are evaluated by how accessible they are to users rather than thenumber of items in the digital repository. Selecting a repositoryframework and the importance and value of functionality arediscussed in Chapter Three. Screenshots of DSpace andContentDM are provided as examples. In Chapter Four,“General Purpose Technologies Used for Digital Repositories”XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and other technologiessuch as XPath, XSLT are discussed. The history, strengths andchallenges of core metadata schemas such as Dublin Core,METS, and MODS are well described in Chapter Five.Catalogers will find this Chapter Six, “Sharing Data: MetadataHarvesting and Distribution” of interest as the tools necessary tocrosswalk metadata schemas and protocols that supportmetadata harvesting are discussed. Chapter Seven addressesfederated search technologies and new research in the areas ofknowledge management and automatic data classification. Itshould be noted that readers with limited technical backgroundmight find technical discussions challenging. Once a digitalrepository has been launched, Chapter Eight raises importantpoints on copyright issues, access rights, and access controlmechanisms. Chapter Nine, “Planning for the Future,” is anexciting one. It discusses the value in embracing change,specializing and adapting to new models of operations, such asdecentralized library services, federated collection manage-ment, and decentralized vocabulary maintenance. The finalchapter, “Conclusions,” offer a concise summary of the keyconcepts and recommendations presented throughout the book.

Building Digital Libraries: a How-To-Do-It Manual ishighly recommended for those interested in building librariesof the future.—Alexandra P. Fox, Digital Services Librarian,Lavinger Library, Georgetown University,Washington, DC20057 <apf22@georgetown.edu>.

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2008.07.007

Streamlining Library Services: What We Do, How MuchTime It Takes, What It Costs, How We Can Do Better, byRichard M. Dougherty. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008.268p. $45.00. ISBN 0-8108-5198-9.

In this work Richard Dougherty–whose distinguished careerincluded a post as University Librarian at UC Berkeley and asfounding editor of the Journal of Academic Librarianship–updates a volume whose second and most recent edition appearedin 1982 (the first was in 1966). In the case of both revisions,the intervening period had wrought great change in libraries.Between 1966 and 1982 OCLC and cooperative catalogingsignificantly changed technical services. Between 1982 and 2008the Internet became very widely used, altering most aspects ofoperations in academic libraries.

Despite the profoundly altered landscape, most of thetechniques Dougherty documents for understanding libraryoperations would have been familiar in 1966. Most of the bookis a catalog of well-established measurement techniques withroots in industrial engineering. Dougherty is doubtlesslycorrect that many library procedures could be improved withsome thoughtful investigation. But because Dougherty offersso many examples of different techniques, his book is bestconsulted on an as-needed basis, rather than reading straightthrough.

That's not to say it isn't educational. Dougherty contextua-lizes tools most readers would be familiar with, by givingexamples of how they are used. For example, block diagramscan depict a circulation system; check lists can keep track ofreference questions; and flow process charts can track everystep in the process of an interlibrary borrowing procedure. Andso forth.

Mixed among the familiar are some vaguely Orwelliansurprises; the two-hand operation chart is designed to literallykeep track of what a person's left and right hands are doingduring a typical operation. But extreme rigor has its benefits.Dougherty documents how use of the two-hander improved alibrary's book checkout procedure, by systematizing placementof bar codes on all circulating books. With this improvementone hand didn't have to wander around books of variousdimensions in search of the bar code.

Despite Dougherty's obvious passion for efficiency andwriting flair, reading this book in 2008 feels anachronistic. It isdeeply rooted in the physical library building, even thoughacademic libraries especially are in the process of reinventingthemselves for the digital age. This isn't Dougherty's “fault,”but instead a reflection of the fact that we don't yet haveestablished ways to measure our success (or lack thereof) in thedigital age. Most academic libraries still faithfully record theircirculation statistics and gate counts, even though these metricsare ever less helpful at determining the health of libraries.

Because we live in a digital age, any honest evaluations ofcurrent physical processes would be likely to yield theconclusions that positions are expendable or should be radicallytransformed. Change is hard, and at the end of the bookDougherty excels at describing how to streamline current acti-vities and manage the resultant organizational change. Aggres-sively asking people why they are doing something that nolonger seems to make sense is a recipe for hostility. Instead,Dougherty recommends asking the people involved for sugges-tions about how to streamline a process in order to spur them tothink critically about the need for that process. This way thesolutions are shared by all rather than imposed by management.

When Dougherty brings out the next edition of this book in2034, let's hope that our profession has a much better handle onhow to measure success in the electronic age. It will be somewhatdepressing if the two-hand operation chart is still a highlight ofthe book by that point.—Marcus Banks, Manager ofEducation and Information Services, University of Califor-nia, San Francisco Library, 530 Parnassus Avenue, SanFrancisco, CA 94143 <marcus.banks@library.ucsf.edu>.

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2008.07.008

Making Library Web Sites Usable: A LITA Guide, by TomLehman and Terry Nikkel. New York, NY: Neal-SchumanPublishers, 2008. 184p. $65.00. ISBN 978-1-55570-620-3.

The past ten years have seen libraries embrace web sites as avaluable tool that can further the library's mission in guidingresearch and providing access to information and services;however, during this same time the web has also reshaped theexpectations of patrons and in the process reshaped the futuredirection of libraries. In the process of trying to keep pace withthe changing landscapes of technology and patron needs,

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