small, disadvantaged, and women-owned businesses seeking federal, state and privatecontracts.

Martha Jo SaniReference Librarian Emerita

University of Colorado, BoulderWm. M. White Business Library

419 CBBoulder, CO 80309-0149

E-mail address: Martha.Sani@Colorado.edu

doi:10.1016/S0740-624X(03)00028-5

Notes

1. http://www.fedbizopps.gov.2. 66 Fed. Reg. 27407, May 16, 2001.3. http://cbdnet.access.pgo.gov.4. Contract Bundling; a Strategy for Increasing Federal Contracting Opportunities for Small Business. Wash-

ington, DC: U.S. Office of Federal Procurement Policy, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Officeof the President, October 2002. Available at: http://www.arnet.gov/ACQNET/textindex.htm/ (date accessed:December 3, 2002).

5. Shane, Harris, “Business Solutions Awards: Online business intelligence,” Government Executive 34 (12:Special Annual Issue, August 2002): 21-22.

6. http://www.arnet.gov/AcqNet.7. http://www.fpdc.gov.8. http://pro-net.sba.gov/.

Global Information Infrastructure: The Birth, Vision and Architecture.Andrew S. Targowski, Harrisburg, PA: Idea Group Publishing, 1996. 456 pp. $64.95.ISBN: 1-878289-32-2.

This title was one of four books released in 1996 as a part of the “Series in GlobalInformation Technology Management” monographs issued by Idea Group Publishing. Writ-ten by Andrew S. Targowski, founding chair and Project Director of the TeleCity Project, anElectronic Global Village Project in Kalamazoo, MI and formerly the head of the PolishComputer Development Program (1971-1974) and the inventor/architect of the Polish Na-tional Information Infrastructure prior to defecting to the United States and receivingpolitical asylum here, Global Information Infrastructure: The Birth, Vision and Architectureis a comprehensive outline of the development of information systems designed by and forgovernment entities internationally.

The book is organized into three sections: 1) national information infrastructure; 2)enterprise information infrastructures; and 3) local information infrastructure. These sectionsprovide a thorough, though sometimes quite basic, summary of each of these areas. The first

203Book reviews / Government Information Quarterly 20 (2003) 193–212

area includes chapters on information utility, covering standards, protocols, message signal-ing, user and switching networks; telematic services, outlining several areas in more detail,including e-commerce financial services applications, telemedicine and electronic commu-nications systems such as e-mail, bulletin boards, EDI and networks; electronic money,presenting discussion of EFT and other financial applications; and electronic knowledge,which includes material on literacy, democracy and libraries, and information issues forglobal policy. This section provides general, historic material outlining changes in theseareas and it is a good compilation on those areas, yet reading like a textbook while it couldbe of interest to a wider group of readers. It points to many developments which were tobecome more widely known and utilized in the future and that futuristic tone is now a littleproblematic, but the summaries of each of these areas are competent and still of some use,primarily for readers newer to the fields of information science and international develop-ment and policy.

The second section on enterprise infrastructures continues to provide more general andhistoric material presenting developments in this aspect of information systems, but includesquite a bit more case material, drawing in particular from Targowski’s experiences in bothMichigan and Poland. He includes chapters on virtual business; on-line government, on boththe state and federal levels; and virtual schools and universities, providing both an overviewof distance learning, emerging technologies for education and global educational policydevelopments and more discussion of some of the strategic considerations of employinginfrastructures in democratic societies.

The final section on local structures includes a single, lengthy chapter on the TeleCityproject in Kalamazoo, MI where he covers the history, organization and operation of thismodel electronic village project in a good amount of detail. This case study should be of useto many readers who seek a more comprehensive look at the particular considerations thismedium-sized Midwestern city faced when they took on a review of their informationresources and systems, the implementation of which originated conceptually as a part ofLyndon Johnson’s Great Society of the 1960s, including policy analysts, legislators, admin-istrators, educators, students of government, public policy, economics, sociology and inter-national development. It may also be of some appeal to business development staff with aninterest in interfaces with municipal and other governmental systems as it begins discussionsof telework/telecommuting, Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) and infostrada for cable,wire, option, microwave, wireless and other forms of electronic communication systems. Heincludes a good number of charts and diagrams outlining Kalamazoo, MI’s investments inthese areas.

His coverage is to some degree, though competently outlined, predictable. His emphasisis on infrastructures that enhance democratic efforts and organizational forms and his focusis also on the technological and educational components of these systems, with less consid-eration of their use by corporate and business entities. The title of the book is ambitious andTargowski accomplishes much of what he sets out to do; his presentation of the Kalamazoocase study is particularly well-done and detailed.

He only briefly notes, however, consideration of the interface of users of informationsystems issued by governments who employ different political and economic perspectives.The extent of the complexities of global considerations of the development and use of these

204 Book reviews / Government Information Quarterly 20 (2003) 193–212

information infrastructures could be discussed in more detail and though there are of coursedisclosure issues to note, Targowski, given his background as key and early planner ofinformation systems in Eastern Europe and now in the U.S., clearly has the expertise to offerthis kind of depth. He touches from time to time on developments in other countries, Polandin particular, but he neither provides even enough examples from these areas nor moresomewhat lengthier, strategic discussion of the issues involved with the organization of infra-structures. The work would clearly have benefited from more inclusion of this material inparticular. The addition of more of some of these perspectives would then have provided thecoverage of the breadth of issues involved with global infrastructures that his title points to.

Sarah HolmesWilliam M. White Business Library

University of ColoradoCampus Box 419

Boulder, Colorado 80309E-mail address: martha.sani@colorado.edu

doi:10.1016/S0740-624X(03)00029-7

Measuring the Value of Information Technology.Han van der Zee, Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing, 2002, $74.95, 213 pp.,ISBN: 1-930708-08-4.

Depository libraries today are thrust into increasingly complex technologies as we respondto the diverse information formats utilized by various government agencies, and make themaccessible to our communities. As the government in general, and libraries in particular, turnto new technologies to offer services to the public, it would be beneficial to have guidelinesthat measure how well these technologies meet our needs and those of our patrons. WhileVan der Zee presents an admirable exploration of information technology measurement,most librarians will not find this book to meet their needs.

Librarians will not fail to recognize the dilemma Van der Zee identifies as a primarydifficulty in measuring IT: that information technologies have infiltrated so many areas ofday-to-day business that it is hard to isolate specific IT costs and apply them to respectiveIT benefits. Nor will librarians fail to see the viability of his proposed solution to thisproblem: to look at IT costs and benefits from a variety of angles and perspectives, and thento use these separate measures collectively in order to assess the whole. The problem lies inthe fact that this book is written for upper management, IT specialists, and IT scholars. Itassumes a working understanding of management and IT terminologies. Another issuelibrary readers will face is that while Van der Zee recognizes that financial measures are byno means the only way to assess the value of information technologies, the overall tone ofthe work does assume that the organizations concerned are for-profit corporate entities.

Van der Zee has created a broad framework that MIS specialists can use to build an

205Book reviews / Government Information Quarterly 20 (2003) 193–212