We don’t need no stinkin’ books

Lee, Sul H. (ed).

Print vs. digital: the future of coexistence. 138+xx pp.
Binghampton, NY, USA: Haworth Information Press, 2007

13-digit ISBN: 978 0 7890 3576 0 (pb)

Price: Not given

Published simultaneously as: Journal of Library Administration, vol. 46, no.

2, 2007.

Haworth Press has had a poor reputation in the library world for re-
printing journal issues as monographs – without telling readers: recent
Update reviews have commented on this. This book is different. There are
several clear statements that the content appears simultaneously as a
journal issue. And the first 13 pages are devoted to Haworth publicity.

The book’s subject-matter is timely. The contributions are, inevitably,

mixed in terms of both quality and subject-matter: several chapters
appear to be unedited conference papers, without evidence as to where
or when the event took place (further research suggests this volume to be
the proceedings of a 2006 conference held in Oklahoma).

The book’s title (and general theme) is taken from a comment made when
the New York Public Library’s catalogue went online in 1985: “The book is
here to stay. What we’re doing is symbolic of the peaceful coexistence of
the book and the computer.”

The eight chapters cover a range of topics. In the first, you can discover
why the University of Texas closed its undergraduate library (with
academic bloggers making such intellectual comments as: “Say bye-bye
to the books, kids” and “We don’t need no stinkin’ books”!). Here, you can
learn, too of the Blooker Prize! Other chapters explore design features of
Ohio State University’s re-vamped research library, how to promote print
resources for creating new digital materials, JSTORE as a means of
preserving journals in electronic formats, the digital storage of
newspapers and library co-operation in the on-line age.

Of greatest value for me were contributions by Michael Buckland (do on-

line versions of reference books really work?) and Elsevier’s Karen Hunter
on why librarians misunderstand the function of electronic journals.
Interesting, too, would have been a chapter on training users to judge the
relative benefits of print and/or electronic resources. But, if we don’t need
no books……!
Also published as: Proceedings of the Conference on Printed Resources and Digital Information: The
Future of Coexistence, Oklahoma University Libraries, Oklahoma City, March 2 & 3, 2006.

Ralph Adam, 2007