Ideology and Libraries: California, Diplomacy, and Occupied Japan, 1945–1952 by Michael K. Buckland, with the assistance of Masaya Takayama
"Michael Buckland's new book is animated by the central question of "why different libraries do and should develop differently" (xi). He explores this topic through a wide ranging, erudite examination of the American and Japanese men and women who together, between 1945 and 1952, created a new form of Japanese librarianship."
Reviewed by Noah Lenstra
Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition, and History by Stephen Chrisomalis
"Numbers are everywhere in our world, both literally and figuratively, but how much attention do any of us pay to their form or origins? The answer, on the basis of this work, is likely not enough."
Reviewed by Stephen Chrisomalis
Artificial Whiteness: Politics and Ideology in Artificial Intelligence by Yarden Katz
"The recent proliferation of books, white papers, and think tank discussions on algorithmic bias, AI ethics, and AI for good might already be more than anyone can keep up with in one human lifetime. Yarden Katz's Artificial Whiteness: Politics and Ideology in Artificial Intelligence questions why there is all of a sudden so much talk about making AI ethical, fair, and good."
Reviewed by Gregory Laynor
Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge by Richard Ovenden
" "Deliberate" is the key word in the title Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge, by Richard Ovenden. Ovenden's premise is that over time, the destruction of knowledge has repeatedly and heartbreakingly been a deliberate act; therefore, its preservation must be an equally deliberate act."
Reviewed by Miriam Intrator
The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information by Craig Robertson
"Gripped by anxiety, I wrote to Information & Culture that I'd be delighted to review Craig Robertson's new book, The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information. Was this the book I'd hoped to write? A few pages into the preface, I was reassured by Robertson's experience of a number of people telling him that "the book I wanted to research—was researching, was writing, was revising for publication—had already been written. . . ."
Reviewed by James Lowry
Book Traces: Nineteenth-Century Readers and the Future of the Library by Andrew M. Stauffer
"Andrew Stauffer's Book Traces argues for the value that "traces"—the annotations, insertions, and inscriptions left behind in books in circulating libraries—add to our understanding of the roles that nineteenth-century volumes of poetry played in the lives of their original owners and readers."
Reviewed by Tracy Bonfitto
Ink under the Fingernails: Printing Politics in Nineteenth-Century Mexico by Corinna Zeltsman
"Throughout the long nineteenth century, Mexicans experienced a series of wars, military coups, foreign interventions, and a dictatorship that paved the way for violent revolution. Liberals and conservatives alike produced pages of political propaganda about these conflicts, all of which rolled off Mexico City presses in various printed forms."
Reviewed by Jason Dyck