Information access and adaptive technology

ments and partnerships with vendors and end-user providers responding to the many “leading indicators” in the collection development environment. One author, Billings (UT Austin), makes clear that: libraries must modify and update collection development policies and procedures to recognize that the local collection will evolve into one enhanced and extended by digital technologies and electronic information sources. Policies for managing and sharing national and global mega-collections will emerge from the construction of cooperative programs on a stage that far transcends concerns for building the local collection (p. 4)

Billings delineates the trade-off between local control, on the one hand, and, on the other, the availability of funding for aggregating by discipline and sharing resources rather than for institutional specialization. He sees a future characterized by information resources management: the inability of libraries to keep pace, continuing flood of print publications, and increasing homogeneity of collections with consequent narrowing of access to scholarly information. Billings argues that one way to combat this is to modify and update collection development policies to include: first, elements outlining parameters of the new environment; second, expanded guidelines for acquisition of Internet resources, a computing and learning-centered rather than teacher-centered environment; and, finally, a paradigm shift to management of information analogous to the role of HMO’s in the health field. Owens (Bucknell) uses the metaphor of corporate branding and market segmentation to suggest strategies for libraries, while Hamaker (LSU) argues for enhanced document delivery to ameliorate the spiraling costs of serials. Frederick Lynden (Brown) outlines strategies to obtain the benefits of resource-sharing. Ferguson and Kehoe (Columbia) present their specific study of “predator” publishers and titles and their responses. Sittig (LC) describes the opportunities of national libraries’ to provide a leadership role in this changing environment. Kennedy (Readmore) proposes model partnerships of vendors and libraries, and Lenzini (CARL) describes new roles for collection developers. The bottom line is that collection development policies must evolve to take into account issues of concern to librarians, vendors, as well as network administrators. The conference papers are a “good read,” well-edited, and remarkably free of cant and buzzwords; the vision is grounded in reality. Though published conference papers cannot convey the spirit of the ensuing discussion, it is clear these presenters were astutely chosen.-Helen Heitmann Ives, American University Library, 4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20016 . Gateway to Knowledge: The Role of Academic Libraries in Teaching, Learning, and Research, edited by Lawrence Dowler. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 240~. $35.00 cloth. ISBN o-262-04 159-6. Dowler, Associate Librarian of Harvard College, provides a provocative metaphor for the emerging role of the academic library. He envisions the library as the gateway to knowledge contained in both the traditional print-based formats and electronic-based formats. Included in this work are 15 essays based on papers presented at a conference convened to examine the future of research libraries. The proposed remodeling of the 50year-old Lamont Library, the principal undergraduate library at Harvard University, served as the impetus for the conference.

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Contributors include scholars within the library profession, such as Richard De Gennario, Peter Lyman, Jan Olsen, and Anita Lowey; scholars from such disciplines as history, physics, and English; and academic administrators, such as Billy E. Fyre, provost of Emory University. Dowler divides the book into six sections and provides an insightful and thoughtful introduction to each section that gives important cohesiveness often lacking in an edited work. This book is not for the casual reader. Each essay demands careful reading and reflection. While not intended as a textbook, one can easily conceive using it as the text for a doctoral-level seminar in library and information science. Each week only one essay would be analyzed, and discussed. So provocative are the issues that one also can easily envision the discussions going well beyond the usual two-to-three hour seminar period. The contributions are multi-dimensional. Nevertheless, some contributors are more insistent than others on their vision of the new role for the academic library and the academic librarian. Others, while they do not strongly disagree with the vision of the libraries as gateways to knowledge, also defend the book and traditional library services. Some contributors wrote expansively about new sources of information and ways of libraries making information available. Others wonder about the need for all this information and express fears it may overwhelm the researcher. In short, there is something for everyone in this book. Technology goes a long way in promising to offer just what many librarians suspect most researchers want. “I want what I want, when I want it, and where I want it! “What is so difficult about that?” a researcher supposedly once proclaimed to an academic librarian. Even with recent technological advances, responding to such expectations remains, at best, difficult. The difficulty may even increase as technological advances (and the promises of them) stimulates scholars’ imaginations to expect even more of libraries and librarians. The reader will find evidence of such expanded expectations in this book. For those who desire a glimpse into the future of academic libraries, Gateways to Knowledge is highly recommended reading. If there is one message that one should retain from the book, it is that academic librarians cannot afford to standstill. We must seek to accomplish the “difficult” (and perhaps the impossible) by looking both forwards and backwards while running as fast as we can in an effort to at least not lose ground. One additional recommendation: readers should purchase a personal copy so they can indulge their urge without guilt to underline all the passages with which they strongly agree and disagreemaybe sharpening an extra pencil also would be wise.-Larry Hardesty, College Librarian and Professor, Abel1 Library, Austin College, 900 North Grand Avenue, Sherman, TX 75090 . Information Access and Adaptive Technology, by Norman Coombs and Carmela Cunningham. Phoenix, AZ: American Council on Education and The Oryx Press, Phoenix, AZ. 1997. 2 16~. $34.95 (plus 10% shipping and handling). ISBN O89774-992-8. Finally, a work that simply and accurately identifies higher education’s obligations to people with disabilities. Providing a broad, practical approach to resolving issues involved with adaptive computing technology, the authors speak from experience. Norman Coombs, who is blind, is a history professor who is world renowned in presenting workshops and lectures in the

field of adaptive information technology. Co-author Carmela Cunningham has been very active in the EASI (Easy Access to Software and Information) adaptive technology organization. Together, they describe, in detail, what it takes to “level the playing field” in providing equal access to computing and library information services for people with disabilities. This work is largely based on a three-year EASI seminar series. Included is an excellent review of legislation affecting people with disabilities and the resultant requirements for fulfillment. Of particular help are the chapters which outline specific steps in planning, implementation, awareness approaches, and assessment techniques. A very useful problem-barrier list with specific approaches to resolution is also given. The answers are carefully considered and based upon the authors’ experiences. A unique chapter deals with people with disabilities in science, mathematics, and engineering where complicated formulae, equations, and notation are involved. This poses a tremendous challenge for users and the authors offer solutions which are largely unknown and need to be publicized. Model libraries are identified along with a useful list of resources that can keep one abreast of the field are incorporated. If used in conjunction with Library Buildings, Equipment, & ADA (American Library Association, 1996), edited by Susan E. Cirillo and Robert E. Danford, this book will present extremely well, a methodology for how to establish a model adaptive technology system. Recommended for all college and university libraries and adaptive technology centers.-Joe Jax, Director, Library Learning Center, University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, WI 54751 [email protected]>. Managing the Organizational Melting Pot: Dilemmas of Workplace Diversity, edited by Pushkala Prasad, Albert J. Mills, Michael Elmes, and Anshuman Prasad. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997. 395~~. $27.95. ISBN o-8039-7410-8. This collection of essays on diversity in the organizational setting was developed from a symposium organized by the Eastern Academy of Management in 1993 and held at Providence, Rhode Island. Divided into four sections and 15 chapters, Managing the Organizational Melting Pot provides a scholarly discourse on the subject of “difference in organizations.” “Managing diversity,” a popular management philosophy in organizations of all types from corporations to educational institutions, refers to the systematic and planned commitment on the part of organizations to recruit and retain employees from diverse backgrounds and implies the active recognition and appreciation of the increasingly multicultural nature of contemporary organizations. The editors sought to contribute to the management literature by examining what they describe as the shadow side of diversity: “the cracks in the mosaic, the tears in the quilt, the scalding temperature of the melting pot” (p. 5). These include ongoing problems of racial tensions, gender frustrations, and individual and institutional resistance. They offer a variety of theoretical frameworks and provide numerous examples for understanding these dilemmas and others. In Part I, “From Showcase to Shadow,” Prasad and Mills describe the dilemmas of managing workplace diversity and argue that the current approach to diversity is largely cultural, mostly voluntary, and often viewed as an economic good for organizations. The shadows or problems are often downplayed or minimized, yet continue to exist. Hence, this volume is intended to address core issues. In Part 11, “Theorizing the

Dilemmas of Workplace Diversity,” seven scholars offer fresh perspectives into organizational dilemmas by employing such theoretical frameworks as institutional theory, postmodernism, feminism, class analysis, cultural history, Jungian psychology, realism, and post-colonial theory. For example, J. Michael Cavanaugh, in Chapter 2, draws upon institutional theory and ideological critique to frame a political metaphor of race and gender issues in organizations. Collete Oseen, in “Sexually Specific Subject and the Dilemmas of Difference” (Chapter 3), uses postmodernism to explore sameness and difference in hierarchial relationships in the workplace. Roy Jacques theorizes identities and diversity in “Unbearable Whiteness of Being: Reflections of a Pale, Stale Male” (Chapter 4). Richard Mardsen (“Class Discipline,” Chapter 5) builds a theoretical construct from the works of Thompson, Foucault, and Marx to explain the effects on individualism and sameness in relation to lR/HRM practices for normalization of the workforce. Pushkala Prasad (“Protestant Ethic and the Myths of the Frontier,” Chapter 6) provides a cultural-historical analysis of common values and assumptions in organizations by exploring the Protestant work ethic and myths of the frontier to demonstrate how clashes and conflicts may arise given the different values of individuals in the workplace. Michael Elmes and Debra L. Connelley (“Dreams of Diversity and the Realities of Intergroup Relations in Organizations,” Chapter 7) utilize social relations and intergroup relations theories to analyze barriers to diversity in organizations, such as the rise of ethnocentrism and intergroup aggression. In Part 111,“Dilemmas of Diversity Management in Practice,” the authors examine organizational culture/management practices and offer theory-based explanations of situations that include examples from the United States (NASA and the Challenger disaster; Los Angeles Police Department and Rodney King beating, and the Navy and Tailhook Association scandal); Canada (women in the academy); Middle East (Western Oil Company); and Great Britain (corporate imagery in the British airline industry). The last essay in this section analyzes the international management literature for provincialism and parochialism. In Part IV, “Conclusion,” the editors summarize and critique issues in the preceeding essays. Author and subject indexes complete the text. Although issues of diversity are well- represented in the popular press and other subject areas, the current state of the management literature on diversity reflective of scholarly research remains to be developed (see also Marlene G. Fine’s “Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: The State of the Field,” Journal ofBusiness Communication 33 (October 1996): 485-502). This well-edited text adds to the scholarly management literature and is an appropriate addition for academic libraries and should be of great value to students, scholars, and managers. -Alma Dawson, Assistant Professor, School of Library and Information Science, Louisiana State University, 267 Coates Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. Neal-Schuman Webmaster, by Lisa Champelli and Howard Rosenbaum. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 1997. 182~. $175.00. ISBN 1-55570-307-O. There are many books available on the topic of creating and maintaining Web sites. However, Champelli and Rosenbaum have written the Neal-Schuman Webmaster “multimedia kit” specifically for librarians facing the challenge of building a

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