reviews.indd


Janes, Joseph. Introduction to Reference 
Work in the Digital Age. New York: Neal 
Shuman, 2003. 213p. alk. paper, $59.95 
(ISBN 1555704298). LC 2003-52739. 

Joseph Janes has written a comprehen-
sive, yet concise, account of where, when, 
how, and why reference librarians should 
embrace the digital reference revolution 
in Introduction to Reference Work in the 
Digital Age. Moreover, he has done it in a 
readable, chatty, informal style. Author of 
several other books and a popular speaker 
at library meetings, Janes asserts that the 
word digital should be assumed nowa-
days when discussing reference work. 
His book is of interest to all academic 
librarians because, one way or another, 
all of us will be a part of the eff ort to 
provide online information services to 
remote patrons who are increasingly in-
sistent about demanding library services. 
It should be required reading for refer-
ence librarians, especially those who are 
dubious about the effectiveness of remote 
reference work.

 Janes starts with defi nitions, citing 
the history of the meanings of reference 
in the literature and in the guidelines of-
fered by library organizations. In 1943, the 
ALA defined the reference department 
as “the section of the library in which its 
reference books are kept for consulta-
tion.” Reference and User Services As-
sociation (RUSA) uses Standard Z39.7: 
“An information contact that involves 
the use, recommendation, interpretation, 
or instruction in the use of one or more 
information sources, or knowledge of 
such sources, by a member of the refer-
ence or information staff.” Janes suggests 
a shorter definition and notes that digital 
reference is the same thing we’ve been 
doing all along, with the addition of a 
phrase (in italics): “the provision of direct, 
professional assistance to people who are 
seeking information, at the time and point 
of need.”

Book Reviews 265 

The book is divided into six chapters 
and the table of contents is a thorough 
outline of the concepts covered. There is 
a chapter on understanding the needs of 
users and one describing diff erent ways 
of responding electronically. The available 
technological options that can be used to 
connect with users are discussed, as is the 
evolution of staff competencies that will 
be required. Janes then provides a con-
crete ten-step plan to implement a digital 
reference service, including assessment, 
evaluation, and performance standards. 
Each chapter is organized like a textbook, 
but it does not read like one, due to the 
author’s talent at making what could be 
a dull topic interesting by means of his 
conversational style. The chapters begin 
with the familiar “what we will discuss 
in this chapter” and end with thought-
provoking “Questions for Review.” The 
legible type, font styles, and section head-
ings make it easy to maneuver within the 
chapters.

 In the past, Janes suggests, much of a 
librarian’s time was spent on “sources and 
materials, their organization, searching, 
and use … and pretty short shrift was 
given to the actual people on the other 
side of the desk.” Now, however, that is 
not enough: “The stakes are significantly 
higher … and the risk of doing nothing 
is greater.” He sees what we have been 
doing in the past as preparation for what 
is coming: “the opportunity to start over, 
to generate and play with new ideas and 
revisit old ones … serving people at the 
time and point of their needs.” He admits 
that, though exciting, this can be frighten-
ing. One of the scariest things he discusses 
is 24/7 service, but he also suggests ways 
of handling it, such as collaborative 
reference service with other libraries or 
information providers. He also discusses 
a favorite topic of reference librarians, 
the “reference interview,” in light of the 
changing nature of reference. He also 



266 College & Research Libraries 

provides samples of what some libraries 
have used to get the same idea across by 
means of an online form.

 With an extensive index, endnotes, 
and a bibliography at the end of each 
chapter, the reader is provided with 
bibliographical leads to research the 
topic further. Academic librarians have, 
as Janes notes, “an opportunity to pro-
vide direct, mediated services to people, 
breaking the boundaries of place and time 
that have constrained us (and our users) 
for millennia.” Academic libraries should 
be grateful to have such an enthusiastic, 
concise, well-organized, and well-written 
guide for the direction or implementation 
of digital reference services.—Elizabeth M. 
Williams, Appalachian State University. 

Knuth, Rebecca. Libricide: The Regime-
Sponsored Destruction of Books and 
Libraries in the Twentieth Century. 
Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2003. 277p. 
alk. paper, $39.95 (ISBN 027598088X). 
LC 2002-44542. 

The appalling phenomena of genocide 
(destruction of peoples) and ethnocide 
(destruction of cultures, often part of a 
genocidal campaign) are well known. 
Although the local conditions and spe-
cific historical circumstances can be quite 
varied, there is a persistent underlying 
focused hatred, often mindless, routin-
ized, and administratively managed as 
if it were a problem in sanitation main-
tenance or road construction. When 
these impulses specifically turn to books, 
manuscripts, and other forms of infor-
mation and knowledge records, the apt, 
if less familiar, term libricide naturally 
suggests itself. 

For those not already familiar with at 
least the outlines of the story, it is starkly 
sobering, and the rich accounts of these 
case studies provide much to think about. 
Methodologically speaking, the evidence 
appears to come not directly from prima-

May 2004 

ry sources but, rather, from the author’s 
readings of secondary sources. This may 
account for the suspiciously close fi t be-
tween the theoretical discussion and the 
evidence of the cases. (For readers—like 
this reviewer—unfamiliar with whatever 
sources provide the foundations for the 
cases, a summary discussion would have 
been appropriate.) 

Chapters 2 and 3 provide first a con-
ceptual and historical overview (“The 
Evolution and Functions of Libraries”) 
and second a conceptual framework (“A 
Theoretical Framework for Libricide”), 
which contextualizes the five case studies 
presented in chapters 4 through 8 (Nazi 
Germany, Greater Serbia, Iraq’s 1990 
attack on Kuwait, the Chinese cultural 
revolution, and the Chinese attack on 
Tibet) while a final summary discussion, 
“The Collision of Ideas,” is presented in 
chapter 9. 

The subject matter and details pre-
sented in the case studies are both 
compelling on their own and skillfully 
presented in a narrative that is engaging 
and readable. But I can’t recommend 
the book unreservedly, particularly for 
classroom use, except for readers already 
quite familiar with the outlines of the 
social, political, and economic history 
that supply its larger context. Without 
this, one might be too easily misled by 
the author’s unexamined bias toward the 
more conservative versions of free-mar-
ket, Western-style liberalism. Somewhat 
paradoxically, her own views seem to 
partake of the ideological fervor she so 
rightly decries. For Professor Knuth, first 
there are the good guys: that’s the modern 
Western intellectual tradition, bent on 
nothing but the discovery of the truth, 
the accumulation of wisdom, and the tri-
umph of civilization. And then there are 
the very bad guys, such as Communists, 
Fascists, and extremist ideologues of 
various stripes. (See chapters 4 through