reviews.indd many of them in color and many full-page plates, and concludes with appendices of German and French binding terms, though (a minor quibble) retaining the often antiquated spellings of the source manuals. One final observation: the meticulous quality of Foot’s work calls to mind the microscopic attention to detail charac- teristic of Nicholson Baker’s novels, e.g., The Mezzanine (1990), the same author’s essays collected in The Size of Thoughts (1996), or of Patrick Süskind’s richly imagined, yet scrupulously researched and historically accurate novel of eigh- teenth-century France, Perfume (1985). Certainly, authors of the increasingly popular mystery genre revolving around the oft en baffling ciphers and semiotics of old books and their constituent parts—in the tradition of Eco’s Name of the Rose (1981) and Pérez-Reverte’s Club Dumas (1993), now, of course, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (2003)—could weave many wonderful tales from the arcana and mi- nutiae Mirjam Foot has brought together in this volume. Yet the principal audience for her work remains students of history and especially students (and practitio- ners) of the history of the book. And to them it offers a valuable introduction, highly recommended.—Jeffrey Garrett, Northwestern University Huber, Mary Taylor, and Pat Hutchings. The Advancement of Learning: Building the Teaching Commons. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005. 187 p. alk. paper, $35 (ISBN 078798115X). LC 2005-12459. This timely publication from the Carn- egie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching reports on the state of scholar- ship addressing teaching and learning. Historically, the teaching of higher educa- tion has been described as a lonely profes- sion. Committed professors, well trained in their disciplines, have had litt le op- portunity to engage in collective inquiry into the learning process. The creation of a “teaching commons,” as the authors of this volume call it, provides opportunities Book Reviews 481 for educators to explore and share ideas about teaching and learning. The authors argue, quite successfully, that teaching and learning, in and of themselves, are legitimate foci of scholarship and that all disciplines will benefit from the outcomes of research in these areas. Pedagogy and the science of learning are not new subjects to be explored by researchers. In recent years, however, great changes have occurred that call for a renewed inquiry. New generations of students, technological change, classroom renovation, and, indeed, as the authors note, “new ideas about learning itself” are changing the landscape. The Advancement of Learning is orga- nized into seven chapters. Chapter One provides an historical overview of the scholarship relating to teaching and learning. This chapter contains an excel- lent, succinct summary of significant curricular initiatives and studies under- taken throughout the twentieth century. In addition to documenting the evolution of scholarship on teaching and learning, changes in the demographic makeup of students, the rise in interdisciplinary studies, and other pertinent variables are presented. The second chapter sets the agenda for the rest of the book. Here, the authors provide their operational definitions relating to the types of scholarship they are promoting. Taking their case beyond schools of education, where inquiry into learning and pedagogy typically reside, the authors invite all higher education faculty to join their teaching commons to share information, best practice, and collaborative research. Chapters Three through Six look at specific examples and contexts related to the scholarship of learning. The authors draw heavily upon their experience with the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching (CASTL), citing numerous examples of individuals and programs supported by CASTL since its inception. CASTL’s Higher Education program consists of a center for advanced study 482 College & Research Libraries that supports individuals in examining their own teaching and learning, colleges and universities developing on-campus programs in these areas, and collabora- tion with associations and societies inter- ested in promoting scholarship focused on learning and teaching. Examples of research highlighted in these chapters include a professor’s, of theoretical math- ematics, work to redesign his teaching to better prepare his students to become ef- fective secondary school math teachers, as well as similar examples from a variety of disciplines including history, English, and biology. The authors offer these case stud- ies, not as scalable projects that will solve problems in teaching in these various disciplines, but as examples of a process of inquiry, engaged in by these professors, that resulted in eff ective change. At the center of Huber and Hutchings’ argument promoting the legitimacy of a scholarship of pedagogy and learning is their belief in the concept of the teaching commons. The commons is described in the abstract, as a place for scholars to come together to explore new approaches to teaching, to learn from each other, and to build continued interest and support for scholarly inquiry into teaching. In the final chapter of The Advancement of Learning, the authors present an action agenda. They do this by emphasizing five areas that promise, in their words, to contribute greatly to the scholarship of teaching and learning. The fi ve areas are: creating opportunities on campus to talk about learning; including students in these conversations; recognizing, on all levels, that teaching is “substantive and intellectual work”; creating new methods and ways of documenting and sharing classroom practice; and making the practice and theory of sound pedagogy available to everyone. Huber and Hutchings are seasoned scholars who are well prepared to ad- dress the subject of this book. It is well researched, builds on earlier work by the Carnegie Foundation, and contains extensive notes and lengthy authoritative September 2006 references. This book should be added to every academic library, where one hopes it will be read by presidents, provosts, academic administrators, librarians, and everyone else concerned with teaching and learning in higher education.—John W. Collins, Harvard University Tevis, Ray, and Brenda Tevis. The Image of Librarians In Cinema, 1917–1999. Jef- ferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2005. 230 p. alk. paper, $45 (ISBN 0786421509). LC 2004-29517. The authors, who are also librarians, have compiled a comprehensive study of major United States and British fi lms that feature librarian characters playing either major or supporting roles, referred to here as “reel librarians.” The work demon- strates—through in-depth examinations of onscreen characteristics—that the im- ages of reel librarians have changed little throughout the years and that the usual stereotypes persist. The book is divided into four chapters that focus on the portrayal of librarians during specific eras in the motion picture industry: silent fi lms, black-and-white fi lms, color films, and the age of multiplex theatres. In each chapter, librarian char- acters are carefully examined in terms of age, hairstyle, eyeglasses, clothing style, workplace tasks, behavior, and lifestyle. The authors discovered that most reel librarians are middle-aged individuals, and they repeatedly refer to these char- acters as “only 38” librarians. “Only 38” is a title of a 1923 silent film in which the 38-year-old widow, Mrs. Stanley, takes a job at a college library despite her two grown children’s objections that she is too old. In spite of Mrs. Stanley finding romance and rediscovering part of her lost youth, the authors use the “only 38” phrase to indicate that that a reel librarian is middle-aged or older. Hairstyles are usually described as well-groomed and short or as the tra- ditional pulled-back bun. The authors notice that reel librarians not wearing eyeglasses are often carrying eyeglasses.