New Book: Vandals in the Stacks? A Response to Nicholson Baker's Assault on Libraries

[gary]

Hello from D.C.

Since Nicholson Baker's book was such a hot topic last year, this "just 
published" title might be of interest to many of you. 

----
New Book:
Vandals in the Stacks? A Response to Nicholson Baker's Assault on Libraries 

The "Response" was written by Richard J. Cox, a professor from the School of 
Information Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Cox was the editor of 
American Archivist from 1991 through 1995.

Here's a small portion of the blurb from the Greenwood's catalog, 

"Libraries and archives have violated their public trust, argues Nicholson Baker 
in his controversial book Double Fold, by destroying traditional books, 
newspapers, and other paper-based collections. Baker's powerful and persuasive 
book is wrong and misleading, and Cox critiques it point by point, questioning 
his research, his assumptions, and his arguments about why and how newspapers, 
books, and other collections are selected and maintained. Double Fold, which 
reads like a history of libraries and archives, is not a history at all, but a 
journalistic account that is often based on fanciful and far-flung assertions and 
weak data." 

Link:
Full Catalog Blurb and Table of Contents:
http://info.greenwood.com/books/0313323/0313323445.html

Background:
Read Barbara Quint's Review of Double Fold 
http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jun01/voice.htm

Listen to a 2001 KCRW Radio Program with Nicholson Baker 
http://kcrw.com/cgi-bin/ram_wrap.cgi?/bw/bw010621Nicholson_Baker


cheers,
gary


-- 
Gary D. Price, MLIS
Librarian
Gary Price Library Research and Internet Consulting
gary at freepint.com

The Virtual Acquisition Shelf and News Desk 
http://resourceshelf.freepint.com