418 College & Research Libraries July 2013

of these user tasks in actual usage; this, in 
itself, should be a call for libraries to ask 
more of their library management systems 
and, possibly, of their own systems staff, 
to expose more useful data to the patron.

Chapter 6 is specifically about RDA au-
thority records, and how they are created 
according to the principles of FRAD. After 
a brief introduction to RDA and how it 
relates to FRAD, Jin provides 18 examples 
of brief RDA authority records, each with 
an explanation of how they use the FRAD 
concepts to describe and clarify entities 
and their relationships to other entities: 
while the structure of an RDA authority 
record is, at root, similar to that of an 
AACR2 authority record, RDA (and the 
FRAD structure) allows for greater levels 
of description and for clearer delineation 
of the relationships between concepts. 
This chapter is followed by an appendix 
mapping FRAD attributes and relation-
ships to the corresponding RDA element, 
in an easily navigated table.

In the buildup to the adoption of RDA, 
much of the focus has been on the con-
struction of the descriptive bibliographic 
record. Demystifying FRAD is the first book 
to provide an explanation of and instruc-
tions for the creation of authority data, and 
it is well worth the wait: with the use of this 
book, the reader will both understand the 
principles behind the creation of authority 
records in general and according to the 
FRAD model, and also be able to create his 
or her own. Given that this book reaches 
the market just as RDA is being widely put 
into practice, Demystifying FRAD is both 
timely and valuable.—Deborah DeGeorge, 
University of Michigan.

W. Bernard Lukenbill. Research in Infor-
mation Studies: A Cultural and Social Ap-
proach. Bloomington, Ind.: Xlibris, 2012. 
422p. $23.99 (ISBN9781469179599). LC 
2012-934936. 

“Research is integrated into the whole 
fabric of modern-day society,” begins 
Lukenbill in writing Research in Information 
Studies; the second and equally important 
foundation for his writing is that intel-

lectual theory is central to the heart of all 
kinds of research, including library and 
information science. Lukenbill, professor 
emeritus at the University of Texas at Aus-
tin, offers an interesting and useful over-
view of the theoretical grounding common 
to many fields of research, especially in the 
humanities and social sciences, though 
the intended audience is librarians and 
information science professionals on vari-
ous levels. The author’s approach covers 
an extremely wide variety of disciplines, 
with strong examples from fields such as 
nursing and education; the emphasis for 
the reader is in every case the integration 
of theory, research, and eventually the 
practice that we all perform. 

Each chapter boasts of a clear organiza-
tion, beginning with concise outlines of the 
chapter objectives that are well integrated 
into the chapter text. Each chapter ends 
with discussion questions, highlights for 
reflection on the main points, and often 
annotated bibliographies to support the 
chapter materials (a good resource). The 
first chapter offers an introduction and 
overview of the scientific research process 
as an objective search for knowledge. 
Research is viewed as multidisciplinary, 
completely integrated with theoretical con-
cepts, and completely a part of human life; 
this chapter includes a nuanced parsing of 
theory and research in a broad variety of 
“research traditions.” The second chapter 
moves from the interdisciplinary nature of 
research into somewhat closer snapshots 
of several humanities and social science 
disciplines, with quick and simplistic over-
views and case studies of how intellectual 
theory has impacted the advancement of 
communication, history, medicine, and 
others—always with an eye toward their 
potential impact on information science. 
The third chapter offers an extension of 
these brief portraits into specifics of how 
theories are built into the processes of li-
brary and information science; it includes 
a brief history of information research from 
early social science through pioneers in 
cataloging to OCLC, and then a discussion 
of current trends in the field. 



Book Reviews 419

The next group of chapters drills down 
into more specific examples of the interac-
tion of research, theory, and practice in the 
social sciences (always with an eye toward 
information studies). Chapter 4 gives the 
author’s more complete definition of the 
intellectual content of a “theory,” with 
quick examples from historical figures 
who constructed theories in behavioral 
science, education, and cognitive studies; 
in each case—following the book’s main 
thread—moving from an individual think-
er to his/her research to his/her theory, and 
then to the impact on library and informa-
tion science. The annotated bibliography 
here is almost haphazard, but very strong. 
The following chapter takes the same ap-
proach to pioneers in library science, with 
a correspondingly powerful annotated 
bibliography. The brief sixth chapter gives 
an overview of common LIS research 
processes (though without mention of 
statistical sampling), and the seventh gives 
a similarly brief overview of a variety of 
data-collection techniques in information 
science and other social sciences. Once 
again in chapter 7, the annotations in the 
bibliography are especially careful to note 
the particular theories involved in a selec-
tion of research studies, including how the 
theory impacts the research results and 
impact. The very readable eighth chapter is 
intended to allow librarians and informa-
tion professionals to understand the differ-
ence between qualitative and quantitative 
data in research studies. It includes a very 
basic introduction into how statistics work; 
this chapter goes beyond the case studies 
common to most of the book to close with 
practical though simple practice exercises 
in statistical analysis. 

The final sections of the book may be 
the strongest. The author offers a compe-
tent and clearly chiseled account of the 
principal ethical considerations in library 
science research—informed consent, insti-
tutional review board (IRB) oversight of 
both human and animal research, plagia-
rism, and copyright. There follows a quick 
introduction in the final chapter to differ-
ent kinds of research literature and critical 

thinking approaches to them, including 
an interesting evaluation of Wikipedia in 
research. The appendices, for some read-
ers of the book, may be the most valuable 
parts: a concise addendum outlining the 
process and structure of research grant 
writing, and an extensive bibliography 
for the multidisciplinary research pro-
cess. As a final nod to Lukenbill’s basic 
foundation, there is a separate index for 
social theorists and theoretical concepts. 

The cultural and social approach in 
Lukenbill’s title is quite apt overall. His 
text shows a strong but very well-justified 
bias toward making all of library science 
research richer. His case is that the inte-
gration of theory, and theory informed by 
a variety of other human and social disci-
plines, can only strengthen how we view 
both our research and our practice. One 
serious flaw in the book: it unfortunately 
suffers from poor editing. “Anthropol-
ogy” and “Anthology” are equated in 
adjacent paragraphs, and the errors even 
reach to the misspelling of, for instance, 
the name of Melvil Dewey. Nonetheless, 
Research in Information Studies remains a 
resource for consumers of information sci-
ence research, for thinkers about research 
in the field, and (perhaps centrally) begin-
ning students—several of the author ’s 
stated audiences.—Timothy J. Dickey, 
Independent Scholar, Columbus, Ohio.

Andrew Walsh. Using Mobile Technology 
to Deliver Library Services. Lanham, 
Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2012. 134 p. 
$80.00 (ISBN 9781856048095). LC 
2012-493968. 

The Pew Research Center ’s Internet & 
American Life Project estimates that 87 
percent of adults have a mobile phone, 
and 45 percent have a smartphone; teens, 
78 percent and 37 percent respectively. 
These figures confirm what no one doubts: 
the mobile phone is a mature technol-
ogy, and smartphone use is growing at 
an astonishing clip. In December, Pew 
revealed that 13 percent of all cell phone 
owners had accessed a library website on 
their devices, a two-fold increase since