Reader’s Roundup

Reader’s Roundup: Monographic Musings & Reference Reviews

Column Editor: Corey Seeman (Director, Kresge Library Services, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan) <cseeman@umich.edu> Twitter @cseeman

Column Editor’s Note: I am trying to think of something to write about libraries that does not continually reflect the weird world that we live in. Maybe I should stop digging and just go with the flow and enjoy the weird. In many ways, our world is moving forward and we are continuing to do the work that is needed in our communities and universities. We are buying books, we are showing people how to use databases and we are helping researchers find data. To that end, we are also looking for jobs, learning new technology and trying to help students figure out the dynamics of the economy. What a coincidence that those are the exact subjects of the three works we feature in this column. Special thanks to Julie Huskey (Tennessee State University) and Michelle Polchow (University of California, Davis) for the reviews appear in this issue. We have a much bigger column setup for the next issue with more works on librarianship and reference. If you would like to be a reviewer for Against the Grain, please write me at <cseeman@umich.edu>. If you are a publisher and have a book you would like to see reviewed in a future column, please also write me directly. You can also find out more about the Reader’s Roundup here — https://sites.google.com/view/ squirrelman/atg-readers-roundup. Happy reading and be nutty! — Corey

Burke, John J. Neal-Schuman Library Technology Companion: A Basic Guide for Library Staff, Sixth Edition. Chicago: ALA Neal Schuman, 2020. 978083891866-1, 192 pages. $64.99. Reviewed by Michelle Polchow (Electronic Resources Librarian, University of California, Davis) <mpolchow@ucdavis.edu>

For nearly 20 years, this enduring guide has delivered a timely and comprehensive overview of evolving technologies used in libraries. Given the relentless pace of change in the world of information technology, this convenient format readily supports library managers, new librarians, support staff members and library students with a guide to stay informed and remain current. Author John Burke worked in the library ranks gaining extensive experience with technology and is now a library director at Miami (Ohio) University’s Middletown campus. His writing style delivers a succinctly written resource, avoids technical jargon, is accessible and applicable for a wide audience. As a basic reference, the short seventeen chapters incorporate historical context, general topic overviews, as well as a glossary of useful terms. Each of these chapters serves (in the author’s words) to “…make library staff members more comfortable when speaking with colleagues or interacting with patrons” involving a diverse array of technologies that impact library work. The book covers a wide spectrum of technological applications and uses, implementation issues and troubleshooting. New to the Sixth edition are case studies involving interviews with twelve librarians and library staff who share their relevant experiences about specific technologies used in their institutions. Burke also includes results from his fourth survey of technology skills and tasks among library staff members. Each chapter closes with review questions and resources for further information.

Building and maintaining the library technology environment receives the most attention, including the growth in inclusion of free information resources, issues of copyright and licensing as they pertain to use of digital material, and new opportunities to support users’ ease of access and discovery. As to newer technologies, the reference resource includes guidelines for libraries using social media for marketing. Other trending topics in the library services domain include patron privacy, online learning, technology lending, makerspaces, virtual and augmented reality technologies, computing safety and security and the evolution of retiring technologies. The guide keeps professionals up to date by covering the latest library technologies, including trends and the author’s future predictions. Although technology books like this might yield a short shelf life over the long run, as a series, readers truly benefit from these new editions. Library science graduate students may find this too general for their studies, but it is a recommended guide for new librarians as well as those going through career transitions. As professionals constantly anticipate the future, the collection of editions (taken as a whole) reflects both current and former achievements supporting strategic planning and policy considerations. The series adds another significant contribution by preserving these historical trends and important initiatives in information technology services.

ATG Reviewer Rating: I need this in my library. (I want to be able to get up from my desk and grab this book off the shelf, if it’s not checked out.)

Foxworth, Deloris Jackson. Landing A Library Job. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. 9781538116999, 195 pages. $37.00. Reviewed by Michelle Polchow (Electronic Resources Librarian, University of California, Davis) <mpolchow@ucdavis.edu>

As COVID-19 disrupted employment opportunities in all fields, library and information sciences jobs were no exception. With very low hiring during the beginning of the pandemic in higher education, new graduates with library degrees were not seeing the types of opportunities that were available to those graduating just the year before. During the last year, that tight job market has gotten better, enabling recent grads and others

impacted by the pandemic to find new opportunities. But as author Deloris Foxworth notes, the average person changes jobs 11.9 times between the ages of eighteen and fifty. Given many reasons for job change, this insightful vocational guide further recognizes our societal shift from an industrial society to an information society that produces a variety of new jobs inside and outside of libraries. This fundamental aspect dramatically changes how to go about finding and applying for jobs. The book is packed with useful resources in support of both landing the next job as well as staying relevant in the field. Foxworth has included a great deal of information to help the librarian seeking employment. Content includes detailed guidance, ranging from how to read job descriptions for interpretation of key elements, to writing and adapting resumes to fit different positions, through organizing and retaining relevant position documents and tracking datapoints when applying to numerous positions. Insights include finding relevant listservs and job boards and maximizing use of popular online apps. Foxworth details how to use these tools to find positions ranging from administrative to paraprofessional positions, management directorships to information jobs outside of libraries. The appendix includes a compilation of relevant professional associations to support job hunting as well as knowledge building and continuing education opportunities. Coverage includes the etiquette of technology assisted interviewing as well as tips for a successful face-to-face exchange. Obtaining a job offer might be the book’s closing chapter, but negotiating a job offer provides universally useful tips on personal and emotional reflection on challenging topics such as the prospect of relocating, financial realities, and even learning from the rejection process. Given the breadth of career topics and interactive exercises, this resource broadly supports job seekers to recognize the ultimate goal is not merely getting a job but identifying the best match possible for both the applicant and the employer. In reviewing this book, there are a couple of shortcomings in the context of contributing to the overall library and information science literature. First, job positions are frequently referenced using hyperlinks. Given the ephemeral nature of job postings, this content will be difficult for future scholars who wish to examine jobs typical of this era. Second, as the author is an undergraduate instructor for the University of Kentucky, state level resources are primarily limited to this one state. But all in all, Foxworth delivers an effective combination of relevant job-hunting resources, provides applicable personal reflection throughout the process, gives solid career guidance, and produces an inviting book supporting a broad applicant pool to join the field.

ATG Reviewer Rating: I need this available somewhere

in my shared network. (I probably do not need this book, but it would be nice to get it within three to five days via my network catalog.)

Shally-Jenson, Michael, editor. Defining Documents in American History: The American Economy. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press, 2021.9781642657562. 2 vols., 864 pages. $295.00. Reviewed by Julie Huskey (Head of Cataloging, Tennessee State University) <jhuskey@tnstate.edu>.

The premise of Defining Documents in American History: The American Economy will be familiar to most reference or collection The ATG Reviewer Rating is being included for each book reviewed. Corey came up with this rating to reflect our collaborative collections and resource sharing means and thinks it will help to classify the importance of these books.

• I need this book on my nightstand. (This book is so good, that I want a copy close at hand when I am in bed.) • I need this on my desk. (This book is so valuable, that I want my own copy at my desk that I will share with no one.) • I need this in my library. (I want to be able to get up from my desk and grab this book off the shelf, if it’s not checked out.) • I need this available somewhere in my shared network. (I probably do not need this book, but it would be nice to get it within three to five days via my network catalog.) • I’ll use my money elsewhere. (Just not sure this is a useful book for my library or my network.)

development librarians: it reprints, usually in their entirety, eighty-nine documents, providing a summary and analysis. Additionally, there is a short glossary and bibliography added to each document. In this volume on the American economy, the editor featured documents created between 1748 and 2020, and range from official documents to excerpts from feature films. Each of these works illustrates a major event, movement, or idea within American economic history. Dr. Michael Shally-Jenson, a professional writer and editor, opens the work with a nine-page essay on economic history, providing some much-needed broader context to the selections. He also co-authors the essay on the dialog excerpt from the film “Wall Street.” The work is divided into five sections: “Commerce & Controversy in Earlier Times,” “Booms & Busts in a Growing Economy,” “Crash, Burn and Recovery in the Great Depression,” “Mid-Century Modern,” and “Business and Economics in Recent Decades,” although recent works dominate the two-volume set. Coverage of each document starts with a “Summary Overview” of a few sentences, followed by a “Defining Moment” section, which places the document in its immediate context, an author biography, a “Document Analysis” (which touches on stylistic, organizational, and factual aspects) and “Essential Themes,” which further places the document within its historical context. The words chosen for the short glossary — such as “revenue” and “matriculation” — suggest a high school or undergraduate audience. The “Bibliography and Further Reading” section includes approximately four to six widely-available and relevant works. Most entries include a reproduction, often in color, of an early version of the document.

Not everyone would agree on the selection of documents on the topic, but Dr. Shally-Jenson has included some of the more obvious choices, such as the reports by both Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton on the desirability on a national bank, William Jennings Brian’s “Cross of Gold” speech, and the Sherman Anti Trust Act. There are a few more surprising, but no less

interesting, selections as well: for instance, a sharecropping contract and an excerpt from Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. The accompanying essays, despite being the work of twenty-seven contributors (most of whom have PhD or JD degrees) are remarkably consistent in style. As always, one might find reason to quibble: Henry Ford’s anti-Semitism is largely dismissed, and the analysis of Nancy Pelosi’s defense of the H.R. 8406 (the COVID-19 relief bill) contains the rather broad statement, “The Republican Party is generally against nonmilitary government spending.” The greatest obstacle for the work, however, may be simply finding an audience: its scope is too selective to make it an obvious place to look, so it may be of little use as a freestanding, tangible reference work, although it will be useful for students and teachers brainstorming for ideas. Integrated into a larger database or reference collection, where would be greater opportunities for discovery, it would be a welcome addition. In particular, it would be valuable to libraries that support high school and college students.

ATG Reviewer Rating: I need this in my library. (I want to be able to get up from my desk and grab this book off the shelf, if it’s not checked out.)