Book Reviews 201

Each case study examines how an 
archive has used a Web 2.0 tool such as 
wikis, blogs, Flicker, Facebook, YouTube, 
and Second Life. The case studies fol-
low the general layout: overview of the 
repository and the “business drivers,” 
implementation of the tool and results, 
challenges and lessons learned, and fu-
ture directions. Most of these case studies 
are short (10 to 15 pages long) and contain 
what one might expect after having al-
ready been exposed to these technologies. 

While many of the chapters focus on 
different uses of Web 2.0 technologies, 
they carry the common theme of interac-
tion with their users. The Louis Round 
Wilson Special Collections Library at 
UNC, for example, shares how they 
created a blog that keeps their staff, do-
nors, and patrons aware of the progress 
on processing collections. The Prints & 
Photographs Division of the Library of 
Congress uses Flickr not only to provide 
historical images and information to the 
general public but also to harness interest 
from “Flickr History Detectives” to fill in 
gaps of missing information about im-
ages such as names of unknown people 
or locations. 

Some of the information in the case 
studies will naturally become outdated 
as technology evolves. However, the real 
selling point of this book is how these 
experiences fit into broader contexts and 
examine complex issues surrounding the 
use of Web 2.0 tools. The section entitled 
“Balancing Archival Authority with En-
couraging Authentic Voices to Engage 
with Records,” for example, discusses 
issues of archival authority. These themes 
are then woven throughout the following 
five case study chapters. 

The remainder of the book consists of 
a section of commentaries, which include 
interesting solicited interview questions 
from the user ’s perspective (historian, 
genealogist, and companies that provide 
access to archival documents). The last 
three chapters discuss the current needs 
that archivists should keep in mind in the 
Web 2.0 environment, such as privacy or 

potential versus real benefits, barriers 
(old and new) of these technologies, and 
the possible futures with existing and 
futuristic Internet tools. 

Overall, A Different Kind of Web is high-
ly recommended for institutions that have 
archives, especially for those who have 
or are considering the implementation 
of Web 2.0 technologies. This would also 
be an incredible resource for those enter-
ing into the archival profession. While 
the Internet tools discussed in this book 
will undoubtedly change over time, the 
principles discussed here will hold true 
in the years to come.—John Repplinger, 
Willamette University. 

Joel Silver. Dr. Rosenbach and Mr. Lilly: 
Book Collecting in a Golden Age. New 
Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll, 2011. 144p. 
$49.95 (ISBN 9781584562955). LC 
2011-030561. 

Readers of this journal will be familiar 
with Joel Silver, who has, for many years, 
served as Librarian and Curator of Books 
at the Lilly Library, Indiana University; 
has taught generations of students and 
staff the basics of bibliography and book 
history; and has written prolifically 
on books and the book trade. With the 
present title, he looks no further than 
his own backyard, focusing his atten-
tion on the founder and benefactor of 
his institution. Originally published in 
a limited edition in 2010, Dr. Rosenbach 
and Mr. Lilly reappears here in a fresh 
and more accessible Oak Knoll edition. 
It presents the correspondence between 
two giants of the book world in the 20th 
century: the collector, Josiah Kirby Lilly, 
Jr., and the illustrious bookseller, A.S.W. 
Rosenbach. The grandson of Eli Lilly, the 
patriarch of the pharmaceutical giant in 
Indianapolis, Josiah Lilly was a low-key 
but determined collector who, like many, 
did it by the book. Various books and lists, 
in fact, including the Grolier One-Hundred, 
which led him to the likes of Rosenbach. 
While Lilly bought from many dealers, 
Rosenbach was the giant of his day, and 
if your goal was assembling in the Grolier 



202 College & Research Libraries March 2012

arsenal, “the Doctor,” as he was known, 
was your go-to guy. The correspondence 
between the two has survived and pro-
vides the basis for Silver’s retrospective 
journey. It is a peek at the bibliophilic 
world of the 1930s and 1940s seen through 
a very fine lens. What do you see?

In brief, you follow the insistent and 
rhetorically fulsome Dr. Rosenbach pursue 
a matter-of-fact businessman, who knew 
what he wanted and what he was willing 
to pay for it. The backdrop is the Depres-
sion, when times were tough for most, but 
some managed to float above the worst of 
it. Rosenbach thrived in part because he 
had enough customers of Lilly’s means 
and then some. If Lilly bought from several 
dealers, Rosenbach sold to collectors with 
even deeper pockets than Lilly’s. The two 
needed each other, but there were always 
other options. Armed with his lists and 
guides, Lilly was, nevertheless, his own 
man when it came to collecting. He had 
no problem fending the unctuous Doctor 
off if the price were wrong or the quality of 
the book not up to his expectations. Rosen-
bach, for his part, stared the Depression in 
the face and kept his prices high. In a sales 
pitch that resonates with the present grim 
moment, the Doctor touted the enduring 
value of his stock amidst the fickle markets 
for other investments: “The markets of 
the world have suffered severe declines, 
many investments on the exchanges of all 
countries are today less than half of what 
they brought two years ago. No one knows 
what some of them will be worth a year or 
ten hence. Look up that picture and this 
[that is, his catalogue]. Most of the books 

in this exhibition [that is, catalogue] are 
impervious to the vicissitudes of nations, 
men, or markets. They are examples of the 
great book that looks on tempests and is 
never shaken.” The doctor was never one 
to understate the case.

As Lilly’s tastes evolved and changed, 
his relationship with Rosenbach began 
to ebb. In the late 1930s, Lilly moved into 
a more traditional collecting niche for 
bibliophiles on this continent: Americana. 
And with this shift, his dealings with 
Rosenbach began to abate. He had other 
sources for these titles, though Rosenbach 
always had the big fish. However, the 
fortunes of these two iconic figures ran in 
parallel subsequently. In 1950, Rosenbach 
and his brother (and partner) Philip laid 
the legal foundations for the creation of 
their posthumous legacy, the Rosenbach 
Library and Museum, in Philadelphia. 
Lilly came to similar conclusions in 
the 1950s, and in 1960 the Lilly Library 
opened on the Bloomington campus of 
Indiana University.

Alas, Silver’s project may be too nar-
rowly conceived to be of general interest. 
It is full of information about prices sought 
and prices realized, and it does document 
a relationship that played a role in insti-
tution building. But it is not much more 
than that. The basic problem Silver has is 
the lack of a narrative: this is not so much 
a story but a chronicle. Thus he gives his 
two protagonists ample opportunity to 
speak for themselves by quoting exten-
sively from their extant correspondence. 
Sometimes this can be interesting and 
revealing, but more often than not it is 
fairly humdrum. It is not clear why Silver 
chose so narrow a focus, though I suspect 
it must have had something to do with the 
simple survival of the correspondence. 
But, in that case, a better approach for him 
and for the reader might have been to do 
what the Grolier Club did a few years ago 
with its bundle of letters between Sydney 
Cockerell and the American collector 
Harold Pierce: produce an edited volume. 
There, one can directly read the exchanges 
between the procurer and the buyer, 

Index to advertisers
ACRL Publications 204
Annual Reviews 109
Archival Products 114
CHOICE Reviews Online 110
Counting Opinions cover 2
Digital Libr. Sys. Grp. cvr 4, 131, 133  
EBSCO cover 3
Informs 195
Joblist 196



Book Reviews 203

helped along the way by generous annota-
tions. The relationship between these two 
players shared a similar asymmetry as did 
Silver’s: the rhetorically nimble Cockerell 
confronting the laconic businessman, 
Pierce. The Grolier volume works better 
for me than Silver’s, though both are solid 
contributions to book history.

The book comes with abundant illus-
trations and an annotated list of Lilly’s 
purchases from Rosenbach.—Michael 
Ryan, Columbia University.

Bryan M. Carson. Finding the Law: Legal 
Research for Librarians and Paralegals. 
Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 
2011. 281p. alk. paper, $65 (ISBN 
0810881055). LC 2011-009655.

Conducting legal research can be daunt-
ing for those who have not received 
extensive training on the American legal 
systems and related research materials. 
The sources used in legal research are 
often significantly different from those 
for other disciplines; at the same time, 
the legal process itself can be difficult for 
the uninitiated to follow, further compli-
cating the research process. In this book, 
Bryan M. Carson, who has a background 
in law, librarianship, and education, aims 
to clarify the legal research process by 
combining historical background of the 
U.S. legal system, descriptions of legisla-
tive and judicial processes, and extensive 
lists of key legal resources in a single text 
that is clearly intended for those who are 
new to the legal field. 

The book is divided into nine chapters 
on specific areas of legal research, with 
a final tenth chapter on the “Past and 
Future of Legal Research.” Starting with 
an overview of American history with 
a focus on the formation of our current 
form of government, it then provides an 
introduction to understanding and find-
ing legal materials to form a foundation 
for the more specific information in the 
later chapters of the book. To alleviate the 
confusion many feel upon first encounter-
ing legal citations, Carson includes useful 
diagrams of common types of legal cita-

tions to give users the tools to understand 
how legal references are cited and the 
information they convey about the legal 
process through which the documents 
were created. The second chapter also 
includes an extensive, and largely anno-
tated, list of sources including both free 
and subscription Web sites and databases 
as well as additional print resources per-
taining to legal research.

Each of the subsequent chapters of the 
book follows the pattern of providing 
an overview of the legal topic covered, 
followed by a list of the recommended 
sources on the topic. While not all 
sources are annotated, many are; and, 
of particular interest, the entries for se-
lected electronic resources include tips 
on constructing searches. Each chapter 
also includes additional information on 
sources and substantive legal matters in 
footnotes found at the end of the chapter. 
The chapters cover all of the branches of 
government as well as international law 
and its place in our legal system and a 
chapter on the Freedom of Information 
Act , which includes an overview of how 
to file a FOIA request. The penultimate 
chapter of the book discusses state legal 
systems and walks readers through the 
process of researching legal matters in 
Kentucky and Massachusetts by way of 
example. The final chapter discusses the 
development of legal research to date and 
its future, including the changing nature 
of legal research as a result of increasing 
availability of digital resources. 

Throughout the book, Carson includes 
tips and advice written by or based on 
work from other experts, as in the case of 
the discussion of Massachusetts state legal 
research, which was written by a legal ref-
erence librarian from Massachusetts. This 
adds other perspectives and expertise to 
the book for a more well-rounded discus-
sion of the topic. The book also includes 
a number of finding aids following the 
final chapter including a bibliography, 
an index, a table of cases, and a table of 
statutes, making it a practical option as a 
quick reference source.