The book's contributions to the information professional's baggage of knowledge is presented in an agreeable manner and shows a complete compilation of detailed information. The book presents itself as dealing with images without taking advantage of images at all to present a subject of great import to the modern profession. Editing constraints are given as worthy of consideration for the exclusion of a few images to exemplify concepts such as image size, compression issues, image formats, etc. A somewhat disruptive and inadequate treatment of a particular type of information is evident in the paragraph on page 50, which calculates image size. A simple double‐entry table would catch the eye and attention (for images' sake) as those calculations would be clearly appreciated. Ironically, the last paragraph in the Image Size section starts with the phrase: “It is easy to see … ”. Actually, it is not “easy to see”. One has to go through the paragraph and build his own table, to better visualize the key information. No pretensions to appeal to sarcasm here, though. The comment aims to illustrate the value of images for clarification and decision‐making, both aspects of utmost import to information professionals.
In this sense, it should be mentioned that in dealing with the general digital images subject, some kind of help from images is clearly needed. Another example of this is the discussion of the various scales for resolutions of images on monitors and printers on page 41.
A further critique of the book in this peculiar aspect of excluding images is the lack of illustration when histograms are referred to in the text. The clear importance of these tools for images calls for a brief but clear explanation of its usefulness and desirably its use. The book should also state clearly that it does not cover moving images at all.
On the other hand the historical aspects of the various developments dealing with images and image processing are treated in detail and do not distract from the main subject as they bear deep into the arguments of presentation for the various aspects of the profession.
We may ask how this book's contents impacts on the profession, that is the information professionals. Given that the profession is still under acute scrutiny as to its various fields of endeavor one may quickly find himself inside a maze when considering the differing ideas about the profession and might end‐up confused (please, refer to discussions list on information science versus librarianship). This is particularly true in reference to the main subject of this book: images and professionals. As a methodology I choose to start leafing through the titles of recent journal articles on images/digital images and related subjects as they appear published in journals such as JASIST, Information Processing & Management, and other journals. This exercise led me to propose the reader to narrow the problem at hand to the following four general areas in which images deal directly with central concerns of the information professionals. These are, in my opinion:
- 1.
The history and development of the image and image processing as a typical problem of libraries, museums, and archives.
- 2.
Theory and practice of storage, processing, preservation, standards, and tools.
- 3.
Retrieval theory and practice as applied to images and use of images.
- 4.
Typical management problems such as equipment, training, economics, and planning.
Another way of characterizing the contents of this book is to think of it as a source for additional information not rendered in the text itself. In this sense, I would certainly agree with the author that to try to cover all aspects in every detail would probably mean that it is necessary to have a 600‐page book. Even at the expense of having to refer to a source outside of the text to find a specific piece of information, the book displays an immense amount of well‐ordered and balanced information.
Most interestingly presented is the focus in chapters 5 and 6 dealing with a breath of issues which impact all of us being end‐users or professionals (intermediaries in any place of the chain) of this all embracing activities for a society with an apparently increasing awareness of the impact images have on our daily lives.
Institutional and personal initiatives dedicated to digital collecting of images take a big part in the book, detailing examples which constitute the backbone of this activity, detailing motivations, issues that have to do with sharing and transmitting files and metadata related to images. There is in the book an excellent choice of examples to illustrate issues which appear as of yet under discussion and close scrutiny by the professionals.
The chapter on personal image collections goes deep into the enormous world of the lives of people whose picture heritage has become highly valued by themselves and society in general. Several initiatives are adequately discussed and the author even explores rather controversial issues such as questioning that the “voices of librarians, archivists, curators and historians” appear to be absent or distant from the problems of digitization. This book presents itself as a source to narrow the gap referred to by the author.
Chapter 7 on image metadata contains issues central to the concern of professionals related to how images are used, accessed, preserved. Networks permeate all information related activities. Dealing with images in this context is the most pressing challenge today. This chapter is treated with great precision and detail.
And the last chapter dealing with subjects such as image quality, copyright concepts, standards, sustainability of collections and a competitive industry in the face of pressing market forces pushed forward by technological developments is presented as the lace in a nicely wrapped gift. New challenges, which go into philosophical, still unanswered questions on truth of images touch on legal, aesthetic, and ethical problems, which build up tensions in the profession.
The bibliography listed at the back of the book is perhaps the best compilation lately achieved on this subject for information professionals. The Further Reading portion at the end of each chapter is an excellent recourse as it focuses on specifically pertinent sources for the subject therein dealt with.
Finally, even when the economic aspects of digital images are referred to in general and indirectly, it would have been nice to add a few pages specifically devoted to cost and related matters. The book addresses how the photo industry moves millions of dollars. Some sense of employment opportunities and general costs on training and business development is needed. This is critical since information professionals should now require general concepts on costs for planning and development.
In all, going back to the four aspects I chose to write this review, historical and background issues have excellent presence in the book. Theoretical and practices aspects of image processing, storing, preserving and standards show a complete and rich presentation useful to day‐to‐day work. Further technical aspects of histograms would have brought a stronger sense of completeness for chapters 3 and 4. Retrieval issues are complete and give practical orientation to professionals. General concepts on costs and training should have received a little more attention. I recommend this book to my colleagues: it is rich in content and provides a pleasant reading experience.
