Book Reviews 727 Choosing to Lead: The Motivational Factors of Underrepresented Minority Librar- ians in Higher Education. Ed. Antonia P. Olivas. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, 2017. 151p. Paper, $38.00 (ISBN 978-083898887-9). Surveys of academic librarians completed by ALA and ARL have found that, while there are more people of color who have entered the profession in the past 20 years, there is still a gap in representation at the managerial level, and especially in upper management (vi–viii). They have also found that many library directors and upper managers are bound for retirement. While many people have called this looming cri- sis in librarianship (“the graying of the profession”) a myth, it does make for a good premise for this book: now is the time to think about how to fill some of those vacant leadership roles with librarians from diverse backgrounds. Choosing to Lead: The Motivational Factors of Underrepresented Minority Librarians in Higher Education is a compilation of eight essays, flanked by an introductory chapter and conclusion, written by librarians of color who have risen through the ranks into leader- ship positions. The book is edited by Antonia P. Olivas, Ed.D., librarian at California State. She explains that this book arose from an incomplete dissertation mission, which was “to look at the retention factors of African American, Latin@, American Indian, Asian Pacific Islander, and Chinese American academic librarians” (1)—representatives from members of all of the ALA ethnic caucuses. Her committee wisely recommended scaling the actual dissertation research back, leaving the thorough pursuit as a post- defense project. The result is presented here in a very readable format of personal es- says written by library leaders representing the various caucuses. We have the editor and her committee to thank for saving this for a postdissertation project, because it is a much more readable and interesting format than most dissertations. Rather than providing a scientific report of retention factors, this book feels more like inspiration for librarians of color in their own journey to leadership, and it should certainly serve that purpose well. It provides lots of varied advice for new librarians about forging their own leadership pathways in spite of the odds. However, it is more widely applicable than that. Some of the stories discuss the responsibilities that academic library administrators have for creating pathways to upper management positions for historically underrepresented groups. It also provides general advice for managers, including advice to learn everyone’s name; learning to manage people takes time; and managing is not the same as leading. While the book is written as advice for minority librarians, the personal stories can also help people who are not minorities become more attuned to the pressures and expectations facing their colleagues and other staff members of color. For instance, minorities might feel pressure to represent their ethnicity when they are the first or only person of their ethnic group to work in their library. Many minorities in higher education, including libraries, also often bear the burden of “invisible work”—mean- ing that they might be asked to mentor young people of color or first-generation col- lege students, serve on diversity committees, serve on committees that need minority representation, or even create all of the special displays related to the Civil Rights movement. This often comes with a price of working late nights to finish regular job duties and assignments. While they might not necessarily resent the work, managers need to help protect them so that they are able to thrive in their assigned positions. New librarians of color also need to hear that it is okay to speak up when they are overburdened with such invisible work and service. From my own vantage point as an LIS educator, this would also be a good book to discuss in a course on management, diversity in LIS, or academic librarianship, or even as part of a book club or other extracurricular activity. It presents several ideas doi:10.5860/crl.78.5.727 728 College & Research Libraries July 2017 that are universally applicable (mentorship, getting involved in professional associa- tions). It could be an excellent basis for conversations about race in librarianship. It would be a way to present the ethnic caucuses as sources of support and camaraderie. At the same time, it could help all students understand how to be a source of support for their colleagues when they enter the job market. Some chapters give great advice to managers in their own leadership journey. For instance, learn everyone’s name; it will make you more effective as a manager and leader, and learning to manage takes a lot of time. It gives advice but also offers specific advice to minority or people of color like, the work is extra hard because you can’t fail and people see you as a reflection of your ethnicity if you’re the only one. The stories illustrate that, instead presenting the graying of the profession as a crisis, it is an opportunity for the profession to step up efforts to recruit, retain, and promote minority librarians so that they can fill the ranks of retiring management and leader- ship.—Jenny S. Bossaller, University of Missouri New Directions for Special Collections: An Anthology of Practice. Eds. Lynne M. Thomas and Beth M. Whittaker. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Libraries Unlimited, 2017. 249p. $85.00 (ISBN 978-1-4408-4290-0). In their introduction to New Directions for Special Collections: An Anthology of Practice, Lynne M. Thomas and Beth M. Whittaker outline their approach: rather than create a current guide or textbook for a field where best practices, technology, and expectations are changing rapidly, they endeavor to provide a “snapshot” of where the field is now. An open call for submissions, along with a few solicited contributions, has resulted in twenty-one chapters from a diverse group of special collections, metadata, and preservation librarians, as well as conservators, directors, and archivists, speaking to various components of their work as it stands today, and as they see it evolving in the future (descriptions of the individual authors’ background are included). Each chapter can stand alone, and there are no groupings according to subject (the index is perfectly adequate for searching within the chapters). Chapter 1, “The Rare Book Librarian’s Day, Revisited,” by Melanie Griffin, is a modern day answer to Daniel Traister’s 1986 article on what a rare book librarian position truly entails, and a much needed update of a still circulated text. Griffin’s article makes clear how much has changed in the thirty years since Traister’s article was first published and just how necessary New Directions is to the field. Many library school students still read Traister’s article (this reviewer read it only a few years ago). Happily, it can now be read in conjunction with Griffin’s updated version, which of- fers both a picture of the practicalities of special collections librarianship today (“The great recession of 2008 is still an economic reality here. Funds are tight, expectations are high, and staffing levels have continuously plummeted over the past five years” [2]) as well as a more holistic and inclusive approach to defining special collections librarianship. Over a series of six interviews, Griffin seeks answers to the questions, “What is it that we do? What makes a special collections librarian a special collections librarian? Is it our job function, the materials we work with, or a combination of the two” (5). Perhaps not surprisingly, the answer comes back as “it depends,” setting the stage for the following twenty chapters. Not every chapter in this collection is a standout, although the best are bursting with a passion for both primary materials and the workflows that support their stew- ardship. While impossible to cover all aspects of special collections librarianship, the anthology runs the gamut. John Overholt’s “Collecting Printed Books in a Digital Age” gives the bullet points necessary to demonstrate value for special collections and is a delightful read. “Special Files on the Semantic Web: Using Linked Data to Revitalize doi:10.5860/crl.78.5.728