reviews.indd


supremacy in the then known world. The 
three main factors that led to this accu-
mulation of books included the opening 
up of relations between the Greek world 
and the East, the passionate love of books 
displayed by the Ptolemaic kings, and the 
rise to prominence of the new discipline 
of textual studies in literature. The found-
ing of great libraries and the growth of 
textual studies were not limited to the 
Greeks but were also the characteristic 
feature of other kingdoms ruled by Al-
exander the Great’s successors as well as 
other intellectual centers that managed to 
remain administratively independent of 
the ambitious Macedonian kings. Of the 
latter, the library at Pergamum in Asia 
Minor, founded by the Attalids, tried for 
a long time to create a library rivaling the 
Alexandrian Library. Also, the archives at 
Ai Khanoum in Bactira in the northeast 
of Afghanistan, one of the kingdoms 
through which the Silk Road ran, was a 
Greek cultural center located in one of the 
most remote spots on the globe. 

Chapter V, Architecture, focuses on the 
architecture, interior layout, furniture, and 
fittings of libraries and archives toward 
the end of the second century BC. Drawing 
together the conclusions of architectural 
historians and evidence from excavations, 
Staikos has painted a picture of a typical 
library during this period. The library 
would have a main hall designed to house 
only a token quantity, not the main collec-
tion. These books would not necessarily 
have been the most used or useful, the 
concept of the reference library being a 
more modern concept. Around the main 
hall would be auxiliary buildings where 
the majority of the books were kept. As 
the process of collecting books continued 
over a long period and followed no pre-
ordained plan, it is reasonable to assume 
that the bulk of the collection was housed 
in outbuildings that grew up like the “cells 
of a beehive, with big and small rooms 

Book Reviews 87 

connected to each other by roofed stoas 
and hidden corridors.” 

From Minos to Cleopatra is a handsome 
volume, which is printed on glossy paper 
and bound in maroon buckram-covered 
boards with title and publication data 
embossed in gold on the front cover and 
spine. An illustration of an imaginary 
reconstruction of the Museum in Alexan-
dria from the title page of M. Meibonius’s 
Diogenes Laertius (published in Amster-
dam in 1698) is affixed to the cover and 
bordered with a gold-embossed frame. 
A dust jacket with illustrations from the 
Late Minoan period (1600–1550 BC) and 
from the time of Cleopatra VII (51 BC[?]) 
adds both protection and further detail. 
Lavishly reproduced illustrations in black, 
white, and sepia, as well as full color, bring 
the well-written (and skillfully translated 
from the original Greek) text to life. 

Each chapter is documented copiously 
with endnotes that further illumine the 
text. An extensive twenty-three-page 
bibliography leads the reader to primary 
and secondary sources on the history 
of libraries in the ancient world, and a 
nineteen-page index provides detailed 
access to this volume. It was surpris-
ing that Lionel Casson’s Libraries in the 
Ancient World (Yale 2001) was not in the 
bibliography. Although Casson’s and 
Staikos’s works cover some of the same 
territory, Casson’s, with illustrations 
limited to black and white, sells at a third 
of the price of Staikos’s. Academic and 
research libraries and serious collectors 
of library history will certainly want both 
for their different approaches and for 
their discussions of material that does 
not overlap.—Plummer Alston Jones Jr., 
East Carolina University. 

Warner, Julian. Humanizing Information 
Technology. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow, 
2004. 156p. alk. paper, $35 (ISBN: 
0810849569). LC 2003-17048. 



88 College & Research Libraries 

As librarians, we need to be aware that 
information and information technologies 
are ever-growing organisms spreading 
both into and out from the traditional 
roles we have defined for them. As more 
of our resources become digitally based, 
librarians need to be not only cognizant 
of, but also involved in, discussions 
going on between other sectors of the 
information science community. These 
professionals—information scientists, 
information architects, instructional tech-
nologists, and human factors experts, to 
name a few—have a tremendous wealth 
of expertise and insight to offer and, con-
versely, can benefit from the expertise of 
the library sector. 

Julian Warner’s new book, Humanizing 
Information Technology, gives insight into 
an ongoing discussion among informa-
tion scientists. The discussion, which is 
of long standing, focuses on two topics: 
information as an autonomous variable, 
and the primacy of theoretical knowl-
edge. Warner, a faculty member in the 
School of Management and Economics 
at Queen’s University of Belfast, has writ-
ten a series of eight essays that develop 
this contrasting view. Among the essays 
are “An Information View of History,” in 
which Warner argues that the information 
society should begin to study the history 
and the historical importance of informa-
tion technology. By conducting this study 
the members of the information society 
can benefit themselves as well as others 
who are interested in the roles played by 
information and information technologies 
in human societies. 

In “Organs of the Human Brain, Cre-
ated by the Human Hand: Toward an Un-
derstanding of Information Technology,” 
Warner applies concepts from Karl Marx 
and economic theory combined with an 
understanding of information science to 

January 2005 

draw a distinction between the invention 
and the diffusion of information technol-
ogy. With this distinction in place, Warner 
uses primary source information to sug-
gest that in the late nineteenth century, 
the United States was ideally positioned 
for the development and dissemination 
of information technologies. 

In “Information Society or Cash Nex-
us? A Study of the United States as a 
Copyright Haven,” Warner uses the 
late nineteenth century as a backdrop to 
examine the economic ramifi cations of 
copyright. He argues that governments 
that disregard foreign copyright claims 
are actually putting themselves at an 
economic disadvantage. He examines 
government enforcement of copyright 
and how the history of this enforcement 
can help information scientists develop an 
appreciation of the history of information 
technology and to shape future develop-
ments in this field. 

Currently, the primary focus of informa-
tion retrieval systems is on providing users 
with the most relevant records. In “In the 
Catalogue Ye Go for Men: Evaluation Cri-
teria for Information Retrieval Systems,” 
Warner calls for a shift in focus. Pointing 
to changing user demands and systems 
developments outside the normal arena, 
he explains the need for information re-
trieval systems that allow for exploration, 
discovery, and cognitive control. 

Warner makes some thought-pro-
voking points and covers topics—in-
formation retrieval, copyright, and the 
distinction between meta-objects and 
meta-language—that many librarians 
will find valuable. Unfortunately, Hu-
manizing Information Technology is at 
times dense and difficult to grasp, which 
greatly diminishes the overall value of 
the work.—Tim Daniels, Georgia State 
University.