reviews.indd


Book Reviews 

Integrating Information Literacy into the 
Higher Education Curriculum: Practical 
Models for Transformation. Jossey-Bass 
Higher and Adult Education Series.  Ed. 
Ilene F. Rockman. San Francisco: Jossey-
Bass, 2004. 260p. alk. paper, $36 (ISBN 
0787965278). LC 2003-27930. 

Integrating Information Literacy into the High-
er Education Curriculum consists of chapters 
written by nine different authors. Brief 
biographies of the authors are presented 
before the introduction. All have extensive 
backgrounds in conducting information 
literacy programs. Ilene Rockman, a well-
known authority on information literacy, 
authored the preface, introduction, one of 
the seven chapters, and the conclusion. All 
but two of the authors are from academic 
institutions in California, so the examples 
are drawn largely from that state. 

In her excellent forward, Patricia 
Breivik, who has among other titles, chair 
of the National Forum on Information Lit-
eracy, sets the stage on why this work is so 
timely. She also provides a concise set of 
characteristics of successful information 
literacy programs. 

The preface gives a useful outline of 
the book and describes the intended audi-
ence. This audience includes administra-
tors and other members of the academic 
community. Although there is much 
that would be of interest to academic 
administrators in the chapters, I would 
be hesitant to simply hand this book to 
a dean or provost. There is simply too 
much detail in many of the chapters. 
To reach the administrative audience, 
executive summaries at the beginning of 
each chapter would have been a useful 
addition. The introduction would be an 
appropriate piece to pass along to upper-
level administrators. 

The chapters vary in their ap-
proach, but all are writt en well. 
Some of the chapters are broad 
in scope, some are overviews 
of general practices, and a few 
are very specific descriptions of 
particular projects. Although this 
mix will be useful to people responsible 
for information literacy programs, the 
book may have limited appeal to a broader 
audience. The topics covered include:  un-
derstanding the importance of information 
literacy, development of faculty–librarian 
partnerships, integration of information 
literacy into the curriculum, creation of 
freshman-level tutorials, integration of 
information literacy into interdisciplin-
ary majors, determination of information 
literacy needs in a research sett ing, produc-
tion of assessment tools, and assessment of 
information literacy initiatives. One of the 
strengths of this work is that outcomes-
based assessment is a common theme. 

The articles included contain refer-
ences that are up-to-date and many 
include URLs for Web sites of various 
information literacy initiatives. They also 
include appropriate tables, appendices, 
and so on. 

Rockman states in her preface that 
“The purpose of this book is to showcase 
practical examples of how information 
literacy programs and partnerships can 
transform the higher education teach-
ing and learning environments.” This 
is a very ambitious goal that is largely 
achieved, the book showcasing very 
useful examples of information literacy 
efforts. It also places information literacy 
within the context of curricula and right-
fully defines it as being much more than 
simply a series of traditional bibliographic 
instruction sessions. 

74 



This book is a useful resource for 
anyone involved in information literacy. 
Although it might not be the book that 
an academic administrator should read, 
it will certainly help information literacy 
advocates prepare their case to solicit 
administrative support for information 
literacy. I recommend it for all academic 
libraries planning or actively engaged in 
information literacy initiatives.—Bil Stahl, 
Western Carolina University. 

Kirp, David L. Shakespeare, Einstein, and the 
Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Edu-
cation. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni-
versity Pr., 2003. 328p. alk. paper, $29.95 
(ISBN 0674011465). LC 2003-49914. 

Geiger, Roger L. Knowledge and Money: 
Research Universities and the Paradox of 
the Marketplace. Stanford, Calif.: Stan-
ford University Pr., 2004. 321p. alk. pa-
per, $27.95 (paper) (ISBN 0804749264); 
$70 (cloth) (ISBN 0804749256). LC 
2004-1622. 

“The business of America is business,” 
observed Calvin Coolidge wryly in 1925. 
But what is the “business” of higher edu-
cation? Eighty years ago, the notion that a 
university could itself be a “business” and 
capable of forming any type of alliance 
with commerce was surely anathema. 
Higher education’s mission was solely 
to promote the House of Intellect. The 
only role for commerce was to donate 
buildings and laboratories and to endow 
chairs, scholarships, and book funds. The 
ivory tower and business were two entirely 
different worlds, incompatible and incom-
mensurate—often even at loggerheads—in 
almost every way. Today’s intimate connec-
tion of the two would have been incompre-
hensible in 1925. Yet, Coolidge’s comment 
might well apply to the modern university 
where, within but a single generation, the 
entire concept of financing higher educa-
tion has been radically transformed. No 
longer an academic enclave isolated and 

Book Reviews 75 

insulated from society’s mainstream, the 
modern university has become a very 
businesslike enterprise. 

This far-reaching and rapidly evolving 
shift from ivory tower to marketplace 
is the subject of books by David L. Kirp 
and Roger L. Geiger, two scholars who 
have spent their careers studying higher 
education.1 Kirp, who is Professor of 
Public Policy at UC Berkeley, received 
Ford Foundation support for his research. 
Geiger, Distinguished Professor of Higher 
Education at Pennsylvania State Univer-
sity, received support from the Alfred P. 
Sloan and Spencer Foundations. The result 
is two books of virtually the same length, 
each attempting to explain why and how 
research universities and some colleges 
have formed intimate alliances with indus-
try. Both authors outline the con sequences 
of these connections. Both books cover the 
same time period, 1980 to date, but the 
focus of each book is quite different. 

Kirp’s Shakespeare, Einstein, and the 
Bott om Line: The Marketing of Higher Edu-
cation is a collaborative work of thirteen 
chapters, some cowritten by colleagues 
who are thanked in the acknowledgments 
and in the endnotes (but not on the title 
page or in the introduction). However, 
the first endnote to each chapter carefully 
explains the sources of their fi ndings, usu-
ally personal or telephone interviews and 
e-mails to and from “trustees, administra-
tors, professors and students” and “others 
knowledgeable about the institution.” 
Five hundred and ninety-four endnotes 
exhaustively (but not always thoroughly 
or accurately) document the work. 

Kirp and his associates have organized 
their book as case studies of some dozen 
or so major colleges and universities, plus 
one consortium, several Silicon Valley 
commercial firms that provide informa-
tion technology (IT) certification, and a 
few other educational institutions within 
the greater San Francisco Bay area. It is