Not another book on re-inventing the library! But do not turn away, because this one is worth a second look. Stielow is something of a rare species, a digitally oriented librarian with a sense of history. Librarians have always adopted and adapted technologies throughout the centuries to fit their professional philosophy of better service – although Stielow sees digitisation as creating a revolution rather than being evolutionary, and cites web-created for-profit universities as an example of the effects of global economies which ‘originate without deference to vested infrastructures or established practice’.
The book consists of two parts: Preparing within a Revolution and Virtual Campus Discourse. The former lays the foundation for the practical second part, recognising the importance of the history but showing clearly its relevance to the present and future ages of service. To Stielow the web means a sixth era of library reinvention, with its development facilitated by the push of vast profits which continue to challenge the ingenuity of both libraries and the wider educational environment. This first part of the book is a valuable summary of key ideas and events leading to the current transient age.
The second and main part of the book deals with academic libraries’ present ‘struggle against obsolescence and a hunt to establish themselves as value propositions for a new age’. Three major areas for online library administration are specified for the reader's consideration: ‘elimination’ (what does cloud computing mean for management?), ‘redefinition’ (of existing features and services such as information literacy and copyright) and ‘construction’ (e.g. aspects such as authentication and embedded librarians). These chapters are, and are intended to be, not only analytically informative but also thought provoking. All this leads to Chapter 8 (Rewriting Online Librarians) at a time when ‘online academic librarianship’ remains an art form in process within a transitional era. Of course, it always has been; one issue for professional education is to prepare students for present jobs whilst fitting them to become initiators of change and developers of practices and philosophies of service.
Whilst US-oriented in its examples, and one of many looking at the topic, this book has good value (despite the rather high price) for the Australasian librarian, whether working in the academy or other fields. The environment, problems and opportunities are in reality those of us all in relation to our non-teaching educational and educative functions. Stielow is adept at giving sufficient information to encourage readers to tackle his gentle questions. This is a book to be read for ideas and enjoyment rather than dipped into, for both practitioner and student.