reviews


 

 

Book Reviews 489 

keeper and treasurer of the English stock 
for the Stationers’ Company for most of 
the nineteenth century. Eliot argues con­
vincingly that the administrative short­
comings of the registry system led to its 
abolition and the introduction of direct 
deposit by the publishers themselves. 

Donald Kerr’s essay, “Sir George Grey 
and the English Antiquarian Book 
Trade,” focuses on the book-collecting 
career of Sir George Grey (1812–1898), 
scholar, colonial governor of South Aus­
tralia, New Zealand, and the Cape 
Colony, and premier of New Zealand. 
Kerr, Printed Collections Librarian at 
Auckland (New Zealand) Central Li­
brary, documents how Grey put together 
two impressive collections, despite the 
hazards and frustrations of long-distance 
book buying. Significant parts of his col­
lections formed the foundations of im­
portant rare book collections in Cape 
Town, South Africa (1861) and Auckland, 
New Zealand (1887). 

Leslie A. Morris’s essay, “William 
Augustus White of Brooklyn (1843–1927) 
and the Dispersal of His Elizabethan Li­
brary,” documents the final disposition of 
the large and extremely valuable collec­
tion of a book collector extraordinaire. 
Morris, curator of manuscripts in the 
Houghton Library at Harvard, focuses on 
the transfer of many of White’s books to 
Harvard College Library, in part during 
his lifetime and in bulk after his death. 
Other important American libraries were 
also his beneficiaries, including the 
Folger, Yale University, the Huntington, 
Princeton University, the University of 
Illinois, the University of Chicago, and the 
Brooklyn Public Library. 

Conor Fahy’s essay, “Collecting an 
Aldine: Castiglione’s Libro Del Cortegiano 
(1528) through the Centuries,” shows 
how much can be learned from a detailed 
study of the first edition of Castiglione’s 
Libro Del Cortegiano. Fahy, emeritus pro­
fessor of Italian at Birkbeck College, Uni­
versity of London, describes the aristo­
cratic author’s relationship with Italian 
and French booksellers. 

Esther Potter, an independent scholar 

specializing in the structure and practices 
of the nineteenth-century bookbinding 
trade, in her essay, “Bookbinding for Li­
braries,” documents the role of bookbind­
ers in the supply of ancillary services to 
libraries. She begins with the initial need 
to repair ancient manuscripts in the 
chained libraries of fourteenth-century 
Britain and concludes with the nineteenth 
and twentieth centuries, where the 
growth of municipal public libraries and 
of large-scale commercial lending librar­
ies provided work for library binders on 
an industrial scale. 

As a starting point for research in com­
parative librarianship, this volume excels. 
Although printing in the New World is 
not the study of antiquity that printing 
in Europe represents, there are nonethe­
less interesting parallels and divergences 
that these essays point out. Libraries and 
the Book Trade will be a worthy addition 
to collections serving bibliophiles, book 
collectors, library historians, and literary 
sleuths alike.—Plummer Alston Jones Jr., 
East Carolina University. 

McCook, Kathleen de la Peña. Ethnic Di-
versity in Library and Information Science. 
Champaign: Univ. of Illinois, Graduate 
School of Library and Information Sci­
ence (Library Trends, vol. 49, no. 1), 2000. 
219p. $18.50 (ISSN 0024-2594). 

Issues of diversity have been a topic of 
discourse in many professions, and as the 
new millennium begins, matters of eth­
nic diversity continue to remain at the 
forefront. In reviewing the state of librar­
ies and library services to minority popu­
lations in the United States, both the field 
of library and information science and the 
racial and ethnic demographics that con­
stitute its workforce must be examined. 

Historically, people of color have been 
underrepresented in the field of library 
and information science, and the lack of 
a profession-wide commitment to the re­
cruitment of minorities to the library pro­
fession has been a major obstacle in 
achieving the goal of ethnic diversity. If 
libraries are to be truly representative of 
the populations they serve, it is impera­



490 College & Research Libraries September 2001 

tive that those within the professional 
ranks accurately mirror the racial and eth­
nic composition of their communities. 

Ethnic Diversity in Library and Informa-
tion Science is a collection of seven essays 
written by ethnic minority authors active 
in the information professions. The book 
presents for its readers the struggles that 
people of color have endured in an effort 
to gain both an understanding of, and 
adequate representation in, the develop­
ment and delivery of library services. 

The Introduction, written by McCook, 
presents an overview of the efforts of the 
major ethnic groups to “develop services, 
identify important issues, foster leader­
ship, and establish inclusive definitions of 
identity.” She also describes programs (i.e., 
establishment of scholarships, ethnic cau­
cuses, and grassroots leadership initia­
tives) implemented by the ALA to increase 
minority enrollment in library education 
and to improve minority recruitment for 
librarianship, with an eye toward the type 
of profession librarianship needs to be­
come. 

The contributing authors present the 
early history of library services to Afri­
can Americans, Asian/Pacific Islander 
Americans, Chinese Americans, Latinos, 
and Native Americans. Each of the essays 
also looks at the achievements of minor­
ity librarians and the many contributions 
they have made to the profession. An­
other common topic is the history, role, 
and impact of professional associations 
such as ALA, the establishment and de­
velopment of minority professional orga­
nizations (i.e., REFORMA, APALA, 
BCALA, CALA, etc.), and the pivotal role 
these organizations play in giving voice 
to our ethnically diverse heritage. These 
essays also present evidence of the chang­
ing demography of our nation and of the 
significant roles that libraries play with 
this evolving population through the pro­
vision of services and programs specifi­
cally geared toward ethnic minorities. 

This book educates the reader about 
the key minority leaders in the profession 
and their contributions; many of these key 
figures have been excluded from the 

mainstream research literature. Also em­
phasized is the creation of special insti­
tutes and conferences as a means of pro­
pelling issues related to ethnic diversity 
to the forefront. Each of the well-written 
chapters in Ethnic Diversity in Library and 
Information Science devotes considerable 
attention to the issues of recruitment and 
education for those future librarians who 
will serve in racially diverse communi­
ties. 

Although these essays vary in the 
amount and kind of information pre­
sented, they all address issues of equity 
and equality of opportunity for ethnic 
Americans in the field of library and in­
formation science. Each concludes with a 
list of references that provides additional 
opportunity for exploration of the topic. 
For those individuals seeking to gain a 
better understanding of the contributions 
of minorities to the profession, this source 
will serve as a good starting point. 

The lack of substantial numbers of mi­
nority librarians will only become more 
of a problem; librarians of color are es­
sential to the development and imple­
mentation of services because their 
knowledge of ethnic language, culture, 
and values is crucial. As the demograph­
ics of the United States change and we 
experience the “browning” of America, 
ethnic diversity will remain an issue criti­
cal to the library profession. Librarians 
and library educators must respond to the 
needs of diverse populations by develop­
ing cultural competencies for all informa­
tion workers and at all levels of the pro-
fession.—Kelly C. Rhodes, Appalachian 
State University. 

Schiffrin, André. The Business of Books: 
How International Conglomerates Took 
Over Publishing and Changed the Way 
We Read. London, New York: Verso, 
2001. 181p., $23 (ISBN 1859847633). 

In The Business of Books, publisher André 
Schiffrin describes how big business has 
“changed the way we read” by control­
ling what books get published, why they 
are published, how what gets published 
is distributed and marketed, and, in some