reviews 294 College & Research Libraries May 2002 Jackson gives a similarly detailed read- ing to the scribbled oeuvre of many other famous annotators, among them William Blake, S. T. Coleridge, Hester Lynch Piozzi, Mark Twain, Ezra Pound, and T. H. White. In all, about 200 titles are listed in her bibli- ography of annotated books, each with copy location and annotator’s name. (Doo- dlers are ennoblingly referred to as “extra-illustrators.”) In addition, the rela- tively few instances of published marginalia are included in the separate bib- liography of secondary works, among these the huge corpus that belongs to the Coleridge Collected Works edition published by Princeton University Press. (The sixth and final volume of Coleridge marginalia, Valckenaer to Zwick, was edited by H. J. Jack- son and published by Princeton in Novem- ber 2001.) Jackson’s eleven-page bibliography of secondary sources is also valuable for un- covering a body of literature that will surely inform further study of the topic. This literature ranges from compilations and catalogs of annotated books, such as the British Library’s Books with Manuscript: Short Title Catalogue of Books with Manu- script Notes (1994), to interesting treatments of marginalia in out-of-the-way sources, among them a how-to guide by Mortimer J. Adler (“How to Mark a Book”), pub- lished in 1940 in the Saturday Review of Lit- erature. Only as the present reader finished re- viewing this book did he realize that he had not written anything in its margins. This was a missed opportunity because of all the books that have ever crossed his desk, this one seems in retrospect to cry out to be written in, underlined, dog-eared-generally to receive all the marks of “self-assertive appropriation” dealt with on its pages. Yet another rea- son to look forward to a sequel.—Jeffrey Garrett, Northwestern University. Libraries & Democracy: The Cornerstones of Liberty. Ed. Nancy Kranich. Chicago: ALA, 2001. 223p. $32 (ISBN 083890808X). LC 2001-22974. I think if would be a fair assessment to say that, generally speaking, most Ameri- cans do not spend a lot of time contem- plating the institution of democracy. Let’s face it, the majority of us take it for granted. After the September 11 tragedy, however, I think that many of us have been reexamining what it means to live and work in a free society and more im- portant, what it means to be a citizen in a democracy. If we look at the institutions that embody and best symbolize our democratic ideals, libraries are at the fore- front, especially in their defense of free and open access to information for all people. Nancy Kranich, associate dean of li- braries at New York University and the 2000–2001 president of the ALA, uses this volume to expand on her ALA presiden- tial theme, “Libraries: The Cornerstone of Democracy.” Her book is a collection of twenty essays written by professionals (some notable) in the field of library and information science, in which they share their insights on the role that libraries play in advancing democracy. It presents a historical overview of libraries and de- mocracy in civil society, and addresses issues pertaining to technology, copy- right, censorship, ethics, free speech, and advocacy. The Introduction, written by Kranich, sets the tone of the collection by declar- ing that “libraries serve the most funda- mental ideals of our society as uniquely democratic institutions.” She explains that although citizens may have a rudi- mentary understanding of the relation- ship between libraries and democracy, very little has been written that openly discusses “the meaning of libraries as cor- nerstones of democracy.” Kranich’s goal with this collection is to present a range of perspectives on the role that libraries play in advancing “deliberative democ- racy.” What is achieved is a collection of essays all enthusiastically supportive of libraries and librarians. Section I is composed of densely writ- ten essays addressing the role of libraries in democracy from a historical and theo- retical perspective; it is informative to the Book Reviews 295 point of being overwhelming. Jorge Reina Schement’s essay, “Imagining Fairness Equality and Equity of Access in Search of Democracy,” is especially enlightening. He finds that the promise of the Internet as the great equalizer has fallen woefully short: “7% of American households still do not have a telephone” and “minori- ties lag behind Whites in computer own- ership, while Latinos demonstrate the highest purchasing rate.” It is apparent that the digital divide separating the haves from the have-nots still exists: The ideal of fair and equitable access to infor- mation and technology for all is far re- moved from the reality. Public libraries— with their mission to, in the words of con- tributor Kathleen de la Peña McCook, ”develop a climate of openness by defin- ing library policies to create an institution where all are welcome”—are uniquely positioned to counteract this. Schement explains that we as a society need to move toward a “new fairness; not fairness as uniform distribution, rather fairness as justice—that is, not equality of access, but equity of access. For just as there can be no fairness without equality, there can be none without justice.” The three essays of section II address- ing libraries and civil society discuss how libraries can act as natural outlets for pro- viding access to both civic and govern- ment resources. Durrance, Pettigrew, Jourdan, and Scheuerer stress the impor- tance of developing Community Informa- tion (CI) databases as tools for dissemi- nating information on topics relevant to the community (e.g., civic, government, and job information). In addition, CI ini- tiatives can assist in the development of community networking, youth programs, and services to immigrants and cultural minorities. Section III looks at the Internet, access issues (i.e., filtering software), the politi- cal process, and the challenges librarians face in meeting the needs of increasingly sophisticated library users. The essays in this section provide what, I think, is some of the book’s most useful and relevant in- formation, of interest to those both inside and outside the library profession. The Internet has played a fundamental role in the public’s ability to access a broader range of information. However, more in- formation is not always better information, sometimes it is just more. With many us- ers experiencing information overload, now more than ever, the skills of librar- ians are needed to assist the public in find- ing, evaluating, and using information. As Kranich states in her essay, librarians, by assisting the public in developing informa- tion literacy skills, help them “to live, work, learn, and govern in the digital age.” Susan B. Kretchmer, author of “The Li- brary Internet Access Controversy and De- mocracy,” provides an excellent and infor- mative overview on the use of filtering soft- ware in libraries and the controversy this has generated as a potential threat to the open access to information and the public’s right to know. Section IV includes five essays on the library’s function of providing access to local, state, and federal government in- formation (including the Federal Deposi- tory Library Program), ethics and govern- ment power (e.g., Iran-Contra and White House emails), copyright (the rights of the user versus the right of the intellectual property owner), and First Amendment issues (does censorship have a place in a democracy). The two essays in section V concern- ing the Library of Congress (LOC) trace its history from its humble beginnings in 1800 to its present-day glory. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress, de- scribes the LOC as “ an international in- stitution with a universal collection not limited by subject, format, or national boundary.” Examples of the LOC’s dem- onstrated commitment to cutting-edge technology includes projects such as the 1994 National Digital Library program (designed to digitize historical items from special research collections); the develop- ment of a new user-friendly Web site (un- veiled in April 2000); and the mounting of five million digital items from the col- lections of American history and culture. The essays in section VI speak to the 296 College & Research Libraries May 2002 significant function that advocacy plays in maintaining the library as a “corner- stone” of democracy. Patricia Glass Schuman in “Advocating for America’s Right to Know,” implores librarians and those in the library profession to lead the charge for advocacy because ultimate re- sponsibility for protecting the public’s right to know lies with libraries and li- brarians. William R. Gordon in “Advo- cacy for Democracy I: The Role of the American Library Association,” outlines the long-standing commitment that the ALA has demonstrated to preserving the fundamental right of democracy for all citizens. Finally, Joneta Belfrage provides an international perspective on the impor- tance of libraries in a democratic society in her essay, “Advocacy for Democracy II: The Role of the Swedish Library Associa- tion.” Libraries & Democracy is successful in providing an overview of the important contributions that libraries and librarians have made to the history of democracy; it is informative, though occasionally re- dundant. Kranich’s enthusiasm and knowledge on this topic are obvious, and her critical investigation of the issues con- cerning the roles and responsibilities of libraries in democracy is notable. This collection of essays is authored by, and targeted at, those in the information profession. In essence, this book is “preaching to the choir.” We as profes- sional librarians already understand the essential role that libraries play in a free and open society. We as professional li- brarians understand that access to knowl- edge, ideas, and information is para- mount in the battle against ignorance, intolerance, and prejudice. We as profes- sional librarians understand that America’s libraries are one of the last strongholds in the defense of freedom. What is needed is a way to effectively dis- seminate this information to those, out- side librarianship, who do not under- stand the vital and essential contributions that libraries and librarians have made to the past, present, and future of this insti- tution we call democracy.—Kelly C. Rhodes, Appalachian State University. Virilio, Paul. The Information Bomb. Trans. Chris Turner. London: Verso, 2000. 160p. $23 (ISBN 1859847455). LC 00- 32471. If a need exists (and I think it does) for philosophical insight into the anxiety suf- fered by many over the speed of modern life, the loss of distance as a geographic feature, the blurring of the border between the real and the unreal, and the eclipsing of the local by the global, then Paul Virilio’s The Information Bomb is a gem of a confir- mation and examination of these anxieties. Anxieties rooted in that defining feature of modern life—technology: “If truth is what is verifiable, the truth of contempo- rary science is not so much the extent of progress achieved as the scale of technical catastrophes occasioned.” As one might guess from the book’s title, this is no glowing account of the wonders of the information age but, rather, an exploration of the underside of the computer revolution as humanity and the planet enter the twenty-first century. Technoscience, disinformation, corpora- tions, states, and the “soft stupor” into which individual men, women, and chil- dren have been lulled are Virilio’s actors in the disturbing drama being played out on this once immeasurable, but now tiny, globe at an ever accelerating, to the point of dizzying, speed. Technoscience reduces knowledge to bits and bytes, and a new technical wizardry plays with reality, in- formation becoming disinformation, the mind engaging the world almost solely with a screen as intermediary. The televi- sion screen and the computer monitor— single eyes obliterate true perspective and depth, transmission speeds compress dis- tance into nothingness, roving and sta- tionary cameras focus on the surface of the mundane and the suspect in complete absence of historical and psychological understanding. 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