College and Research Libraries 88 College & Research Libraries between and and or, and is generally a muddle. The discussions of the philoso- phers are sometimes anachronistic and hyperbolic (this may reflect the influence of Heidegger), the style definitely that of a pop philosopher. (Leibniz' s God is de- scribed as the Central System Operator or sysop: "Without a sysop, no one could get on line to reality.") All in all, this is not an impressive contribution to our understanding of the new electronic world. The book is an editorial disaster. The essays in this collection (four previously published in print, one published elec- tronically) overlap and duplicate each other extensively. The discussion of Leibniz in Chapter 3 is repeated almost verbatim in Chapter 7; the same text is used to support views on hypertext and on virtual reality. The same discussion of Heidegger occurs twice, in Chapters 1 and 5, and one five-line quotation is re- pea ted three times. There is a glossary, ''Useful vocabulary for the metaphysics of virtual reality," that includes a de- scription of what the metaphysics of vir- tual reality is about; but the last five chapters of this book do not fit the de- scription. The Preface says that the "cen- tral philosopher'' of Chapter 2 will be Blaise Pascal; but Pascal is not men- tioned there. Oxford's reputation is not enhanced by this book. The designer has not helped matters. Rectos (odd pages) have two page numbers (page 15 carries the numbers 14/15) and versos lack pagination. A copy of page 14 would be unidentifiable as page 14. This is not an improvement over conventional prac- tice.-Patrick Wilson, University of Cal- ifornia, Berkeley. Leidenschaft und Bildung: Zur Geschichte der Frauenarbeit in Bibliotheken. Ed. by Helga Ludtke. B~rlin: Orlanda Frauenverlag. 1992. 304 p. 39.80 DM (ISBN 3-922166-79-2). With this volume Helga Ludtke adds a substantial chapter to the underdocu- mented history of women librarians. The study focuses on women's roles in the development of libraries and the femini- zation of librarianship, looking primarily January 1994 at the experience in Germany. Leidens- chaft und Bildung is a compilation of con- temporary essays, older articles (dating from 1901-47), biographical sketches, in- terviews, and photographs. It covers the period between 1895 and 1945 in Ger- many, focusing specifically on public librarians; however, comparisons to aca- demic libraries appear throughout the volume. Of special note is an eleven- page annotated bibliography on the topic of women librarians in German public libraries, which includes publica- tions dating from 1897 through 199L Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the essays written by librari- ans between 1895 and 1945, because the texts of the period best illustrate the is- sues then under discussion and clarify the views held by female librarians and their male colleagues. One of the · most enlightening of these primary documents was written by Lotte Bergtel-Schleif, a communist librarian imprisoned in 1943 because of her work with a resistance group. In her 1947 article she addresses the sensitive issue of librarians' complic- ity with Nazi censorship. She outlines the extent to which librarians con- tributed to the Nazi regime, describing how they removed "degenerate" mate- rial from library shelves, well aware that much of the literature and works of mod- ern thought condemned to bonfires formed the core of their collections. The third section of the book profiles individual women librarians, including pioneers in German librarians hip as well as more representative figures. The biog- raphies of library directors Bona Peiser, Bennata Otten, and Marie Norenberg il- lustrate the important contributions women played in the development of li- braries and library programs in Germany before 1933. The article "LebensHiufe" presents the lives and careers of eight "typical" librarians. Interviewing librar- ians born between 1907 and 1923, the authors explore a variety of issues, in- cluding working conditions, job satisfac- tion, career advancement, and the effects of political changes on librarian5hip. Though documenting these "fore- mothers" of librarianship is crucial and provides another dimension to the field's history, women must be integrated into mainstream studies of library history, as described in the final section. In an attempt to place the German ex- perience and German scholarship in a broader context, Leidenschaft und Bildung concludes with two essays about women's role in American librarianship-a confus- ing way to end this German-oriented col- lection. Dee Garrison's seminal 1972 article, ''The Tender Technicians: The Fem- inization of Public Librarianship, 1876- 1905," appears in German translation along with an essay by Suzanne Hilden- ~ "Can one CD-ROM really help me find more than 185,000 Spanish-language bool