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Libraries & Culture 37.3 (2002) 294-296



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Book Review

Libraries:
Global Reach—Local Touch


Libraries: Global Reach—Local Touch. Edited by Kathleen de la Peña McCook, Barbara J. Ford, and Kate Lippincott. Chicago: American Library Association, 1998. v, 256 pp. $42.00. ISBN 0-8389-0738-5.

"Global Reach—Local Touch" was Barbara J. Ford's motto during her 1997-98 presidency of the American Library Association. The business world began using the same syntagm after the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, an event [End Page 294] that facilitated the opening of Central and Eastern European markets to a free economy and free access to information. Both the economy and access to information had been kept under tight centralized control during the Communist period, which lasted almost half a century in this part of the world. Libraries—as a component of the social, cultural, and educational phenomenon of a country—become a reflection of the societal changes that occur in a certain place at a certain time. Small local changes can have a major impact not only at a local, regional, or national level but also on a global scale.

Generally speaking, libraries and librarians share similar challenges regardless of geographical location. However, there are variations if not discrepancies in the extent to which libraries in different regions of the world cope with similar issues. For instance, one of the main missions of African libraries is to support literacy (150-56), while North American and Western European libraries are engaged in computer literacy programs. The introduction of new technologies in developing countries continues while reaching extremely advanced levels in developed nations (195-201).

Essays focusing on the emerging democracies of Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet republics highlight the peculiarities of the "time of challenge and change," as George S. Bobinski and Maria Kocojowa describe the transition period in Polish libraries (139-43). Charlotte E. Ford and Luz M. Quiroga investigate the intricacies of designing and implementing information policies in libraries in South America (31-38), while Patricia A. Wand talks about preserving old and rare books in Ecuador (39-40). The effects of industrialization on the development of libraries as information centers in India (70-81) and the building of an information society in South Africa (157-64) are issues specific not only to these countries but to many others as well. Resource sharing has become imperative when funding for acquisitions is shrinking not only in Micronesia (50-59) but also in post-Soviet Russia (98-103) and El Salvador (24-30). Characteristics of library science education in Turkey and Azerbaijan are discussed by Jordan M. Scepanski ( 90-97) and Muzhgan Nazarova (82-89), respectively, while Steve S. Amery explores the acute need for library legislation and cooperation among libraries in Romania (110-23). Barbara Immroth offers a global perspective on library services for children and young adults worldwide (181-86), and Philip J. Calvert examines the influence of printing upon South Pacific societies based on oral traditions (44-49). Free and unconditional access to information in Canada, Mexico, and the United States is the subject of a study by Matthew B. Barrett and Beverly P. Lynch (202-9). Additional chapters detail overarching topics such as family literacy (219-33), "international library women" (187-94), and the role of international organizations (e.g., IFLA, FID, ICA, and UNESCO) in library activities (6-11). Robert Wedgeworth, an active promoter of international librarianship in the United States, views the library community as "asynchronous, multi-lingual, multi-cultural, geographically-diverse, Internet-enabled and technically competent" (10).

The twenty-nine essays included in this work are succinct though very dense. They offer a plethora of details on the evolution of libraries in parts of the world less addressed by studies of comparative librarianship. Some essays are accompanied by references both in English and the vernacular languages. A few essays have no references to support the authors' research. They cover informal and personal experiences the authors had in various parts of the world. A suggested list of further resources complements the...

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