Book reviews, etc

Inglorious Pedagogy: Difficult, Unpopular, and Uncommon Topics in Library and Information Science Education. Dali, K. and Thompson, K. (eds.). 

Submitted to Against the Grain, 11/14/2024

Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2023. 9781538167779 (cloth), 9781538167786 (ebook), 308 pages. $120.00 (hardback), $50.00 (ebook)

Reviewed by Joshua Hutchinson (Director, Technical Services, University of Southern California) joshuah8@usc.edu

…

This book, which covers the topic of teaching and learning in LIS programs, has some very strong chapters, but sadly is let down by its larger context. The idea of the book is a good one, but there are some significant problems with its construction and some of the contributions that reduce the impact of what should otherwise be a significant contribution to LIS scholarship. Part of what reduces the book’s cohesiveness is that it is really two books— the first is a thoughtful and provoking intervention in LIS pedagogy— exactly what the editors want it to be. The other is a glib and unnecessary collection of essays that don’t necessarily fit with the theme of the book and add nothing to existing scholarship.

Examples of the weaknesses inherent in the book are chapters (including Chapter 11: “Tales from three countries and one academia”) which were republished (“revised reprints” according to the introduction) from elsewhere, and don’t contribute to the book’s theme or argument. These were previously published in widely available journals such as Library Quarterly and reprinting them seems unnecessary. Other chapters are poorly conceived or simply misplaced. The arrangement of the book is similarly unfathomable— in the introduction, the editors say “We do not divide [the chapters] into two different sections… Rather, we intermingle them due to the oscillating and somewhat circular and interdependent character of all the issues…” (page 3). The end result of this is that there is no organization, the book is hard to read, and the chapters seem not to be thematically linked— an edited volume is not well served by an oscillating structure.

One chapter that seems surprising in its presence in this volume is Chapter 6: The Difficulty of Training Students to do Research in Tangles of Discourse. This chapter, co-written by a LIS professor and student researcher contains information about a failed research project, but very little about LIS education—thinking about the topic of the book, and what might connect the chapters, it is hard to determine how this chapter fits in. It seems like more of an exercise in finger-pointing (and primarily, a professor blaming their student) than one that says anything in particular about LIS education. The most astonishing chapter, though, is Keren Dali’s Chapter 8: The Academia-Practice Gap, which seems to be primarily focused on the fact that the author’s 2021 article has been apparently ignored by practitioners—and takes the approach that this is due to a fault in practitioners (many of whom “feel a sense of entitlement and impunity…” (page 152)). Dali even includes an anecdote (pages 165-166) about academics submitting review letters on time, while an elementary school librarian was delayed in submitting hers—and extrapolates to make conclusions about the relative merits of people on each side of the profession. This 40 page article is really just an airing of petty and childish grievances, which surely would not have been accepted in another edited volume—except that it’s written by one of the editors. Dali writes that “I am resigned to the fact that my research and publications will be appreciated by academic colleagues and students (and even get awards) but will rarely or never be noticed by practitioners” (page 177). Sadly, Dali’s self-absorption, lack of rigor, and reliance on petty grievances in this lengthy chapter casts a pall over the rest of the book.

However, there are particular strengths including  Chapter 5: Teaching for Intellectual Humility and Chapter 2: Nice to Have, a Distraction from the Core Curriculum, or a Disruptive Element? Both of these chapters introduce actionable, evidence-led theory into the practice of LIS teaching. They are thoughtful about what it means to be a student, and also — crucially— a teacher in the LIS classroom. Part of what makes both of these chapters so compelling is that they embed LIS at the very center of their work; they are chapters about pedagogy as it relates to library and information studies education, not about pedagogy that just happens to take place in an LIS classroom. Chapter 7: Overwhelmed or Overteaching? Humanism for Time Use and Pedagogy is also of interest. It contains useful, practical tips for teaching in general, and time management in particular. It may not be applicable to all LIS professors, but its strengths lie in that it offers both general tips (for instance about syllabi and grading) and very specific suggestions (such as recommendations for using calendars and timetabling).

One final note about the structure and contents: in the epilogue, the editors write that they “were unable to solicit chapters on other difficult topics that we really wanted to see. Sorely missing for us… are the chapters on the decolonization of pedagogical practices and the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in LIS curricula… Also missing is a chapter that would candidly and bravely dispense with the notion of all librarians being on the same page when it comes to the interpretation and implementation of social justice, diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility…” (page 296). They note something similar about the geographical reach of the chapters: “We certainly strove for a greater geographic reach… yet for a variety of reasons… it did not happen.” This seems like the very definition of an afterthought—mentioning it solely in the context of excusing why the editors didn’t include it. That’s not good enough.

While some contributions to this work are interesting and provide valuable contributions to the field, unfortunately the value of the whole book is damaged by some of the less relevant contributions. As a result, the worth of the book is only in those few chapters, and need only be available within your network.

ATG Reviewer Rating:  I need this available somewhere in my shared network.

Jessica Brantley. Medieval English Manuscripts and Literary Forms. 

Submitted to RBM, 5/31/2024

Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022. Hardcover, 346 p. $65. (ISBN: 9780812253849).

A handbook for the use and understanding of medieval English manuscripts is a significant undertaking. A good version of such a handbook is even more significant, but pays great rewards—it can pay dividends for a generation as it introduces a new crop of students to the field, while also advancing scholarship. In addition, the benefits of creating a central repository for information relating to such manuscripts, include the very significant opportunity to allow those who don’t have access to the physical manuscript the ability to participate in its examination and interpretation. Even in the age of digitized manuscripts, this is important. The new monograph from Jessica Brantley is one such book: Medieval English Manuscripts and Literary Forms ably threads the needle of providing content of interest for scholars and teachers, while remaining an accessible work for students. Of note, it is also at times visually arresting with 16 pages of well-printed full color plates.

Brantley’s book is made up of two part: ‘The anatomy of the medieval manuscript’ followed by twelve case studies. The first part provides an introduction to important concepts, amply illustrated by examples, while the case studies are themed examples (for instance Case Study I is titled ‘Literature’ and uses The Moore Bede (Cambridge University Library MS Kk.5.16), Case Study X is titled ‘Mediation’ and uses the example of The Book of Margery Kempe (BL MS Add 61823)). The final section includes a glossary, a bibliography of primary works cited, and suggestions for further reading. Throughout, the writing is admirably clear with descriptions of technical or visual concepts that are easy to understand.

The first part of this book works through the various parts of a medieval manuscript, including the method of their creation and how they were used (Brantley describes this as “anatomiz[ing] medieval manuscripts into their component parts…,” page 113). This gives the reader all the tools they need in order to understand and interpret medieval English manuscripts—whether a first-time student or a more experienced researcher needing to deepen or refresh their knowledge. Brantley’s approach is to rigorously define terms initially, as illustrated by the introduction, which gets underway by asking questions including “What does it mean to read medieval books? … What does it mean to read?” (Page 3, emphasis original). Brantley answers these and other questions in a serious yet approachable way, ensuring that readers understand important terminology and the meaning and context of manuscripts and how to read them. At times the history of writing can seem over-detailed: first or second century wooden tablets from Vindolanda seem to be quite far removed from medieval manuscripts, but it’s a tough balancing act to provide context without going overboard, and Brantley mostly succeeds.

The glossary and definitions are copiously illustrated and range from ‘medium’ to tools used in book production, to the scripts and abbreviations used. These are illustrated with examples from a variety of repositories (primarily Yale and the British Library). Some of these illustrations are particularly noteworthy, such as that of Bodleian Library MS Lat. Liturgy. E. 17, fol. 19r (page 74) which includes instructions for an illuminator that were never fulfilled, resulting in a large empty space on the page. Among other practical sections is a ‘Template for manuscript description’ (page 110) which is used in practice in the 12 case studies, and can easily be used in an introductory course for manuscript study as the template for a student assignment. 

The second part of the book is made up of twelve case studies which focus on one manuscript at a time. Brantley describes the twelve manuscripts as ‘exceptional outliers’ that help to illustrate, through the characteristics that make them exceptional, important points about medieval literary practice and study.  Within each case study, there are several sections, including a ‘catalog-style description’ followed by a thorough essay providing a summary and context for the manuscript’s importance, as well as a selection of images and in in-depth bibliography. The language of these case study manuscripts includes a variety of combination of Latin, Old English, Middle English and French.

This structure enables the reader to treat Brantley’s work simultaneously as a reference work (paging through the glossary and definitions) and a scholarly work in its own right. While this text could function as a reference work, Brantley’s writing is very clear and readable, so this work can be easily read front to back. Each of the case studies is included to demonstrate a theme, including ‘afterlives,’ ‘ownership,’ ‘authorship,’ and ‘editing.’ Case study VIII (‘Writing’ – The Ellesmere Chaucer, Huntington Library MS EL26 C9) is a good example of the benefits of this approach. It expands significantly on terms introduced earlier in the work (there is a short section on writing on pages 31-35 which introduces terms such as scriptorium, hands, and scribes) and gives the reader the opportunity to see these concepts used in practice.  This structure works well to create an opportunity for readers to think more deeply about the topics raised by the manuscript in question, while also seeing the manuscript in context.

Importantly, Brantley’s case studies are all manuscripts that have been fully digitized and are freely available online. Making use of these fully digitized manuscripts enables readers to even more fully interact with and explore the works that Brantley selected, viewing them in their totality. The images included in the book are extremely clear—those provided to illustrate terms and concepts clearly do so; those images that accompany the case studies are brightly and lushly reproduced. They provide a great way of attracting the interest of those who may not have had in-person interactions with medieval manuscripts before. In the preface Brantley states that “I hope that this book will make a wide-ranging introduction possible, especially at institutions with small collections of rare books, geographically distant from large repositories” (page xiv, emphasis reviewer’s). Each case study includes a bibliography divided into the following sections: Digital facsimile; Catalogs and editions; Secondary studies.  This allows scholars of all levels to find out more and to further explore the manuscript for themselves.

It is worth mentioning that unfortunately six of the twelve case studies selected by Brantley are housed at the British Library and thus their digitized facsimiles are not currently available as of the time of writing this review, due to the BL’s ongoing issues with a cyber attack. While this is a blow, it is hopefully temporary, and images and facsimiles of these manuscripts exist elsewhere in most cases. As noted above, this demonstrates that even when one can generally rely on digitized copies of manuscripts being available, there is value to including images of key plates in works such as this one. While this evidently could not have been predicted or planned for, it is deeply unfortunate as Brantley rightly gave a lot of thought to only including works that are fully digitized because working from the full manuscript certainly does enhance the power and interest of this book.

In summary, Brantley’s work is one that is useful, timely, appropriate to readers looking for an introduction to the discipline, as well as those seeking something that allows them to experience the beginnings of what it means to study a manuscript in depth. It can be particularly useful as a teaching tool for students of medieval English manuscripts, and would work well in conjunction with the digitized manuscripts that Brantley makes use of, or other manuscripts that students are able to interact with at their home institution. As well as being a teaching tool or introductory work for students new to the study of manuscripts, it may also be of use to those more experienced in the study of manuscripts from other geographic areas, who might need a brief introduction to what makes English medieval manuscripts unique—including language, script and aspects of the material manuscript such as preparing the writing surface that were unique to England. Medieval English Manuscripts and Literary Forms makes use of modern digitized manuscripts while also hosting enough images and plates of manuscripts to give the reader a real sense of what it means to use medieval English manuscripts.

-          Joshua Hutchinson, University of Southern California Libraries 

Vnuk. The weeding handbook: a shelf-by-shelf guide.

Submitted to Against the Grain, 12/22/2023

Chicago: ALA Editions, 2022. 9780838937174, 240 pages. $49.99 ($61.50 ebook). Second edition.

Reviewed by Joshua Hutchinson (Head, Acquisitions and Cataloging, University of Southern California) joshuah8@usc.edu

This practical handbook for weeding library collections offers clear advice for all libraries. While it is focused on public libraries, the advice contained is of use to all librarians. Vnuk offers a constant refrain throughout this book: “We’re a public library, not an archive.”

         Vnuk structures this book by Dewey classification ranges. The “shelf-by-shelf” in the subtitle means that the book is literally structured according to the order of a library’s shelves, and approaches each subject area in turn. For instance, Vnuk outlines different approaches to keeping some subjects rather than others—an apposite piece of advice for this readership is given on page 24: “020—Library Science. Unless you are near a university with a library science program, there’s really no sense in keeping most of your library-related books on the public shelves.” While the Dewey classification that Vnuk uses to structure this book may not be in use in all libraries, the advice given is generally applicable.

         Scattered throughout the chapters are Q&As and interviews with library practitioners which give a great view of the variety of practices with respect to weeding. These interviews convey the idea that weeding is an art, not a science (page 25) and that while there’s no strict formula for how to do it, it always needs to be done. In their variety and practicality, these interviews are a real highlight of this book, giving a sense of the differing practices and philosophies about weeding, while also illustrating real-world issues. Another benefit of them is that they seem very ‘real’ – they bring theory to life. For instance, the Seattle Public Library weeding guidelines for CDs notes local ways to recognize CDs that have been in the collection for a long time (for instance, barcodes beginning with a certain letter; stickers or marks near the barcodes). While these obviously are institution-specific, in this reviewer’s experience all institutions will have similar local practices or historical curiosities, and it is compelling to see these combined with a theoretical framework for weeding. Some of these interviews contain gems, such as that of Karen D. Toonen of Naperville Public Library (pp 95-99) who defines a robust goal for weeding: to have 5% or less of the collection that hasn’t circulated in 18 months, to have 0% that hasn’t circulated in 2 years, and to have the same people doing weeding and selection. Toonen echoes Vnuk’s refrain, saying “public libraries are not archives; no, we don’t need a copy of everything.”

         Vnuk also includes practical advice that doesn’t overly concern itself with the perfect. She provides example criteria (page 7) for consideration for withdrawal lists in one library that includes books added to the library’s collection before 2003—choosing that date because it was the date of the library’s ILS migration, and accession information is not readily available for all titles before that date. This advice is very practical, comprehensible, eminently relatable, and just makes sense.

         One weak point of this work is that many of the chapters have a Diversity and Inclusion note, and while the theory is good, the notes themselves are often just boilerplate text, used for all sections. Many times, readers would be far better served to have text that is more subject specific as some areas are sorely underserved by the text as it is. For instance, the Diversity and Inclusion note for the Humor and Satire section (page 60) reads in full: “Diversity and inclusion note: Carefully consider how people and concepts are presented. Does the collection represent people of color and historically marginalized groups?” Additionally, the chapter dedicated to “Diversity and Inclusion” is far too short, with only 3 pages of content. There is no guidance on doing a diversity audit, for instance—just 4 links. This is not enough.

         While in general this book—though focused on public libraries—is applicable to all types of libraries, some sections are primarily relevant to public libraries and might be less useful for academic librarians or librarians in other fields. For instance, the ebooks discussion is a worthwhile discussion. While the conclusions are a little bit controversial, the discussion is still a valuable one. For instance, Vnuk states (page 85) that “[i]n general it’s still too soon to start looking at e-books as a replacement for print collections.” While this might narrowly be true in some circumstances, it’s not globally valid. However, Vnuk’s arguments are well-presented and fair. While Vnuk’s discussions of ebooks and electronic databases may be too specifically focused on public librarianship for all readers, that is not necessarily a mark against this book. Other tools and publications are available for different audiences; in general the strength of Vnuk’s work is its general applicability to all librarians and to all forms of libraries.

         Other strengths of this book include the ‘Special Considerations for Youth Collections’ which outlines some important things to keep in mind. Vnuk makes the point that “students deserve better” than the mindset that an outdated book is better than no book at all. Finally, the appendix includes annotated sample collection development plans. These are so useful, and hopefully will be put into practice by readers of this work.

ATG Reviewer Rating: I need this on my desk.

Transforming Technical Services through Training and Development. Eds. Marlee Givens and Sofia Slutskaya. 

Submitted to LRTS, 3/2/2023

Chicago: ALA Editions, Core, 2022, 168 p. $69.99 softcover (ISBN: 978-0-8389-4877-4). An ALCTS Monograph.

The new ALA Editions title, Transforming Technical Services through Training and Development collects chapters by practitioners in Technical Services departments (academic, public and consortia) discussing their approaches to training. Three themes recur through many of the thirteen chapters of this volume, and help to tie them together: documentation; cross training and engagement; and COVID-19. Documentation plays a crucial role in developing a learning culture (the editors note in the introduction—p. xi—that “…successful training is impossible without a strong emphasis on current, up-to-date, and complete documentation…”). Cross training staff and ensuring that they are engaged in all aspects of the training and development processes is crucial for a successful program. The final (and perhaps inevitable) theme that recurs through many of the chapters is the COVID-19 pandemic and its role in changing the way that library technical services departments have operated since 2020.

The editors, Marlee Givens and Sofia Slutskava, state their goal in the book’s introduction (page x): “… to collect different training methodologies and case studies in order to offer technical services managers and trainers useful examples of creating a learning culture in their departments.” The editors further state that these chapters are an indication that “… training needs are universal across different types of libraries and departments.”

These themes weave the chapters together and help to ensure that the thirteen chapters build a strong and cohesive narrative; in editing this volume, Givens and Slutskava have curated a collection that truly does build a picture of transforming and improving technical services departments through training and development. In fact, the picture they build is one of proactive and vibrant departments, with engaged staff and leaders. This, the chapters illustrate, is possible through hard work, planning and readers can achieve such a department by learning the lessons that these chapters teach.

While all of the chapters have noteworthy elements, some in particular merit further discussion. These chapters are not only well written and structured, but many (or most) of them have easily transferrable real-world application.

Chapter one, written by Ashmore, Collins, Song and Whittenberger, details the strategies used in North Carolina State University Libraries to build that the authors term a “Technical Services learning culture.” Following the creation of a single Acquisitions & Discovery department in 2011, the department began to implement cross-training for all staff. Among the techniques the department’s managers used were ‘exposure learning’ (learning about library topics that do not currently impact daily work, but which may in the future), targeted training or learning (such as when there is a change in working practices) informal training (what the authors call the apprenticeship approach). The authors also describe some core competencies training which was undertaken due to gaps in knowledge—interestingly, these gaps came about because a “reliance on informal or ad hoc training mostly for new staff had resulted in inconsistent knowledge and practice” (p. 5)—and a team of managers identified core competencies on which the department would need to be trained. They also describe a pilot team that they’ve created called the Library Impact Analysis cross-unit team, which collects, cleans and reports library statistics.

Laura Sill, in chapter six, describes a case study from the Hesburgh Libraries of the University of Notre Dame in which a metadata community of practice was created in order to facilitate cross-organizational learning. This chapter, which gives further details about the community of practice, which was also described in an OCLC Works in Progress webinar, describes the community of practice that was developed following several library reorganizations, most recently in 2020. One aspect of this chapter which really hit home for this reviewer was the emphasis that Sill placed on planning and governance. Even a ‘community of practice’ group, which on the face of it might not need much governance, required a great deal of planning—Sill details that each meeting had the following details defined: Learning outcomes or deliverables; Learning methods; Learning assessment. This level of governance allowed the Notre Dame metadata community of practice to become a successful framework for connections and learning within the Hesburgh Library. This chapter is replete with useful examples, charts and figures which help to illustrate how the Metadata Community of Practice operates, is assessed, and the types of learning plans used.

The chapter entitled Reactive and Proactive Approaches in the Training Program for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Acquisitions (UNLV) Unit by Jennifer R. Culley is another standout. Culley describes the benefits of on-the-job training and noted that as a lead acquistions librarian new to UNLV she asked her direct reports to train her on what they do, and reviewed training manuals and procedures. She noted that one of the major benefits of taking this approach was that she was able to identify goals for future training and retraining, and identify opportunities to streamline workflows. Usefully, as with many of the chapters in this book, Culley included real world examples and figures of specific job responsibilities, tasks and documentation from her experience. These examples provide ample illustration that this reviewer helped in identifying procedures and workflows that could be either built upon or borrowed wholesale from the descriptions in the book to the reader’s workplace. In this way, this volume provides direct, real world examples of either best practices or suggestions for improvements that many readers will find are useful in their workplaces.

The thirteen chapters in this book are almost all based on either case-studies or the authors’ real-world examples. Only one chapter (chapter 3, a Deming Approach to Training in Technical Services) is purely theoretical, and may have benefited by some real world examples. The rest of the chapters are based on case studies or contexts of specific libraries, mostly university libraries with one public library consortium. All are based in North American libraries.

While the scope of this volume may sound fairly narrow—specific to technical services departments—and the contexts are also somewhat narrow (primarily North American university libraries) there is a refreshingly broad scope for the included chapters. For instance, while some chapters focus on training technical services workers (for instance chapter four, Just-in-Time Training for Continuous Improvement Within a Consortium by Rachel K. Fisher) there are other focuses such as the aforementioned metadata community of practice (which details bringing training outside of the technical services department), training surrounding system migrations, and training for student workers.

In all, this is an excellent volume with useful contributions on a wide range of topics. It will be useful for technical services managers and supervisors who are interested in improving and revamping their training programs, but it will also be of interest more broadly to anyone interested in library training and professional development.

The picture that is built by these chapters is one of a profession that is responding to significant changes in their area of work, and of a workforce that is adapting to new working practices—from new acquisitions and cataloging procedures to remote working and reduced workforces. While there are many challenges, there are also innumerable opportunities introduced by these developments, and this book will help many technical services departments successfully adapt, improve and transform.

It should be noted that ALA Editions is doing a disservice to only (as of the time of writing this review) publish this book in print, rather than as an ebook that can be more easily accessed, shared and consulted by readers. – Joshua Hutchinson (joshuah8@usc.edu), University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Ng-He, Carol and Patti Gibbons. Exhibits and Displays: A Practical Guide for Librarians.

Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021. 9781538144039, 135 pages. $65.00 ($61.50 ebook)

Reviewed by Joshua Hutchinson (Head, Acquisitions and Cataloging, University of Southern California) <joshuah8@usc.edu>

Volume number 72 in the series Practical Guides for Librarians, this work demonstrates the best of a practical guide in a well-established series: it is well thought out, clearly structured, and does exactly what it says: presents a practical guide for librarians creating displays and exhibits. Ng-He and Gibbons tell us in the preface that the reader will learn “the full process of creating, implementing, and evaluating exhibits and displays” while helpfully presenting the chapters “in the sequential order that exhibit production generally takes”.

Those chapter titles are structured with helpful and brief titles, starting with “Show it! Why libraries create exhibits and displays”, moving through planning, telling the story, writing text and labels, physically building the exhibit and display, bringing in material and traveling exhibits, creating digital exhibits, and finishing up with the crucial steps of engagement, marketing and assessment.

Each chapter is clearly structured, with an introductory section, brief subheadings punctuated liberally with examples from exhibits presented in libraries, and closing with Key Points, Notes and References. Oddly, the Notes and References are generally repeats of each other, but in general this formal structure serves the book well, ensuring that each chapter is clear, readable, easy to reference, and provides further reading if desired.

Happily, this guide engages in some clear and honest guidance, for instance, noting on page 6 that, “sometimes libraries are not ready to take on displays and exhibits, so be… realistic about what your library’s current capacity can support”. The examples presented are helpful and generally illustrate the chapter’s content clearly and in a helpful way—so many librarians reading this guide will have had no experience curating exhibits that seeing these examples succinctly presented will give them some degree of experience with presenting library exhibits.

In particular, I found the chapter on writing exhibit text and labels to be exemplary—offering advice in a wide variety of areas, moving from the font used on exhibit labels to how much text should be written, how it should be written, and the various types of text and labels that an exhibit curator might want to write. The chapter closes with examples of a variety of different label types, including case panels, item labels and a pull quote.

This book provides an excellent introduction to exhibits best practices for all librarians. Because of its highly structured format, it contains material useful for the novice exhibit creator as well as someone with more experience, and still prove to be useful for both. It can be read front to back, and can also be treated as a reference book. In libraries where many librarians are involved in the exhibits process, I can imagine a dog-eared copy of this book being passed around as an introduction to exhibition curation.

ATG Reviewer Rating: Available somewhere in my shared network.