Review of The Mirage of Continuity: Reconfiguring Academic Information Resources for the 21st Century, edited by Brian L. Hawkins & Patricia Battin

Authors

Joan Giesecke, Universityof Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

October 1999

Comments

Published in The Library Quaterly, Volume 69, Number 4 (October 1999), pp. 524-526. Copyright 1999 The University of Chicago Press. Used by permission.

Abstract

In all, the collection of essays does accomplish the editors' goal of focusing on the issues that are emerging as digital technologies transform our campuses and our libraries. As one might anticipate, the collection is a bit uneven, as some pieces are clearly geared to the novice in the field while others are more useful for experienced administrators. There is also a fair amount of repetition found between the pieces as each author included basic information in their works. For example, the statistics on rising costs of journals and decreasing ability of libraries to purchase monograph and journals appear frequently throughout the collection. The collection is perhaps best sampled, rather than read through, so that readers can reflect on the issues of most importance to them while skipping over sections that may be too introductory.