Stueart, Robert D. International Librarianship: A Basic Guide to Global Knowledge Access. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow (Libraries and Librarianship: An International Perspective, No. 2), 2007. 247p. alk. paper, $45 (ISBN 0810858762). LC 2006-22209.
Robert D. Stueart’s International Librarianship: A Basic Guide to Global Knowledge Access is the second in an ambitious series entitled Libraries and Librarianship: An International Perspective, edited by Stueart himself (the first installment in the series is Impact of Technology on Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Library Collections, edited by R.N. Sharma). Stueart is in a unique position to comment on international librarianship. Former dean and professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College, Stueart has published widely and has served on the executive board of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) as well as the International Relations Committee of the American Library Association (ALA). Even more important, Stueart’s work in Vietnam and Thailand (among other places) has been critical for the development of libraries and librarian education in these countries.
Briefly put, Stueart’s International Librarianship is a reference book. In the forematter, Stueart makes direct claims about the book’s primary purpose as a "guide," but each of these claims is slightly different in scope and description. The book "attempts to provide important background directions so [comparative research] can be undertaken more expediently"; the book is intended "as a basic guide for those interested in… the concept of universal librarianship, as well as an aid to professors and students"; the book’s goal "is to provide basic background information for those seeking to study libraries and librarianship in the global arena." Stueart’s book, then, is called upon to serve the diverse needs of students, professors, researchers, librarians, and the scattered few with a general interest in the subject. It is a kind of signpost in the road, directing interested researchers in appropriate directions. As the author himself makes clear, one would not stop here to do serious research.
Stueart’s five main subjects (and chapter headings) are international library associations, national library associations, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, national libraries and bibliographic services, and information policies. A comprehensive and alphabetically arranged list of organizations is provided for each of these subjects. The entries for each organization include information about the organization’s founding, its mission, publications, and contact information. For national libraries and bibliographic services, the entries also feature summaries of the organization’s "cultural responsibilities," most often including collecting all nationally produced publications, and often (but, sadly, not nearly always) providing access to those publications.
Stueart has excelled in assembling an amazing amount of basic information about his five primary subjects. One cannot help but be stunned at the number and variety of libraries, library associations, and information centers that dot the globe, sharing certain elements but still as unique as a fingerprint. Among the diverse entries in this volume are those for the Croatian Library Association (Hrvatsko Krjizicarsko Drustvo), the Library Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT), and the National Library and Archives of the Republic of Kiribati (a cluster of Pacific islands near the equator with a population nearing 100,000). This assembly of nations will be incredibly useful to area studies librarians who often seek colleagues to provide advice for collection development.
Although Stueart’s professional experiences have been deep and far-ranging, the introductory prose sections of International Librarianship—that is, the preface and Chapter 1 ("Trends and Issues in International Librarianship")—do not provide the rich, textured background that readers often need and look for in the introductions to such volumes. The reader is left wanting some evidence for Stueart’s claim that we are entering a "global knowledge society" and that "the internationalization of librarianship" is both actually occurring and necessary. Stueart’s introduction lacks context, because it makes no mention of international politics, for example, or the influences of regimes or administrations on information exchange, or exactly which technologies have thrust librarianship into a "vital" role in an international society and how. Similarly, since Stueart has endeavored to "provide basic background information" for students and researchers, a bibliography or suggested background reading list for such topics would have been an appropriate inclusion. Indeed, Stueart insists, "The primary purpose of this guide is to identify basic background sources, in whatever format, for the study and teaching of international librarianship." Yet no such summary or literature review is included in the book.
A second edition of International Librarianship could, with some imagination, look quite different. Librarians are among the first to recognize that reference books reach their fullest potential when they migrate online; dictionaries and encyclopedias and biographical sources have all attained a greater breadth, greater flexibility for updates, and greater usefulness in their move from paper to pixel. While Stueart may have fallen short in properly contextualizing the information found in International Librarianship, it remains an important reference resource for those among us who recognize that information (and, by extension, librarianship) has become increasingly borderless. To maximize the impact of this collected information, Stueart should allow International Librarianship to evolve by placing it online. Only then will it be truly international in its utility; only then will it be the perfect "guide" for contemporary and future information professionals.—David Pavelich, University of Chicago.