conducting meetings; job aids in template form for creatingthe agenda, plus/delta evaluation, outcome-based evaluation,meeting record and assignments, an assessment question-naire, task worksheet, decision process worksheet, and deci-sion record.

Use this concise Manual and you will know exactly whatyou accomplish in the multiplying hours you spend meetingwith your colleagues. Providing numerous desk copies formanagers and staff will reap tangible benefits for organiza-tions.Judith Adams-Volpe, Director, University andExternal Relations, 237 Lockwood Memorial Library,University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260-2200.

Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on aTheory in Progress, by Jack Mezirow and Associates. SanFrancisco, CA: JosseyBass, 2000. 371p. $38.95. ISBN0-7879-4845-4. LC 00-009158.

In the 20-some years since Jack Mezirow first developedthe concept of transformative learning, he and others havedone a great deal of work to expand and refine upon theconcept. This book, which grew out of the First NationalConference on Transformative Learning, continues that effortin 12 chapters that address both the practice and theory ofadult transformation.

Following a preface briefly describing the genesis of thetheory and this volume, Mezirow discusses the core con-cepts of transformative learning theory as it has evolved.The next four chapters by Robert Kegan, Mary FieldBelenky, Ann V. Stanton, Laurent A. Parks Daloz, and Ste-phen D. Brookfield discuss theoretical concerns such as howepistemologies, unequal relationships and social responsi-bility are formed and transformed and the relationship oftransformative learning to critical reflection.

The next five chapters are oriented toward the practice oftransformative learning, including the transformation of indi-viduals, groups, and organizations. Chapters by KathleenTaylor, Patricia Cranton, Judith Beth Cohen, and DeborahPiper cover actions that adult educators can take to fosterindividual transformation, such as using activities designedto lead students toward a deeper understanding which canthen lead to transformation or changing the environment toprovide an opportunity for a disorienting dilemma thatmay trigger transformation. Chapters by Elizabeth Kasl,Dean Elias, Lyle Yorks, and Victoria Marsick incorporatecase studies providing evidence for transformative learningin groups and larger organizations.

The penultimate chapter of the book is an analysis byEdward W. Taylor of empirical research on transformativelearning over the last 20 years and suggestions for futureresearch. Finally, Colleen Aalsburg Wiessner and Jack Mezi-row conclude by describing efforts to find commonground with theorists, researchers, and practitioners intransformative learning and related concepts. This chapterexplicitly discusses various critiques and criticisms of trans-formative learning theory and tries to categorize and harmo-nize disparate views. A name index to the authors cited inthe text, and a subject index complete the volume.

This book both sums up and advances the work of Mezi-row and is one of very few titles to gather a wide variety ofapproaches to transformative learning in one volume. Al-

though the tone of the work is academic, the use of casestudies and other concrete examples make it accessible to anon-academic audience. It would also be of interest to prac-titioners in other fields, such as philosophy, psychology, andsocial work, in addition to practitioners and students of adulteducation, and is therefore a highly desirable purchase for alllibraries.Cheryl R. Sturko Grossman, Assistant for UserServices and Processing, ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult,Career and Vocational Education, Center on Educationand Training for Employment, The Ohio State Univer-sity, 1900 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210.

Risk Management of Digital Information: A File FormatInvestigation, by Gregory W. Lawrence, William R. Kehoe,Oya Y. Rieger, William H. Walters, and Anne R. Kenney.Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Re-sources, 2000. 75p. $20.00. ISBN 1-887334-78-5.

This volume is a very practical guide to assessing therisks associated with the migration of various formats and tomaking wise preservation decisions on the basis of assess-ment. Preservation of information in all formats is increas-ingly an emphasis of libraries and a variety of organizationsaround the globe that must preserve their resources and al-low for ongoing use. It is best to concur with the authors,that digital preservation will evolve into a distributed sys-tem that will likely share the following characteristics: Itwill be hierarchical, with small, specialized organizationsinteracting with large national coordinating organizations;preservation guidelines will flow from the top down, materi-als for preservation will flow from the bottom up and thatdata processing and filtering will occur at all levels.

The Council on Library & Information Resources (CLIR)that sponsored and published this product is composed of theprofessional leaders demonstrating solutions to these dilem-mas. Digital information and content, however, widespreadand increasingly useful to user populations, offer challengesto those responsible for maintaining such information inlight of the fast turnover in both hardware systems and soft-ware applications. The life span of digital information short-ens with each new release of the data, as well as with eachupgrade and new development in the technology. Digitalarchiving, once the domain of this scenario, faces constantobsolescence and the standards are difficult to define be-cause of change and new capabilities. New practices in digi-tal archiving that appear to have enormous potential for thelibrary and research communities includes emulation, inwhich software is designed to mimic an obsolete system andmigration, in which digital materials are periodically trans-ferred from one generation of computer technology to a sub-sequent generation (p. 2). One learns all about this by read-ing this important volume.

CLIR contracted with Cornell University Library to ex-plore fully the risk assessment of migrating common fileformats and learn why migration remains to be prone to gen-erating errors and what can be done to improve that case.The approach that Cornell staff followed and the tools tomitigate the risk underlie the value of this volume and con-tribute to making it such a rich resource for preservationplanning.

Preservationists are well aware of how uncertain migra-

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