92 College & Research Libraries January 2011

sciences librarianship. For those who are 
considering entering the field of health 
sciences librarianship, this book is worth 
reading and helps to better define what 
being a health sciences librarian involves. 
Overall, this book is definitely a valuable 
resource for anybody who is interested 
in learning more about health sciences 
librarianship.—Judy P. Bolstad, University 
of California, Berkeley.

Ian Cornelius. Information Policies and 
Strategies. London: Facet Publishing, 
2010. 256p. alk. paper, $99.95 (ISBN 
9781856046770). NL015366895.

Ian Cornelius is at once attempting to 
deliver a theoretical guide to informa-
tion policies while providing practical 
examples to help illustrate how these 
issues impact our everyday lives. It is 
important to note that he is not speaking 
only to information professionals but 
to anyone who might have an interest 
in how information is managed or con-
trolled. Throughout the book, he attempts 
to draw the discussion into a broader, 
systematic analysis of information and 
the role it plays in contemporary society. 

He shapes the foundation of his discus-
sion with what amounts to an exploration 
of how we live in a world that is defined by 
information. His writing throughout this 
section is reminiscent of the kind of philo-
sophical writing one might expect from a 
Marxist historian, but the entire text lacks 
any indication of supporting references 
for the conclusions he draws. Despite this 
omission, he begins with a brief survey of 
how information has contributed to, and 
even shaped, our society and uses this 
position as a backdrop of assumptions for 
the remainder of the book, attempting to 
demonstrate how each of the forthcoming 
areas he investigates influences the way 
in which we handle information policies. 

While the first half of the book comes 
across as a theoretical essay with examples 
included to aid the reader in following the 
discussion, the second half goes in the op-
posite direction by taking practical issues 
faced by information professionals—cen-

sorship, privacy issues, freedom of infor-
mation, and intellectual property—and 
enclosing them within his philosophical 
superstructure. By doing so, Cornelius 
is clearly drawing the reader furthering 
into his thesis that multiple external forces 
are constantly struggling for control of 
information and each is doing so for its 
own interest. Even though the examples 
throughout this second section will be 
familiar to the majority of professionals, it 
is the enclosure he builds to dissect these 
concepts that will likely prove difficult. 

This pattern continues into the con-
clusion, which tries to account for the 
various gaps in previous chapters by 
examining how information policy is, or 
is not, handled in other arenas, such as 
nondemocratic societies. While he does 
provide insight into a cluster of areas that 
might be worth exploring, the evidence is 
still grounded in the philosophical with 
no effort to back up theoretical statements 
with cited material. 

As a final notation, Cornelius suggests 
that we do need a unifying theory since 
the complex structures that provide or 
hinder our access to information are 
shaped by society. Ultimately, he does not 
advocate for a specific system; instead, he 
takes his time illustrating what he sees as 
the theoretical shape of information sys-
tems as they exist today and the elements 
that impact how we interact with them. 
Even though the history, sociology, and 
information science departments could 
no doubt use a systematic examination 
of information policies from either the 
historiography or methodological frame-
works, Information Policies and Strategies 
will likely only benefit academic libraries 
that support library science programs, 
where information professionals can use 
it as a catalyst for developing concrete 
studies of how information policies are 
developed.—Timothy Hensley, Virginia 
Holocaust Museum. 

Diane E. Peters. International Students and 
Academic Libraries: A Survey of Issues 
and Annotated Bibliography. Lanham,