special collections 2.0: new technologies for rare books

The Successful Library Trustee Handbook, by Mary Y. Moore. 2nd

edition. Chicago: American Library Association, 2010. 110p. $45.00.ISBN978-0-8389-1003-0.

This small practical volume from the American Library Associ-ation serves as one of the very few hands-on guides to the world ofthe library trustee. Penned by Mary Y. Moore, an independentlibrary consultant with over 40 years of professional librarian expe-rience and with extensive service on public library boards, the bookdeals with just about everything that one needs to know aboutbecoming a smart and effective public library trustee.

Chapters are painstaking thorough and refreshingly succinct. Theauthor includes discussions of strategic planning and key trusteerelationships. She also devotes special attention to the question ofadvocacy (an area where she thinks boards have performed dismally),just as she places primary importance on effectively evaluatingeverything (and I mean everything)—the library, its service, itsdirector, and the board itself. In her discussions of evaluation,Moore has some especially derisive words for libraries which seemto care little about the people who use them. Such libraries lack whatshe calls “customer service.” She recounts one particularly alienatingexperience in a county library with a huge collection and excellentdelivery system but where library personnel had no time for thosewho actually use the library. “No one looked me in the eye, no onesmiled at me, and no one seemed to care whether I found what Ineeded or not.” She adds, “Customer service in that library was non-existent.” (p. 23).

Following up on her concern about evaluation, the author addsa chapter surrounding the hiring and firing of directors and thepossible resulting legal ramifications, and she has a chapter ontrustee networking and assistance. Indeed from policy developmentto budgets and fund-raising, from strategies for running an effectivemeeting to the questionable future direction of public libraries, TheSuccessful Library Trustee Handbook attempts to provide a thorough-going analysis of the multiple challenges a library's trustee can face.In the process it reads like a Rick Steves European city guide—mercifully less detailed but with helpful checklists and handy what-have-you-learned questions at the end of each of the book's elevenchapters.

Yet even in light of this seeming exhaustiveness, the authordoes leave some questions unasked and some issues untouched—but only a few. For instance, should a public library take steps tounionize its employees or take action to weaken an earliercollective bargaining arrangement? Or what actions should aboard take if the library's policies actually violate “The Library Billof Rights” or the ALA's “Freedom to Read” statement, and what shallwe say about the nation's homeless and underprivileged? Are wedoing enough to serve this vital constituency, or are we alreadydoing too much?

Of course, no book can tackle every question a trustee couldencounter, and none of these seeming omissions should distract fromthe book's overwhelming usefulness. For a practical guide to theexacting life of library board trusteeship, The Successful LibraryTrustee Handbook may just be the very best thing going. Insightful,succinct, and carefully organized, the volume tells you everythingyou need to know about becoming a successful library trustee and afew things you may not want to know. No experienced librarytrustee should forgo buying a copy, and no novice board membershould leave home without it. Strongly recommended.—SteveMcKenzie, Library Director, Corriher-Linn-Black Library, CatawbaCollege, Salisbury, NC 28144, USA bsmckinzi@catawba.eduN.

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2010.01.016

178 The Journal of Academic Librarianship

Special Collections 2.0: New Technologies for Rare Books, Manu-scripts, and Archival Collections, by Beth M. Whittaker & Lynne M.Thomas. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2009. 150 p. $45.00.ISBN 978-1-59158-720-0.

Special Collections 2.0: New Technologies for Rare Books, Manu-scripts, and Archival Collections offers essential advice and practicalideas for creating, collecting, and preserving digitized and born-digitalmaterials for optimal long-term access and user engagement. Beth M.Whittaker, associate professor and head of Special CollectionsCataloging, Ohio State University, and Lynne M. Thomas, assistantprofessor and head of Rare Books and Special Collections, NorthernIllinois University, examine the use of Web 2.0 applications, such aswikis, blogs, media sharing sites, and social networks, to promote theconverging missions of libraries, archives, and museums.

After surveying 313 cultural heritage professionals, the authorsfound that many in the field have discovered ways in which Web 2.0continues, promotes, and augments their organizational missions.However, some respondents were torn between new initiatives andtraditional special collections work, believing that Web 2.0 engage-ment would distract them from collecting and preserving records ofenduring value. Whittaker and Thomas advocate that “careful invest-ments in time and technology” and “judicious, targeted use” ofWeb 2.0applications enhances collections and reaches new users (p. xv).Applying the concept of the long tail, in which the collective demandfor recherché material exceeds all of the most popular added together,the authors believe that special collections form the ultimate long tail,creating community-based collaborative resources based on the nicheknowledge of enthusiastic participants to promote hidden collections.

Collaboration and access are the biggest benefits of Web 2.0. Theauthors state, “the use of toolswith low entry barriersmight prove oneway in which special collections libraries, archives, and museums cancollaborate virtually,with relatively low risk and the potential for greatreward” (p. xiv). Multi-institutional wikis build wholes greater thanthe sum of their parts, uniting the knowledge of patrons, donors,scholars, and professionals. Internal wikis capture institutionalmemory and collection-specific knowledge, track projects, aid withcommittee work, and maintain records for collection development.Access and outreach are enriched by new descriptive models, inter-faces, and applications for describing and discovering resources andtheir impact on library catalogs, archival finding aids, and databases.Additionally, strategic employment of media sharing sites such asYouTube and Flickr can be used for promotion, collection building,description, and access.

Sustainability, preservation, and copyright are ongoing concerns ofspecial collections 2.0, which “emphasizes the continuing relationshipbetween the digital and the analog, despite our culture's best efforts toseparate them” (p. xx). The authors devote a chapter and an appendixto the burgeoning research on the preservation of static and dynamicdigital assets. The book also includes an index and an appendix withthe survey instrument.

Special Collections 2.0: New Technologies for Rare Books, Manuscripts,and Archival Collections assesses new online options for interconnec-tivity and interactivity between creators, custodians, and researchersof documentary evidence. Although much of its contents has beencovered in otherWeb 2.0 resources, its emphasis on special collectionsprofessionals in libraries, archives, andmuseums—especially reluctantusers of these new applications—makes it a recommended read forthose employed in the cultural heritage sector.—Margot Note, Infor-mationManager andArchivist,WorldMonumentsFund,95MadisonAvenue, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10016, USA bmnote@wmf.orgN.

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2010.01.017