Betty Landesman

E-Resources = E-Opportunity : Connecting systems, technical services and patrons

Summary Librarians from two different types of libraries-one a university library and the other a biomedical library-discussed how their libraries have adapted to the changes brought on by increasing numbers of electronic resources. They specifically addressed staffing and workflow issues, how to create more linkages between diverse systems, and ultimately stressed the goal of providing excellent customer service. Both libraries employ a model that includes adding electronic resources to the catalog, as well as creating Web pages for access.

Collection Development and Management for 21st Century Library Collections: An Introduction. Gregory, Vicki L

tual analysis to recent developments to the Internet and web culture. For too long, books and articles on this topic have been the domain of superficial cheerleading for new technologies. There has been a lack of philosophical and theoretical analysis, which this book provides in spades. This leads to the interesting question: Who is this book’s intended audience? The book is of little practical use to a librarian. The complexity of the philosophical references and arguments put forth make the appropriate audience to be philosophy or semiotics graduate students. The authors make no reference to the appropriate library literature, despite the profession having written a great deal about controlled vocabularies and indexing language. For those who have an interest in the theory of knowledge systems or the semantic web, this book is a must read. Even though it is not a practical book and requires a commitment on the part of the reader, it can be fascinating, and in the case of the sections by Magee, a scintillating philosophical examination of the current state of scholarly communication.

A Review of: “Describing Electronic, Digital, and Other Media Using AACR2 and RDA, Weber, Mary Beth and Austin, Fay Angela.”

The Master Guide is a valuable new collection development tool for health science librarians or anyone developing health science collections. The editors note that a companion online version of the Master Guide will be updated regularly, with new printed editions to be published on a regular schedule (p. xiii). My recommendation is to reverse that, with theMaster Guide becoming an online book allowing for an expanded number of entries, with contributors including a description of their selection criteria and users able to make comments and recommendations. A condensed version of top or core resources could then be printed regularly. I would also recommend an approach much the same as UpToDate (the de facto medical textbook of choice) in attempting to grade the evidence; I would like to see some indication in the annotation as to whether the editors=authors of the selected textbooks were requiring the use of a grading system to grade the evidence. I will use the Master Guide and recommend it to any librarian engaged in collection development with health science literature. My hope is for this excellent work, created by Thompson and her editorial team and contributors, to serve as a foundation for an evolving and even more vital online collection development resource.