392 College & Research Libraries July 2010

most outstanding of all child composers” 
(192), serves as Cooper’s star example of 
a prodigy who veers later into conserva-
tism. Despite the scarcity of documenta-
tion across the spectrum of child compos-
ers, Cooper’s observations in this chapter 
are among his most interesting. 

Despite the book’s reference value and 
insightful observations, however, its limi-
tations tend to overwhelm it. Again, the 
basic source material for many compos-
ers’ childhood composition is generally 
lacking. This can be the case for many 
reasons, including documentation gaps 
for earlier composers, later compos-
ers’ suppression of their own youthful 
music, or a simple lack of publications 
for childhood works. Furthermore, Coo-
per’s checklist is “compiled mainly from 
standard dictionaries, biographies, and 
thematic catalogs” (8). Thus there is an 
unavoidable but powerful bias toward 
children who eventually became adult 
composers, or at least adults with a strong 
connection to the music industry, such as 
conductor Fürtwängler or musicologist 
Fétis. This unavoidable bias is especially 
problematic considering Cooper’s desire 
to address “not the childhood works of 
major composers, but the major works 
of all child composers” (4); his goal as 
stated may be nearly impossible. Conse-
quently, many of Cooper’s conclusions in 
the central chapter on “common charac-
teristics” of child composers are difficult 
to substantiate: what does it mean, for 
instance, that, among this particular 
sample of musically important people 
who composed as children, so many of 
them became composers as adults? In 
addition, it is problematic to evaluate the 
young composers for the quality of their 
work by “adult” criteria such as whether 
or not they composed a “major work” by 
the time they were sixteen (65–66). 

Cooper situates his work quite ap-
propriately within the context of femi-
nist and other musicological methods: 
prejudices about gender, race, and sexual 
orientation have similarly sidelined other 
groups of composers within the Western 

musical canon. Certainly (as Cooper sup-
ports with innumerable quotations) the 
musical works of child composers have 
too often been viewed as “juvenilia” 
and thus have been marginalized in the 
course of both music history and the 
history of a composer ’s own develop-
ment. Frequently, a young person’s music 
follows the models the child knows—in 
which case it might be dismissed as 
derivative—or it deviates from the 
standards of the day—in which case it 
might be labeled incompetent. Cooper 
addresses the fundamental question of 
youthful musical creativity in many of 
these cases and argues passionately that 
the book’s corpus of childhood composi-
tions are not only technically competent 
but, in many cases, show nascent musical 
minds giving early utterance to creative 
ideas that will later bear greater fruit. For 
instance, a young Beethoven explores the 
dramatic release of a C minor to C major 
shift, which will later feature in the Fifth 
Symphony, and an adolescent Chopin 
considers the radical shift of ending a 
virtuosic dance number in a different key. 

Despite its strengths, Child Composers 
& Their Works is difficult to assess. It may 
be the case that Cooper is heralding the 
opening of a completely new field in 
musicology. He suggests the possibility 
of a “childist” revision of music history 
(73), in which case Child Composers & Their 
Works will be a foundational volume, 
soon superceded and supplemented on 
the reference shelf (Cooper often alludes 
to future research that could supplement 
and fortify his catalog). Or it could be a 
highly interesting, but ultimately mar-
ginal, recapitulation of musical works, 
many of which are still not ready for 
prime time.—Timothy J. Dickey, OCLC 
Research, Dublin, Ohio.

Martin Austin Nesvig. Ideology and 
Inquisition: The World of the Censors 
in Early Mexico. New Haven, Conn.: 
Yale University Press, 2009. 366p. alk. 
paper, $60 (ISBN 9780300140408). 
LC2008-054919.



Book Reviews 393

While the inquisition is no doubt best 
known for its tyrannical controls in 
Europe during the 1500s, Martin Austin 
Nesvig’s Ideology and Inquisition examines 
the influence of the movement in early 
Mexico with an emphasis on their use of 
censorship. As the title would suggest, 
the goal is not to merely study the role 
of the inquisition in Mexico but rather to 
attempt to define the ideology behind this 
early movement. 

The first section concentrates on pro-
viding an in-depth review of the roots of 
the inquisitional movement beginning 
with the writings of the patristic thinkers 
in the third century, through Lucius III’s 
authorizing bishops to punish heresy, and 
eventually into the formation of the inqui-
sition as instituted by Innocent III. From 
this early vantage point, the historical 
analysis shifts to the rise of the Dominican 
order, which would become “the attack 
dogs of the pope” (23), and eventually 
the formation of the Spanish Inquisition 
from the roots of anti-Semitism, increased 
national identity, and a swing toward 
orthodox principles. 

With grounding in the early his-
tory, Nesvig continues by exploring the 
practices of the Medieval Inquisition in 
Mexico and its connection with censor-
ship. He explains that the early part of 
the movement was fractured and disor-
ganized, with various, often competing, 
groups attempting to establish the process 
with their own ideas on what should be 
censured. Even as a more formalized 
structure was being put into place, the 
political infighting among the disparate 
groups would continue to show itself 
throughout the 1500s. 

What will likely be of greatest interest 
in this section is the interplay between 
attempts at censure and the need to 
promote a religious message. Nesvig de-
scribes one such instance when he exam-
ines the debate around the Florentine Co-
dex, a treatise written by the Franciscans 
in the native Indian languages, which 
was banned by Philip II. As illegal copies 
continued to circulate, the inquisitional 

powers were torn over how to approach 
the problem. While it was evident they 
were required to consider it heretical, it 
was obviously produced with the idea 
of converting the native population to 
Christianity. 

It is through demonstrations like this 
that Nesvig produces his strongest argu-
ments for the unique nature of the inqui-
sition in Mexico. He demonstrates the 
continued problems experienced through 
culture clashes, ecclesiastical differences, 
and the difficulty of consolidating power 
in a foreign country. In his final sections, 
he continues to illustrate the rather hap-
hazard successes of the inquisition as well 
as the obstacles inherent in the geography 
as well as the social and political climate. 

For example, the two-tiered system 
from the Spanish Inquisition was ad-
opted, which allowed censorship from 
the Crown through access to printing li-
censes as well as censure after publication 
through the inquisitors themselves. This 
succeeded in purging large numbers of 
books, but ultimately the Mexican citizens 
were unfazed by the inclusion of certain 
works in the Index. In certain instances, 
the public went along with certain man-
dates against books—particularly Calvin 
and Luther—while at other times they 
seemed to ignore those books that were 
included. 

The examination of this rather strange 
dichotomy of acceptance and resistance 
provides a satisfying conclusion to Nes-
vig’s exploration of inquisitional powers. 
Even though the majority of the content 
would seem at first to have little to offer 
in the understanding of modern-day cen-
sorship, it is through this final discussion 
that readers will find similar conflicting 
ideologies at work in defining what is ac-
ceptable and what is not from a societal 
standpoint. 

Ideology and Inquisition provides a rich 
and detailed scholarly examination of the 
rise and practice of the Mexican Inquisi-
tion. Even so, Nesvig’s voice and his use 
of regular examples often lend a narrative 
form to a book that might have otherwise 



394 College & Research Libraries July 2010

been a difficult text. While it is not a 
censorship book that will likely resonate 
with many librarians who are interested 
in modern-day book banning, it would 
certainly have a place in any college or 
university with a Latin American stud-
ies program.—Timothy Hensley, Virginia 
Holocaust Museum.

Robert E. Dugan, Peter Hernon, and 
Danuta A. Nitecki. Viewing Library 
Metrics from Different Perspectives: 
Inputs, Outputs, and Outcomes. Santa 
Barbara, Calif.: Libraries Unlimited, 
2009. 346p. acid-free paper, $45 (ISBN 
9781591586654). LC2009-016899.

For the uninitiated and/or innumerate, 
this daunting tome will appear, prima 
facie, to be alarmingly technical; and, 
since most librarians are not conversant 
with sophisticated statistical methodolo-
gies, the whole notion of library metrics 
might prove to be off-putting to the bulk 
of the targeted professional readership. 
Nevertheless, Viewing Library Metrics from 
Different Perspectives is well worth the ef-
fort to acclimate to a brave new library 
language. Thus the authors succeed in 
making a convincing case for the merit of 
metrics in the administration of libraries.

What are “metrics,” anyway? Ac-
cording to the authors, metrics are 
performance or outcome measures that 
institutions can use to “…improve their 
accountability efforts through a trans-
parent communication of stakeholder-
requested information in a multiplicity 
of formats and means” (8). They consist 
of numbers, “supported by graphs, 
charts, and explanatory language” (8). 
In other words, they are measurements 
that might serve to inform potential us-
ers, who can then make rational choices 
about investing money, time, and other 
resources in the institution. Significantly, 
metrics are designed to provide objective 
criteria whereby institutions may be held 
accountable for their performance. Such 
accountability is especially important 
within academic libraries and their larger 
institutions. 

Remarkably, this book succeeds in 
demonstrating its points, enumerating 
and analyzing relevant measures, along 
with providing cogent examples in the 
form of numerous tables. It consists of 
twelve well-researched chapters entitled 
“Introduction,” “Related Literature,” “As-
sessment and Evaluation,” “The Library 
Perspective,” “The Customer Perspec-
tive,” “The Institutional Perspective,” 
“The Stakeholder Perspective,” “Bench-
marking and Best Practices,” “Metrics for 
Marketing and Public Relations,” “Man-
agement Information Systems,” “Utiliz-
ing Metrics: Interpretation, Synthesis, and 
Presentation,” and “The Joy of Metrics.” 
Accordingly, in the introductory chapters 
the authors educate readers, so that the 
utility of metrics becomes apparent and 
some rudimentary metrical practices can 
be incorporated by readers in their own 
libraries. The bulk of the book posits 
various perspectives—namely, those of 
the library, the customer, the institution, 
and the stakeholder—and goes on to ex-
plore the ways in which these views and 
models shape perception of the institution 
at large. A metrics approach can enable 
library administrators to identify and 
examine the relative and relevant needs of 
interested parties and can therefore pro-
vide information that facilitates produc-
tive accountability. The book concludes 
by discussing the organizational success 
inherent in grounding of purpose, satis-
faction of improvement and knowledge of 
excellence, importance of sharing, reward 
of impact and challenges of engagement.

Ultimately, the authors maintain that 
the book examines metrics from differ-
ent perspectives. “Beginning with the 
reasons for bothering with metrics in the 
first place, through raising awareness of 
who cares, selecting which metrics matter, 
and framing how to communicate their 
applicability, the multitude of choices is 
what faces library and information man-
agers” (246). Fortunately, this book is here 
to help guide administrators in making 
these choices. And if the text alone doesn’t 
persuade, the accompanying appendices