reviews.indd 482 College & Research Libraries September 2006 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 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. Many reel librarians also use pince-nez, eyeglasses clipped at the nose, and lan- yards, eyeglasses on a cord. Clothing styles for reel librarians can be described as dull, conservative, and nonstylish. Wo r k p l a c e a c t i v i t i e s h a v e a l s o changed little onscreen through the years. Typical tasks are shelving books, climbing ladders, staffi ng public service counters, and using the card catalog. Despite the information revolution, recent Hollywood films rarely portray librarians as skilled computer users and problem solvers. Librarians at information desks and other public service counters are often portrayed as unfriendly and unhelpful and serve more as gatekeepers to in- formation and resources rather than as facilitators. The Tevises also scrutinize the actors’ verbal and nonverbal reactions, such as making eye contact, or averting one’s eyes, or using “shushing” language and gestures. Many female reel librarians are de- scribed as dowdy, rigid, and harsh spin- sters or, alternatively, as att ractive young women who are simply waiting to get married so they can escape library life. Male reel librarians are also categorized as “only 38” or middle-aged. Unlike their female counterparts, male librarians are often portrayed as clumsy individuals and as inept in social relationships. The book includes several fi lms from different movie eras that defied the ste- reotypes. This is clearly evident from the twenty-five captioned black-and-white Index to advertisers ACRL 486 Annual Reviews cover 2 Archival Reviews 477 Brown University 417 Cambridge Scientifi c Abstract cover 4 CHOICE cover 3 Emery-Pratt 428 Idea Group 391 Intelex 392 Library Technology Alliance 462 Book Reviews 483 photos selected for this text. Although the photos present a few stereotypi- cal pictures of spinster librarians with glasses, buns, and frumpy clothing, many of them show a different kind of librar- ian. Onscreen librarians were played by major female and male stars of the day, such as Carol Lombard, Virginia Mayo, June Allyson, Gloria Grahame, Kim Hunter, Peter Sellers, Shirley Jones, and Mandy Patinkin. The photos depict fairly young, well-dressed, and att ractive stars. A couple of young starlets are on ladders, giving a full view of their shapely legs, and not all the librarians are wearing eyeglasses. Photos of Bette Davis from the film Storm Center and Katharine Hepburn from the film Desk Set are also provided. Bette Davis plays librarian Alicia who must deal with questions of intellectual freedom; she portrays Alicia as an intel- ligent professional with strong character. Although Desk Set is a romantic comedy, Katharine Hepburn plays a witty and outgoing librarian. Casting these two strong and powerful screen personas as librarians challenged the typical view of librarians. Despite these rare breaks from the stereotypes, the authors show that the image of onscreen librarians has remained relatively unchanged. The book ends with a selected bibliog- raphy of 115 resources; the most recent citation is from 2003. The only major omission from this selected bibliography is Dee Garrison’s Apostles of Culture: The Public Librarian and American Society, 1876–1920 (1979; 2003), which examined the impact of historical events on cur- rent librarianship and society’s view of libraries. The authors are to be praised for their extensive research and fi lm view- ing done to identify the fi lms discussed, especially those films in which librarians were not given screen credits. In addi- tion to the bibliography and index, the authors include a concise list of the 235 films considered for this work, including production company name, production 484 College & Research Libraries year, and symbols representing specific librarian attributes. For example, the letter “B” is used to highlight films that contain a librarian with a bun and the letter “E” is used to denote films with librarians wear- ing eyeglasses. The authors also supply a list of 181 films that they did not consider and provide brief explanations why these titles were excluded. This interesting book is a good choice for film and popular culture collections.—Caroline Geck, Kean University New Challenges Facing Academic Librari- ans Today: Electronic Journals, Archival Digitization, Document Delivery, Etc. Eds. Jean Caswell, Paul G. Haschak, and Dayne Sherman. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 2005. 288 p. alk. paper, $119.95 (ISBN 0773460136). LC 2005-3895. This collection of thoughtful, albeit at times seemingly random, essays contains something of significance for every aca- demic librarian. The mix is eclectic and not every essay will be equally useful for every reader. Many of the essays were originally published in the electronic Journal of Southern Academic and Special Li- brarianship (JSASL), later rechristened the Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship (E-JASL), and they certainly reflect the increasing influence of digiti- zation upon libraries and librarianship. The editors are all faculty members of the Library Science and Information School of Southeastern Louisiana University. New Challenges is divided into five sections: “Scholarly Communication,” “Instruction and Learning,” “Legal Is- sues,” “Metadata and Digitization,” and “Library Studies.” The essays in each chapter are only loosely related, but they do successfully address various aspects of the larger topic. For instance, the chapter titled “Legal Issues” contains only Rory McGreal’s “Stealing the Goose: Copy- right and Learning” and Eleanor Lomax and Linda Lou Wiler’s “The Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance and Academic Libraries in the Southeastern United States,” two essays on very diff er- September 2006 ent topics that are tangentially connected only under the general rubric, “Legal Is- sues.” While both essays do in fact deal with legal issues, the essay on copyright is much more theoretical than the spe- cific, more utilitarian piece focusing on ADA compliance in a particular region of the country. Despite this imbalance, there is something to be gleaned from each essay. While the “Legal Issues” and “Meta- data and Digitization” sections are sparsely populated at two essays each, the substance of the book resides in the heftier sections, “Scholarly Communication” and “Instruction and Learning.” Here the editors have selected essays dealing with critical issues and debates such as the future of electronic journals and the vari- ous models for providing instruction in the area of information literacy. Academic librarians will be intrigued by the pos- sibilities offered in these helpful essays on trends in bibliographic instruction, illustrated with examples from various institutions. Many of the essays make the crucial point that practice must in- deed vary, predicated upon the mandate, mission, and organizational structures of individual libraries and academic institutions. Ideally, of course, academic librarians should have some authority to make or at least influence decisions that affect their user populations, but these pieces also acknowledge that this ideal is rarely realized. Despite the book’s fragmented design, that virtually dictates the lack of a central argument, in the aggregate this collection presents a broad overview of the current issues confronting academic librarians. New Challenges Facing Academic Librari- anship provides a welcome and needed sampling of the current scholarship in the field. It is a text to be savored, rather than devoured wholesale.—Lynne Maxwell, Villanova University The Reference Collection: From the Shelf to the Web. Ed. William J. Frost. Bing- hamton, N.Y.: Haworth, 2005. 310