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, 



Book Reviews 93

Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2010. 213p. 
alk. paper, $55 (ISBN 9780810874299). 
LC2009-048167.

Globalization might have begun when 
the first primate swung from one tree to 
the next and kept on going. State borders 
are manmade; one is either in or out. 
And those who are out used to be called 
“foreigners” before that word became a 
term of approbation. If one understands 
that “international students, ” means, 
for the purposes of this book, non-North 
American (that is, foreign) students and 
not North American students whose 
academic lives have a strong interna-
tional focus, then one can appreciate this 
well-written and important book and be 
enlightened by the information it contains 
about providing academic library ser-
vices to a growing non-North American 
student body.

The bulk of the book is an annotated 
bibliography of nearly 600 print and 
electronic resources organized in a useful 
array of eighteen topics, such as “Basic Li-
brary Orientation,” “Distance Education,” 
“Guides for International Students,” 
“Staff Exchanges and International Vis-
its,” and “Language/Communication.” 
Peters extracts from the cited publications 
to present a coherent introductory essay, 
“A Survey of Issues” that synthesizes 
material in the bibliography as she guides 
the reader through not only the issues 
themselves but also the development of 
the issues. Her essay throughout cites 
materials in the extensive bibliography 
where more information can be found and 
generally follows the topical arrangement 
of the bibliography.

From the outset, Peters shows that, 
until relatively recently, academic librar-
ies did very little to create continuing 
programs to address the needs of foreign 
students. One of the most interesting and 
valuable issues addressed is perceptions 
of the library and library services held 
by administrators and librarians versus 
perceptions of the international students 
themselves. A 1988 study showed that 
reference librarians at 42 ARL libraries 

underestimated the needs of interna-
tional students. Peters also notes that 
several factors, including technological 
developments, social networking, and 
the increasing expansion of information 
infrastructures, have changed how inter-
national students interact with libraries 
and librarians. Peters addresses the crux 
of her thesis, thus: “The educational, 
linguistic, and cultural barriers that have 
been long recognized in the literature 
on international students and libraries 
remain important considerations, but cur-
rent literature also raises new questions 
about what international students expect 
from North American libraries, the library 
skills they bring with them from home 
countries, and ways in which librarians 
should respond.”

Citing other works, the author also 
points to the value of academic admin-
istrators and librarians examining what 
their own students who study abroad are 
likely to encounter at host-institution li-
braries. Similarly, international visits and 
library exchanges are noted as means to 
enhance librarians’ knowledge of the aca-
demic and social environments in which 
international students functioned before 
beginning their study abroad.

In the conclusion to her essay, Peters, 
a librarian at Wilfrid Laurier University 
in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, wisely 
notes that many guidelines for serving 
international students apply also to 
serving domestic students. The context 
of her remark is a 2007 survey taken to 
determine how U.K. libraries could best 
serve international students. One of the 
many values of this bibliography is that 
older, 1980s publications are cited and 
annotated, thus allowing researchers to 
follow the development of issues that we 
still address today. But, as Peters illus-
trates, some of the earlier observations are 
no longer relevant, although others, such 
as linguistic barriers, student-librarian in-
terchange in the students’ home countries, 
and cultural differences, remain and need 
to be considered when designing and 
implementing orientation, bibliographic 



94 College & Research Libraries January 2011

instruction, and reference services.
This well-designed, concisely written, 

and accessible survey is an essential re-
source for librarians who work regularly -
  —or even rarely—with international 
students. For readers without the time to 
track down and read the works cited in 
the bibliography, the introductory essay 
provides cogent explanations of impor-
tant issues, along with good guidance. 
And the bibliography presents ample 
resources to support their endeavors 
on behalf of international students who 
encounter our libraries for the first time.—
Raymond Lum, Harvard University.

Lori Mestre. Librarians Serving Diverse 
Populations: Challenges & Opportuni-
ties. Chicago: Association of College 
and Research Libraries, 2010. 211p. 
alk. paper, $54 (ISBN 9780838985120). 
LC2009-047658.

How do librarians work with diverse 
cultures? What is the role of the library in 
providing diversity training? Does library 
school curricula address working in a 
multicultural environment? These are just 
a few of the questions addressed in Librar-
ians Serving Diverse Populations. Author 
Lori Mestre, an academic librarian at the 
University of Illinois at Urbana Cham-
paign, explores the issues, challenges, 
and opportunities facing librarians and 
libraries that serve diverse populations. 
The book is divided into ten chapters, and, 
through the use of surveys, interviews, and 
other relevant sources, Mestre interweaves 
both quantitative and qualitative data to 
provide a framework for the discussion 
of the education, training, experiences, 
and strategies employed by librarians and 
libraries in their pursuit of diversity efforts. 

The opening chapter begins with the 
author making a case for why librar-
ies should be involved in promoting 
diversity awareness and examines who 
multicultural librarians are. It is no secret 
there have been a number of initiatives 
to increase diversity among the ranks of 
librarians. Opportunities such as intern-
ships and scholarships have been used 

as recruitment tools to attract librarians 
of color into the profession. A positive 
outcome of these recruitment efforts has 
been that these individuals then bring 
their different cultures and perspectives 
to their jobs and further the overall goal 
of increasing diversity awareness both 
inside and outside the library. Mestre 
reports that many librarians of color are 
drawn to diversity-related jobs and can be 
the ideal prospects for positions that serve 
diverse populations. Statistics, however, 
indicate that librarians of color pursue 
other options in librarianship as well. 
Mestre indicates that, as the populations 
that libraries serve become more diverse, 
the services that libraries provide need 
to be reflective of this diversity, particu-
larly in the areas of services, collections, 
and outreach. According to the research 
study, the pool of available librarians from 
diverse cultures is quite small, indicating 
that “…libraries cannot solely rely on 
finding someone from an ethnic minority 
to lead their diversity efforts.” This sup-
ports the author’s premise that libraries 
and librarians should establish connec-
tions with diverse cultures regardless of 
what jobs they hold.

Chapter 2 examines the background 
information on the job preparation for 
librarians working with diverse cultures. 
Mestre surveyed librarians about their 
preparation and qualification as well as 
the reasons for applying for these types 
of positions. Nearly two thirds (64%) of 
librarians surveyed indicated that they 
did not initially intend to seek a position 
with responsibility for multicultural or 
diversity services, and many felt they 
were not adequately prepared to fulfill all 
the responsibilities the job entailed. The 
author indicates that job descriptions for 
these types of positions can be sweeping 
in the list of responsibilities that need to 
be performed and often presume a level 
of foundational knowledge regarding 
diversity efforts. A final discussion in the 
chapter identifies “baseline knowledge” 
that librarians should have to make prog-
ress in these types of positions.