reviews 174 College & Research Libraries Although librarians sometimes speak as though they are social constructivists, librarian practice in fact looks a lot like Goldman’s veritism. Take, for example, the accuracy literature in the evaluation of reference services. For more than thirty years, library and information science researchers have evaluated reference ser­ vice in terms of the accuracy of librarian responses to user questions, where ac­ curacy is defined as the correct or true answer in Goldman’s sense. When ref­ erence services do not result in a suffi­ cient increase in true belief (the 55 per­ cent rule), strategies are devised (follow­ up questions) to improve and correct the practice. If Goldman is correct, librarians should continue this type of research and correcting practice instead of focusing ex­ clusively on non-truth-based concepts of evaluation such as user satisfaction. One application of Goldman’s theory could be a comparison of the truth-producing practice of reference librarians with the ability of Internet search engines to pro­ vide accurate answers to a user ’s query per unit of user time. Goldman’s work also has implica­ tions for collection development and li­ brary instruction. He applies his veritistic epistemology to issues such as the peer review of electronic publications, recent copyright legislation, collaborative learn- Index to advertisers Academic Press 155 ACRL 135, 178 AIAA 114, 145 Archival Products 154 Assoc. Research Libraries 91 CHOICE 168, 177 EBSCO 92 Elsevier Science 103, 105, 107 Getty Trust 126 Grove’s Dictionaries 98 ISI cover 2 Library Technologies 95 Library Technology Alliance 120 Marcive cover 3 OCLC 117 R.R. Bowker cover 4 March 2000 ing, and critical thinking—reaching con­ clusions that most often back up librar­ ian practice in these areas. The one weak­ ness of this book is that in attempting to cover such broad territory, Goldman’s practical proposals are sometimes lack­ ing in details and specifics. Veriphobes and veritists alike, however, will benefit from the clarity of Goldman’s analysis of the thorny issues surrounding truth, knowledge, and social practice.—Marc Meola, Temple University. Print Culture in a Diverse America. Ed. James P. Danky and Wayne A. Wiegand. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Pr. (History of Communication Series), 1998. 291p. $49.95, acid-free paper, cloth (ISBN 0-2520-2398-6); $27.95 pa­ per (ISBN 0-2520-6699-5). LC 97­ 33935. The emerging field of print cultural stud­ ies has been greatly enhanced by the pub­ lication of this new work. The editors have assembled a collection of important essays that were presented during the first conference—in 1995, in Madison, Wiscon­ sin—of the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America. The result of their labors is an anthology of ideas about the value of print, in its variant forms, that is groundbreaking in establishing link­ ages between libraries, cultural commu­ nities, and the printed word. In his introduction, Wayne Wiegand succinctly describes a “rapidly emerging scholarship on reading within a much broader shift in the focus of humanities research ‘from culture as text to culture as agency and practice.’” Print cultural studies can be viewed as “one manifes­ tation” of this movement. Yet, Wiegand is quick to remind the reader that schol­ arship in this emerging field has, to a large degree, excluded close investiga­ tion and analysis of the twentieth cen­ tury, a time period marked by a rapid increase in the utility of print among America’s culturally diverse popula­ tions. Investigation of print culture in this century is also complicated by an array of media that include newspapers Book Reviews 175 and periodicals, broadsides, pamphlets, and posters which reflect the activities of various communities, organizations and movements, and individuals. The essays in Print Culture in a Diverse America are organized under three themes. Four essays are included on the role of for­ gotten serials. Rudolph Vecoli tracked a number of immigrant Italian newspapers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, demonstrating their significance in Italian-American social life and their importance in maintaining a distinctive ethnic identity in the immigrants’ new world. Yumei Sun traces the history of Chun Sai Yat Po, a San Francisco-based newspaper that “engaged the Chinese community in a reflexive process of self-examination that led, inevitably, to greater assimilation.” Violet Johnson’s es­ say on the Boston Chronicle extends our understanding of cultural institutions and social change in Boston’s black communi­ ties, and Norma Fay Green contributes an original essay on empowerment and the homeless in the publication of the Chicago newspaper, StreetWise. Part two of the anthology shifts focus to the relationship between readers and their texts. Again, four essays are presented, this time on topics ranging from hobo self-publication to the discovery of the read­ ing interests of public library users in a ru­ ral Iowa community. This section is particu­ larly noteworthy in the authors’ use of of­ ten-overlooked resources, such as the pre­ viously undiscovered circulation records of a small public library, vestiges of the records/archives of social clubs and orga­ nizations, and obscure, forgotten newspa­ pers that were used to piece together evi­ dence of the early American labor move­ ment. In the third and final section, authors wrestle with what Wiegand describes as “print materials’ reconstruction of events,” including an analysis of how the Titanic di­ saster was constructed by marginalized communities and Langston Hughes’s ef­ forts at self-publication in the 1930s. The latter is especially instructive in the study of similar efforts among black writers in sub­ sequent decades. As this volume indicates, the benefits in applying print cultural studies to the analysis of America’s cultural diversity have yet to be exhausted. Yet, there are limi­ tations. Vecoli writes: “While print culture can be read for various ideologies that sought to influence readers, other sources need to be consulted to determine its effi­ cacy.” This is an important warning that a single-minded (and ethnocentric) focus on print culture ignores much that is valued by cultural communities: that which re­ sides outside the realm of print culture or of the reading interests of their members (e.g., in music, stories, and visual and performance-related arts). Also, print cul­ ture scholars will need to exercise caution as they apply the theory of book and print cultural studies to inquiry about the modes of communicating ideas among diverse cultural groups. Although these theoreti­ cal perspectives can provide great insight, they also may cloud scholarly understand­ ing of cultural nuances. Wiegand concludes his introductory essay by writing that “each of the eleven essays in this book represents a foray into the multicultural world of readers and reading in America over the last century and a half.” Through their work at the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America, Danky and Wiegand have broadened the narrowly constructed scope of studies in print culture to include different perspectives, themes, methods, resources, and objects of investigation. It is no wonder that the book won the 1999 Carey McWilliams Award for its contri­ bution to multicultural scholarship. This volume is strongly recommended not only for students of print cultural stud­ ies, but also for those who are interested in how changing technologies affect the way communities record their lives.— William C. Welburn, The University of Iowa. Technology and Scholarly Communication. Ed. Richard Ekman and Richard E. Quandt. Berkeley: Univ. of California Pr., 1999. 442p. $45.00, alk. paper, cloth (ISBN 0-520-21762-4); $19.95 paper (ISBN 0-520-21763-2). LC 98-30679.