reviews Book Reviews 81 ness, and other implausible diseases. He has located a plethora of quotes to illus­ trate these sometimes-outlandish claims. All of the individual essays contain copious references that will aid the reader in further study of this discipline. The editors have supplemented the essays with an index that, though extremely use­ ful, focuses primarily on proper names. Overall, Medicine, Mortality, and the Book Trade will make a solid addition to collec­ tions focusing on the history of the book or medicine, and makes for informative and interesting reading to anyone inter­ ested in this subject.—Lois Fischer Black, The New York Academy of Medicine. Nardi, Bonnie A., and Vicki L. O’Day. Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Pr., 1999. 232p. $27.50, alk. paper (ISBN 0­ 262-14066-7). LC 98-29318. What should ordinary people do when faced with the rapid growth of technol­ ogy, from the Internet to cloning, with its potential to dramatically change society and our lives? Bonnie Nardi and Vicki O’Day address this significant question in Information Ecologies. Their answer, in short, is “using technology with heart.” Nardi, a researcher at AT&T Labs— Research, has previously published two books related to human–computer inter­ actions. O’Day was formerly a researcher at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and is now a graduate student in anthro­ pology. Their book is divided into two major sections: The first is a theoretical interpretation of technology and is com­ posed of six chapters; the second contains a conclusion and six case studies, includ­ ing a case study of library services. In the first section, the authors review and criticize two views and three meta­ phors of technology. The authors hold the middle ground against two extreme views of technology, namely, technophilia and dystopia. The technophile view ac­ cepts new technology uncritically whereas the dystopian view rejects new technology blindly. Both views assume the inevitability of technology. The three metaphors are technology as tool, text, and system. Both the tool metaphor and the text metaphor enhance our under­ standing of certain aspects of technology, yet neither of them captures technology’s totality. The system metaphor is very close to what the authors propose; however, in comparison with the authors’ own ecol­ ogy metaphor, the system metaphor does not distinguish among local settings. Lo­ cality is one of the essential attributes of the ecology metaphor; it is in various lo­ cal settings that “individuals have an ac­ tive role, a unique and valuable local per­ spective, and a say in what happens” re­ garding the use of technology. Information ecology, which has much in common with biological ecology, is defined as “a system of people, practices, values, and technologies in a particular local environment.” (Note that the word ecology used here does not denote an aca­ demic study or discipline such as sociol­ ogy or psychology. Rather, it means a unit, a community, and a system.) Thus, a li­ brary is an information ecology; a hospi­ tal is an information ecology. According to this definition, most of the units (fac­ tories, families, business offices, etc.) in the developed countries today are infor­ mation ecologies. People, with their moral and social values and who participate lo­ cally in the use of technology, are the pri­ mary agents in information ecologies. Their active participation and engage­ ment has a great impact on technology. Technology’s inevitability is, therefore, a myth. An important aspect of active partici­ pation is the asking of the right questions. The book urges people to ask more why questions about technology instead of merely pursuing how questions because the former are more valuable. For in­ stance, the question, Why should we use this technology? is much more important than the question, How do we implement this technology? Of particular interest to librarians is that Nardi and O’Day have convincingly argued the important role played by li­ brarians in the new information age. They 82 College & Research Libraries present reference librarians as informa­ tion experts and therapists. The reference librarian is a key species in a library ecol­ ogy where she or he uses the Internet and computer technologies responsibly to serve patrons. Consequently, the need for libraries and librarians will be increasing instead of diminishing in the coming years. Nardi and O’Day show great fa­ miliarity with reference services and ad­ mire this valuable work, much of it invis­ ible to most library patrons. Few would dispute the middle-ground view of technology that the authors es­ pouse. The real appeal of this book, espe­ cially for librarians, is its exploration of the possibilities for an active role for av- January 2000 erage people in the use of information technology, in local settings. The ecology metaphor for information technology is an attractive one; it can be invigorating to question the assumption of technology’s dominance. The book pro­ vides detailed notes and an adequate in­ dex. The premise of Information Ecologies that the use of technology shapes the way technology works in our lives is convinc­ ingly argued. Less successful is the au­ thors’ development of the theme that con­ temporary technology use also influences technology’s future development.— Xiaochang Yu, Virginia Commonwealth Uni­ versity.