College & Research Libraries最新文献

{"title":"Welcome from the Editors","authors":"Bernadette A. Lear, Eric Novotny","doi":"10.5325/libraries.7.2.v","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/libraries.7.2.v","url":null,"abstract":"Imaginative literature encourages us to reflect on real and desired worlds. Among sci-fi authors, Ursula Le Guin’s work is particularly evocative for LCHS because the effects of political and social structures on everyday people frequently appear in her narratives. In the collection Four Ways to Forgiveness, for example, there are colonies, there is slavery, there is patriarchy, and there are questions about postwar reconciliation. As editors of LCHS, we publish or hope to publish material on these concerns as well. The quote from the story “A Man of the People” is also relevant because the character who utters it is Havzhiva, an ambassador between two planets. We, too, strive to be bridge-builders within the special universe we have tried to create where authors from diverse backgrounds, employing perspectives and methods from various disciplines, are welcome to tell library stories from around the world and help our profession make sense of moments that could otherwise wear us out. Le Guin’s use of river imagery also suggests that the flow of library history will continue even after our own roles as editors of LCHS come to an end.As readers of the Fall 2023 issue will notice, aftereffects of COVID-19 continue to be felt in that it remains difficult for many authors to bring manuscripts to fruition. Nonetheless, we are glad to present two research articles. In “Vivian Davidson Hewitt: A Special Librarian’s Advocacy,” Tara Murray Grove adds to the growing body of literature highlighting the contributions of Black women in librarianship. Hewitt served as the first Black president of the Special Libraries Association. This biography emphasizes her considerable accomplishments while acknowledging the broader social and institutional factors that influenced her and other Black librarians in the United States. While special librarians often receive less attention than their academic and public library peers, Hewitt’s story demonstrates how understanding special librarians contributes to a fuller understanding of library history. Our second research article is “‘Neighborhood Library Modernization’: Public Library Development and Racial Inequality in Milwaukee during the 1960s,” by Maddi Brenner. The story of the Milwaukee Public Library expansion and its effects on the African American community in the 1950s and 1960s provides insights into the ongoing racially influenced policy practices in a northern city. Brenner’s account supplements the literature of libraries and African American communities during a transformative time in America’s history.Following Grove’s and Brenner’s work, the “LHRT at Seventy-Five” section continues our yearlong effort to document and reflect upon the round table’s anniversary. While our multiple calls for contributions did not result in as many or as diverse essays as we had hoped, we are thrilled to hear from Donald G. Davis, who served as LHRT chair in the 1978–1979 season, was the editor of LCHS’s intellectual predecess","PeriodicalId":10686,"journal":{"name":"College & Research Libraries","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135388742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Memories of the ALA Library History Round Table","authors":"Donald G. Davis","doi":"10.5325/libraries.7.2.0155","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/libraries.7.2.0155","url":null,"abstract":"What a delight to reflect on my experiences as a library historian and the role of the Library History Round Table of the American Library Association as I enter my eighty-fourth year.Though my serious interest in libraries began in high school and developed during college and graduate school, my official career began with a MLS degree from Berkeley in 1964 and an appointment as reference librarian and special collections bibliographer at Fresno State College. As a new member of ALA, my first annual conference was in 1967, when I attended the program session of the American Library History Round Table. The LHRT program session was on Monday, June 26, at 4:30 p.m.—not the best time, except for the committed. As I remember there were maybe fifteen to twenty people present, of whom I was conspicuously the youngest. The presentation on oral library history interested me less than the paper on Ida Kidder, “Pioneer Western Land Grant Librarian,” by W. H. Carlson of Corvallis, Oregon, and the paper on Mabel Ray Gillis, “California State Librarian” by Peter T. Conmy of the Oakland Public Library. This is probably because I was twenty-seven at the time, in my first professional position as head of special collections and reference librarian at Fresno State College library. I had just sent for publication my first-ever library history piece: a four-page illustrated insert for the October 1967 issue of the California Librarian, entitled “In Fair and Foul: Early Fresno Libraries.”As a doctoral student at Illinois (1968–1972), I found myself increasingly committed to the history of libraries that drew on my previous studies in history and literature. This resulted in a dissertation that studied the Association of American Library Schools (now the Association for Library and Information Science Education) and two other associations of professional schools in the United States and Canada. From 1971 onward I taught courses in the history of archives, books, and libraries regularly at the library school of the University of Texas at Austin until full retirement in 2006, thirty-five years in all.After defending my dissertation at Illinois, I attended the ALA conference in Chicago and participated in the round table’s twenty-fifth anniversary program session. In 1972, during the election of officers that followed the two papers, I nominated Michael Harris for chair. His election signaled a turning point from the founding leaders of the first twenty-five years to a new era of leadership and activity for the round table. Harris and his young colleagues began to serve as key players in the round table’s direction. Program presenters, for example, now included professional historians with related interests. Colleagues who assumed leadership in LHRT in the fifteen years after 1972, included, to name a few, Laurel Grotzinger, George Bobinski, Doris Dale, Susan Thompson, Budd Gambee, Phyllis Dain, Mary Niles Maack, Lee Shiflett, Robert Williams, Arthur Young, Robert Marti","PeriodicalId":10686,"journal":{"name":"College & Research Libraries","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135388753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"“Neighborhood Library Modernization”: Public Library Development and Racial Inequality in Milwaukee during the 1960s","authors":"Maddi Brenner","doi":"10.5325/libraries.7.2.0131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/libraries.7.2.0131","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT By the early 1960s, the Milwaukee Public Library (MPL), Richard Krug (head librarian of MPL), and Milwaukee mayor Henry Maier and his administration became major partners in expanding the reach of branch libraries across its urban neighborhoods. MPL grew from thirteen isolated libraries to nine connected branch libraries through the coordinated branch library system by 1972. This paper analyzes the history of library expansion in Milwaukee during the 1960s. Goals of community engagement, partnership, and citywide circulation guided the development of branch library construction. However, the creation of these branch libraries in Milwaukee was interconnected with the existence of racial inequality and changing racial demographics in the social, political, and economic context of the African American population in the city. Site and budget decisions made in this context had long-term consequences for the nine new branch libraries in Milwaukee.","PeriodicalId":10686,"journal":{"name":"College & Research Libraries","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135388743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Vivian Davidson Hewitt: A Special Librarian’s Advocacy","authors":"Tara Murray Grove","doi":"10.5325/libraries.7.2.0111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/libraries.7.2.0111","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Vivian Davidson Hewitt was the first Black librarian in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the first Black president of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). Despite these accomplishments and the recognition she received during her lifetime, her story, like those of many special librarians, has not been considered in the context of the broader movement for greater rights and representation for Black librarians. This article explores Hewitt’s path to library leadership, providing context for her autobiography and adding details gleaned from oral histories, unpublished papers, newspaper articles, and her own contributions to the library literature. The resulting narrative shows how she leveraged the successes of her career to open doors for other Black librarians. Hewitt’s biography demonstrates that, far from existing in a separate sphere from pioneers in public and academic libraries, special librarians contribute to the larger profession and their stories are part of library history.","PeriodicalId":10686,"journal":{"name":"College & Research Libraries","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135388757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Navigating the Scholarly Publishing Waters: Lessons from the Creation of <i>Libraries: Culture, History, and Society</i>","authors":"Dominique Daniel","doi":"10.5325/libraries.7.2.0161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/libraries.7.2.0161","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This essay details the work of the Library History Round Table’s Publication Task Force, whose 2014 report led to the creation of LHRT’s scholarly journal, Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, under the leadership of founding editors Bernadette Lear and Eric Novotny. The chair of the Publication Task Force then highlights lessons for small scholarly societies aiming to establish their own journals, reflecting on issues such as publisher selection, journal ownership, funding, technology, publication frequency, and more.","PeriodicalId":10686,"journal":{"name":"College & Research Libraries","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135388751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"LHRT’s <i>Two</i> Communities","authors":"Anthony Bernier","doi":"10.5325/libraries.7.2.0176","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/libraries.7.2.0176","url":null,"abstract":"I would like to acknowledge Bernadette Lear for articulating an expanded vision of the Library History Round Table community and for devoting years to advocating that vision for the LHRT as appears in her essay in the previous issue of LCHS.1 But as we celebrate the LHRT’s seventy-fifth anniversary, I would also like to offer a rejoinder from a different vantage point.What I offer constitutes less an argument with Bernadette’s essay than a more complex refinement of what constitutes the LHRT. Bernadette laudably focuses on community, a “spirit of openness,” for wide audiences of those interested in producing and learning about the library’s past—especially for those unable to participate in LHRT activities.2For my part, however, I would advocate that the LHRT better acknowledge that there are two communities connected to library history. History is not only about what we like to share about the past; it must also include what the wide and systematic collection of evidence, critical assessment of primary sources, and historiographic analysis documents and demonstrates it is.Broadening interest in the LHRT is a laudable aspiration. Though, throughout its seventy-five years, aspirations notwithstanding, the Round Table might well sustain criticism about being less attractive to students and practitioners, among others, who might otherwise see themselves as active members. Self-critique on this is all to the good. We should always seek to expand the reach of library history—for the good of the LHRT, for the American Library Association, the profession, and for libraries.In celebrating the LHRT’s seventy-fifth year, however, I suggest that we better consider how the Round Table is constituted of two distinct communities, not one. Each of these communities envisions addressing distinct types of questions about history and thus different roles for the LHRT. We should strive to build an LHRT capable of valuing both communities for their respective contributions.To be sure, and to a significant extent, the LHRT does attempt to serve its members and respond to what members feel contributes value to their work and interests. For their part, librarians and archivists sharing stories about the past represents an enriching thread in library history. These tend to be the stories and discussions I observed as a member of the executive committee and as chair, what the LHRT concentrates upon in meetings, panels, conferences, and in the very well-edited LHRT News and Notes newsletter. These are indeed generous efforts assembled and contributed by practicing librarians who share various experiences of the past.I would argue, however, that while the Round Table does achieve good success on this count, we must still broaden the communities of people interested in our history further. In better differentiating two communities of library history, I feel the LHRT would also reach for broader and deeper impact.More pointedly, there is a difference between librarians shari","PeriodicalId":10686,"journal":{"name":"College & Research Libraries","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135388744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Library: A Fragile History","authors":"Brenda Mitchell-Powell","doi":"10.5325/libraries.7.2.0216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/libraries.7.2.0216","url":null,"abstract":"In The Library: A Fragile History, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen utilize copious primary and secondary sources, as well as websites, to trace the evolution of worldwide libraries and various forms of reading and recordkeeping materials from antiquity to the digital age. Also consulted were numerous international, multilingual sources. In the process, the authors investigate the social, cultural, historical, political, religious, military, national and international, and technological influences that impacted the meanings and developments of institutions and their collections. Pettegree and der Weduwen are ideally suited to this monumental task. Pettegree is professor of modern history at the University of St. Andrews and a renowned expert on the history of book and media transformations. Der Weduwen is a historian, postdoctoral fellow at St. Andrews, and author of books on the history of newspapers, advertising, and publishing. They collaborated previously on titles related to book and library history.This sweeping history of the evolution of books and print culture, reading rooms, and libraries investigates collections of materials—papyrus scrolls, codices, and manuscripts, as well as parchment, illuminated, and printed books—and housing facilities, including chests and cabinets; imperial courts; monasteries, mosques, synagogues, temples, and churches; great halls and private spaces; legal and research centers; universities; and national and special repositories. Libraries are defined not only as intellectual resources but also as architectural centerpieces, cultural capital, financial assets, symbols of power and control, and “statement[s] of what a nation or ruling class stood for” (9). The pivotal roles of religion; wars, incursions, and military conquests; political, national, and international events; finance; and technology are extensively covered by the authors. They also assess the impact of philosophical movements, such as humanism, the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Ages of Discovery and Enlightenment, on library genesis and expansion, collection development (or destruction), and access issues. Further, Pettegree and der Weduwen trace perceptions of and reactions to rare, illustrated, and printed materials through the ages, and they examine the advent of book catalogs and lotteries and their bearing on the evaluation, pricing, and sales of books. The involvement in book and library development of well- and lesser-known figures, including national and faith leaders, library professionals and benefactors, town council members and city administrators, and community residents, offers personal dimensions that supplement reportage of historic details.Pettegree and der Weduwen contend that the evolution of libraries is not linear and that throughout the ages libraries survived because they adapted to ever-changing public attitudes and social, cultural, historical, religious, and political considerations. Following ","PeriodicalId":10686,"journal":{"name":"College & Research Libraries","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135388746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Private Library: The History of the Architecture and Furnishing of the Domestic Bookroom","authors":"Mandy Webster","doi":"10.5325/libraries.7.2.0223","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/libraries.7.2.0223","url":null,"abstract":"There can be few significant private libraries the author Reid Byers has not enjoyed visiting. This personal experience enlivens his fascinating insight into the development of personal libraries and is supported by his wide reading around the subject, as evidenced in the extensive list of works cited at the end of his book. His career includes C language programmer, master IT architect, journalist, and TV newscaster. He is a member of the Grolier Club in New York and is vice president of the Baxter Society. He has directed or curated eighteen book exhibitions, and his publications include work on library archaeology. All of which appears to have provided the perfect grounding for writing The Private Library.Other titles, such as The Oxford Companion to the Book by Michael F. Suarez and H. R. Woudhuysen, cover the history of books in greater detail but do not discuss architecture or benefit from as many floor plans and illustrations as Byers’s book. Book collecting is well provided for, with books ranging from the more practical ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter through to the more anecdotal A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas A. Basbanes, with accounts of collectors prepared to go to any length, including murder, to satisfy their book lust. Few examine the physical structures of the libraries housing these collections and trace the evolution of their furnishings as Byers does. The books which do examine the architecture of libraries tend to have a narrower focus than Byers, for example, the more lavishly illustrated The Most Beautiful Libraries of the World by Jacques Bosser and Guillaume de Laubier and the more unwieldy The World’s Most Beautiful Libraries by Massimo Listri, which has many more sumptuous photographs but little explanatory text. Others favor specific periods and locations, such as The Country House Library and The Big House Library in Ireland: Books in Ulster Country Houses, both by Mark Purcell. The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, edited by Peter Hoare, dedicates three volumes to the history of collecting, organizing, and housing libraries in these countries and how they were influenced by other countries but devotes much less space to architecture than Byers. The closest alternative to Byers’s book would be The Library: A World History by James Campbell and Will Pryce, similarly based on personal visits to more than eighty libraries around the world and spanning ancient Mesopotamia to present-day Western libraries, but focusing more on photographic evidence without the same explanatory detail as Byers. None cover furnishings in as much detail as Byers’s appendices C and D or provide such detailed floor plans to aid in imagining the scale and layout of library environments from Roman times to the present. Attention to detail in each chapter includes where and how high windows were situated and whether they would face courtyards, gardens, or water","PeriodicalId":10686,"journal":{"name":"College & Research Libraries","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135388748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"LHRT Leadership, Programs, and Awards, 1998–2023","authors":"Bernadette A. Lear","doi":"10.5325/libraries.7.2.0181","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/libraries.7.2.0181","url":null,"abstract":"In 1998, in celebration of LHRT’s fiftieth anniversary, Andrew B. Wertheimer and John David Marshall compiled a chronology of the round table’s activities covering 1947 to 1997.1 This year, in celebration of LHRT’s seventy-fifth anniversary, I have attempted to update their record down to the present day (2023). What follows is reconstructed from back issues of LHRT Newsletter and LHRT News and Notes; announcements and meeting minutes posted on ALA Connect; election reports and other information on LHRT and ALA websites; individuals’ online CVs and social media profiles; and my own records and personal recollections. I also shared a draft with current LHRT members via email and encouraged them to review and correct my work. I contacted many past officers and conference speakers to confirm details. Andrew Wertheimer, Jenny Bossaller, and Steve Sowards deserve special thanks for filling in gaps across multiple years of entries.Over the past twenty-five years, LHRT has grown significantly in organizational complexity, including new committees, such as the Membership and Outreach Committee, and new positions, such as webmaster, social media coordinator, journal editor, and LHRT ALA councilor. While appreciative of all LHRT’s volunteers, LCHS does not have enough space to acknowledge everyone who has led committees or initiatives, nor can we name the dozens of other colleagues who have helped LHRT to prosper over the decades. Thus, the “Leadership” section below only lists elected officers. We must thank dozens of unnamed volunteers who have helped the round table thrive, plus the ALA staff liaisons who assisted us along the way: Mary Jo Lynch (ca. 1997–2003), Denise M. Davis (ca. 2004–2006, 2008–2010), Letitia Earvin (ca. 2006–2008), Norman Rose (ca. 2010–2015), Kelsey Henke (ca. 2016–2017), and Danielle M. Ponton (ca. 2018–present). Thank you, everyone!In the last two and a half decades, LHRT’s educational, research, and outreach programs have developed substantially as well. On the awards side, there are now prizes for books, journal articles, and service, joining the previously established recognitions for unpublished essays and dissertations. Adding to the annual Research Forum and quinquennial Library History Seminar that existed as of the late 1990s, LHRT has offered Chair’s Programs or Invited Speakers Programs, an annual Edward G. Holley Memorial Lecture, occasional cosponsorship of conference sessions organized by other units of the American Library Association, and, most recently, a bimonthly LHRT Reads book discussion group. While all of these events have been included to the best of my knowledge, the round table has also organized occasional informal gatherings, such as library tours and social dinners, which are not listed below.The proliferation of officers, committees, programs, and awards speaks positively to the growth of the round table and the increasing diversity of people who can find a home within it. At seventy-five years old, ","PeriodicalId":10686,"journal":{"name":"College & Research Libraries","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135388752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies","authors":"Bradley J. Wiles","doi":"10.5325/libraries.7.2.0220","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/libraries.7.2.0220","url":null,"abstract":"Much of contemporary scholarship in the archival studies field grapples with the problems of today and tomorrow—how archivists might structure their work methods, institutional operations, and conceptual framings for immediate and long-term solutions in preserving and making available archival collections. As such, theoretical and practical approaches within the archives profession tend not to delve too far into the past for inspiration or direction, both because of the increasingly technology-focused nature of archival work and because of growing consensus around which usable histories and modern conceptual lenses ought to inform the profession going forward. Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies, by Geoffrey Yeo, feels exceptional in this regard, as it wisely avoids such presentist filters in offering a detailed and comprehensive analysis of records production across several premodern societies.As an internationally recognized scholar, the University College London–affiliated Yeo has long been an authority on archives and records management in contemporary and historical contexts. Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies shows that humans have always had limited biological capacity for memory but could usually muster the wherewithal to innovate and gain new abilities commensurate with the growing complexity and changing needs of our societies. As Yeo illustrates, this occurred all over the world among different cultures at various points in history, sometimes as part of a chain of regional cultural diffusion and at other times in relative isolation. But Yeo is careful not to conflate current understandings of record making and keeping that suggest a perennial “urge to record” or compulsion to organize and find meaning; instead, early records activity “probably arose from relatively short-term needs” in providing evidence and supporting individual and collective memory (182).Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies is organized into eight thematic chapters that offer examples from around the ancient world, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, China, and the Americas. Yeo begins in the distant preliterate Neolithic era, when marks and seals were employed as symbols of ownership, property, and accounting in predominantly herding and farming communities. As such, these precursors to records should be understood as “persistent representations” of activities and events of that time, rather than in how they may have been collected or utilized beyond their immediate sociomaterial context (x). Yeo demonstrates that the creation of any recording device or system from this time was tied to its effectiveness at facilitating contemporaneous business functions, and any longevity it held was contingent on its adaptability to shifting social and cultural realities. For example, in what is now Syria, from about 6000 to 4600 BCE, the ubiquitous presence of family seals on pottery, containers, and other durable items found in ","PeriodicalId":10686,"journal":{"name":"College & Research Libraries","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135388747","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}