reviews


484 College & Research Libraries September 2001 

of context, the reduction to bits and pieces 
of data, as a qualitative loss. I think that 
Bowers is correct to see this phenomenon 
as something broader than the Internet, 
something that permeates and perhaps 
(as he claims) even serves as a root meta­
phor for our culture. Consider these chill­
ing words: “By shaping consciousness 
and bodily experience to accept computer 
mediation as normal, the computer sub­
culture (which is fast becoming the domi­
nant culture) is also defining what is ab­
normal, deviant, and deficient.” Which of 
us has not wondered whether libraries, 
librarians, and physical collections are not 
viewed by students today as abnormal, 
deviant, and deficient. It is no exaggera­
tion to say that, at least at the campus 
where I work, students expect all infor­
mation to be mediated by computers. The 
library accepts that fact and tries to pro­
vide services and collections electroni­
cally. In doing so, Bowers would say, we 
are accepting and endorsing a reductive 
view of knowledge and education. 

Bowers writes in a style that is acces­
sible to the nonspecialist, with quotations 
from authors on both sides of the debate 
and a decent bibliography and index. 
There is a great deal of repetition in the 
book, and I suspect that many of the ideas 
are recycled from earlier publications. At 
times, the focus wanders into areas of 
cultural studies, environmentalism, or 
educational theory that have little to do 
with computers per se. Computers are 
used as a handle on which to hang more 
general arguments. To give just one ex­
ample (which may surprise librarians), 
Bowers attacks computer culture as ex­
clusively visual and based on writing, 
traits that are also shared by books. And, 
of course, it is true that books are 
decontextualized forms of communica­
tion that eliminate the boundaries of time 
and space just as computers do. 

The latter section of the book, entitled 
“Educational Consequences,” begins 
with a spirited attack on the “industrial 
model” of university education that has 
recently emerged, which Bowers charac­
terizes as “just-in-time learning for em­

ployees.” He takes a swipe at the cur­
rently dominant educational paradigm 
(based on Piaget) which insists that stu­
dents “construct their own knowledge.” 
Examples from popular educational soft­
ware packages such as Storybook Weaver, 
DynoPark Tycoon, Oregon Trail II, and 
the Sim series of simulation programs 
expose the cultural bias and pedagogical 
weakness of the technological approach 
to learning. Bowers concludes by explain­
ing why computers should not replace 
teachers, offering several detailed sce­
narios for making teachers and students 
more aware of the cultural dimensions of 
software and computing. This was the 
least convincing aspect of the book for me. 
Bowers is better at attacking the assump­
tions and consequences of computer tech­
nologies than at developing solutions that 
are not overly simplistic or utopian. The 
value of the book lies in its ability to make 
a case for the prosecution. The defense 
can take care of itself.—Jean M. Alexander, 
Carnegie Mellon University. 

Creating Web-Accessible Databases: Case 
Studies for Libraries, Museums, and 
Other Nonprofits. Ed. Julie M. Still. 
Medford, N.J.: Information Today, 
2001. 184p. $39.50 (ISBN 1-57387-104­
4). LC 00-063283. 

Have you ever wondered what it takes to 
publish a database on the Web? Does your 
library have a Web-publishing initiative? 
Are you aware of a resource unique to 
your institution (inside or outside the li­
brary) that deserves wider dissemina­
tion? Do you have an idea for a Web da­
tabase but are not sure how or where to 
start? If you answered yes to any of these 
questions, you will likely find much of 
interest and value in this edited collection 
of case studies and general essays on Web 
publishing from the nonprofit perspec­
tive. Indeed, most of the chapters address 
issues directly relevant to academic librar­
ies and librarians. 

The prefatory matter includes a useful 
preface by the editor, Julie M. Still, a librar­
ian at Rutgers University. Of special inter­
est here is the list of questions she asked 



  

 

Book Reviews 485 

the contributors to address in their essays. 
Having this list available makes it easier 
for the reader to make sense out of each 
chapter and facilitates the process of iden­
tifying common themes. The editor also 
indicates that she encouraged the contribu­
tors to “focus on the processes and people 
involved as opposed to the hardware, soft­
ware, and other technical issues.” Fortu­
nately, the contributors took this advice to 
heart, thus avoiding the needless techni­
cal detail that often weakens collections of 
case studies in librarianship and related 
fields. 

A brief introduction by the editor fol­
lows the prefatory matter. It does an ex­
cellent job of placing the volume in con­
text and briefly summarizes the main 
points of each chapter. A more concerted 
attempt to identify themes that reappear 
throughout the volume would have made 
this introduction even more useful. 

The volume begins in earnest with 
“Publishing Databases on the Web: A Ma­
jor New Role for Librarians and Research 
Libraries,” by Ronald C. Jantz. He de­
scribes in detail the Web-publishing ini­
tiative that began with the establishment 
in 1997 of the Scholarly Communication 
Center in Rutgers’ Alexander Library. Al­
though many important concepts are dis­
cussed, the key issue raised by Jantz is the 
importance of creating a reusable platform 
to support Web publishing no matter the 
content and nature of the specific database. 
Doing so ensures that the underlying pro­
cesses and procedures need not be recre­
ated for each project. 

In “The Rutgers-Camden Database: A 
Case Study from Scrapbooks to the World 
Wide Web,” Vibiana Bowman discusses 
a project associated with the initiative 
described in the first chapter. It involved 
the conversion of an index to the Rutgers-
Camden database (a local events clipping 
file begun in the early 1970s) from ProCite 
bibliographic citation software to a Web 
database. Perhaps the most interesting 
point raised in this chapter is the impor­
tance of involving prospective users and 
other stakeholders in selecting existing 
resources for conversion to the Web. 

“Women Writers and Online Books,” 
jointly written by Mary Mark 
Ockerbloom and John Mark Ockerbloom, 
discusses two Web sites they began “in 
their spare time” in the early 1990s, the 
“On-Line Books Page,” and “A Celebra­
tion of Women Writers.” The former in­
dexes online books of all types, and the 
latter indexes online books written by 
women together with links to related re­
sources about the authors. This provides 
an interesting contrast to the previous 
chapters because the Ockberblooms con­
tinue to handle the project on their own, 
even down to writing and maintaining 
the customized software that keeps the 
site running. Even though they express 
pleasure with how things are going, they 
do express their concern that the de­
mands of maintaining and updating the 
pages may soon overwhelm them, requir­
ing them to seek assistance from other 
sources. 

A similar project is described in 
“Women and Social Movements in the 
United States, 1830–1930: A History Web 
Site.” In this well-written essay, Melissa 
Doak describes the development of a Web 
site providing guided access to a grow­
ing collection of primary source docu­
ments in women’s history. The key issue 
she raises is the unexpectedly rapid 
growth of the project and the resulting 
demands for increased personnel. 

In “History Databases at the Library 
of Virginia,” Elizabeth Roderick docu­
ments the Web-publishing initiative she 
directs as manager of the Virginia Digi­
tal Library Program at the Library of Vir­
ginia. She summarizes each step in the 
publishing process, which focuses on 
digitizing archival resources, with an 
emphasis on staff and community in­
volvement in the selection of projects. She 
also stresses the importance of working 
with automation vendors to create a plat­
form of reusable applications to support 
the needs of such a large-scale program. 

The following three chapters focus on 
commercial projects. In “Taking a Data­
base to the Web: A Case Study,” Vicky H. 
Speck of ABC-CLIO documents the pro­



 

 

 

486 College & Research Libraries September 2001 

cess of moving two major history data­
bases, Historical Abstracts and America: 
History and Life, from CD-ROM to the 
Web. Perhaps the most valuable point 
raised by Speck is the importance of user 
input in the process. Academic libraries 
and librarians that become Web publish­
ers would do well to follow a similar 
user-centered strategy. 

In “Road to Papermoon,” Brian-John 
Riggs describes how he set up his personal 
online bookstore, Papermoon Books, with 
the aid of ABE (Advanced Book Exchange), 
a Canadian online company that serves as 
an intermediary between sellers and pur­
chasers of out-of-print titles. In “21st North 
Main, Inc.,” Jeff Strandberg, a representa­
tive of the corporation by the same name, 
documents his company’s business plan. 
Using ABE’s database as a resource, “21st 
North Main” focuses specifically on the 
library market, acting as Web-based inter­
mediary connecting libraries searching for 
out-of-print books with independent book­
sellers who carry the title. Some readers 
might find that this chapter comes close 
to free advertising, however, the notion of 
using commercial companies as interme­
diaries might well be useful in certain non­
profit Web-publishing ventures. 

The next two chapters explore Web 
publishing from a user’s perspective. In 
“A View from the Other Side of the Refer­
ence Desk,” Anne T. Keenan makes an 
impassioned plea for Web publishers to 
consider the needs of the typical public 
library patron. She emphasizes the impor­
tance of making database interfaces as 
simple as possible, with an emphasis on 
keyword searching. In “What Price Sim­
plicity: A User-Centered Mediation,” 
Laura Spencer expresses similar concerns 
from the perspective of the academic li­
brary. Her plea to Web publishers to cre­
ate search interfaces that assist users in 
focusing their search is especially pow­
erful. 

The final chapters focus on two related 
issues, the importance of metadata and the 
use of standards in creating Web data­
bases. In “Data and Metadata: An Over­
view of Organizations in Searchable 

Full-Text Databases,” Aurora Ioanid and 
Vibiana Bowman persuasively argue that 
controlled vocabulary still has an impor­
tant role to play in searching full-text da­
tabases. The volume concludes with 
“XML: A Way Ahead for the Library Da­
tabase?” In this chapter, Richard Gartner 
discusses the importance of standards, and 
his argument for XML as perhaps the best 
standard for Web publishing might well 
become required reading for any librarian 
interested in creating Web-accessible da­
tabases. 

In conclusion, Julie M. Still and Infor­
mation Today are to be commended for 
the high editing and production stan­
dards exhibited by this useful volume. 
One should note, however, that the latest 
print resource cited in the any of the chap­
ters is dated 1999, suggesting a rather 
long gestation period for the collection. 
Also, some readers may be uncomfortable 
with the personal, almost pleading nature 
of the writing in some chapters. But these 
are minor issues that do not seriously 
detract from the usefulness of this vol­
ume.—Wade Kotter, Weber State University. 

Dilevko, Juris. Unobtrusive Evaluation of 
Reference Service and Individual Respon-
sibility: The Canadian Experience. 
Westport, Conn.: Ablex (Contemporary 
Studies in Information Management, Poli-
cies, and Services), 2000. 220p. $69.50 
cloth (ISBN 1567505066), $24.95 paper 
(1567505074). LC 99-058739. 

Unobtrusive testing of reference service, 
wherein reference librarians are asked to 
answer questions by a researcher’s “un­
dercover” employees or proxies, is a tech­
nique that has been hotly contested in the 
library profession, especially since the 
controversial studies of Charles McClure 
and Peter Hernon in the 1980s. Those 
studies reported accuracy rates of barely 
more than 50 percent, which led to con­
siderable debate about the efficacy and 
fairness of the methodology. Now, Juris 
Dilevko, a faculty member in Information 
Studies at the University of Toronto, has 
utilized unobtrusive testing to devastat­
ing effect in an examination of the inabil­