400 College & Research Libraries March 2017

to create and maintain digital content? Purcell takes it upon himself to convince us 
that, yes, there is a way forward. Librarians and archivists, he writes, “have assumed 
responsibility for managing, preserving, and providing ongoing access to a range of 
digital content.” Though the history of library digital projects is only a few decades 
old, it lays a great deal of responsibility on librarians and archivists to continue this 
work. Purcell asks us to brace ourselves for the next stages and aims to give us the 
tools to succeed.

Though largely focused on practical project planning documentation and the fun-
damentals of mission statements, collection development, fundraising, and vendor 
relations, Purcell still inspires parts two and three with the big questions, like “How 
will my digitization project make the world a better place?” This is followed soon 
after by, “How do I convince others in my institution that a vision is worth creating 
and following?” These questions are not for the faint-hearted, and the rows of blank 
lines that follow call on us, oraclelike, to answer with informed, professional pride 
and technological know-how. Thankfully, Purcell’s clearheaded text leaves us with the 
tools, and the temptation, to rise to the challenge.—Rebekah Irwin, Middlebury College

Databrarianship: The Academic Data Librarian in Theory and Practice. Eds. Lynda 
Kellam and Kristi Thompson for the Association of College and Research Libraries. 
Chicago: American Library Association, 2016. 378p. $68 (ISBN: 978-083898799-5). 

This edited collection on “databrarianship” skillfully explores how academic librar-
ians are addressing the wide-ranging qualitative and quantitative data needs of 
learners and researchers. The volume is edited and organized by Lynda Kellam, Data 
Services Librarian at North Carolina’s Greensboro University Libraries, and Kristi 
Thompson, Data and Systems Management Librarian at the University of Windsor. 
The 22 chapters are written by 35 academic librarians and offer readers a diversity of 
theories and practices on supporting the fast-growing and wide-ranging data needs 
of both students and faculty. This scholarly publication features detailed appendices, 
biographies of the contributors, and comprehensively documented resources that add 
great informational value to the text. The collection is a welcome addition to the grow-
ing body of works that focus on the services, systems, and skills required to support 
the diverse data needs of today’s learners and researchers. The book is written for all 
academic librarians who support a wide range of data resources for research or who 
are interested in learning more on this topic.

The essays are divided into four parts: Part I, Data Support and Services for Researchers; 
Part II, Data in the Disciplines; Part III, Data Preservation and Access; and Part IV, Data: 
Past, Present and Future. The groupings of the essays represent current themes and 
trends in academic librarianship that focus on how libraries are supporting, creating 
services, and providing solutions for the expanding data needs within their respective 
institutions. The last section provides a limited international view of data librarian-
ship, with essays from librarians in Canada and the United Kingdom. The writing is 
fairly even across the sections, and most chapters are clear and concise. The collection 
focuses mainly on data used and created within the Social Sciences discipline. However, 
some chapters include works that address data needs and usage across the Natural 
and Environmental Sciences disciplines, which are major consumers and creators of 
quantitative and qualitative data.

In Part I, Data Support and Services for Researchers, there are eight chapters that are 
devoted to different models, approaches, and theories on supporting the data needs 
of learners and researchers. This section contains a very robust set of essays from the 
contributors, and each one provides a unique roadmap for developing and support-
ing data services in the library. The chapters on Teaching Foundational Data Skills in the 

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Book Reviews 401

Library and Technical Skills for Reproducible Research are particularly well developed and 
provide a wealth of information for librarians who are instructing learners who are 
new to evaluating and working with datasets. 

Part II, Data in the Disciplines, focuses on data-related practices within the disciplines 
and how academic librarians are supporting discipline-specific data needs. The theme 
of this section itself is very interesting, as are the essays within; however, it would be 
even more appealing with a robust section on data and the digital humanities. Prac-
titioners supporting multiple data needs across disciplines will benefit from reading 
these chapters. Further collections exploring this topic would be welcome due to the 
diversity of data, instruction, and management needs across disciplines and within 
multidisciplinary projects. 

In Part III, Data Preservation and Access, the focus is on data management, archiving, 
and access practices. All six chapters are very robust in detail. The chapter on Exploring 
Disciplinary Metadata and Documentation Practices to Strengthen Data Archiving Services 
contains important resources that can be used when creating a discovery roadmap 
for datasets created within the institution. Additionally, the chapter on data-sharing 
policies addresses a very relevant and important topic of how to share data across 
institutions and how publishers and journals are exposing and sharing data. Data 
sharing and transparency are linked to the lively discussion surrounding data access 
and ownership. These topics have taken front and center stage with the growing open 
data movement, in addition to the swelling ranks of academic publishers who are 
publishing datasets to accompany articles. 

Part IV, Data: Past, Present and Future, features four chapters. The first two chapters 
provide readers with insights into the work of data librarians in Canada and the United 
Kingdom. The third and fourth chapters focus on what it’s like to be a data librarian 
and provides a review of a course taught on data librarianship at the University of 
Toronto’s iSchool. The first two chapters are relevant and interesting, as data librarians 
in the United Kingdom are very active on numerous fronts, especially in regard to data 
management plans and planning. The final chapters are comprehensive roadmaps that 
can help data librarians assess their skillsets and discover topics and technologies that 
they may want to explore in the future.

Databrarianship: The Academic Data Librarian in Theory and Practice is an essential read 
for anyone interested in or supporting data services and solutions in an academic library. 
This work complements titles such as Data Management for Libraries: A LITA Guide and 
Research and Data Management: Practical Strategies for Information Professional. With the 
role of librarians in this data-driven world rapidly evolving and expanding, this timely 
collection of essays will be well received by those who are new to data librarianships, 
as well as by seasoned data practitioners.—Kara Kugelmeyer, Colby College

Sheri V.T. Ross and Sarah W. Sutton. Guide to Electronic Resource Management. Santa 
Barbara, Calif.: Libraries Unlimited, 2016. 159p. Paper, $55 (ISBN 978-1-4408-3958-
0). LC 2015037581.

The complex fluidity and plain messiness of electronic resources management op-
erations are extraordinary. The task of abstracting into a single text the foundational 
knowledge necessary to inform the library science student on this field of practice 
therefore presents extraordinary challenges. The textbook Guide to Electronic Resource 
Management is coauthors Sheri V.T. Ross and Sarah Sutton’s effort to provide library 
science students with a background and overview of the endeavor. This survey is en-
riched by deeper discussion of those rare-but-critical functions and responsibilities of 
which library science students should become aware and which the aspiring electronic 
resources librarian will need to master on the way to expertise.

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