Professional Media Reviews, April 1, 2011 

Conversations with Catalogers in the 21st Century. Libraries Unlimited: ABC-CLIO. (Library Management Collection). 2010. 283p. ed. by Elaine R. Sanchez. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781598847024. pap. $50. PRO MEDIA
This is not an introductory book for LIS cataloging students. The topics are advanced and technical, definitely for experienced catalogers and managers. The volume sets a negative tone about the new cataloging code, Resource Description and Access (RDA), first evident in the foreword when Michael Gorman, first editor of AACR2, refers to “the wretched RDA,” though no cataloging code has ever been developed more transparently, with opportunity for input from everyone. Although descriptive cataloging is only part of cataloging, with RDA controversies it gets most of the attention here; subject headings are hardly mentioned, and classification is ignored. Nonetheless, serious catalogers will want to participate in these conversations, mainly involving academic librarians. Several contributors attack the current “crisis” in cataloging education. There are extra gems, including two annotated bibliographies, one of relevant historical sources arranged chronologically through 1800, and the other, with sources up to the present, by author. VERDICT Recommended for all serious catalogers and managers of the cataloging enterprise in all libraries.—James D. Anderson, LIS, emeritus, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, NJ

Reference Reborn: Breathing New Life into Public Services Librarianship. Libraries Unlimited: ABC-CLIO. 2010. 401p. ed. by Diane Zabel. index. ISBN 9781591588283. pap. $55. PRO MEDIA
Zabel (Schreyer Business Lib., Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park; coauthor, The Quality Management Sourcebook) provides a much-needed supplement to the general introductions to reference librarianship that dominate the market with this collection of 25 new pieces by active and well-placed public service professionals, including Elyssa Stern Cahoy on “Who Are Our Users,” Jim Hahn on “Reconfiguring Reference Services for Mobile Devices,” Susan Sharpless Smith and Lynn Sutton on “The Embedded Academic Librarian,” and Barry Trott and Neil Hollands on “Contemporary and Future Roles for Readers’ Advisory in Public Libraries.” Other topics covered include continuing skill development, succession planning, reference librarians as adjuncts, marketing, virtual services, different service models, and scholarly communication and trends. The material is especially useful to reference librarians needing to brush up on topics becoming more central to their revised 21st-century roles. VERDICT Essential for public service librarians—academic and public, both veterans and new to the profession—and for students or potential students in information science. Highly recommended.—Colleen S. Harris, Univ. of Tennessee at Chattanooga Lib.

Weber, Mary Beth & Fay Angela Austin. Describing Electronic, Digital, and Other Media Using AACR2 and RDA. Neal-Schuman. (How-To-Do-It Manuals, No. 168). 2010. 301p. index. ISBN 9781555706685. pap. $75 with CD-ROM. PRO MEDIA
Weber (Cataloging Nonprint and Internet Resources) and Austin—head of central technical services and head of monographs cataloging and database management, respectively, at Rutgers University Libraries—provide a well-organized resource for catalogers charged with creating descriptive records for digital and electronic materials. Their text smoothes the transition from AACR2 to Resource Description and Access (RDA) and Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), covering a variety of electronic and digital media and providing cataloging examples in MARC, Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), and Dublin Core (DC). VERDICT This is an up-to-date and handy desk reference for catalogers of electronic, digital, cartographic, sound, video, Internet, database, and other mixed media. It’s also suitable for non–tech services librarians tackling original cataloging of electronic or digital media and those curating and creating access to locally created content within their communities and institutions. With a useful CD-ROM for step-by-step help and a companion website that will be updated as necessary. Recommended.—Catherine C. McMullen, Canby P.L., OR