184

Book Reviews

Beth M. Whittaker and Lynn M. Thomas. 
Special Collections 2.0. Westport, Conn.: 
Libraries Unlimited, 2009. xxiv, 150p. 
alk. paper, $45 (ISBN 9781591587200). 
LC 2009-013451.

All libraries, regardless of patron base, are 
grappling with the opportunities and chal-
lenges of changing patron expectations 
in an increasingly digital world. Special 
collections libraries face their own set of 
challenges in this arena, particularly with 
regard to increasing collection visibility. 

Special Collections 2.0 presents an over-
view of the ways in which Web 2.0 technol-
ogy can be utilized by special collections 
libraries, archives, and other institutions 
that present and preserve cultural heritage 
materials. The authors acknowledge that 
there are numerous books and articles 
discussing Web 2.0 technologies in general, 
and that this book focuses on those that can 
play specific roles for special collections 
libraries, archives, and museums. The 
book is an expansion of a survey (included 
as Appendix 1) distributed to cultural 
heritage and special-collections profes-
sionals via the listservs EXLIBRIS-L (for 
rare-books professionals) and Archivists, 
and the Facebook groups for Rare Books 
Professionals and Archivists intended to 
gauge knowledge of and interest in Web 
2.0 technologies in this community. 

The book is divided into six chapters, 
each of which addresses a Web 2.0 technol-
ogy of specific interest to the special-collec-
tions professional and how it can be used 
to create, promote, and manage materials 
and find new audiences for them. Chapters 
range from a basic outline of various social-
networking and communication tools and 
how they can be used for networking, 
promotion, and community-building 
(chapters 1–4), to specific library-related 
issues and tools (chapters 5 and 6).

Chapter 1 provides an outline of so-
cial networking and collaboration tools, 
ranging from Facebook to SecondLife to 

ALAConnect. Chapters 2 and 
3 move beyond basic social 
networking to more actively 
collaborative technologies. 
Chapter 2 focuses on blogs 
and RSS feeds, providing an 
overview of how (and why) to 
blog and follow blogs, noting that blogging 
can facilitate professional conversation and 
allow the development of collaborative 
projects. A further note on the preserva-
tion and archiving of blogs highlights the 
convergence of Web 2.0 technologies and 
cultural preservation. Chapter 3 illustrates 
how wikis can be used with an internal 
focus: to make documentation available, 
note the history and peculiarities of spe-
cific collections and items, document local 
cataloging practices, and serve as basic 
internal communication; and with an ex-
ternal focus: communicating with donors, 
patrons, and other professionals in the 
field, promoting collections. The authors 
provide an example of the use of a wiki as 
a collection development and enhancement 
tool: the Edward T. LeBlanc Dime Novel 
Wiki Project of Northern Illinois University, 
still in the pilot stage at time of publication. 
Chapter 4 begins the progression to more 
detailed, collection-focused examples of 
Web 2.0 technology, by discussing the use 
of social tagging, Flickr, and podcasts to 
promote collections, create digital collec-
tions, and enhance collection description. 

Chapters 5 and 6 turn the discussion 
toward field-specific tools and issues. 
Chapter 5 provides great detail on access 
to collections via catalogs and finding aids, 
and the current state of descriptive access 
to special collections. Much work is pres-
ently being done in the greater library com-
munity on catalog interfaces, particularly 
the “Next Gen” trend that tends to design 
interfaces that replicate the search-engine 
experience. The authors note that these 
interfaces often homogenize records and 
hide the specific information pertaining 



Book Reviews 185

to special-collections materials—specific 
information that is often why the material 
is special in the first place—from users, and 
highlight the need for special-collections 
professionals to take an active role in cata-
log development to prevent this.

The authors go on to discuss the in-
creasing standardization, after an absence 
thereof, of archival descriptive standards 
via DACS (Describing Archives: A Content 
Standard) and EAD (Encoded Archival 
Description), and the commercial and 
open-source software solutions available 
to museums to publicize description of 
collections most often relegated to internal 
databases. Additionally, the authors discuss 
the ability to harvest and share metadata 
and the use of “social cataloging” to make 
searching across digital collections possible. 

Chapter 6 focuses on “digital preser-
vation 2.0.” Here, the authors note that 
cultural heritage professionals “have 
a unique viewpoint and skill set that 
equips them to take on the challenge of 
preserving digital materials,” and that 
the community must be part of the digital 
preservation movement, particularly for 
2.0 materials, which are dynamic, rather 
than static. The many issues in this area, 
including those of mass digitization, copy-
right, and cost and scale of projects, are 
addressed, with an exhortation at the end:

… when will cultural heritage 
professionals, the people who will, 
ultimately, be responsible for the 
long-term preservation of dynamic 
materials, acknowledge the ele-
phant in the room? … If the cultural 
heritage community does not make 
a concerted effort to catch up, we 
are in danger of losing a significant 
part of our history, as surely as if we 
were burning family papers after 
the death of a loved one[.]

Appendix 2, “A Digital Preservation 
Primer,” provides practical advice on 
achieving the above, with lists and de-
scriptions of tools and services available 
to facilitate digital preservation.

Special Collections 2.0 is well written, 
reaching those with little knowledge of 
Web 2.0 technologies without condescend-
ing to those more experienced in Web 2.0; 
extensive bibliographies of both print 
and online resources close each chapter. 
This book is vital reading for current and 
future special-collections professionals: 
not merely as a guide to improving col-
lection access and promotion, but as an 
exhortation to become a driving force 
in the larger Library 2.0 effort.—Deborah 
DeGeorge, University of Michigan.

Brent L. Pickett. Historical Dictionary of 
Homosexuality. Lanham, Md.: Scare-
crow, 2009. 280p. alk. paper, $85 (ISBN 
9780810859791). LC 2009-004763.

The central dilemma confronting an author 
of a reference work on homosexuality is 
the inherent historicity of sex and gender 
categories. How can one assemble a com-
prehensive dictionary of homosexuality 
if the category itself is historically contin-
gent? Pickett, a political science professor 
at University of Wyoming/Casper College 
Center, acknowledges this challenge in his 
introduction, pointing to the difficulty of 
“identifying the precise scope of the sub-
ject matter…the apparently simple ques-
tion of what counts as homosexuality ends 
up being extraordinarily complex” (xxxi). 
Pickett deals with this complexity by draw-
ing some rather stark lines. For example, 
he excludes coverage of transgender and 
transsexual histories on the grounds that 
sexual orientation and gender identity are 
distinct categories with distinct histories. 
And yet, the Stonewall rebellion—led 
largely by transsexuals and transvestites, 
though largely marshaled to explain gay 
and lesbian history—receives coverage, 
as do berdache, transsexual, and trans-
vestite. Even for Pickett, the boundaries 
cannot hold.

Despite this (perhaps inescapable) 
weakness, Pickett’s historical dictionary 
will fill a need in smaller collections that 
do not support LGBT or Queer studies 
programs but do want to provide stu-
dents with a general reference text about