book is a wonderful management handbook for any informationprofessional interested in organizing a successful digitization projectfor their institution's collections. The authors provide insightful advicefor both in-house as well as outsourced digitization endeavors in anunbiased and positive manner. As Bülow and Ahmon note, this textfocuses primarily on the preservation aspect of digitizing collections,but can also be utilized as a general outline for conducting a successfuldigitization project with maximum results.—Asheleigh A. Perry,Catalog Librarian, U.S. Census Bureau Library, Suitland, MD 20746,USA basheleigh.a.perry@census.govN.

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2011.06.010

The Information and Knowledge Professional's Career Handbook:Define and Create Your Success, by Ulla de Stricker and Jill Hurst-Wahl. Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2011. 283 pp. $80.00. ISBN 978-1-84334-608-1.

There are few books currently on themarket that speak specificallyto the career aspirations of information and knowledge specialists.Anecdotal evidence suggests that many people in the field are lookingfor careers outside traditional library settings, so this is a timely andhelpful guide for new or experienced professionals who are con-sidering staying in libraries or making a jump to other opportunities,such as consulting.

What is an information and knowledge professional? We areknown as librarians (academic, special, school, public), curators,information technologists, knowledge experts, etc., but what is it thatwe actually do? The authors refer to this as an “opaque profession.”They suggest that as information professionals we need to define and“brand” ourselves, in language that is understandable to our currentand future employers and customers. For example, if we see ourprimary role as gatherers and disseminators of certain kinds ofinformation, then we can build our brand and services around thatdefinition. Of course, we must re-evaluate and adjust our brand as wemove along in our careers.

In Chapter 4, the authors discuss the importance of developing andmaintaining a professional image, including attire, attitude, correctgrammar, and an updated resume. They say it's not a good idea tocome to a job interview exposing tattoos, piercings, and wild hairstyles, but if the organization is fine with it, you can show off your stuffafter you get the job. The authors also stress having a current resumeand cover letter specifically tailored to the job one is applying for. Thisis critical in a very competitive job market.

The authors also stress the power of networking and how it canhappen anytime, anywhere. Being open to meeting new peoplethrough conference attendance, volunteer opportunities, or othergathering places is especially important for those looking for newcareer opportunities. Chapter 5 covers job hunting “tips and tricks” indetail (Have those business cards handy!).

Even for professionals who've been in the workplace for a while,navigating office politics and dealing with diverse personalities is achallenge. Learning a new corporate culture, whether as an employeeor consultant, takes time. The authors cover this issue very thoroughlyin Chapter 8. Knowing how to work with a corporate culture alsohelps in planning when advocating a new concept or change in theorganization. Chapter 9 deals with how to come up with winningproposals that are detailed and show how success can be achieved in abusinesslike manner.

Chapter 14 highlights interviews with information professionalsand how they achieved success in their careers. The interviewees offer

up lots of good advice to anyone, new or experienced, about careerplanning. The book also covers how to negotiate for an appropriatesalary, act as a boss, and serve as a mentor.

This guide is an excellent resource and is applicable to otherprofessions. The only drawback is the price, which may be a deterrentto someone who really needs this book.—Alexandra Simons, M.D.Anderson Library, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-2000,USA bacsimons@uh.eduN.

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2011.06.011

The Challenge of Library Management: Leading with EmotionalEngagement, by Wyoma vanDuinkerken and Pixey Anne Mosley.Chicago: American Library Association, 2011. 184 pp. $52.00. ISBN 978-0-8389-1102-0.

In The Challenge of Library Management: Leading with EmotionalEngagement, Wyoma vanDuinkerken and Pixey Anne Mosley offermany suggestions for successfully leading change in libraries. The titleis too broad; the particular challenge here is change management.

Drawing extensively from the business literature, the authorsdescribe the interpersonal skills necessary to build and sustain a casefor change at every level of the library. For example, from anadministrator's perspective it might make perfect sense to move littleused portions of a print collection off-site and utilize the space forother purposes. But from the perspective of the person who built thecollection this might be an attack on the fundamental purpose of thelibrary as well as their own identity. Blithely dismissing thisindividual's concerns, or ordering them to “get with the program,”will inevitably cause resentment and could lead to efforts to delay orotherwise impede the new initiative. Although many managers ordirectors may blanch at this, the reality is that attending to theemotional factors underlying any change is paramount. People maylogically know that a change is necessary yet resist it all the same.

Given this reality, vanDuinkernen andMosley skillfully describe allof the steps necessary for making a successful change: how tocarefully lay the groundwork, how to adjust during the implemen-tation phase to account for new realities, and how to build anevaluation process in from the beginning (since this is usually anafterthought). For example, if the manager asks for feedback, theymust be prepared to receive it; or, they can articulate that the ends of aproject are fixed but the details of implementation are flexible.Whatever the specifics of a given change, the overarching lesson is tocommunicate openly and to meet people where they live.

As a new director at a small health sciences library, many of thelessons in this book resonated with me strongly. I cringed at examplesof trying to push through changes too quickly or simultaneouschanges all at once. vanDuinkernen and Mosley helped me redoublemy efforts to lay the groundwork for a new initiative morecomprehensively, and for that I am grateful.

At the same time, their book puts the onus on managers for thesuccess or failure of a change initiative. While this makes sense – afterall, the book's target audience is library leaders – the truth is thateveryone in a library should be expected to make a good faith effort toshape a change. To return to our previous example of weeding theprint collection: it is indeed the manager's responsibility to under-stand the emotional stakes for the collectionmanager, but it is also fairto expect that the collection manager will recognize that the needs ofusers have changed. Maybe there's a follow-up book idea here.

After spendingmuch of their time addressing incremental changes(process redesign, renovations), at the end of the book vanDuinker-nen and Mosley touch briefly on deeper philosophical changes. Aslibrarians we continue to grapple with the far-reaching impacts of

450 The Journal of Academic Librarianship

digital technology on our very purpose. There is no way around thisdiscussion, as painful as it may be. A manager or director could doeverything right with respect to a change initiative, but if thatinitiative amounts to a fundamental re-purpose of the library that willbe bound to cause resistance. Sometimes the only way to get to theother side is to push on through.—Marcus Banks, Director, GrazianoMemorial Library/Academic & Instructional Innovation, SamuelMerritt University, 450 30th Street, Suite 2840, Oakland, CA 94609,USA bmbanks@samuelmerritt.eduN.

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2011.06.012

Controlling the Past: Documenting Society and Institutions: Essaysin Honor of Helen Willa Samuels, by Terry Cook. Chicago: Society ofAmerican Archivists, 2011. 442 pp. $56.00. ISBN 1-931666-36-9.

Controlling the Past: Documenting Society and Institutions: Essays inHonor of HelenWilla Samuels is a collection of 18 essays to honor retiredMassachusetts Institute of Technology archivist Helen Willa Samuels.The festschrift examines the importance of Samuels' ideas in thecontext of contemporary archival practice and analyzes the rolearchivists play in creating social memory. The book's premise,according to editor Terry Cook, addresses, “how, in documentingmodern societies and their institutions, the archivist's control of thepast may be transformed in ways more appropriate for our twenty-first-century world” (p. 4).

The book is divided into two sections, “Documenting Society”and “Representing Archives/Being Archival,” followed by a pair ofretrospective reflections. The penultimate essay, “Making BetterProfessionals: Reflections on Selected Writings of Helen WillaSamuels,” written by Elisabeth Kaplan, summarizes Samuels' consid-erable additions to archival theory and practice.

One contribution is documentation strategy, a methodology thatguides selection to retain knowledge about topics dispersed through-out society. Her theory was articulated in the seminal 1986 AmericanArchivist article, “Who Controls the Past,” which Kaplan asserts is,“one of the most frequently cited writings on archives in the English-speaking world, and is still a constant presence on archival studiescourse syllabi” (p. 388). Samuels was the first archivist to evokethe dystopian world of George Orwell's 1984 as she advocated fortechniques to support the selection of records in an information-rich society. Cook writes in the introductory essay, “In rethinkingfundamentally how the archivist should undertake appraisal, HelenSamuels made the archivist's control of the past more conscious, moreactive, and more inclusive. She pushed her profession to consideranew the most central archival function that determines the verynature of the archive that remains” (p. 1).

Samuels's second noteworthy contribution is institutional func-tional analysis, a technique that sets priorities for appraising andprocessing materials of a department based on the relative impor-tance of its functions in an organization. This is best explored inSamuels' 1992 masterwork Varsity Letters: Documenting ModernColleges and Universities. In his essay, “Designs for Records andRecordkeeping: Visual Presentation in Diplomatics, the RecordContinuum, and Documentation Strategy,” Brien Brothman notesthat Samuels's book, “emphasize[d] the importance for archivists tolook beyond their own institutional boundaries and interests and totake heed of the complex organizational, technological, and socialrelationships in which institutions and their records are inevitablyembedded” (p. 303).

In the final essay, Samuels tries to “understand [her] journey, theleitmotifs that have guided it, and the threads that have bound ittogether” (p. 397). After receiving her bachelor's degree inmusic fromQueens College, she was trained as a librarian at Simmons College,

then became an archivist at MIT, where she learned archival methodson the job. Like many archivists, she took a circuitous route in hercareer, yet felt destined to her profession.

Controlling the Past: Documenting Society and Institutions: Essays inHonor of Helen Willa Samuels is recommended reading for archivistsand archival students, because it explores the continuing impactof Samuels' writing and the symbiotic relationship between institu-tional functional analysis and documentation strategy with essayswritten by the most illustrious minds in the archival world.—MargotNote, Director of Archives and Information Management, WorldMonuments Fund, 350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2412, New York, NY10118, USA bmnote@wmf.orgN.

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2011.06.013

Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning: Instructional Literacy forLibrary Educators, by Char Booth. Chicago: American LibraryAssociation, 2011. 180 pp. $60.00. ISBN 978-0-8389-1052-8.

Char Booth has created a highly useful and interactive teachingguide in Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning. As is common inlibrarianship, many librarians do not take education classes or anysignificant instruction-related courses in library school. Thus, learningto teach on the job is normal practice that numerous librarians oftenencounter. The purpose of this work is to present the fundamentals oflearning and teaching in order for librarians to become aware of thebasic theories and principles that they can utilize in their instructionsessions.

Booth's work is comprised of two parts: Instructional Literacy andThe User Method. In the first part the author outlines the four elementsof instructional literacy: reflective practice, educational theory, teachingtechnologies and instructional design. Reflective practice calls forlibrarians to assess previous experiences before tackling new ones andnot just after an instruction session has taken place. Educational theoryincorporates learning theory, instructional theory and curriculumtheory, which are fundamental aspects to teaching and learningpractices. Teaching technologies are essential to know in this agewhen multiple electronic and digital tools are available for deliveringinstruction. Instructional design is the method of using the previousthree elements to develop a system for delivering an effectiveinstruction interaction. After addressing each of these elements, Booth'sultimate goal is for the reader to productively use theory and practice inorder to become more effective library instructors. In part two, Boothoutlines the USER instructional design method and teaches the readerhow to “understand,” “structure,” “engage,” and “reflect” on libraryteaching. With the USER method, library teachers will learn to identifyand evaluate the instructional needs of their learners, develop usefulinstructional material, deliver the material, and assess the outcome ofeach teaching experience in order to learn and improve.

Each chapter of part one, Instructional Literacy, begins with a listingof the goals and ends with a summary and reflection points. Addi-tionally, the work contains a USER design template, a glossary andsurvey responses from librarians expressing their desires to improvetheir teaching. This book is for every librarian who delivers any formof instruction and for library school students who want to get ahead ofthe curve as they begin their careers in librarianship. The strategiesand tools that Booth presents are insightful and indispensable foranyone desiring to improve their planning, delivery and assessment oflibrary education.—Andrea Malone, Assistant Librarian, University ofHouston, M. D. Anderson Library, 114 University Libraries, Houston,TX 77204, USA barmalone@uh.eduN.

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2011.06.014

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