This work records the accomplishments of the leaders of library science with 51 thoroughly researched biographies of individuals whose contributions have profoundly influenced the profession's history. The biographical sketches, ranging in length from 1,400 to 4,000 words, were researched, written, and reviewed by noted authorities in the library and information science community.

This second supplement to DALB, the Dictionary of American Library Biography (1978), adds 77 notable, deceased members of the library and archival communities to the 302 entries in the main volume and the 51 entries in the first supplement (1990). The second supplement includes primarily those figures who died between 1987 and the end of the year 2000, though some 13 entries provide sketches for notable persons whose death dates are somewhat earlier and who were not included in earlier works. Among the entries are a number of African Americans, and nearly one-half of the entries are women. Some 80 contributors from the United States and Canada provided sketches, many based on original source material. This supplement follows the practice and format of the earlier volumes, though it allows presidents of the American Library Association to compete for inclusion with other nominations.

A detailed reference work that documents every aspect of the American public library experience through topical entries, statistics, biographies, and profiles. The American Public Library Handbook is the first reference work to focus on all aspects of the American public library experience, providing a topical perspective through comprehensive essays and biographical information on important public librarians. Based upon the author's own notes and extensive experience, as well as library periodicals, library reference books, monographs, textbooks, Internet sources, and correspondence with individual libraries, this book comprises nearly 1,000 entries addressing all aspects of public library service. Each topical essay considers terminology of the area covered, its historical context, and current concerns and issues. Biographies highlight the philosophical perspective of the individuals covered, while entries on specific libraries present timely data and interesting facts about each facility. This unique handbook also offers up-to-date statistics, historical highlights, and information about programs and events of individual libraries.

ARIST, published annually since 1966, is a landmark publication within the information science community. It surveys the landscape of information science and technology, providing an analytical, authoritative, and accessible overview of recent trends and significant developments. The range of topics varies considerably, reflecting the dynamism of the discipline and the diversity of theoretical and applied perspectives. While ARIST continues to cover key topics associated with "classical" information science (e.g., bibliometrics, information retrieval), editor Blaise Cronin is selectively expanding its footprint in an effort to connect information science more tightly with cognate academic and professional communities. Contents of Volume 40 (2006): SECTION I: Information and Society Chapter 1: The Micro- and Macroeconomics of Information, Sandra Braman Chapter 2: The Geographies of the Internet, Matthew Zook Chapter 3: Open Access, M. Carl Drott SECTION II: Technologies and Systems Chapter 4: TREC: An Overview, Donna K. Harman and Ellen M. Voorhees Chapter 5: Semantic Relations in Information Science, Christopher S. G. Khoo and Jin-Cheon Na Chapter 6: Intelligence and Security Informatics, Hsinchun Chen and Jennifer Xu SECTION III: Information Needs and Use Chapter 7: Information Behavior, Donald O. Case Chapter 8: Collaborative Information Seeking and Retrieval, Jonathan Foster Chapter 9: Information Failures in Health Care, Anu MacIntosh-Murray and Chun Wei Choo Chapter 10: Workplace Studies and Technological Change, Angela Cora Garcia, Mark E. Dawes, Mary Lou Kohne, Felicia Miller, and Stephan F. Groschwitz SECTION IV: Theoretical Perspectives Chapter 11: Information History, Alistair Black Chapter 12: Social Epistemology and Information Science, Don Fallis Chapter 13: Formal Concept Analysis in Information Science, Uta Priss.

While the importance of writing has often been recognized, the role of books and especially that of libraries has just as often been slighted. Knowledge, once generated, has to be communicated, preserved, and accessible. Books in their varying formats—from clay tablets to scrolls and manuscripts to pixels—have been instrumental in spreading knowledge, although relatively little attention has been given to the story of books themselves. A Social History of Books and Libraries from Cuneiform to Bytes traces the roles of books and libraries throughout recorded history and explores their social and cultural importance within differing societies and changing times. It presents the history of books from clay tablets to e-books and the history of libraries, whether built of bricks or bytes. Following an introduction that sets the theoretical basis for the historical importance of books and libraries, chapters alternate between the history of the book and the history of libraries. Included within the chapters are short excursions on some particular development, such as book emblems or cataloging. Case studies are given as thematic illustrations of libraries everywhere. Patrick M. Valentine argues that social and cultural forces have been more influential in determining the nature and status of information, books, and libraries than has technology. But A Social History of Books and Libraries is far from a jeremiad against technology; rather it presents history within the subtle yet shifting context of time and place. Although written primarily for librarians and library students, it will also be of interest to a wider audience of scholars and those interested in books, libraries, and cultural history.

In 1950 Robert L. Gitler went to Japan to found the first college-level school of library science in that country. His mission, an improbable success, was documented in an assisted autobiography as Robert Gitler and the Japan Library School (Scarecrow Press, 1999). Subsequent research into initiatives to improve library services during the Allied occupation has revealed surprising discoveries and human interest of the lives of very diverse individuals. A central role was played by a librarian, Philip Keeney, who later became well-known as an alleged communist spy. A national plan, designed for Japan’s libraries, was based directly on the county library system developed by progressive thinkers in California, itself a dramatic story. The School of Librarianship at the University of California and its founding director, Sydney Mitchell, was found to have deeply influenced key figures. The story also requires an appreciation of the deployment of American libraries abroad as tools of foreign policy, as cultural diplomacy. Meanwhile, library services in Japan were seriously underdeveloped, despite Japan’s extraordinarily high literacy rate, very well-developed publishing and book retail industries, and librarians who were far from backward. The difference in library development lay in the huge divergence between the ethos of the American public library (dominated by support for individual self-development and Western liberal democracy) and the evolving political ideology of Japanese governments after the Meiji Restoration (1868). After absorbing authoritarian French and German administrative practices Japan became a militarist dictatorship from the 1920s onwards until surrender in 1945. The literature on the Allied Occupation of Japan is vast, but library services have received very little attention beyond the creation of the National Diet Library in 1948. The story of initiatives to improve library services in occupied Japan, the role of libraries as cultural diplomacy, the dramatic development of free public library services in California have remained unknown or little known – until now.