The book is divided into ten chapters arranged in four parts:

• • Overview: emerging and cutting-edge technologies and academic libraries (Two chapters);

• • Emerging technologies for academic libraries in the digital age (Two chapters);

• • Impacts of emerging technologies (Four chapters); and

• • Outlook for the future (Two chapters).

The two appendices consist of:

• • Appendix 1 Websites for information resources (mostly); and

• • Appendix 2 List of the names, websites and size of printed book holdings of the libraries in what are listed as the most famous 100 universities in the world.

In addition to the 30 page glossary of technical terms and acronyms, there is a seven page index. Although this book has several weaknesses it does have its strengths and in a positive spirit I shall deal with the latter first. They are found primarily in Chapters 8 and 10.

For the bulk of LIM readers, Chapter 8 Impacts on academic librarians might seem the most relevant. It starts with the only citation I could find apropos law librarians, with a quote from the late Roy Mersky of the Tarlton Law Library at Austin made in 2004Footnote ¹

This correlates with the sentiments I cite from Chapter 5 (discussed below). Despite the power of the internet search engines, Li still sees a vital role for what I shall call “academic librarians”, instead of “information specialists” (p. 173). He bases this fact on a further quote from Mersky & Hankins (2004), which points out the simple fact that

Ipso facto, users need knowledgeable librarians to guide them, allowing the latter to play the role of “information consultants.” As academic librarians we should draw comfort from this fundamental observation on our indispensabilty at least for the medium term, although the author does not say what our fate might be when Google et al do become more efficient and scour 95% of the resources out there.

Chapter 10 is entitled Leveraging academic library information services in the digital age, where I assume that “leveraging” means something along the lines of “maintaining and improving”. In its 24 pages it presents some constructive and useful information that may be of practical value to academic librarians. The author's gist is that libraries need to consciously develop into a “one-stop information gateway” using the internet and the web. He lists the characteristics that such a facility must be: web-based; operate a 24-hour service; enhance and integrate its various facilities; digitise everything, use all available formats (text, pdf, videos etc.); develop non-English language facilities; have an open access policy; utilise social networking services and have a “global” policy of catering for all users irrespective of age, computer skills, library literacy etc. (p. 206–8).

I can see that some of these requirements potentially might pose practical problems (for example the thorny issue of open access, which the author discusses in more detail on page 217), but we are, after all, talking here of a brave new age, so some barriers will inevitably have to fall. Li recognises two “primary keys” for academic libraries to build “high quality information gateway(s)” in “dynamic and interactive learning environments” (p. 211). These keys are (i) that web designers produce facilities that “link and organise web contents in a user friendly GUI [Graphical User Interface]”; and (ii) that web navigation is organised so as to “provide a mechanism for library users to access and locate the key information they need”.

I cannot see any academic librarian quibbling with these sentiments, and Li goes on to suggest there are two alternative ways to achieve these goals, and that both have their own advantages and disadvantages. I think it is worth considering these in more detail, as in my opinion, this is the most important practical advice in the book.

The first method is for the library web designers to “create direct hyperlinks to lists of academic library information resources, services, instructions and so on” (p. 211). The advantages are that this system is easy to create and use. The disadvantage is that it will create an “information explosion” in large academic libraries and that webmasters will struggle to “create direct hyperlinks within such a limited user-friendly GUI”, and that multiple clicking will be required by users to reach the information they need.

The alternative is to use pull-down menus, and the advantage here is that this system puts information just one click away from the user (p. 212). The disadvantage (apparently) is that it greatly complicates the web design process, and that the menu itself once pulled down blocks some of the page content.

Somewhat more theoretical suggestions are posed later in Chapter 10 (p. 216–7), when the author urges “academic library administrators, executives, IT specialists, librarians, managers, staff and other professionals” to focus on developing three important facilities:

• • Knowledge management - by establishing “a knowledge base” that incorporates all facets of administrative operations, services and teaching activities

• • Web content management - by setting up a web content steering committee to constantly monitor and assess all aspects of web activities

• • Information literacy model - to develop protocols that will “promote information literacy across campus”, by modifying and updating their “student-centred learning activities… and problem-solving in interactive academic learning environments.”

The author also looks at the issue of copyright in his brave new world, and recognises that it has “become one of the major blockages that is preventing free and open access to data and information” (p. 221). In my opinion the author rather misses the real issue of copyright vis-à-vis commercial journals, and also the small matter of authors who need protection for their royalties (and perhaps their livelihoods).

This is certainly the most creative and useful part of the book, although much of it reinforces rather than informs. For the other Chapters, I report a mixed bag, but I shall confine comments to items that a casual reader might overlook.

In Chapter 5 we are treated to a discussion on the Impacts on academic library administrators and executives and its major effects on the library fraternity in the USA. The author charts the demise of schools of librarianship in US universities, where the 56 courses (accredited by the American Library Association LIS programmes) operational in 1982 had fallen 30%, or 17 by 2001. This reflects the trend towards interdisciplinary graduate schools of library and information sciences in the “information age”, with the result that the ALA-accredited master's degree has merely become one of several degrees available in the field of communications/media, computer science, education and management/administration into which the graduate schools of librarianship have merged.

Chapter 7 is entitled Impacts on information services, and I found an interesting observation in the following statement “As a central information gateway, an academic library must take primary responsibility for protecting user privacy and related library data” (p. 162). The author does not pursue the point, but I wonder what implications this might have for the liability of a library where a user complains that privacy has been compromised electronically while using its services? Perhaps there is some statutory regulation in the USA but, if true, it certainly places a great deal of legal responsibility on library and IT staff over and above their daily battle to service user needs just to keep the systems working.

Generally I found there are some irritating traits in the book, which is a great pity, because I would welcome a succinct guided tour by an “E-Information Services Librarian”, as the author describes himself. The writing style and ubiquitous use of opaque jargon conspired to spoil my overall appreciation of the book. I accept that such a criticism is subjective, and that other readers may feel at ease with his presentation.

Style

The author has a propensity to construct sentences from seemingly endless lists of descriptors, and these make for a tedious opaqueness that inhibits understanding. The book is littered with them, but I select a typical example at random to make my point: “Simply speaking, an information gateway is a central location to access, collect, classify, process, retrieve, store, and transform data and information across applications, channels, databases, networks, platforms, and systems. In dynamic and interactive learning environments, modern information technology includes artificial intelligence, computer technology, digital technology, multimedia technology, network technology, telecommunication technology, video technology, web technology, and so on” (p. 54).

I think the record is on page 71 with twelve descriptors in one sentence. Reading prose constructed like this makes me almost breathless and, frankly, imparts little.

Jargon

In such a book its use is inevitable, but at times it obfuscates rather than clarifies the path through a jungle that is already dense enough for most of us. For example the whole of Chapter 1 (16 pages) is devoted to teasing out the niceties in the author's definition of the two terms “emerging technologies” and “cutting edge technologies”.

On page 7 we learn that “emerging technologies are new evolving innovative technologies with great market potential”, while “cutting edge technologies, on the other hand, are new leading innovative technologies”. Much of the text is larded with the word “innovative” and readers are likely to find this emphasis to be both tedious and confusing.

At the risk of seeming too critical, there is a fundamental problem that is germane to my task of recommending the book to the LIM readership, and it is that I sense a conflict at the heart of Li's work. He identifies his target audience in the Preface as “academics, administrators, executives, consultants, faculty, instructors, IT specialists, librarians, library and information sciences (LIS) students, managers, trainers and other professionals” and his task to provide them with “the latest information on trends currently developing among emerging technologies” (p. xvii).

This constituency has a very wide range of interests and expertise, and it is hard to imagine that they would all consult the text with the same expectations. Writing a book to satisfy such diversity is bound to result in disappointment. The fact that more than 10% of the text is devoted to “exercises” in one form or another, and that the exercises are generally of a rather elementary nature, suggests that the author primarily intended the book as an introductory text for student courses, with inter alia, the executives and librarians as only secondary targets.

A further problem, although not of the author's making, is that with such a fast moving technology (by definition), any textbook rapidly becomes dated. The latest references are to 2008, but if a week is a long time in politics, what is a year in “emerging technologies”?

On a technical level, I found only one possible mistake in the text: Diagram 3.1 on page 40 shows a “LAN-based technology architecture for academic libraries”, and near the top there is a heaven-like cloud entitled WAN. There is no mention of Wide Area Networks in either the text, or the Glossary, and I think this perhaps should read WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) which is discussed in the accompanying text and the Glossary.

The Glossary itself is an essential adjunct, but not altogether efficient, because I was usually trying to decipher another acronym. Although the acronyms are given against their proper meanings, one often has to know the meaning to find the acronym! A separate alphabetical list of acronyms would be very useful. As for the two Appendices – I found them quite useful even though Appendix 1 will date rapidly. Appendix 2 provides useful information on major university libraries.

Overall I have benefitted from reading this book because for me the author has clarified certain aspects of IT with which I had only a passing familiarity. The author is clearly knowledgeable about the delivery of IT to various audiences and in this role he offers useful explanations. However, I sense less familiarity with the wider issues with which academic librarians are faced, and consequently there is perhaps a mismatch between what the book purports to do and what it actually does i.e. bring the potential of IT services to bear on the role of academic librarians rather than just the technological aspects thereof.