reviews.indd American campuses. Concerning his first, in 1974, he recalled a tense evening in “Detroit” when, on foot, he searched for a hot meal in the desolate downtown prior to a call the next day at “Western Reserve University.” Upon returning to his hotel, a clerk behind bullet-proof glass scolded Gerits for having risked his life on that inner-city errand. Perhaps he had been in Cleveland, or perhaps Gerits actually had been in Detroit, maybe to visit Wayne State University. We may never know. But we do know that Gerits persevered to find his hot meal that evening—“I don’t like cold meals,” he remarks—just as he per- severed in the Nijhoff catalog room and in every day of his career that followed. Toward the end of this book, a pho- tograph records a stop by a visitor from a prominent U.S. library in Amsterdam at A. Gerits & Son. The librarian, Gerits, and his son stand before a wall of hand- some old books. The librarian, dressed American-casual in jeans and a pullover sweater, is posed between the two Gerits. He seems happy to be there, if slightly uncomfortable before the camera. To the right is Gerits’s son and successor Arnoud, half-smiling, dressed in chinos, shirt, and necktie, clearly the apprentice. To the left is Gerits himself, wearing a trademark bow tie, his right hand thrust at a jaunty angle, thumb cocked out, into the pocket of a dark, double-breasted suit. He smiles nobly over this scene he has orchestrated. Gerits may never know that his customer-librarian’s name is misspelled in the photograph’s caption. No matter. In the imperfect world of an- tiquarian bookselling, Gerits has made a success. Clearly, this is a shopkeeper who is open for business.—Bob Nardini, YBP Library Services. Lee, Stuart D., and Frances Boyle. Build- ing an Electronic Resource Collection: A Practical Guide, 2nd ed. London: Facet, 2004. 174p. $75 (ISBN 1856045315). This brief, but expensive, book is a wel- come expansion of the relatively few pages devoted to electronic resources in Book Reviews 283 more comprehensive reference or acquisi- tions texts, such as Richard E. Bopp and Linda Smith’s Reference and Information Services (Libraries Unlimited, 2001) and G. Edward Evans, Sheila S. Intner, and Jean Weihs’ Introduction to Technical Services (Libraries Unlimited, 2002). It should not be regarded, however, as the defi nitive treatise (even for the moment) on creating and managing a collection of electronic resources. Intended for librarians, espe- cially those in collection development and acquisitions, students, and publish- ers interested in electronic resources, the book outlines and provides advice about the myriad decisions that must occur in connection with acquiring or providing access to electronic resources. In the first section (chapters 1–3), the authors offer a broad-based approach to electronic resources designed to provide perspective on the issues involved with their acquisition and access. Indeed, chap- ter 1, “Preliminary Issues,” discusses the reasons for buying an electronic resource and the task of integrating electronic resource and traditional collection devel- opment. Chapter 2 characterizes the “elec- tronic resources landscape,” describing materials currently available electroni- cally and discussing factors that “differen- tiate them from print publications,” such as authentication and user interface. The book emphasizes commercially available electronic products covering all forms of data (e.g., text, numbers, images), but not free, Web-based resources. For the latt er, the reader should look at other sources such as Chris Sherman and Gary Price’s The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can’t See (Informa- tion Today, 2001). Chapter 3 describes the differences and similarities between e-books and e-journals in more detail. The second section (chapters 4–5) focuses more specifically on decisions. In chapter 4, the authors develop a process model for decision making related to electronic resources acquisitions, moving methodi- cally through the process to offer a brief exposition of the major steps. Chapter 5 is 284 College & Research Libraries a discussion of the activities surrounding the provision of access to the resources when the decision has been made to make them available and expands the model in chapter 4 to cover the cataloging and delivery of the resources. Complementing these brief chapters are a select glossary and a two-part bibliography that covers, first, journals, electronic lists, and bulletin boards, and, second, articles, associations, monographs, and reports. Only three years have elapsed since the book’s first edition (2001), but the range and methods of providing electronic resources are rapidly changing. In the second edition, the authors have added new sections on virtual learning environ- ments/learning management systems (very brief) and reading, and resource list software, as well as updating informa- tion and correcting previous errors. Any book that mentions specifics concerning electronic resources risks having outdated information because electronic resources themselves frequently change. This book should not be read for current informa- tion about resources but, rather, for the principles, guidelines, and the procedures it presents. Written by British authors, the book is also relevant for decision making by American librarians. The authors are experienced with electronic resources: Stuart D. Lee is author of Digital Imaging: A Practical Handbook (Neal-Schuman, 2001) and is head of Learning Technolo- gies Group at Oxford University Comput- ing Services; Frances Boyle is electronic resources manager for Oxford University Library Services. The book should be faulted for its brevity; many of the topics it covers cry out for more explanation and examples and must be supplemented through either the Web or more specialized books. For instance, it includes no sample collection policy, although it sends the reader to several examples. Other books address some specialized issues in greater and necessary detail, such as two of the books in Neal-Schuman’s How-to-do-it Manual May 2005 series: Rick Anderson’s Buying and Con- tracting for Resources and Services (2004), and Donnelyn Curtis, Virginia M. Sche- schy, and Adolfo R. Tarango’s Developing and Managing Electronic Journal Collections (2000).—Marilyn Domas White, University of Maryland. McChesney, Robert W. The Problem of the Media: U. S. Communication Politics in the 21st Century. New York: Monthly Review Pr., 2004. 367p. paper $16.95 (ISBN 1583671056); cloth $39 (ISBN 1583671064). LC 2003-26386. Many Americans are dissatisfi ed with poor-quality media content today, from hypercommercialism to journalism that depoliticizes our society with biased, inaccurate, or trivial reporting. Only in the past few years have some come to understand that this poor quality is due, in part, to the concentration of the media among five worldwide conglomerates and their influence on government me- dia policies. Media reform and a truly democratic media system, essential for a strong democracy, are possible only with informed and widespread public debate. Although government representatives and media supercompanies have tried to hide their activities from the American public, recent grassroots efforts have mobilized citizens to demand that their representatives protect and increase me- dia diversity. Robert W. McChesney, considered by many to be America’s leading media historian, has written an impeccably re- searched, provocative, and entertaining book that expands on his Rich Media, Poor Democracy (1999). A research professor in the Institute of Communications Re- search and the graduate school of library and information science at the Univer- sity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, McChesney renders a compelling history of the federal government’s subsidy of the media, including the passage of favor- able or sympathetic legislation, from the early years of our Republic to the current popular uprising against the hegemony of