Emerging Issues in the Electronic Environment: Challenges for Librarians and Searchers in the Sciences (review)

For many years, science libraries have been suffering from the serials crisis and complex user issues. The advent of the digital age has further complicated these problems. This book attempts to address the issues faced by contemporary science librarianship with a collection of papers. Topics covered in the 13 papers revolve around information seeking and sharing, electronic collections, science serials issues, and user services. Though the above list of subject areas is diverse, the papers knit well into a useful book as they collectively concern science and technology libraries.

The first couple of chapters discuss the effect of Internet-induced evolution on communication roles of science information producers and users. In "Scientific Communication: New Roles and Players," Julie Hurd vividly compares the current communication paradigm with the print-based communication models developed by sociologists. Obviously, the Internet has expanded the communication boundaries and empowered everyone to partake in knowledge organizing and sharing. Accordingly, Hurd's essay proposes a new model to explain the current science communication paradigm. Elizabeth B. Cooksey's essay "Too Important to Be Left to Chance—Serendipity and the Digital Library" applies a practical slant to Hurd's paradigm. Cooksey emphasizes the enhanced role of science librarians in the digital world. Scientists are overwhelmed by information in the Internet age, and Cooksey's work is a timely call for science librarianship to proactively expand its user services beyond simply collecting and organizing electronic resources. Patrick Sullivan's essay also highlights the above viewpoint and elaborates possible solutions, and Lesley Moyo's "The Virtual Patron" addresses issues related to virtual reference services in the sciences.

Not surprisingly, several of the essays deal with science journal publishing or usage. Scientists and science librarians will find these excellent pieces useful. For example, Linda Eells portrays the benefits and challenges posed by electronic journal (e-journal) publishing. While e-journals provide remote access and save the users' time, they also cause inherent problems. Eells explains how the packaging of e-journals affects librarians who are trying to manage their collections strategically.

The book's format, including its physical size, is reader friendly. Each paper begins with a summary that lucidly abstracts the paper's contents. The author's affiliation and contact information are provided. While a few of the papers elaborate case studies or specific experiences, others discuss the results of empirical research. Authors have organized the papers into meaningful divisions and provided useful illustrations, including data tables and figures. A list of references follows each paper. At the end of the book is a keyword index that makes searching easy.

The editor of this volume has served in and published on science librarianship for many years. Together, each of the author's rich experience brings credibility to the book's contents. Cynthia A. Steinke's book Electronic Information Systems in Sci-Tech Libraries (New York: Haworth Press, 1990) formed a documented beginning to the discourse about use of technology in science and technology libraries. Later, Katariina Jalonen et al. in their modest case study Problems, Their Causes and Effects in the Use of Information Systems: A Case of a Scientific Library (Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing, 1999) discussed the issues in use of technology in a science library. Emerging Issues in the Electronic Environment, with its content contributed by diverse authors, is a great update to the earlier two works.

This book will attract a diverse audience. Apart from practicing librarians, library researchers will find the book very useful. Publishers will derive interesting information from the chapters on electronic resources and usage. As a whole, the book will form a useful resource for practitioners and policy makers in science librarianship.