This book deals with managing government documents and will be an invaluable source of information for people who are looking for guidance in house‐keeping government documents and who wish to reach out to their users. In her opening remarks she explains what had inspired her in writing this book. Her hands on experience in bringing order out of chaos, has been depicted. The content of this book will be fascinating to any librarian who is passionate of considering or who is presently engaged in government document work. She strongly believes that the innate character of a librarian, like willingness to learn new things; interest in technology, a commitment to cater to information needs of users, etc. can make one successful in this profession.
Lisa Ennis, has been successful in highlighting the otherwise hidden opportunities and also suggests that anyone working as a librarian can opt for Government Document librarianship. She provides a comprehensive background of GPO and the FDLP. She dwells on the history of GPO and FDLP and its transition to match the new era requirement. It may seem to be a Herculean task to comply with FDLP guidelines, but if one puts in a systematic effort and work as per the guidelines right from the start, things would be much easier, and she assures, in her writing, a bright future for the professionals working in this area.
Lisa Ennis has successfully simplified all the aspects of government documents librarianship into manageable, easily understandable piece of writing. Her work will be an essential acquisition for any Library School, as it will help them having a detail study on Government Documents Librarianship in a single book. She makes the reader feel that Librarianship is a respectable profession and explains every bit of both Federal Depository Libraries and Non‐Depository Libraries with government documents.
She also throws her insight into the basic competency requirements of a librarian highlighting the importance of networking and training in Chapter 5. She writes in detail of the importance of staying connected with the similar librarians through regional depository, peers, various associations, participation in conferences, listserves, RSS feeds and blogs. She emphasizes the need for a two‐way path in networking by putting forth her views, that – the more one learns and more one experiences, there is a need to share with their peers and followers.
The chapter under the heading “The managing and administering” – she expresses that any change, when thought of, there will always be a small group to resist it. Communicating and working with peers and middle management in other departments is crucial, thus she emphasizes the requirement of one's diplomatic and organizational skills like paperwork; disaster recovery; house‐keeping of the collection, etc. Making the collection visible and accessible is of significance for better utilization of the documents. When the author had taken up the assignment of reorganizing the government document, she had to get the lights changed to make the dark corner stocked with government documents, which otherwise would have gone unnoticed and unused, to make them visible and optimally used. Access to digital collection is also equally important, hence, it is essential to host the information on to the web and make them more accessible. The key is to offer the same level of reference service for depository users as extended to any other user.
Regarding the technical services, she remarks that one needs to have an affinity towards works like cataloguing, OPAC, collection development, classification, bibliographic control, processing, preservation as well as version control and so forth, as it is one of the best opportunities for professional growth and is a life long learning that documents librarianship has to offer. Professionals also have to learn to work in an automated environment and need to shed the fear of technology and master it.
To support her writing and to provide a better understanding to the readers a comprehensive list of resources and additional readings for each of the chapters in the book, Biennial survey format; Sample issue of Administrative Notes; Self study template; followed by an exhaustive bibliography, have been appended in this book. I personally feel that if she had touched on some of the open source software packages available like CDS/ISIS, Greenstone, GenISIS, DSpace, etc, the book would have got its completeness.
The book was purely from an implementation perspective with a practical and pragmatic approach, and hence it will be very useful to the librarians working with such documents. It will prove a key addition to any serious librarian's reference collection also. The author has done an in‐depth research in the area. Besides the Librarians in the field, I am sure the book will be handy for the administrators in various national information depositories to develop a model for their country.
