reviews.indd Book Reviews Bobinski, George S. Libraries and Li- brarianship: Sixty Years of Challenge and Change, 1945–2005. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2007. 205p. alk. paper, $40 (ISBN: 0810858992). LC 2006-33503. From serving as a page at the Fleet Branch of the Cleveland Public Library to direct- ing academic libraries, to teaching and administration in library and information science education, George S. Bobinski was in the midst of challenges and changes that shaped and reshaped the world of libraries and librarianship from 1945 to 2005. His Libraries and Librarianship: Sixty Years of Challenge and Change, 1945–2005 is, in one light, a memoir of how he was affected by his unique experiences as a librarian, but it is also an overview of a significant portion of American library history to which his contemporaries can relate from having shared the transforma- tion and from which new librarians can view trends, draw conclusions, and learn how to plan for the future. Chapter one, “Changes in the Core,” demonstrates how library technology has affected and diversified the formats of information available in libraries and how it has in turn affected the organization and reorganization of library information sources, reference services, and library management. Chapter two, “Types of Libraries,” describes the transformations that have occurred in public libraries, school library media centers, academic libraries, and special libraries generally, and those in the Library of Congress specifi cally; and discusses the establishment and growth of Presidential Libraries and the growth of state library agencies. Chapter three, “Library Cooperation: Systems, Consortia, and Networks,” summarizes the growth of cooperative and collaborative systems, consortia, and networks for sharing library resources across physical and political boundaries. Chapter four, “Federal Funding, Philanthropy, and the Council on Library and Information Resources,” dis- cusses how these three enti- ties have transformed libraries through federal and state grants, and private gifts from foundations and individuals. Chapter fi ve, “Library Associations, Intellectual Freedom, and International Relations,” highlights the role of the American Library Association in fostering multiculturalism and international rela- tions within a framework of intellectual freedom. Chapter six, “Gender and Ethnicity,” emphasizes the progress made by the library profession in issues of pay equity for women and employment of ethnic and minority librarians, all in the context that constant vigilance and support are still needed. Chapter seven, “Library Buildings and Preservation,” looks at innovations in library architecture and library pres- ervation methods, particularly the digital revolution. Chapter eight, “Library and Infor- mation Science Education and Library Literature,” chronicles the growth and application of standards for library educa- tion at the master’s level. Chapter nine, “Prominent Leaders in the Field of Libraries and Librarianship,” consists of a listing of over 100 prominent leaders who distinguished themselves during the period covered by this book in the fields of academic, school, public, and special librarianship, including law, medi- cal, and music librarianship. Bobinski’s caveat is that there were many others who made important contributions than just those listed. In Chapter ten, “Summary and Con- clusion,” Bobinski summarizes major 458 events and developments in the same areas discussed in the chapters and dis- cusses current challenges and the future status of libraries and librarianship. An appendix consisting of three chronologies, each covering the period from 1944, the end of World War II, to 2005—the first, of signifi cant historical events; the second, of technological ad- vances affecting libraries; and the third, of developments in libraries and librari- anship—elucidates the text. The book concludes with a bibliography of works, most of which are mentioned in the text, and a thorough subject and personal name index. Bobinski’s work will serve generations of library historians and library students as a concise blending of facts and personal insights into American library history in the last half of the twentieth century and at the turn of the twenty-fi rst cen- tury.—Plummer Alston “Al” Jones, Jr., East Carolina University. Brogan, Martha. Contexts and Contribu- tions: Building the Distributed Library. Washington, D.C.: Digital Library Federation, 2006. 282p. alk. paper, $35 (ISBN 9781933645339). LC 2006-22847. Also available online at http://purl. oclc.org/DLF/pubs/dlf106. The creation of a worldwide network of interoperable digital libraries has been the shared objective of many individuals working at the cutting edge of librarian- ship over the last decade. Great strides toward this end have been made and advances are occurring at an ever-in- creasing pace, but there is much left to be accomplished before this lofty goal can be realized. Martha L. Brogan’s Contexts and Contributions: Building the Distributed Library is an impressive overview of the latest developments toward this ambi- tious objective. A follow-up to a 2003 survey of digital library aggregation services, Contexts and Contributions is the latest in a series of works sponsored by the Digital Library Federation (DLF) that uses the Open Book Reviews 459 Archives Initiative Protocol for Meta- data Harvesting (OAI-PMH) as a lens with which to focus and drive the de- velopment of this interconnected digital library network. OAI-PMH is a system by which repositories can share catalog- ing-style data about local digital objects (e-publications, theses, photographs, manuscript finding aids, and so on) with other “aggregating institutions” through the use of Web-based “harvesters,” thus centralizing access to information that is usually widely dispersed. As suggested by the title, this work investigates the context or “ecosystem” of scholarly communications and digital libraries, and then illustrates how various digital library aggregation services (the “contributions” of the title) have adapted to best thrive and serve their users in the ever-changing digital world. Informa- tion about these “contributions” make up the bulk of the book and are based upon survey responses gathered during the fall of 2005. The author focuses on a core of forty of these services to illustrate the “purpose, functions, and challenges of next generation aggregation services,” before closing with a summary of “next generation service characteristics.” While not written for the digital library beginner, this broad sweep of the field could be used by those new to digital library concepts to identify major issues, players, and projects that could be investigated further in other resources. The author provides an ex- tensive bibliography to help with just this sort of endeavor. At the same time, she also manages to provide those more familiar with digital library concepts ample fodder for the creation of their own analyses, while refraining from revealing what it all means and where it is all go- ing—probably because there is no way of making such a forecast at this point, scholarly or otherwise. The analysis that Brogan does employ is subtle and inher- ent in the structure of her description of the maturing digital library. She does see the role of institutional repositories (IR)