reviews.indd


Book Reviews 463 

strategically as a leader. There is no ivory-
tower-speak here; for example, Evans and 
Ward warn against “using team to refer 
to what is actually committee work in 
the mistaken effort to appear ‘current.’” 
They imply that leaders must not be 
afraid to embrace their roles, even if it 
displeases others; explaining that when 
team members are “empowered,” the 
leader still retains most of the responsibil-
ity. Emphasis is placed on fi nding where 
the real power lies in an organization 
(which can be difficult to determine) and 
not being afraid to use this knowledge: 
difficult but essential advice for us profes-
sional helpers. Most useful to new leaders 
will be the step-by-step instructions on 
writing vision, values, and mission state-
ments, and citations to examples written 
for ALA, OCLC, and the U.S. and U.K. 
National Archives.

 The rapid pace of technological change 
in the past decade causes its own prob-
lems. The librarians who experienced this 
rapid change may be too overwhelmed to 
step back and analyze what the changes 
mean, and those entering the field tend to 
take the technology for granted and there-
fore probably have never analyzed it. For 
these reasons, the chapter on e-leadership 
for librarians makes this book stand out 
from other leadership titles. It describes 
changes in patron expectations, and how 
to deal with the paradoxes involved in 
this new milieu, among them the need 
to make “swift but mindful” decisions. 
Evans and Ward offer eminently practi-

Index to advertisers 
ALA Joblist 457 
Annual Reviews 375 
Archival Products 416 
Atlas Systems cover 2 
Brill 372 
CHOICE 445 
Hedgehog Review 434 
HW Wilson cover 4 
IGI Global 371 
Modern Language Assoc. cover 3 
Perry Dean Architects 404 

cal suggestions, such as hiring freelanc-
ers for specific tasks, observing proper 
“netiquette,” and enabling some staff to 
“telework.” They go as far as to suggest 
precise phrasing for communications 
between e-group members, to elicit the 
most useful responses and to counteract 
feelings of isolation. Tips for e-mentoring 
are also offered.

 The last section of the book provides 
a few paragraphs each on various aspects 
of life as a leader (“Perfectionism,” “Fol-
lowing Through”). The topics chosen are 
relevant and interesting. However, the 
space devoted to some topics, such as 
gender issues, is lamentably short. Ser-
viceable bibliographies on each chapter’s 
topics are provided. This book will be a 
worthwhile purchase, enabling prospec-
tive leaders to prepare for the challenge 
or decide that it is not for them and 
helping current leaders to become more 
eff ective.—Ett a Thornton-Verma, School 
Library Journal. 

Jenkins, Paul O. Faculty-Librarian Rela-
tionships. Oxford, England: Chandos 
(Chandos Information Professional Series), 
2005. 166p. $55 (paper); $99.95 (cloth) 
(ISBN 1843341166; 1843341174). 

“A university is just a group of buildings 
gathered around a library,” wrote histo-
rian and novelist Shelby Foote. This is a 
tenet shared by many in the academic 
community, and, no doubt, most aca-
demic librarians. But it is not held by all 
members of the campus community or 
general public, cautions author Paul O. 
Jenkins in his brief, succinct, and engag-
ing work Faculty-Librarian Relationships. 
This clearly written book, peppered with 
quotes such as the one from Foote, is 
aimed at academic librarians (and those 
entering the field); its goal is to explore 
the differing viewpoints on the topic and 
bridge the gap between those who do and 
do not think the library is the center of the 
campus universe. 

 The book, very rationally organized, 
with tables and bulleted summaries, is 
divided into five chapters. It begins with 



464 College & Research Libraries 

a personal foreword describing the warm 
environment in which the author grew 
up as the son of a professor at a small 
liberal arts college and traces his career 
in library science. (Jenkins has served as 
a collections development librarian and as 
a Director of Library Services.) While this 
background is illuminating, its perhaps 
too-cozy feel and the use of rosy tints 
discussing collaborations with colleagues 
may raise doubts in readers seeking a cool 
analytical discussion of the oft en charged 
relationship between academic librarians 
and faculty. But Jenkins nearly always 
rises above this sort of professional 
cheerfulness through judicious and gen-
erous quotations from the literature and 
the inclusion of the views of colleagues. 
His charitable voice, always hopeful and 
helpful, seeking compromise and under-
standing, guides the discourse.

 Chapter one, “The faculty: who they 
are, how they think,” is a sort of field 
guide to help academic librarians distin-
guish the four types of faculty members 
they may (or may not) spot in the stacks. 
Some faculty are library-resistant; others 
minimize the library; many are library tra-
ditionalists; and then there are those who 
are library-active. The author also clas-
sifies the types of institutions of higher 
learning and uses the Myers-Briggs scale 
to show that faculty and librarians are 
often the same personality types. Despite 
this, he acknowledges that confl icts often 
arise between the two groups. Anecdotes 
discussing problems with professors 
expecting servitude rather than service 
from librarians will prompt knowing 
sighs from many readers; but the author 
is quick to turn the other cheek, offering 
even more anecdotes from faculty and 
listing many stressors faculty members 
face. 

 Collection development and its rami-
fications is discussed next. Various view-
points from the literature are given as to 
who should be in charge of selecting new 
titles. Faculty strengths and weaknesses 
in this field are noted, again with sugges-
tions as to how to better improve skills on 

September 2007 

all sides. The use of liaisons, allocation 
formulas, approval plans, and methods 
of weeding are all touched on and neatly 
summarized in the chapter’s conclusion. 
Theories and examples from various 
institutions are nicely counterbalanced 
by some practical advice on how not to 
alienate faculty members while remain-
ing transparent in allocating funds for 
purchases in various disciplines. 

 The central chapter revolves around 
the crucial issue of information literacy 
(IL). After a discussion of the literature, 
Jenkins poses the question, “Can librar-
ians rely on faculty to teach IL skills?” 
He reviews and assesses some of the 
literature on the topic, reproduces other 
librarians’ lists of what constitutes infor-
mation literacy, summarizes procedures 
followed on specific campuses, and 
notes the general consensus that IL must 
be taught in a student’s first year, and 
then suggests Web-based courses as a 
method of compromise between librar-
ians charged with teaching skills and 
professors unwilling to give up class time 
for such “intrusions.”

 Jenkins then turns his attention to 
other faculty-librarian relationships, 
briefly discussing committee service, 
working in distance education, providing 
a refuge in the library for faculty, and the 
like. He focuses on marketing the library 
to faculty, giving nearly twenty specific 
suggestions, many of them attributed 
to various librarians around the country 
who developed, devised, and succeeded 
in their outreach efforts.

 The final chapter constitutes over one 
third of the book and contains some of the 
most compelling reading but, at the same 
time, demonstrates the book’s greatest 
weakness. To better educate librarians 
to the stresses and achievements and life 
struggles of faculty, Jenkins reproduces 
question and answer sessions held with 
over a dozen faculty members from vari-
ous disciplines at his home institution, 
Mount St. Joseph College in Cincinnati, 
Ohio. Those interviewed discuss the de-
mands on their time, complain about the 



often erroneous view held by the public 
of academics, describe their career paths 
and express opinions on the value of li-
braries. While interesting, the interviews 
eventually become repetitious, and a 
sense of déjà vu confronts the reader, 
as he often encounters the same quotes 
used previously in the text. Despite the 
fact that this section serves an excellent 
purpose in demystifying faculty and 
building up empathy for them, it seems 
the book has been padded to create an 
appropriate length. The author might 
have interviewed faculty from larger 
or different institutions with different 
student populations than the ones at 
Mount St. Joseph. The one-sided nature 
of these interviewees limits the book’s 
effectiveness as well. If a counterbalance 
of interviews with academic librarians 
had been included, the book would have 
had a broader appeal and could have 
built a similar empathy for librarians; 
faculty reading the book could have been 
educated, and students entering the field 
of academic librarianship could have 
learned much about the ranks they would 
be joining, as well as learning about the 
lives of faculty members. Despite these 
shortcomings, the book succeeds in the 
aim of the Chandos series, of which this 
title is part, “to provide easy-to-read and 
(most importantly) practical coverage 
of topics that are of interest to librarians 
and other information professionals.” 
The book can provide some insight for 
the seasoned professional and will be of 
greatest use to students and those just 
embarking on a career in a college or 
university library.—Harlan Greene, College 
of Charleston. 

Making a Difference: Leadership and 
Academic Libraries. Eds. Peter Hernon 
and Nancy Rossiter. Westport, Conn.: 
Libraries Unlimited, 2007. 300p. alk. 
paper, $45 (ISBN 1591582911). LC 
2006-031713. 

This fine collection of essays provides a 
welcome introduction to the literature on 
leadership, ranging from exposition of 

Book Reviews 465 

management theory to administration of 
practical advice. Offering something for 
well-nigh everyone, Making a Diff erence 
includes articles that would be helpful 
to librarians at any stage of their careers. 
Editors Peter Hernon and Nancy Ros-
siter, both on the faculty of the Simmons 
College Graduate School of Library and 
Information Science, have done an ad-
mirable job in compiling valuable and 
relevant selections whose lessons can 
be internalized and executed by library 
administrators at every level.

 Significantly, Hernon and Rossiter, who 
between them have contributed twelve of 
the book’s eighteen essays, emphasize the 
distinction between leadership and mere 
management. In particular, Hernon as-
sesses the need for leadership in academic 
libraries and notes that leadership entails 
excellent communication skills involving 
“patient persistence in instituting orga-
nizational change, creativity, integrity, 
honesty, credibility and innovation,” all of 
which fashions a culture of trust within the 
organization. Hernon argues that skilled 
leadership is more essential than ever, as 
familiarity with information policy—with 
its constantly changing and complicated 
interplay between public policy, informa-
tion science, and economics—becomes 
ever more crucial for decision makers 
within academic libraries. Moreover, li-
brary leaders must know how to use inter-
personal skills to motivate personnel and 
promote teamwork among library staff. 
Successful library leaders cultivate and 
employ these skills strategically to gener-
ate necessary organizational change.

 Nancy Rossiter supplements this call 
to leadership with a literature review 
on leadership research. She focuses on 
standard theories of leadership, begin-
ning with the pre-classical “great man” 
model and segueing into discussion of 
classical leadership, which emphasizes 
traits of successful leaders. From there she 
moves on to more recent approaches such 
as progressive leadership incorporating 
transformation; postprogressive leader-
ship, which focuses on social change; and