466 College & Research Libraries May 2023 But let’s return to Archaeology 1.0, which is probably of most interest to librarians. Murphy is not hopeful about the prospects to permanently preserve archival objects, neither physical nor digital. Keeping physical artifacts permanently requires either hugely invasive chemical treatments or very expensive artificial environments of temperature or gas which are unlikely to be sustained over time. Data (artifacts included) “is subject to both foreseeable and unforeseeable disasters; the ultimate futility of all our attempts to preserve data permanently and fully securitize it against flood, fire, terrorism, hacking, sabotage, and the threat of its own chemical makeup. Even if the negatives [stored beneath the World Trade Center] hadn’t been destroyed on 9/11, they would have naturally decayed within a century or so” (124). So, the reality of “preservation” is often far removed from the value we attach to it and the vocabulary we choose to describe it. Case in point: One of the greatest misnomers of our digital world today is “the cloud,” where we—including we individuals—send all our most valued data for safekeeping. This very cloud “does not exist immaterially in the air above our heads,” but in servers buried deep in the interiors of remote mountains, or just very deep underground. All of this storage, especially when called a “cloud,” allows us to harbor the illusion that our data bodies and our world will live on forever if we only… trust. With “preservation” in our minds, individually and collectively, we are torn “between oblivion and a fossilized eternity” (143). This thought-provoking, often revelatory book is highly recommended for college and university libraries as well as for supplemental reading lists for graduate students in informa- tion science—and cultural studies, specifically cultural anthropology. It provides a context for the work of librarians that lends depth and—sometimes frightening—context to their work. — Jeffrey Garrett, Northwestern University Beyond the Book: Unique and Rare Primary Sources for East Asian Studies Collected in North America. Jidong Yang, ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 2022. 368 pp. Hardcover, $60, (ISBN 9780924304989). If information specialists are looking for a book about the unique col- lections of significant East Asian Libraries in North America, I heartily recommend Beyond the Book. A compilation of presentations from a 2015 conference at Stanford University organized by Dr. Jidong Yang, each updated chapter begins with a brief history of the contributor’s East Asian library and introduces some of their signature collections that go “beyond the book”: letters, maps, pictures, films, sound recordings, etc. All of the contributing librarians and scholars are native or near-native language speakers in their respec- tive fields, and they justifiably celebrate their worthy achievements. They have worked diligently to provide and improve access to their communities in response to donors’ requests for each collection. Presented as a whole, readers can easily compare each individual effort and understand the complexities associated with specialized collections that must be made accessible to the public. These efforts have continued while the authors care- fully balance several conflicting duties simultaneously, including day-to-day operations as well as deadlines for long-time goals. What will impress readers of this book are the varied contents in long, rich histories in the regions, the diversity of viewpoints represented in each collection, and the complex digi- tization efforts to make them more broadly accessible. Book Reviews 467 The periods these collections cover represent the richness of East Asian cultures and his- tories. One of the earliest studies dates back to the papers on oracle bones from the eleventh century BCE in the Shang dynasty in China at Columbia’s C.V. Starr East Asian Library. Some collections focus on premodern literature in Japan, including one of uncataloged Japanese manuscripts at the University of California, Berkeley. The majority of the chapters deal with collections from the colonial period in the late nineteenth century to the end of WWII and the Cold War era, including materials related to the Cold War in East Asia in the Hoover Archives. None of the collection items are free from the bias of their culture and period of origin. Yet, the varied perspectives found throughout these collections make them an intriguing trea- sure for any researcher. Some are collections donated by American missionary families and the extensive collections of pictures taken by American sociologists. Considerable portions of the modern history of China and the East Asian regions after the nineteenth century are told from the perspectives of military personnel. The Gaihōzu maps created for military purposes were confiscated by US army and then distributed to academic institutions around the US. The Library of Congress holds enormous related collections for any researchers. Many Japanese lived in North America when the Pacific War broke out. Some collections reveal their life stories in unique ways through distinctive perspectives, including a promi- nent US-based scholar and a repatriate to Japan who never returned to the US. Outside of academia, Japanese Canadian activists fought for their rights as citizens for many years after the war, a story documented at the University of Toronto Libraries. Different perspectives on Korea are available in the collections described in this book, along with the viewpoint of American military officers in the Korean War, a high-profile fam- ily correspondence from the late Joseon dynasty, and an impressive collaboration between a pioneering female anthropologist in the US and three Korean officers who tried to reform their country. In addition, some contributors intentionally shed light on hard-to-discover portions of their collections. For example, thanks to a discussion of Korean materials in the William El- liot Griffis Collection at Rutgers University, I learned about this small but distinctive portion of the collection regarding the late Joseon dynasty in Korea, which was of immediate interest to a researcher I work with. Once the cataloging and preservation process is complete and the collections are acces- sible for patrons onsite, contributors demonstrate how their institutions consider possible digitization of their collections for wider access. To solve such issues, some of them seek external grants and others require further collaboration efforts with external parties. For ex- ample, when Korean films from the early twentieth century were processed for preservation, one library hired a film student to examine the status of film reels and provide an inventory report. Then, in cooperation with the Korea Film Archive, the library selected the prioritized works for digitization and completed the process. Many chapters also show how institutions have pursued and collaborated with the Li- brary of Congress and other national libraries in their digitization efforts. The National Library of Korea conducted a reproduction project, including the collection of Korean manuscripts in Canada mentioned earlier. Japan’s National Diet Library shared and digitized some por- tions of the same source with a US institution. Some of the contents in these collections are not suitable for online access due to copyright, political, and other sensitive issues of specific content. Nevertheless, each decision makes for an invaluable learning case for any libraries facing the same constraints. 468 College & Research Libraries May 2023 These essays provide reliable guidance for librarians and information specialists to initi- ate the processing of their rare collections, including the cases at my institution. Furthermore, this book publicize East Asian Libraries in North America, which have been conscientiously serving significant stakeholders on institutional, regional, national, and international levels. Finally, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude and respect to all the contributors and Dr. Yang, who stated that “the potential for digging out new East Asian studies resources is still endless.” I hope this book encourages current library school students and aspiring schol- ars in the next generation to apply for East Asian Librarianship in North America. — Mitsu Nakamura, Washington University in St. Louis Cheryl Oestreicher. Reference and Access for Archives and Manuscripts, (SAA) Archival Fun- damentals Series III. Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists, 2022. Edited by Peter J. Wosh. 195 pages. Paper, PDF, Kindle $69.00 (ISBN: 978-1-945246-40-1) Reference and Access for Archives and Manuscripts by Cheryl Oestreicher is a comprehensive guide for archives and special collections workers published by the Society of American Archivists as part of the Archival Fundamentals Series III. The information is presented in a straightfor- ward manner with the aim of describing and contextualizing the skills, policies, practices, and specific tasks of reference and access within the much-changed contemporary archival services landscape. Oestreicher is a new voice in the Fundamentals series on the topic of reference and access. Mary Jo Pugh admirably authored the previous iterations dating back to the first series in the 1990s up until the most recent 2005 edition. Oestreicher’s update is in many ways long overdue as the platforms, use, and users of archives have dramatically shifted. Still, the fundamental goal of all archival labor remains the same: access. As Oestreicher notes, “Archivists attend to tasks with access as the ultimate goal, from acquisition through processing” (2). Oestreicher thus situates reference and access work as central to the entire archives project, not merely beholden to it. The book’s intended function is that of a manual and, as such, offers little explicit interrogation of archives and ar- chival labor as sites of struggle. However, in the great detail and care with which Oestreicher unravels the specifics of our archival labor one cannot help but find solidarity: this is what my work looks like, too. Oestreicher divides the book into thirteen chapters that can be read in any sequence. The first two, “Contextualizing Reference within an Archives Program” and “Reference Skills and Knowledge,” provide a broad overview, while the remainder delve more deeply into the spe- cifics of the work. Chapters on “Users,” “Reference Interaction,” and “Intellectual and Physical Access” bring fresh perspectives to well-worn territory and clarify that Oestreicher is aware of work on the ground and in scholarship that has problematized and reimagined that work. In- deed, the acknowledgements and appendixes attest to the deep research and work she engaged in order to understand different practices across different types of repositories and institutions. Chapter 7, “Virtual Access,” offers entirely new content that is no longer merely specula- tive about the future of archival access in the “digital age.” Sections on digitization, digital collections, access and preservation systems, and digital research methods now benefit from specific examples that will encourage interested readers to learn more. There is still plenty of room for expanded discussion of these developments in the field. For example, given the