reviews


 

 

468 College & Research Libraries 

This work would be a useful addition for 
most academic libraries.—W. Bede 
Mitchell, Georgia Southern University. 

Books, Bytes and Bridges: Libraries and Com­
puter Centers in Academic Institutions. 
Ed. Larry Hardesty. Chicago and Lon­
don: ALA, 2000. 220p. $48, alk. paper 
(ISBN: 0-8389-0771-7). LC 99-040064. 

This long-awaited book is devoted wholly 
to reforming the relationship between li­
brary services and computing services in 
academic institutions. It is a collection of 
twenty papers, of which nine are theo­
retical or historical analyses of the rela­
tionship and eleven are case studies. 
About one-third of the contributors come 
predominantly from computing center 
work, and the rest have experiences pri­
marily in library services. This collection 
covers the topic much more comprehen­
sively than Arnold Hirshon’s Integrating 
Computing and Library Services (CAUSE 
Professional Paper Series 18, 1998). 

The first eight chapters are theoretical 
or historical approaches to the relationship 
between computing and libraries. After a 
brief introduction by Larry Hardesty, col­
lege librarian of Austin College, Peggy 
Seiden and Michael Kathman, in their his­
torical review, suggest that the 1980s and 
1990s mark two distinctive developmen­
tal stages. They examine the forces driv­
ing computing technology, higher educa­
tion, and libraries that pushed the merg­
ers during these two stages. This opening 
chapter presents a broad picture of why 
mergers and reorganization have devel­
oped in academic institutions. 

Terrence Mech focuses on the position 
of the chief information officer (CIO): “The 
need for fiscal control over expensive tech­
nology and a plan for its implementation 
often drove the decision to establish a CIO 
position.” His discussion of the still evolv­
ing—and often very ambiguous—status of 
the CIO is informative and thoughtful. 

Edward Garten and Delmus Williams 
describe the clashing of “cultures” be­
tween libraries and computer centers in 
great detail, looking at everything from 
organizational histories to salary differ-

September 2000 

ences. Full integration of the two organi­
zations may not be the best solution. One 
of the main arguments for merging com­
puting services and library services is to 
get rid of redundancy. Yet, to these au­
thors, some redundancy of computing re­
sources in an institution is beneficial, even 
indispensable. They prefer a relationship 
of cohabitation and collaboration, rather 
than one of marriage and merger. 

The section on theoretical and histori­
cal approaches also includes: Robert Free­
man, Scott Mandernack, and John 
Tucker ’s impressive literature review 
(from 1979 to 1998); Raymond Neff’s list 
of reasons to merge computing and librar­
ies and his list of reasons not to merge; 
Delmus Williams and Onadell Bly’s de­
velopment of criteria for measuring the 
success of the merger or coordination be­
tween computing and libraries; Paul Setze 
and Kimberly Jordan’s examination of the 
often stormy relationship between small 
college libraries and computer centers; 
and Larry Hardesty’s discussion of the 
interviews with computing administra­
tors and librarians that he conducted at 
fifty-one colleges. 

The majority of the eleven chapters 
describing case studies report positive 
experiences and successful outcomes in 
reforming the relationship between com­
puting and library services. Based on the 
successful integration of computing and 
libraries at the University of South Caro­
lina, John Olsgaard and George Terry 
have produced a list of necessary condi­
tions for successful mergers. The top three 
conditions on the list are top-down sup­
port (strong support from the institution’s 
top administration), bottom-up support 
(staff participation within computer cen­
ters and libraries), and side-to-side sup­
port (merging common functions to gain 
a shared identity and fiscal savings). 

Edward Meachen’s paper is based on 
surveys he conducted within the Univer­
sity of Wisconsin System. He reports on 
interviews with three different groups of 
major players—the CIOs, the chief aca­
demic officers to whom they usually re­
port, and frontline library and comput­



Book Reviews 469 

ing staff—in the reorganization of the 
school’s computing and library services. 
One of Meachen’s findings is that the 
merger usually is a top-down process and 
the people at the top are more positive 
about mergers than the frontline staff. 

A special piece is Robin Wagner’s “The 
Gettysburg Experience.” Wagner dis­
cusses the painful experience of the radi­
cal integration of computing and librar­
ies at Gettysburg College. She analyzes 
the failure of the merger from three per­
spectives: planning mistakes, faulty 
structure, and lack of awareness of cul­
tural differences between the library staff 
and the computing staff. The bad merger 
inevitably resulted in a negative working 
climate of demoralized librarians and 
staff, inferior delivery of services, and, 
finally, the discontent of college students 
and faculty. Wagner shows us just how 
damaging such a bad merger can be. 

Books, Bytes and Bridges explores the 
important topic of reforming the relation­
ship between computing services and li­
braries in academic institutions. It does 
not attempt to offer a single solution to 
this complicated issue. Instead, the book 
provides different perspectives on the 
topic, from those of librarians to those of 
computing center employees, working at 
institutions of various sizes, and who 
have experienced everything from mod­
erate coordination to fanatic integration. 
It includes an adequate index and help­
ful information on contributors. Despite 
some weaknesses, such as the discrep­
ancy in quality among the collected pa­
pers, the book as a whole offers a unique 
and significant contribution to this still-
evolving field. It should be on the pur­
chasing list of all college and research li­
braries and on the required reading list 
of academic administrators.—Xiaochang 
Yu, Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Disaster and After: The Practicalities of In­
formation Service in Times of War and 
Other Catastrophes. Ed. Paul Sturges 
and Diana Rosenberg. London: Taylor 
Graham Publishing, 1999. 174p. $46 
(ISBN: 0-947568-77-8). 

We are all familiar with the cliché about 
not judging books by their covers; it may 
be wise to extend the warning to titles now, 
too, for lurking behind this volume’s 
rather prosaic title is something far more 
exciting and thought-provoking than the 
words would suggest. This stimulating 
collection of essays deals not only with 
disasters such as flood and fire but also 
concentrates on war and ethnic cleansing. 
But even that (and the work’s more de­
scriptive subtitle) fails to tell all because 
the book is really about the larger picture 
of the threats to, and triumphs of, infor­
mation service in a very hostile world. It 
is certainly not the book’s aim to serve as 
a recruitment tool for library, archival, and 
records management programs, but well 
it might be. Rather, it offers an antidote to 
the meek and mild image of information 
specialists and, indeed, puts our profes­
sion in the front ranks of the many battles 
being fought in an era blithely referred to 
as the Information Age. The tales in these 
pages are often dark, despite the “enlight­
ened” times we live in. 

The book begins innocently enough. 
The introduction by Derek Law uses the 
standard approach, suggesting that to 
avoid disasters one, impossibly, must ex­
pect the unexpected. And then, aptly 
enough, that is what is delivered. Al­
though there are some straightforward 
descriptions of library disasters and re­
sponses, one finds oneself, as in a disas­
ter itself, in a very different realm in 
which a whole new way of thought is 
needed. The editors apparently knew ex­
actly what they were doing, as their ex­
planation in the back of the book proves. 

The essays are from the proceedings 
of an international conference sponsored 
by the IGLA (International Group of the 
Library Association) held on September 
4—6, 1998, at the University of Bristol. 
There, in the “charmed setting of an En­
glish provincial town,” informational pro­
fessionals gathered to report on occur­
rences in far-flung, violent, and often dan­
gerous settings. In the opening essay, 
Linda Stoddart provides some of the ba­
sic vocabulary for disaster preparedness