Book Reviews 525

Chapter 9 focuses on the complexities 
of copyright law and less about how copy-
right relates to rare books. Topics include 
public domain, fair use, unpublished 
works, orphan works, physical and intel-
lectual property, and the general impor-
tance of copyright. Chapter 10, “Outreach,” 
is divided into three parts: “Finding and 
Working with Your Local Communities,” 
“Reaching beyond Local Communities,” 
and “Exhibitions and Exhibition Loans.” 
Part 1 focuses on groups of people that rare 
book librarians should target to get them 
more interested and involved with rare 
book collections and libraries. Specifically, 
the authors outline various constituencies 
that rare book librarians should develop 
working relationships with such as faculty, 
students, local communities, friends of 
the library, donors, and the development 
office. Part 2 discusses ways in which 
rare book librarians can reach out to these 
various constituencies. The authors state, 
“[Y]ou are serving your users best when 
you are meeting their needs and meeting 
them where they are. They are online. And 
you need to be, too” (144). With this said, 
Galbraith and Smith state that some of 
the best online outlets to reach audiences 
include blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other 
social media platforms. The third part dis-
cusses the importance of doing exhibits 
that feature rare books, and the policies and 
procedures recommended when loaning 
materials for exhibit at another institution.

The last two chapters of the book focus 
on continuing education and reference 
resources. Chapter 11 discusses the impor-
tance of a rare book librarian being both a 
librarian and a scholar. The authors provide 
lists of ALA-accredited library schools, rare 
book schools, societies and organizations, 
journals, and discussion lists—all of which 
can be helpful for a rare book librarian. 
Finally, chapter 12 provides bibliographies 
broken down into categories such as book 
terminology, book history, book illustra-
tion, bookbinding, conservation and pres-
ervation, and much more.

This book provides a practical over-
view of the basic functions of a rare book 

librarian and what skills and knowledge 
are necessary to be successful in the field. 
While the book advertises its coverage of 
digital technologies and how digitization 
relates to rare books, the section in which 
this is discussed is brief and covers only the 
basics of digitization. If one is looking for 
more in-depth discussion about digitiza-
tion and how it relates to rare books, this 
handbook would not be the best resource 
to consult. This handbook is recommended 
for any rare book and special collections 
librarian, teachers and students in library 
science, or anyone charged with the care 
of rare books.—Katie Nash, Elon University.

Past or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate 
Learning through Special Collections 
and Archives. Eds. Eleanor Mitchell, 
Peggy Seiden, and Suzy Taraba. Chi-
cago: American Library Association, 
2012. 320p. $40.00 (ISBN 978-0-8389-
8610-3). LC 2012-6254.

As a librarian (not to mention a curator), it 
is heartening to see the array of imagina-
tive programs and initiatives developed 
in over forty institutions nationwide 
using special collections and archives to 
engage undergraduates with primary 
materials. Past or Portal? is not only an 
excellent progress report on what I view 
as a new energy in special collections 
librarianship in the wake of mass digitiza-
tion, it is also an effective sourcebook for 
practitioners to use to develop program-
matic ideas for their own collections.

There are forty-seven chapters divided 
into four sections: “The Artifact,” which 
includes eleven case studies focused on 
objects and their contexts; “The Peda-
gogy,” which contains eighteen chapters 
on innovative methods using primary 
materials; “The Program,” which pres-
ents six case studies addressing broad, 
multidisciplinary approaches to teaching 
with special collections; and “The Work,” 
which contains twelve chapters “about 
programs where students are involved 
directly in the work of special collections 
as part of coursework, as student workers, 
or in internships” (xii–xiii). 



526 College & Research Libraries September 2013

The contributed chapters vary a great 
deal in terms of style and structure, which 
is to be expected from an anthology as 
large and varied as Past or Portal?, and 
the introductory paragraphs framing 
each case get repetitive after a while. But 
the book is not really meant to be read 
front-to-back, and the editors have done 
a fine job of organizing and introducing 
this cornucopia of cases. The project was 
inspired in part by a survey of the use of 
special collections in Oberlin Group librar-
ies by Susan M. Allen, published in Rare 
Books and Manuscripts Librarianship in 1999 
(Spring issue); a decade later, after years of 
seeing such initiatives publicized in library 
newsletters, the possibility of a volume 
of case studies was raised at an Oberlin 
Group meeting by Peggy Seiden (one of 
the editors), which received support from 
several library directors. A call for abstracts 
in 2010 generated nearly 100 proposals, so 
the editors expanded their original idea of 
publishing thirty case studies to include a 
total of forty-seven. For the sake of brevity, 
I will touch on only a few studies to give 
readers a sense of the spectrum.

In the “Artifact” section, a particularly 
compelling case related to literary history 
was the chapter on an initiative at the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, entitled “Crazy 
for Pamela in the Rare Books Library: 
Undergraduates Reflect on Doing Original 
Research in Special Collections.” This col-
laboration between special collections staff 
and Professor Toni Bowers centered on the 
course called “The Pamela Craze,” encour-
ages students to discover the “universe of 
responses, critiques, parodies, spurious 
continuations and back-stories, operas, 
burlesques and farces, poetry and songs, 
fashion, and pornography” issued in the 
wake of Samuel Richardson’s first novel 
Pamela, published in 1740. A transcript 
of the final class meeting in the spring of 
2010 vividly demonstrates the pedagogi-
cal impact on the twelve students in the 
course. In terms of earlier book history, 
Ohio State University’s Eric Johnson’s con-
tribution offers an excellent template for 
the study of medieval manuscripts, even 

by nonspecialists. In “Seeing through the 
‘Priest’s Eye’: Teaching Medieval Codicol-
ogy and Book History through William of 
Pagula’s Oculus sacerdotis,” Johnson states 
that, “By using a manuscript copy of the 
Oculus as a lens through which we can 
examine the complex intellectual, cultural, 
artistic, and material histories underlying 
medieval books and their production, we 
can figuratively and literally see through 
the Eye of the Priest and realize that we 
do not need to look at or understand a 
manuscript’s textual content in order to 
make use of it as a powerful and practical 
pedagogical tool.” Also in this section are 
chapters on using artists’ books (Skidmore 
College), conducting “speed-dating” 
show-and-tell sessions (Merton College, 
Oxford), and “embedding” a special col-
lections librarian in the classroom (Wake 
Forest University).

In the “Pedagogy” section, a collabo-
ration between the University Archives 
and Harvard Yard Archeology Project 
is a stunning example of mixing history, 
archeology, archives, and even school 
spirit! An interesting contrast is the sec-
tion on “Teaching Digital History through 
the University Archives: The Case of 
Nebraska U: A Collaborative History,” 
which describes a project involving un-
dergraduates to “help prioritize, digitize, 
and contextualize materials held within 
the University Archives.” Another excel-
lent use of special collections is related 
by David Pavelich, of the University of 
Chicago, who details “five examples 
of creative writing sessions held in the 
Special Collections Research Center,” 
including a session on newspapers, maps, 
magazines, and ephemera for students 
writing historical fiction, and another 
using literary manuscript collections to 
compare authors’ drafts to published 
pieces, as well as correspondence with 
editors, to learn about the writing and 
publishing process.

Representatives at Augustana College 
report (in the “Program” section) on the 
efficacy of the use of faculty stipends to 
incorporate material in special collections 



Book Reviews 527

into their courses, which has increased the 
“use statistics” in the department expo-
nentially (and has also, the authors warn, 
impacted the staff workflow dramati-
cally). Of potential use to similar institu-
tions is the chapter by Laura Baudot and 
Wendy Hyman (Oberlin College) about 
“Building a Book Studies Program at a 
Liberal Arts College”; they conducted a 
Mellon 23 workshop and hope that their 
study “has illustrated the initial steps 
that can be taken to set up a book studies 
program, the various players that need to 
be involved, the necessity of collaboration 
between faculty and librarians, and the 
advantages of following up on meetings 
and ideas relatively quickly.”

In the “Work” section, Marianne Hen-
son (Bryn Mawr College) offers some ex-
cellent advice related to having students 
curate exhibitions in “Real Objects, Real 
Spaces, Real Expertise: An Undergradu-
ate Seminar Curates an Exhibition on the 
Medieval Book of Hours.” Similarly, Ma-
linda Triller (Dickinson College) presents 
a useful study for the 21st-century cura-
tor in her article on “Social Networking 
Software in the Archives: Using Blogs to 
Engage Students with Primary Sources.” 
Finally, I want to notice an inspiring 
study by Christina Connor and Stephen 
Rice (Ramapo College of New Jersey) on 
“The American History Textbook Proj-
ect: The Making of a Student-Centered 
Special Collection at a Public Liberal 
Arts College,” which actually created 
student-driven acquisitions for a research 
collection, a fabulous way to get students 
invested in an institution.

There is something in Past or Portal? 
for anyone working in special collections 
who wishes to engage students with book 
and printing history, manuscripts and 
archives, digital humanities, literature, 
history, or even the history of science. 
It is a superb sourcebook, and I would 
suggest that my colleagues buy two cop-
ies—one for their collection, and one as a 
“working” copy to be kept close at hand 
and used like a cookbook in a kitchen. 
—Richard J. Ring, Trinity College.

Library Leadership in the United States 
and Europe: A Comparative Study of 
Academic and Public Libraries. Eds. 
Peter Hernon and Niels Ole Pors. Santa 
Barbara, Calif.: Libraries Unlimited, 
an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2013. 
231p. paper, $60.00 (ISBN 978-1-61069-
126-0).

Libraries Unlimited, an imprint of ABC-
CLIO, can always be counted on for excel-
lent publications that support the practice 
of all areas of librarianship. Although 
those interested in leadership might find 
some of the theories covered in this book 
useful, their application is more scholarly 
and theoretical than practical. This is logi-
cal, since both of the editors are highly 
respected scholars of library leadership 
and management, and much of the book 
looks at the library leadership landscape 
across two continents. Professor Hernon 
represents the United States perspective 
while Professor Pors and the other four 
contributors represent the European 
perspective. 

The book is divided into four parts: an 
introduction, an overview of leadership 
in the United States and Europe, themes, 
and a conclusion. The overview and the 
themes include most of the chapters. The 
introduction and the overview spends 
a significant amount of time discussing 
leadership theory and frames many or-
ganizational dynamics and management 
issues within these different theories. 
Hernon’s chapter on library leadership 
in the United States is comprehensive: 
he explores how the profession is at-
tempting to address the need for ongoing 
development of leaders. The remaining 
overview chapters deal almost entirely 
with Europe. Again, there is a lot of time 
spent talking about different leadership 
and organizational theories, as well as 
management practices. It is within these 
chapters that the cultures of the different 
countries begin to be explored. Culture 
is an underlying theme throughout the 
entire book and it is appropriately given 
ample discussion under the themes sec-
tion of the book. The work of a select few