Special Collections 2.0: New Technologies for Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Archival Collections (review)

By its very nature, the moment a book about emerging technologies is published it is likely to be out of date. How can one keep up with new technologies and adequately evaluate their usefulness if they change so rapidly? Fortunately, Beth M. Whittaker (head, special collections cataloging, Ohio State University) and Lynne M. Thomas (head, rare books and special collections, Northern Illinois University) have written a book that acknowledges this fact and yet still provides timely and relevant examples and advice for cultural heritage professionals exploring the Web 2.0 phenomenon and its usefulness.

Instead of writing a book advocating for the Web 2.0 movement, Whittaker and Thomas take a reasoned approach to social technologies that provides an overview of the different 2.0 tools (wikis, blogs, Flickr, Facebook, among others), details their overall functions, and explains how they can help the profession promote, build, and describe collections. The book is organized by type of tool, which allows the librarian/ archivist to read the entire book or consult individual chapters without losing cohesion or comprehension. The introduction describes the findings of a survey of over 300 cultural heritage professionals' attitudes toward and use of Web 2.0 tools. Quotes from respondents are peppered judiciously throughout the introduction. These comments go far to illuminate the profession's current attitude toward using and accepting social technologies. Each chapter concludes with a bibliography of useful sources, and the book ends with a detailed index. The chapters pertaining to media sharing and finding aids are particularly well thought out and offer new areas of consideration that are specifically useful to cultural heritage professionals. As archivists begin what will undoubtedly be a long conversation about how to preserve online environments and social networking information, the last chapter on digital preservation secures this book's place in the scholarly literature.

Although there is an impressive body of work pertaining to public librarians using Web 2.0 tools to reach their communities, there is little that truly explores the unique challenges cultural heritage professionals face when trying to use similar tools. This book, therefore, is perfectly suited for administrators who are considering, or in the early stages of implementing, Web 2.0 in their institutions. Administrators will also appreciate the authors' keen attention to how these tools can have a positive impact on donors and donor relations. For librarians and archivists already using Web 2.0 tools but wishing to implement more, reading the chapter on a prospective tool will help to reveal potential pitfalls and concerns before investing valuable time and resources.

The real strength of this book comes from the authors' knowledge of current trends in the cultural heritage profession and their personal experience in using Web 2.0 tools. For example, some of the sources cited are The Cult of the Amateur (New York: Doubleday/Currency, 2007), The Long Tail (New York: Hyperion, 2006), the OCLC report "Beyond the Silos of the LAMS," and the ACRL/ALA task force report "Competencies for Special Collections Professionals." Moreover, Whittaker and Thomas currently use several 2.0 tools in their academic environments. They know the arguments that special collections librarians and archivists use against adopting 2.0 tools—diluting the archivist's authoritative voice, loss of control, drain on staff time, reluctance to assume new responsibilities while resources dwindle—and yet can still advocate that "judicious, targeted use of selected tools is a reasonable way to enhance our collections and engage new users. Careful investments in time and technology can assist in discovering where our attention is best spent." (p. xv)

If this book has any weaknesses, it is its light treatment of virtual world technologies. At the time of its publication, few archives and special collections may have been using immersive environments, but many public and academic libraries were. It would have been beneficial to see if their projects could be adapted...