Column Editor:  Corey Seeman  (Director, Kresge Library Services, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan)  

Visit him at https://www.squirreldude.com/

Against the Grain V37#3

Column Editor’s Note:  Last month, I was able to attend a global meeting in Vienna, Austria of academic business library directors.  My colleagues came from Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America and South Africa.  It was a wonderful conference where we shared what was happening in our worlds and what was happening in theirs.  The business library directors hold these meetings every four or five years.  Vienna was supposed to be the destination in 2020 … but honestly, I have no idea what happened that year.  It seems like a lifetime ago.

The meeting was hosted by Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) with a relatively new and absolutely stunning campus and a beautiful library.  Actually, one of the best things to do when going to a conference is the ability to visit another campus and enjoy their campus pets.  While the Vienna University of Economics and Business did not have campus squirrels, it was next to The Prater, a great public park in Vienna.  With a five AM sunrise, getting up and out for an hour in the morning before the day started was just what I needed.  It helped me clear my head, enjoy the surroundings and get some squirrel pictures.  Any walk can be a safari if you have the right attitude!

One of the things that is really enjoyable about going to different schools for conferences is that you get to see what type of setup they have in their shop.  And while some libraries can be stunning and some can be modest, both can share collection items.  Seeing a familiar book on the shelf is always a welcome sign — especially to a librarian.  

These books on our shelves and in our databases enable us to support the educational mission of our students, our faculty and our communities.  And since not every student body is the same, not every collection should be as such.  So every review that we publish here, we try to share what is special, or not, about the work.  It will be up to you if it deserves a spot on the virtual or real space on your shelves. 

Special thanks to our reviewers who take the time to explore these works to see if they are appropriate for libraries.  Special thanks to my reviewers for this issue:  Margaret Dawson (Texas A&M-Central Texas), Victoria Eastes (Texas A&M-Central Texas), and Michelle Polchow (University of California, Davis).  As always, I want to thank them for bringing this column together.  

If you would like to be a reviewer for Against the Grain, please write me at <cseeman@umich.edu>.  If you are a publisher and have a book you would like to see reviewed in a future column, please also write me directly.  You can also find out more about the Reader’s Roundup here — https://www.squirreldude.com/atg-readers-roundup.

Happy reading and be nutty! — Corey

Chancellor, Renate.  Breaking Glass Ceilings: Clara Stanton Jones and the Detroit Public Library.  Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2024.  978-1-5381-5701-5 (print), 130 pages.  $90.00.

Reviewed by Michelle Polchow  (Unit Head, Electronic Resources Management, University of California, Davis) 

Looking for a good book to promote dialogue and build community by encouraging diverse members of a campus or book club to read together?  Breaking Glass Ceilings: Clara Stanton Jones and the Detroit Public Library has all the elements to inspire readers with a compelling heroine, engagement in controversial topics, and a story that wrestles with the paradox of individual conscience versus social justice.  This biography about a midwestern African American woman appointed as Director of the Detroit Public Library in 1944, chronicles not only her legacy, but how she used her leadership to advocate for racism and sexism awareness, eventually rising to achieve national influence. 

Author Renate Chancellor excels at writing books that explore historical lives, events, and trends.  She provides a deeper understanding of the current world and illuminates present-day issues by conferring greater perspective.  Her first book, E.J. Josey: Transformational Leader of the Modern Library Profession (2020), examined the life and career of African American librarian, educator, and activist during mid-century America.  Shortly after this book’s release, the United States witnessed the George Floyd protests, and a worldwide debate evolved concerning police brutality and systematic racism that overwhelmingly effects the Black community.  Although Josey, who lived from 1924-2009, left a legacy as a transformative leader of his time, many of the same barriers he faced then still echo in today’s Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.  Now with Chancellor’s most recent work, in similar happenstance, it discusses the intersectionality of Black Feminist Theory and Critical Race Theory (CRT), highlighting Jones’ unwavering advocacy for both racial and gender equality which she began eighty-years ago.  Publication coincides with a United States political climate giving rise to prohibition of CRT teachings in the classroom, widespread library book bannings often aimed at titles authored by Black writers documenting the Black experience, together with the rollback of Roe vs. Wade reversing a woman’s constitutional right to make her own health care choices.  Chancellor’s newest book is again a timely recommended read.  [Editor’s Note:  This review was received in January 2025 – things have definitely gotten worse for people who wish to explore and share viewpoints on the cultural experience of minority communities in the United States.]

“While the nation has undoubtedly made progress,” says Chancellor, “entrenched structural racism continues to corrupt American democracy and preserve racial inequality.”  Underlying the book’s account of Jones’ life and career is a prevailing message that reflects on how racism and sexism persist in today’s America.  This is a short but powerful read that calls into question the current United States governmental conversations about banning ideas and deflecting conversations about structural inequality around race and gender.  Historical evidence points to this as an unlikely path to building understanding and solidarity between people.  Given this work is under one hundred pages, and should the publisher be amenable to a quantity discount, it is ideal for a book club, common read, classroom material, or academic diversity, equity, and inclusion programming material, as it conveys an important narrative well beyond the library profession. 

ATG Reviewer Rating:  I need this in my library.  (I want to be able to get up from my desk and grab this book off the shelf, if it’s not checked out.)

Evans, Robert, ed.  Critical Insights: The Lord of the Rings.  Amenia, New York: Salem Press / Grey House Publishing, 2022.  9781637000717, 324 pages.  $105.00.

Reviewed by Margaret Dawson, MLS, MA  (Co-Head of Public Services, Texas A&M University-Central Texas, Killeen) 

This volume follows the general format of the others in the “Critical Insights” series, with sections comprising of an introductory essay, and “Critical Contexts” and “Critical Readings” that are the bulk of the volume.  The “Critical Readings” section is the largest with twelve essays on Tolkien and his writing of Lord of the Rings.  The “Resources” section contains bibliographies, a chronology of Tolkien’s work and a brief biography and a comprehensive index.  The volume consists of both scholarly articles and essays dealing with wide-ranging issues and perspectives on Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. 

The introductory essay and the “Critical Contexts” section serve as a bit of introduction to the world of Tolkien and his work.  In the introductory essay, Franco Manni, an Italian philosophy professor, gives an international view of Tolkien.  Manni’s passion about Tolkien is obvious as he writes about the factors that he believes are the reasons for the author’s international and widespread popularity.  Robert Evans, the editor of the volume, follows the introductory essay with a short biography of Tolkien and covers the main points of his life and work.  Evans also includes other biographies on Tolkien that the reader could reference as a source.

The second section of “Critical Contexts” is comprised of four articles that examine its historical and critical reception, teaching approaches, and some comparisons between The Lord of the Rings to other popular books turned into a movie, such as The Wizard of Oz.  Nancy Bunting writes the first article in the section and she examines historical and biographical sources of the work.  The second article by Brandon Schneeberger, discusses teaching approaches to Tolkien.  He does not give his own teaching techniques but does a good job in giving a summary of Approaches to Teaching Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” and Other Works, edited by Leslie A. Donovan.  Donovan’s work was published in 2015 and has been well received by critics.  Schneeberger’s article would be useful to someone who was interested in Donovan’s work but wanted a summary of it before reading it.  John R. Holmes article on Boromir follows as he does a close reading on one of the pivotal scenes of the book.  The final article in this section, Robert Evans, the volume’s editor, does a comparative appraisal of the two films.  He also shows how Fleming influenced Jackson’s movie.  Evans does not, however, cite Peter Jackson as evidence of this influence.  Evans also has some inaccuracies when comparing Tolkien’s work to Jackson’s movie.

The “Critical Readings” section is the longest with twelve articles and offers diverse approaches to the work.  The articles cover Tolkien scholarship, Peter Jackson’s films, Tolkien’s poetry and religious influences on Tolkien and his work.  The religious and spiritual discussions range from his Catholic influences to Celtic mythology.  The final group of the section has articles dealing with race and ethnicity in terms of Tolkien’s work.  In the first article, the volume’s editor gives a summary and review of two earlier essay collections on Tolkien.  Evans gives a comprehensive overview of the works but does not give the reader a discussion of how these works have influenced the current Tolkien scholarship.  Overall, the twelve essays give a diverse and varied discussion of The Lord of the Rings.  The volume would be best suited to those who are just starting their exploration of Tolkien and could be useful to students.  The final “Resources” section has a very valuable index of the names, places, and characters that are discussed in the book which is helpful due to the considerable number of all of them present in Tolkien’s work.

ATG Reviewer Rating:  I need this available somewhere in my shared network.  (I probably do not need this book, but it would be nice to get it within three to five days via my network catalog.)

Evans, Robert, ed.  Critical Insights: Sense and Sensibility.  Amenia, New York: Salem Press/Grey House Publishing, 2023.  9781637004388, 400 pages.  $105.00

Reviewed by Margaret Dawson, MLS, MA  (Co-Head of Public Services, Texas A&M University-Central Texas, Killeen) 

The “Critical Insights” books follow the same pattern within this book series of being divided into sections, with an introductory essay, a biography of the author, a “Critical Contexts” section with four essays and then eleven essays in the “Critical Readings” section.  The section on “Resources” follows with a chronological listing of the author’s life along with a complete listing of the works and a secondary bibliography.  The books in this series end with a biography of the editor, the contributors, and an index.  This volume examines Jane Austen’s work, Sense and Sensibility from a variety of approaches, both in literature and in film.

Collins Hemingway discusses Austen’s life and career with an emphasis on Sense and Sensibility in the introductory essay.  Hemingway investigates the novel in terms of its current and past reception, along with cultural contexts and its characters and plotlines.  He ends his essay with contemplating why so many people still read Austen after all of these years.  His conclusion is that she made her characters people that others want to read about, as these characters have lives that they can recognize and deal with problems that they can also be dealing with today, especially women.  The introductory essay is followed by a brief overview of Austen’s life.

The “Critical Contexts” section has four essays with each one having a distinct focus on the work.  The first deals with the historical context of the novel as it examines the position of women in the Romantic era.  The authors, Joyce Kelly and McKenna Odom, praise Austen for her observation skills and how her novels show the gender norms of the time.  They also think Austen is a Romantic feminist who created strong women whose experiences show the inequalities of society and how the women must deal with these inequalities to survive in their world.  The second essay offers a thorough overview of literary criticism since the year 2011 on the novel.  Joyce Ahn covers a wide range of essays that discuss the work from a variety of perspectives and with many theories, from feminist to philosophical.  Ahn concluded that readers and critical theorists can find many different truths in the novel, depending on their own point of reference.  The third essay deals with the novel’s concerns with money, envy and status.  Wong discusses how the entire novel deals with the concepts and both the plot and characters revolve around it.  The final essay features the examination of one scene from two of the renowned film adaptations, the 1995 and the 2008 films.  The critical scene of Edward and the two women who want to marry him, Elinor and Lucy Steele are in the same room and then Marianne enters the room to further complicate matters.  Bailey discusses how the directors and actors portray the characters and how effective they are in realizing Austen’s words.

The “Critical Readings” section contains eleven essays which are mainly dealing with two aspects of the novel, the language of the novel and the film, television and play versions.  Robert Evans, the editor of the book, examines how the words sense and sensibility were used in Austen’s time.  The final essay explores the Spanish language reception of the novel.  Cinthia Garcia Soria discusses how the Spanish language version did not get published until 1942, due to the popularity of the film version of Pride and Prejudice. 

The “Resources” section concludes the volume and has a chronology of Austen’s life, her bibliography and also a secondary bibliography addressing books about Austen.  A detailed and comprehensive index is the last section.

ATG Reviewer Rating:  I need this in my library.  (I want to be able to get up from my desk and grab this book off the shelf, if it’s not checked out.)

Franks, Patricia C.  (editor).  The Handbook of Archival Practice.  New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield, 2024.  9781538192221.  512 pages.  $49.00 (paperback) or $105.00 (hardback)

Reviewed by: Victoria Eastes  (University Archivist, University Library and Archives, Texas A&M University-Central Texas) 

Members of many professions often wish they had access to a comprehensive guidebook that might provide answers to their questions and ideas on how to proceed for a multitude of issues.  For archivists who find themselves increasingly tasked with managing hybrid collections of mixed materials, resources that provide useful descriptions in plain language, with clear examples, and written in a way that encourages action are rare.  

This is why editor Patricia C. Franks’ The Handbook of Archival Practice provides a useful guide aimed at archival practitioners of all levels (from student interns to senior level professionals).  A Certified Archivist and Certified Records Manager, as well as co-author and manager of multiple publications and white papers about archival and records management, Franks created this work in an attempt to meet the immediate information needs of working archival professionals.  In a way, she has accomplished this with a lengthy guide (512 pages) covering 111 entries of terms chosen by an advisory board of archival professionals from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and written by 105 authors.  The terms are arranged into ten categories (such as Appraisal and Acquisition, Digital Preservation, and User Services), followed by a useful appendix of example documents, lists of standard terms, and various templates and checklists provided for fair use by the reader as needed.

I have already added this handbook to our reading room’s ready reference selection as I believe it will fit as a beneficial resource for not only me, but the various students, interns, and volunteers who join me in the archives.  The practical explanations and guidance of Section Two, on “Records Creation and Recordkeeping Systems,” is particularly helpful to me as I work with our university’s records management department to develop a system for the interdepartmental transfer of records marked for the archives in our university’s records retention schedule.  Being able to identify the seven factors of “Critical Records” provides a list of criteria to pass along to stakeholders; learning about the importance of “Enterprise Content Management” for digital content will help me argue for a better management system for the archives; and the information provided in “Records Management Program Design” will help me put ideas to paper when choosing that management system. 

With enough positives to make this book what I would consider a useful and easily accessible addition to a library’s collection, the negatives lie possibly not in what topics are covered but rather in which topics are omitted.  With so many archival and records professionals involved in the creation, planning, and execution of this book (including Franks herself), I was surprised to find no section on professional development, writing and publishing, or even networking opportunities.  These may have fallen outside the original scope of ideas, but if the intention was to create a useful handbook for archival professionals of every type and career stage, I would think that the collective wisdom that could have developed in this area would prove useful information to pass along. 

Overall, the time and effort that went into the creation of this work and the intention behind it is commendable and appreciated.  I consider the book a useful addition to any library’s collection and am happy to add it to our own.  I believe that the Handbook is a useful entry into the world of ready reference books geared towards archival practitioners of any level.  Its entries provide snapshots of information useful for archivists ranging from students or interns processing their first collections, to senior-level professionals unfamiliar with certain terms or in need of a refresher on others. 

ATG Reviewer Rating:  I need this in my library.  (I want to be able to get up from my desk and grab this book off the shelf, if it’s not checked out.)