Neil Jacobs and Lesly Huxley have put together a well‐edited publication that guides social sciences library and information (LIS) professionals through the radically changing landscape of their respective fields. The number of information resources has drastically increased, and information technology and the needs and preferences of information users are also showing remarkable changes. Against this background Jacobs, Huxley and their team of expert contributors, explore the richness of potentially useful social sciences information resources. It is done in the context of LIS professionals playing a crucial role in the marketing of their services and the development of users’ information literacy skills, as well as the need to gain an in‐depth understanding of the needs and behaviour of their diverse user communities.
Online Information Services in the Social Sciences is divided into three parts (25 chapters) starting with Part 1 on case studies. It is not quite clear what the difference is between Parts 2 and 3, both headed “Information issues”. (Perhaps this is a typographical oversight.)
The case studies in Part 1 cover the experiences of a trade union researcher, further education lecturer, a voluntary organization worker, an academic, an international student, The Cochrane Library, a legal perspective, educational usage of economics and management, and the international community. In the last chapter in Part 1 Huxley reflects on emerging themes of user practices and needs that impact on the development and delivery of social science information services. The case studies succeed in their intent to share experiences on what users do with regard to information resources and needs, why they do it, and why they act in a particular way.
The chapters in Part 2 reflect the “marriage” between practical advice and theory. It includes chapters on the effective management of online information services (including an interesting table on the different roles involved), selection of information resources (including a very good list of criteria for the scope policy), marketing of services, usability, making resources more accessible (including excellent checklists), the development of user skills (including an excellent taxonomy of information skills), subject classification, metadata and technology (very basic).
Part 3 includes chapters on social horizons, technological horizons and the changing role of the information professional in moving from needs to services. The last of these chapters includes a very interesting model of online information services that should actually be explored in more detail.
Although most of the chapters are brief, and one would perhaps like to see more detail, they are certainly very suitable for the target group, namely practitioners who would like to get down to business and who need to get a job done. The book concludes with a good list of web sites and references to the literature, as well as a reasonably good six‐page index.
Online Information Services in the Social Sciences is recommended to all LIS professionals who need to regain their enthusiasm to offer high quality services in the field and energy to adapt in a rapidly changing environment.
