Reinventing the Library for Online Education by Frederick Stielow

At first glance, Reinventing the Library for Online Education looks to be a timely and important book. The author is a well-published and decorated librarian who has spent the better part of the last decade building and running the virtual library at the American Public University System, an online, for-profit institution. The book appears under the imprimatur of the American Library Association, alludes to a number of respected intellectual giants—including Jorge Luis Borges and Marshall McLuhan—and is peppered with impressive-sounding jargon, such as “market differentiator” and “personalized learning environments.” Indeed, this is an ambitious work. Frederick Stielow’s stated intent is to offer something greater than the standard “how we did it good” exploration, and on that criterion he is largely successful. From the history of the founding of the ancient Musaeum of Alexandria in Egypt in the third century BCE to speculation regarding library adoption of emerging technologies, this volume—which is divided into two parts—attempts to cover a staggering amount of material in just a few hundred pages.

Part A, “Preparing Within a Revolution,” is comprised of three background chapters that chronicle the birth and growth of academic libraries from the Middle Ages through the twentieth century, plus the development of the Internet and the World Wide Web and their effects on libraries and scholarly communication. Part B, “Virtual Campus Discourse,” which is the core of the book, contains six chapters. Chapter 4, “Setting the Stage,” gives a quick overview of several topics of contemporary importance to academic libraries, including performance measures, digital preservation, open access, and electronic course reserves. Chapters 5 through 7 are composed mainly of lists of library tools and services that Stielow argues can be eliminated (such as ready reference), redefined (such as the university archives), or offered wholly online (such as curriculum materials centers). In chapter 9, “Managerial Strategies,” Stielow discusses operational matters for virtual libraries, such as marketing, staff training, performance issues, and technical support.

Unfortunately, the book’s ambition is also its biggest weakness. At several points during the opening chapters, knowledgeable readers or those seeking practical information about virtual libraries are urged to skip ahead in the text, and no doubt many will be tempted to do so. While the background chapters can be interesting, they seem superfluous and are too cursory to be of much value to those not already familiar with the subject matter. Coverage of topics in later chapters likewise feels rushed and is often superficial. For example, in discussing possible new roles for virtual libraries, Stielow states that “the library can consider extending its classroom and research functions into the realms of peer-reviewed scholarship.” (p. 215) This is a worthy and complex proposition, yet Stielow fails to flesh out this idea, leaving readers to ponder the specifics on their own.

In addition, the author is unclear or confused on several points, which undermine the book’s credibility. For example, Stielow writes, “The open-access movement engages either as Gratis OA with no-cost online access or Libre OA, which typically involves some form of author underwriting charges.” (p. 92) This claim is inaccurate, as both gratis and libre OA allow for free online access to scholarship, and libre OA is about removing permissions barriers, not charging author fees. Stielow also states that “universities and libraries have individual and collectivist interests in ‘Gold’ open-access journals, which are institutionally based and peerreviewed,” when, in fact, gold open access journals can be hosted by anyone, including commercial publishers. (p. 194) Elsewhere, Stielow touts Berkeley Electronic Press journal titles without noting that the company sold its journal portfolio to a German publishing house, Walter de Gruyter GmBH, in 2011. Stielow also erroneously refers to resource description and access (RDA) as a metadata schema, rather than a content standard.

While these flaws make it difficult to recommend Reinventing the Library for Online Education to a wide audience, it could still prove to be a useful starting point...