Book Reviews 309

of any of these topics and manages to not 
insult any reader who may be knowl-
edgeable. His work offers a wonderfully 
succinct history of computers, as well as 
trends in American libraries after WWII; 
and it is up-to-date enough to mention 
recent developments such as the impact of 
catastrophic events of the “Arab Spring” 
on libraries. 

 The book can be used for many pur-
poses. A natural for library schools, it is 
also accessible to both professors and 
students; library board members or even 
development officers, or anyone inter-
ested in book arts or collecting. Libraries 
will find only the title tedious, none of its 
contents. As one nears the end looking for 
answers to the conflicts facing our indus-
try and institutions, the reader may find 
some suggestions and trends, but “history 
informs … it does not solve,“ the author 
wisely concludes. With such information 
and perspective gained from Valentine’s 
work, readers will not only be wiser but 
better prepared for what the future holds 
for us, books (printed and otherwise), and 
for our libraries.—Harlan Greene, College 
of Charleston.

David Lee King. Face2Face: Using Face-
book, Twitter, and Other Social Media 
Tools to Create Great Customer Connec-
tions. Chicago: Information Today, Inc., 
2012. 194p. alk. paper, $24.95 (ISBN 
9780910965996). LC2012-013506.

David Lee King, the author of Face2Face, 
has put together a wonderful resource for 
those just beginning to investigate social 
media as tools to deepen their connections 
with customers and patrons. Essentially, 
this book is about how to transition in-
person communication to the Internet. It 
is geared to reach a broad audience, and 
most of the examples are equally appli-
cable to businesses, organizations, and 
libraries both large and small. 

The social media services central to this 
book are Facebook, Twitter, blogs, You-
Tube, and Flickr. However, a number of 
other social media services are mentioned 
throughout the text. It is important to 

note that this is not a how-to-use guide 
for social media, and the author even 
states this. For those familiar with social 
media and have already integrated them 
into their organizations, a lot will be 
review. However, a few analytical tips or 
communication techniques mentioned 
in this book could probably benefit even 
seasoned experts. 

King stresses the importance of al-
lowing the human side to hang out in 
a casual businesslike manner to appear 
more approachable and authentic to our 
respective audiences. He lets readers see 
the dangers of coming across as “too 
corporate” and highlights common sense 
do’s and don’ts in most chapters. He also 
points out the importance of involving 
our communities in conversation through 
asking open-ended questions and reply-
ing quickly and succinctly to comments 
as appropriate. 

A mix of examples are pulled from 
King’s personal experiences as the Digital 
Services Director at the Topeka & Shaw-
nee County Public Library (Kansas), as 
well as other businesses he frequents like 
coffee and guitar shops, to provide broad 
perspectives. He takes his own advice 
and writes casually in a second-person 
perspective to readers, and this is largely 
what makes this book so engaging and 
refreshing. 

The usual dry topics of policies and 
copyright are condensed to the basics. 
Perhaps these topics are compressed a 
little too much, because the conversation 
and further readings are sparse. What 
King does cover is subtly interspersed 
throughout the text and written in ev-
eryday language. For example, he cites 
three of Flickr’s policies while discussing 
blogs, one of which is “Don’t be creepy. 
You know the guy. Don’t be that guy.” 

There is an entire chapter devoted to 
responding to criticism with instances 
of corporate blunders and successful re-
sponses with their customers. A ten-step 
outline is available for beginners to work 
through for how and when organizations 
should respond to online criticism. The 



310 College & Research Libraries May 2013

following three chapters walk through 
the first concrete steps of diving into the 
social media world (setting goals and 
workflow), measuring outreach success, 
and how to apply what has been learned 
through a fictional case study (Clyde’s 
Coffee Shop). 

For experienced social media adminis-
trators, the chapter on listening for com-
ments may be the most worthwhile part 
of the book. Again, much of the content 
is common knowledge, but the author 
points out specific listening tools such as 
Twitter Search, Google Alerts, BackType, 
TweetDeck, and FeedBurner. He also 
discusses direct and indirect listening 
techniques and methods to “visual lis-
ten” for mentions of your organization, 
competitors, or important industry buzz 
words. 

The index is adequate for the content 
and length of this book, although a few 
minor errors were noticed in the index 
(such as Apple’s 80-20 success rule, dis-
cussed on page 106, which was omitted 
from the index). A handy appendix that 
lists the referenced websites and social 
media services by chapter is available. 
Overall, Face2Face is recommended for 
organizations that are beginning to in-
vestigate and implement social media 
services.—John Repplinger, Willamette 
University. 

Publishing the Fine and Applied Arts 
1500–2000. Eds. Robin Myers, Mi-
chael Harris, and Giles Mandelbrote. 
London and New Castle, Del.: The 
British Library and Oak Knoll Press, 
2012. 194p. $55 (ISBN 9781584562993). 
LC2012-003887.

This is the latest volume to appear in the 
long-running (thirty-one years) series on 
British book trade history edited by Myers 
and Harris and, since 2000, Mandelbrote. 
Like previous volumes, this one grows 
out of a conference and, like all such 
volumes, contains a bag of mixed results. 

The theme of the present compilation 
is the diffusion of information about 
(chiefly) art, design, and architecture, 

chiefly in the 18th and 19th centuries. 
The contributions comprise a set of case 
studies in the transmission of tastes and 
techniques from the top down to ever-
expanding audiences over the course 
of the 19th century. Thus, Malcolm 
Jones documents in some detail how 
engraved border and framing motifs in 
printed French Books of Hours in the 
earlier 16th century found their way into 
church wood sculpture of the period in 
England—an interesting example of the 
unexpected ways in which this genre 
was appropriated in the early modern 
period. The grand country houses that 
began appearing throughout England in 
the 18th century were usually Palladian in 
concept and design. Charles Hind traces 
the bibliographic background to the dis-
semination of Palladio’s most important 
work, I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura, and 
shows along the way how difficult it was 
to produce a faithful translation of the 
work as well as how deeply Palladian 
concepts imbedded themselves in the 
popular building manuals of the 18th and 
19th centuries. 

A related contribution by Megan 
Doherty plots the bibliographic history 
of the most important drawing manual 
in the 17th century, A Book of Drawing, 
Limning, Washing or Coloring of Mapps 
and Prints. Continuously reprinted over 
the course of the century and “branded” 
as “Albert Durer Revived,” the work pro-
vided the principal text for young boys 
and men to learn how to draw. Though 
its content has nothing to do with Durer 
and, in fact, is rooted in earlier Italian 
traditions, its enormous popularity helps 
account for a curious characteristic of 
English drawing of the period: its ten-
dency to look like prints. Of course, that 
is because students were not taught to 
draw from “life” but from prints. 

My absolute favorite London Museum 
is Soane House, where the famous archi-
tect Sir John Soane lived in the late 18th 
and earlier 19th centuries. It is at once a 
residence, a studio, a gallery, and a library. 
It is stuffed with props, prints, and fur-