Book Reviews 559

doi:10.5860/crl.76.4.559

outside copyright, referred to as paracopyright. Paracopyright includes efforts related 
to licensing and technological protection measures (chapter 6) undertaken by rights 
holders and vendors who fear that copyright law protections are insufficient. Such 
efforts have emerged in the vacuum created by the slow pace of legal revision, yet it 
is essential to learn and understand how to work with these measures and leverage 
them accordingly. By deepening this understanding, the reader can consider more 
clearly the ramifications of the borderless digital domain, technological neutrality, 
and harmonization of international copyright laws (chapter 7). Thus the reader is 
better positioned to contemplate the future and leverage him- or herself to contribute 
positively to the advancement of the scholarly record and the public good.

Academia and beyond are currently (and likely will be continuously) in a landscape 
of constant change driven by the ever accelerating pace of technology, the Internet, 
and digital communications. The explosion of digital content, combined with the 
growth in sophisticated content and learning management platforms, social media, 
and MOOCs have taken our online lives and experiences to a new level—and along 
with it underscored the challenge of operating under 20th-century laws in a rapid, 
agile 21st-century reality. The sheer speed of the digital 21st century can be daunting 
in its ability to catch us wrong-footed—more reactive, less proactive. This rapid and 
agile 21st-century reality is driven by creativity and creative expression. For librarians, 
this book is an essential tool to increase awareness, engagement, agility and proactive 
support of creativity and academic expression on campus and at large.

While researchers and teachers undertake the highest and most respected levels 
of creative expression for the purpose of scholarly discovery and the advancement of 
knowledge, it is important for all contributors to the 21st-century digital domain to 
understand the intellectual property landscape, including where they are positioned 
and how to navigate to better, and further, contribute. Given the growing student 
population across all teaching and learning modalities, the quality of their academic 
work, projects, and innovations that they want and should contribute to society’s 
body of knowledge, it is critical for librarians to be informed participants. While it is 
hard to know when or where that question related to intellectual property will come, 
it will come. And there is a good chance that more of these questions will come from 
students who are not planning to pursue higher academic degrees to formally enter 
into the discourse. Students of today, from all educational levels, are engaged with 
contributing to scholarly and practice-based knowledge.

Kevin Smith is a librarian and attorney specializing in copyright and technology law. 
As the Director of the Office of Scholarly Communications at Duke University, he works 
to ensure that the Duke community is informed about, and engaged with, the evolv-
ing landscape of scholarly communications. Kevin Smith has authored several books 
related to copyright in academia, is involved in the national copyright conversation, 
and is well known for his blog Scholarly Communications@Duke in which he addresses 
policy, developing issues, and potential solutions for scholarly communications in the 
21st century.—Carol R. Kentner, Harvard University

Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger, and Mark A. McDaniel. Make It Stick: The Science 
of Successful Learning. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University 
Press, 2014. 313 p. Hardback, $27.95 (ISBN 978-0-674-72901-8) LC 2013038420.

This very informative handbook for the “science of successful learning” is the fruit 
of eleven cognitive scientists working in concert as part of an “Applying Cognitive 
Psychology to Enhance Education Practice” research grant, which studied the impact 
of the latest developments in the field of cognitive psychology as applied to education 
over a ten-year period. The authors of this work consist of two of the cognitive scien-



560 College & Research Libraries May 2015

tists involved in the grant: Henry L. Roediger, the principal investigator and James 
S. McDonnell Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Washington University at St. 
Louis; and Mark A. McDaniel, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center of 
Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education at Washington Univer-
sity at St. Louis. Peter C. Brown, a man described as a “storyteller” in the preface, is a 
professional writer based in St. Paul, Minnesota. This author combination has led to 
a work that brings the latest of academic research in the field of cognitive psychology 
into a highly readable work that is accessible to the layperson. 

Make It Stick is a high-ranking best seller in the category of education on Amazon 
and should be of immediate interest to those in teaching careers. However, the book 
should not be mistakenly thought of as relevant only to those in the field of education, 
as it is highly applicable to all who incorporate training, coaching, or teaching in their 
careers in any capacity or to anyone who wants to improve his or her own learning 
skills as a lifelong learner. The authors back up their claims with data from studies that 
include examples from many different walks of life including education, medicine, 
sports, and military, making evident the applicability of their principles to all.

The book turns a lot of well-respected concepts about learning on their heads and 
can be very illuminating to the reader. The authors provide a fascinating and insightful 
look into how the brain works and provide tools and practices that can aid the reader 
in training oneself to be a better learner. 

In chapter 1, “Learning Is Misunderstood,” the authors use data to disprove those 
learning skills traditionally viewed as effective, going on to discredit such practices as 
rereading text and “massed practice,” which is essentially cramming where a learner 
continually reviews the same material over a short period of time. The authors argue 
that much of what has been proven to work in terms of increasing learning may be 
counterintuitive to learners and that learners may need to teach themselves new skills 
to be successful. They make a case for some of these methods.

Chapter 2, “To Learn, Retrieve,” places emphasis on using a combination of reflection 
and retrieval for effective learning. It details how learning occurs when one reflects 
on past personal experience. It also indicates that retrieval techniques, such as flash 
cards, that actively and repetitively recall information from memory can counteract 
the daunting statistic that we forget 70 percent of what we learn. 

Chapter 3, “Mix Up Your Practice,” indicates that, to be truly beneficial learning 
techniques, retrieval practices need to be spaced out over time, and one needs to 
“interleave” these practice sessions—by intermixing different subjects into studying 
rather than just focusing on one subject. The chapter indicates that improvement may 
not be visible in the short term when using these two practices, but it becomes appar-
ent over the long term. 

Chapter 4, “Embrace Difficulties,” argues that “desirable difficulties” can encourage 
learning, as these challenges facilitate processes that encourage learning. It warns that 
a fear of failure can be detrimental to learning, as one may avoid challenging situations 
that can facilitate learning. It does make a point of differentiating between desirable 
difficulties, which can be overcome, and “undesirable difficulties,” which cannot be 
and thus can impede learning.

Chapter 5, “Avoid Illusions of Knowing,” is more directly rooted in the field of psy-
chology and delves into self-observation and the accuracy therein and awareness of 
one’s own analytic systems. The last section of this chapter has the heading “Tools and 
Habits for Calibrating Your Judgment,” which helps one effectively put the knowledge 
gained from the earlier part of the chapter to good use. 

While chapter 6, “Get Beyond Learning Styles,” does not actually debunk the idea 
that individuals learn better through certain learning styles, it does reveal that there is 



Book Reviews 561

no evidence that supports any of the learning style theories, though there is indication 
that how a learner views his/her abilities is a factor. It then goes on to explore the idea 
of different intelligences and other learning concepts and how one might master them.

Chapter 7, “Increase Your Abilities,” puts forth the idea that the brain is mutable, 
includes factors that can influence this mutability, and explores different ways one 
may change one’s brain. There is a strong emphasis on mnemonic devices, and readers 
are introduced to a sampling of such devices. The authors’ takeaway at the end of the 
chapter ends on the interesting note that “effortful learning changes the brain,” which 
involves “self-discipline, grit and persistence.”

Chapter 8, “Make it Stick,” reviews the main principles of the book, breaking it down 
into different audiences—students, lifelong learners, teachers, and trainers. This chapter 
can prove useful if the reader wants to share an overview of the relevant principles to 
a specific audience who may not wish to read the entire book.

This book has proven to be a highly successful and popular addition to librarian-
facilitated faculty book discussion groups, and many of the principles have been 
incorporated into college courses in a variety of disciplines. The book has significantly 
influenced this reviewer, as it brought to light many fallacies in her own approaches 
to both learning and teaching. She has successfully used several of the recommended 
learning techniques in her own life.—Lisa Vassady, Radford University