knows exists.—Jean M. Alexander, 
Carnegie Mellon University.