reviews Book Reviews 99 ators and users of heavily linked Web sites today could not be more obvious and disturbing. (Several pages later, Sarah Annes Brown describes in “Arachne’s Web: Intertextual Mythography and the Renaissance Actaeon” the astonishing va- riety of Renaissance responses to Ovid’s story of Actaeon, showing just how “open” a text can be, how myriad the potential “links” are that actual readers make in their minds. By implication, Brown confirms Corns’s fears about the restrictive potential of hypertext, how constraining and limiting even the most richly linked electronic version must be). The sense of incongruity that arises from the curious juxtapositions of lan- guage, concepts, and minds that is so jar- ring as we begin this book yields only gradually to appreciation and under- standing. We first must learn to see how very different words from entirely differ- ent eras can, in fact, relate to the same ref- erent—that whatever word we may use to name the rose changes not what the rose itself is. By the time we complete Neil Rhodes’s impressive final essay, “Articu- late Networks: The Self, the Book and the World,” we realize that the difference that modern computers have effected in our world is really one of degree rather than of kind. This is an enormous and a hum- bling realization, a gift to the reader from a fine piece of humanities research.—Jef- frey Garrett, Northwestern University. Westbrook, Lynn. Identifying and Analyz- ing User Needs: A Complete Handbook and Ready-to-Use Assessment Workbook with Disk. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2001. 307p. $75, alk. paper (ISBN 1-55570-388-7). LC 00-045220. Because of the continued growth and de- velopment of information technology, people who work in libraries are con- fronted, almost daily, with changing ex- pectations concerning their roles. Ac- countability and assessment have become keywords for those trying to provide up- dated services to library patrons. At the same time, librarians and staff are ex- pected to justify budget expenditures, set priorities for collection development and reference services, adapt to change, seize new opportunities for services as they arise, and position the library as a major competitor in the information business. According to Dr. Lynn Westbrook, faculty member of Texas Woman’s University’s School of Library and Information Stud- ies, support for these decisions can be obtained by conducting a community in- formation needs analysis (CINA). Westbrook believes that CINA can be a key in gaining an understanding of the existing information needs of the popu- lation the library serves, whether it is a public, school, or academic library. She presents a step-by-step procedural tool for conducting such a study in any of these three settings, emphasizing the cyclical nature of identifying information needs, implementing the appropriate changes in services, and evaluating those changes. Westbrook clearly states the prerequisites for doing a CINA: staff support, neces- sary resources, ethical considerations, and the correct techniques and questions to include. Later chapters explain important points in designing various data-gather- ing instruments and assessing the in- house data already available through sys- tem reports. She takes great care to ex- plain various sampling techniques and methods, to define types of statistical analysis, and to describe how to organize the data into meaningful patterns and codes. The book’s value is enhanced by its many features. Most apparent are the suggested readings. Westbrook has not only compiled an extensive works cited list, but she also has categorized the read- ings at the end of every chapter, provid- ing an annotated bibliography for each type of library. The appendices include examples of different library studies and the coded and charted statistical reports created by various OPACs. An ample glossary and index also are provided. Academic librarians may find them- selves wishing she had written an indi- vidual book addressing their specific needs instead of trying to speak gener- 100 College & Research Libraries January 2002 ally to three very different types of librar- ies. One can appreciate the difficulties of writing a book that simultaneously ap- peals to such a diverse audience; a book that is quite different from her chapter “Qualitative Research” in Ronald R. Powell’s Basic Research Methods for Librar- ians (Ablex, 1997) and her other work, Interdisciplinary Information Seeking in Women’s Studies (McFarland, 1999). Westbrook frequently cites Powell in chapters six through eight of Identifying and Analyzing User Needs, and most aca- demic librarians involved in formulating research strategies for assessment would want to read both together. Academic li- brarians also might wish for a greater fo- cus on issues of student and faculty par- ticipation, especially on how to encour- age their involvement in surveys, ques- tionnaires, and use studies. Contrary to Westbrook’s statement that “often, how- ever, subjects choose to participate be- cause they enjoy talking about their ex- periences and needs with a knowledge- able, interested individual,” researchers in academic libraries have found it diffi- cult to attract adequate numbers of par- ticipants. More attention to this problem and less to duplicating, stapling, and gen- eral layout instructions would have proved beneficial. Accompanying the book is a three- and-a-half-inch computer disk containing a 151-page ready-to-use assessment workbook. The disk is not labeled regard- ing system or software requirements, but a statement in the preface of the hand- book does state that the file is “readily opened with any major word processor on a PC or Mac platform.” The chapter headings of the workbook parallel those of the handbook, and the chapters are, in essence, a briefer version of those in the handbook but contain additional sug- gested readings. Westbrook explains in the preface that she designed the work- book for those who want to move right into conducting a CINA without lengthy preparation. Even though word processors have sophisticated commands for locating words/phrases in a document, it is awk- ward to scroll through such a large file. Printing the document and storing it in a binder for reference, in conjunction with the computer file, might prove more use- ful. Likewise, it would have been helpful to include the figures in the handbook, even though they cannot be readily du- plicated and used in the smaller format. This would permit readers a view of the forms and templates before searching through a large file. There also is confu- sion regarding Figure 1.1, “Cycle of Stud- ies and Change”; both the handbook and the workbook have it listed as being on page nine of the workbook. The words, “Figure 1.1 Cycle of Studies and Change,” do appear on page nine, but there is no corresponding figure, template, or worksheet. Despite these concerns, Identifying and Analyzing User Needs is a valuable re- source for those confronted with revital- izing their library services in a rapidly changing information technology world. Following the suggestions offered in this book will provide meaning and direction to library studies and give librarians and administrators new ways to define their community’s particular information needs.—Janice M. 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