Book Reviews 399 doi:10.5860/crl.78.3.399 promises to be the profession’s salvation and collectively our new vision and path. It rarely is.—Fred J. Hay, Appalachian State University Aaron D. Purcell. Digital Library Programs for Libraries and Archives: Developing, Manag- ing, and Sustaining Unique Digital Collections. Chicago: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2016. 224p. Paper, $85 (ISBN 0-838-91450-0). If ever there was a multipurpose tool for digital library texts, Aaron Purcell’s Digital Library Programs for Libraries and Archives would qualify. By the author’s own ambitious admission, the book serves to provide a full suite of instruments: a history of digital libraries; a review of the current state of the field; strategies for planning and managing digital projects; and step-by-step instructions for the creation of a digital library project plan. Throughout, it includes practical fill-in-the-blank questionnaires and a few charts and matrices. It is not hard to imagine these worksheets propelling a semester-long graduate seminar forward or circulating during a staff retreat where librarians wrestle with a moribund digital project. This slim and wholly readable volume has something for everyone, in part because its author has been a teacher, a hands-on archivist, a digital-projects manager, and an administrator. The book ultimately serves a variety of audiences because Purcell has lived many professional lives, in varied roles, and his intention is to leave no one behind. Purcell’s oeuvre, so far, includes two practical guides focused on the work and poli- cies of archives and special collections and monographs on American history. It is in the hands of a historian then, that this volume maintains the delicate balance between history, theory, and how-to. This balance may well safeguard the volume from the dangers of technical obsolescence. That is, rather than fill its chapters with technical specifications, file format types, and specific software solutions, Purcell refers to tools and programs with a devil-may-care casualness and a historian’s eye for the right amount of detail versus big-picture views. This book has no intention of serving as a software advertisement or a showcase of current digital projects. You won’t find lists of project URLs (which are bound to change during the long arc of history that archivists abide by), nor will you find screen captures of web pages, or detailed comparisons of software platforms. Having cast aside these familiar tropes, we are left with historical and contemporary issues and questions of real consequence. As it turns out, we are better off without the URLs and screenshots. The book is divided into three sections. The first, “Theory and Reality of Digital Libraries” is fol- lowed by two hands-on sections, “Building Digital Libraries Programs: A Step-by-Step Process,” and “Digital Library Planning Exercises.” Each section balances well-chosen vocational details alongside the sorts of weighty questions librarians and archivists are sometimes eager to sidestep. For example, the most critical library literature reader might not blink an eye if a book attending to the history of library technology omits reference to its roots in the 1960s Department of Defense, yet in the hands of a historian, this detail unselfconsciously launches a brisk jaunt through two chapters that trace the emergence of digital humanities, the Google Books mass digitization effort, the Internet Archive, open access, crowdsourcing, the Digital Public Library of America, born-digital records, and digital forensics. Having traveled this historic path, we’re meant to feel grounded and steadfast with a “look how far we’ve come” sensibility. But these historical chapters end on something of a dark note, pointing to a long economic downturn and its effect on library services. The defunding of public institu- tions, including archives, historical societies, and special collections, has taken a toll on our commitment to core services (or rather, what we once thought were our core services). Is it sustainable and ethical to hire fewer staff, buy fewer resources, and pay less attention to our physical collections to buy the equipment and services needed http://10.5860/crl 400 College & Research Libraries March 2017 to create and maintain digital content? Purcell takes it upon himself to convince us that, yes, there is a way forward. Librarians and archivists, he writes, “have assumed responsibility for managing, preserving, and providing ongoing access to a range of digital content.” Though the history of library digital projects is only a few decades old, it lays a great deal of responsibility on librarians and archivists to continue this work. Purcell asks us to brace ourselves for the next stages and aims to give us the tools to succeed. Though largely focused on practical project planning documentation and the fun- damentals of mission statements, collection development, fundraising, and vendor relations, Purcell still inspires parts two and three with the big questions, like “How will my digitization project make the world a better place?” This is followed soon after by, “How do I convince others in my institution that a vision is worth creating and following?” These questions are not for the faint-hearted, and the rows of blank lines that follow call on us, oraclelike, to answer with informed, professional pride and technological know-how. Thankfully, Purcell’s clearheaded text leaves us with the tools, and the temptation, to rise to the challenge.—Rebekah Irwin, Middlebury College Databrarianship: The Academic Data Librarian in Theory and Practice. Eds. Lynda Kellam and Kristi Thompson for the Association of College and Research Libraries. Chicago: American Library Association, 2016. 378p. $68 (ISBN: 978-083898799-5). This edited collection on “databrarianship” skillfully explores how academic librar- ians are addressing the wide-ranging qualitative and quantitative data needs of learners and researchers. The volume is edited and organized by Lynda Kellam, Data Services Librarian at North Carolina’s Greensboro University Libraries, and Kristi Thompson, Data and Systems Management Librarian at the University of Windsor. The 22 chapters are written by 35 academic librarians and offer readers a diversity of theories and practices on supporting the fast-growing and wide-ranging data needs of both students and faculty. This scholarly publication features detailed appendices, biographies of the contributors, and comprehensively documented resources that add great informational value to the text. The collection is a welcome addition to the grow- ing body of works that focus on the services, systems, and skills required to support the diverse data needs of today’s learners and researchers. The book is written for all academic librarians who support a wide range of data resources for research or who are interested in learning more on this topic. The essays are divided into four parts: Part I, Data Support and Services for Researchers; Part II, Data in the Disciplines; Part III, Data Preservation and Access; and Part IV, Data: Past, Present and Future. The groupings of the essays represent current themes and trends in academic librarianship that focus on how libraries are supporting, creating services, and providing solutions for the expanding data needs within their respective institutions. The last section provides a limited international view of data librarian- ship, with essays from librarians in Canada and the United Kingdom. The writing is fairly even across the sections, and most chapters are clear and concise. The collection focuses mainly on data used and created within the Social Sciences discipline. However, some chapters include works that address data needs and usage across the Natural and Environmental Sciences disciplines, which are major consumers and creators of quantitative and qualitative data. In Part I, Data Support and Services for Researchers, there are eight chapters that are devoted to different models, approaches, and theories on supporting the data needs of learners and researchers. This section contains a very robust set of essays from the contributors, and each one provides a unique roadmap for developing and support- ing data services in the library. The chapters on Teaching Foundational Data Skills in the doi:10.5860/crl.78.3.400 http://10.5860/crl