Book ReviewsAssessing Digital Library Services

Edited by Thomas A. PetersReviewed by Alan Cornish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Digital LibrariesBy William Y. Arms

Reviewed by Christy Zlatos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Educational TechnologyBy Alan Januszewski

Reviewed by Tammy R. Siebenberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Internet Outsourcing Using an Application ServiceProviderBy Joseph R. Matthews

Reviewed by Terry Plum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Library Off-Site ShelvingEdited by Danuta A. Nitecki and Curtis L. Kendrick

Reviewed by Virginia Steel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Licensing Digital ContentBy Lesley Ellen Harris

Reviewed by Barry Hamilton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

More Secrets of ConsultingBy Gerald M. Weinberg

Reviewed by Donald E. Riggs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Off-Campus Library ServicesEdited by Anne Marie Casey

Reviewed by Harvey R. Gover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

The Social Life of InformationBy John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid

Reviewed by Terrence A. Brooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Subject Analysis in Online CatalogsBy Hope A. Olson and John J. Boll

Reviewed by Sandra K. Roe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Assessing Digital Library Services (special issue), editedby Thomas A. Peters. Library Trends, vol. 49, no. 2 (Fall2000): 221-385.

“Assessing Digital Library Services” is a Fall 2000 Li-brary Trends theme issue containing eight articles on the

evaluation of emergent digital resources. Several commonlessons can be drawn from the articles. First, evaluation hasnot received sufficient attention in the development of digitallibrary (DL) sites. As Tefko Saracevic notes, “evaluation ismore conspicuous by its absence (or just minimal presence)in the vast majority of published work on digital libraries, ineither research or practice” (p. 351). Second, all of the issuearticles emphasize the difficulty of the DL evaluation task.In his article on online reference services, Thomas A. Petersdefines assessment as “the deliberate process of comparingthe reality of a service against both its stated goals and therealm of the possibilities for such a service” (p. 335). Theneed to take into account “the realm of the possibilities” asonline reference services are being defined and to view on-line reference as something more than a simple extension oftraditional reference services underscores the difficulty ofassessment in this area.

The theme issue is unique because it provides a relativelycurrent review of assessment in a range of DL projects. Itscontent is similar to project reports appearing in ACM/JointDigital Libraries conference proceedings, but with a moredefined focus on assessment. (A forthcoming title of note inthe DL assessment area is Digital Library Use: Social Prac-tice in Design and Evaluation, which is edited by AnnBishop, Barbara Buttenfield, and Nancy Van House and isscheduled for publication by MIT Press in 2002.) TheSaracevic article is particularly valuable, in part because ofthe author’s creation of an integrated list of evaluation ele-ments and a review of contextual issues. Gary Marchionini’sarticle on the Perseus Digital Library (PDL) is valuable be-cause external evaluation has been a core part of the PerseusDL project since planning efforts began in the mid-1980s.He notes that “what is important for evaluation research is togather and integrate as many specific measures as feasiblewithout depending too much on any single measure” (p.326). Thus, the results of quantitative and qualitative re-search should be accumulated over time and reviewed to-gether, if resources permit. Additionally, Marchionini notesthat the quantitative data typically used for DL evaluation,such as information extracted from Web use logs, “demon-strate operational effects of the library but do not explainhow this usage impacts stakeholders” (p. 328). The bottomline is that assessment providing valuable information re-quires a greater commitment of resources and effort. A thirdarticle of note, because of its relationship to a mature DLproject, reports on the planning and early implementation ofthe Alexandria Digital Earth ProtoType (ADEPT). ADEPT isan extension of the Alexandria Digital Library (one of thesix DL projects funded under the 1994-1998 NSF DigitalLibraries Initiative) and is designed to support undergraduateeducation efforts in the earth sciences. The theme issue isrecommended reading for academic and research librariansinterested in learning more about the assessment process inthe electronic environment.—Alan Cornish, Systems Li-brarian, Washington State University Libraries, PO Box645610, Pullman, WA 99164-5610 �cornish@wsu.edu�.

Digital Libraries, by William Y. Arms. Cambridge, MA:MIT Press, 2000. 286p. $50.00. ISBN 0-262-01180-8. LC99-14773 (Digital Libraries and Electronic Publishing se-ries).

The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 28, Number 5, page 335–341 September 2002 335

If you want to learn more about the emerging field ofdigital libraries including terms like MIME or TCP/IP, orga-nizational acronyms like CNI or W3C, or programs likeAmerican Memory and the National Digital Library Programor the Digital Libraries Initiative, Digital Libraries providesan excellent introductory overview. The author is presentlyProfessor of Computer Science at Cornell University andone of the creators of D-Lib Magazine. In this work underreview, he surveys the field and excels at establishing defini-tions.

Digital libraries have been created from the merged ex-pertise of specialists (and their concomitant approaches tothe work) who deal with computers and networks, librarian-ship, publishing, economics, law and so on. Until recently,the community of librarians and publishers had little interac-tion with the community of computer scientists, but this allchanging. In Digital Libraries, Arms explores the interplayof people, organizations, and technology and attempts to pullall the contributions together.

Digital Libraries covers the entire field in 14 chapterstitled “Libraries, Technology, and People;” “The Internet andthe World Wide Web;” “Libraries and Publishers;” “Innova-tion and Research;” “People Organizations and Change;”“Economic and Legal Issues;” “Access Management andSecurity;” “User Interfaces and Usability;” “Text;” “Informa-tion Retrieval and Descriptive Metadata;” “Distributed Infor-mation Discovery;” “Object Models;” “Identifiers, and Struc-tural Metadata;” Repositories and Archives;” and “DigitalLibraries and Electronic Publishing Today.”

Although the author covers digital libraries of all typesincluding commercial collections of online science journals,in his preface, Arms asserts that he is “biased towards digitallibraries that provide open access to information” (p. x).Throughout the volume, the author emphasizes a culture ofopenness and sharing as integral in the original developmentof the Web and the Internet. His discussions of librarianship,publishing, economics, and law are all built on that under-pinning.

Most of the digital library examples come from the au-thor’s experience in the United States. Major American uni-versities are not the only digital library producers, but theydominate the development and figure prominently in the vol-ume.

As an excellent introductory overview of the digital li-brary field, Digital Libraries should be complimented for itsbreadth rather than its depth. I suspect that readers encoun-tering their own specialty will find the work a bit cursoryalthough accurate. It establishes the chronology of the his-tory very well. Cited references to works that offer addi-tional information would have been helpful, although DigitalLibraries does have a glossary and an index.

For academic librarians seeking an introduction to thefield or for teachers seeking a classroom textbook, DigitalLibraries is highly recommended.—Christy Zlatos, ActingHead of Reference, Holland Library, Washington StateUniversity, Pullman, WA 99164-5610 �zlatos@wsu.edu�.

Educational Technology: The Development of a Concept,by Alan Januszewski; forward by Andrew R. J. Yeaman.Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2001. 137p. $48.00.ISBN 1-56308-749-9 (paperback). LC 00-066318.

Unlike the many books written about the history of edu-cational technology that focus on the evolution of technol-ogy and its application to instruction, this unique book ex-amines the evolution of the concept itself. Alan Januszewski,Ph.D., an Associate Professor in the Department of Instruc-tional Technology, State University of New York at Pots-dam, provides as background a review of ideas from thefields of science and engineering in the first half of the 20th

century and the post-World War II audiovisual educationmovement, and explains how those ideas shaped what be-came known as educational technology. He then examinesthe definitions developed by the Association for EducationalCommunications and Technology (AECT) in 1963, 1972,1977, and 1994, devoting a chapter to each. Using the writ-ings of individuals who influenced the process, Januszewskidescribes the development of each definition and how it dif-fers from the previous one. He explores the changes in ter-minology (e.g., from Audiovisual Communications to Educa-tional Technology to Instruction Technology) and theconceptual shifts that resulted in each new definition, dis-cussing concepts including communication theory, learningtheory, and instructional development. Many of the conceptsare described with clear illustrations. The author concludeshis analysis by looking at problems inherent in creating defi-nitions.

Januszewski succeeds in capturing the “history of anidea” (p. xvii). His work is well written, scholarly, and sup-ported by extensive references in the text and bibliography.He draws together the ideas and comments about educationaltechnology written by scholars over the years, showing howthey influenced the concept’s development. The book’s in-dex allows the reader to look up the names of people influ-ential in the field and find out the role that each personplayed. References to influential works and concepts are alsoin the index.

In the foreword Andrew Yeaman, also an influential re-searcher and writer in the field, says, “This history . . . islikely to be placed on bibliographies of classic texts for mas-ter’s degree students . . . [and] be on the required reading listfor doctoral students . . . . In making connections with thepast, it will be referenced in professors’ lectures and cited inscholarly articles for its authoritative statements on the foun-dations of educational technology” (p. xi). The book ishighly recommended for research and academic libraries. Itwill also be of interest to professionals working with educa-tional technology.—Tammy R. Siebenberg, Science Li-brarian and Library Instruction Coordinator, Washing-ton State University, Owen Science and EngineeringLibrary, Pullman, Washington 99164-3200�tsieben@wsu.edu�.

Internet Outsourcing Using an Application Service Pro-vider, by Joseph R. Matthews. New York: Neal-SchumanPublishers, 2002. 127p. $55.00. ISBN 1-55570-422-0. LC2002–044010 (alk. paper). (How-To-Do-It Manuals for Li-brarians. Number 110).

In the early days of computer usage there was only theoffsite mainframe, and everyone outsourced computer powerthrough timesharing. Network connectivity was assuredthrough dedicated lines carrying ASCII information, the cli-ent device was the thinnest, and we paid by calculations ofCPU usage or the connect time. Now after various distrib-

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