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Libraries & the Cultural Record, Volume 43, Number 2, 2008, pp. 232-234
(Review)
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DOI: 10.1353/lac.0.0007

For additional information about this article

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/lac/summary/v043/43.2.jesson.html

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L&CR/Book Reviews

construed as skeptical, atheist, sexual, moral, aesthetic, political, and, evidently,

erudite. Since Boeuf does not directly broach this issue, she is unable to suggest
where on this spectrum Naud might be ranged, except by fleeting references to
the suggestive but cryptic label found in her subtitle. In a similar shortcoming,
Boeuf never situates Nauds place in the history of library science or discusses
what importance has been attributed to him. It appears that in both cases she has
generously assumed that researchers who come to this book will already know all
this, but the addition of a few explanatory paragraphs in order to situate Naud
more clearly for the less initiated would only have added to the work.
Yet it would be unjust to dwell on these minor shortcomings, for what she has
accomplished here is much more arduous and, in the long run, of far more use
to the many and varied researchers who will come to this finely produced book
as a resource.
Brett B. Bodemer, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Barbarians at the Gates of the Public Library: How Postmodern Consumer Capitalism Threatens Democracy, Civil Education, and the Public Good. By Ed DAngelo. Duluth, Minn.:
Library Juice Press, 2006. xiv, 127 pp. $18.00 (paper). ISBN 978-0-9778617-1-2.
Many readers of Ed DAngelos thought-provoking and very readable book,
Barbarians at the Gates of the Public Library, will come away with a newfound commitment to saving the ailing American public library. Some will disagree with the
books critiques of popular culture. And most will wish for more information from
this book, which asserts the public librarys fundamental importance to democracy
but discusses the institution surprisingly little, albeit while discussing many other
important and related issues: education, information technology, globalization,
free-market economics, and the division between high and low culture.
As his subtitle indicates, DAngelos target is postmodern consumer capitalism
together with the philosophy that Thomas Frank sees as its public-relations arm:
market populism (75). This philosophy proposes consumer choice as the new
agent of worldwide democracy, replacing the traditional governmental form that
is withering under the decentralizing forces of technological development and
globalization. Consumers can vote instantly with their wallets. DAngelo laments
that libraries have become influenced by this philosophy, catering to popular demands for entertainment and abandoning their role in promoting and facilitating
the rational debates necessary for a vital democracy.
This role is particularly important today, DAngelo writes. As we have entered
an information economy, the new citizen-consumers have been trapped in a
downward spiral: they opt for the instant gratification of mindless entertainment
or watch news programs produced by the entertainment conglomerates, both of
which reinforce consumerisms primacy. Given this vicious cycle, American society
needs an institution independent of this cycle that represents the public good.
America needs strong public libraries and, more specifically, qualified librarians. DAngelo argues that librarians appropriate function is as cultural
gatekeepers (5), trained to guide people to more edifying and enlightening
sources of information and to distinguish between good literature and bad

233
literature (2). Briefly sketching the history of public libraries, DAngelo recounts
the democratic impetus behind the earliest ones, driven by Enlightenment ideals
about each citizens fitness for democratic participation, given a proper education.
The force of capitalism, hostile to democracy in its postmodern phase, was not
always opposed to government-based democracy, DAngelo writes. Despite some
arguably antidemocratic attitudes among major nineteenth-century library giants
like Melvil Dewey (56) and Andrew Carnegie (67), the general philosophy in
the age of the robber barons supported the public good. In this context DAngelo
cites British philosopher John Stuart Mill, whose utilitarian thinking helped justify
public library funding through the idea that economic liberalism would succeed
only if citizens were educated to make rational choices that served their best
interestsand, by extension, the interests of society as a whole. DAngelo writes
that the capitalism of Mills time both presupposed certain moral values and
produced a public good which transcended private economic interests. Educational institutions such as libraries were expected to instill these moral values in
the public and thereby promote liberal capitalist democracy (16). Around World
War II American libraries moved closer to an active promotion of democracy with
two national reports from the American Library Association emphasizing the importance of democracy and enlightened citizenship (8) in the public librarys
mission. The latter half of the twentieth century, however, saw a movement away
from these national standards and toward a localization of practices that have left
libraries without a coherent mission to adhere to in resisting market populism.
As one may notice from his admiration of Mills ethical liberalism, DAngelo is
not the stereotypical leftist that a first glance at his book might suggest. Indeed,
instead of citing an antiglobalization activist like Naomi Klein or a theorist like
Saskia Sassen, DAngelo bases much of his argument on classical philosophers.
DAngelo received a doctorate in philosophy, and he is at his best when arguing
the merits of democracy and public education based on the teachings and writings
of Socrates, Mill, Hobbes, and other philosophers, which he summarizes concisely
and clearly.
DAngelos evidential support becomes less satisfying when he writes about
more timely concerns. He depends, for example, largely on Franks One Market
under God for his discussion of postmodern consumerism and almost exclusively
on James B. Twitchells Carnival Culture: The Trashing of Taste in America for trends
in attitudes toward mass culture.1 As a result, DAngelo often seems to reproduce
these authors arguments without critique or synthesis. This is especially problematic in his citations of Twitchell to decry American societys devaluing of high
culture. DAngelos contention that libraries should actively promote the good
literature over the bad is a welcome one, and his willingness to blame academicsspecifically those in cultural studiesfor helping to discredit hierarchies of
taste introduces an important debate. Unfortunately, DAngelo does not delve
deeply enough into these highly controversial waters, neglecting to address opposing arguments raised by postcolonial and feminist theorists, among others, who
have questioned the high/low cultural divide. The books discussion of libraries
also could have benefited from more research. When demonstrating postmodern
consumer capitalisms damaging impact upon libraries, DAngelo presents little
evidence beyond the anecdotal. DAngelo, a supervising librarian at a Bensonhurst
branch library in Brooklyn, New York, since 2003, has likely seen some of the damage firsthand. But no statistical evidence supports his claims that staff training in

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L&CR/Book Reviews

collections development has decreased in the face of a greater emphasis on customer

service or that this shift in training has changed the nature of libraries holdings.
Barbarians at the Gates of the Public Library is, nonetheless, a stimulating call to
action, and DAngelo concludes by quoting a clear plan (proposed by Brooklyn
Public Library director Martin Gomez) for improving library staff education by
expanding undergraduate programs in library science (122). DAngelos readable,
sweeping coverage of library history, economic theory, and political philosophy
provides an informative start for readers interested in or concerned about the
public librarys role in our rapidly changing culture. Many of these readers will
want to dig deeper after reading this book. DAngelos bibliography provides a
starting point. Beyond that, the curious can consult (one would hope) their local
librarians.
James Jesson, University of Texas at Austin

Note
1. Thomas Frank, One Market under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism,
and the End of Economic Democracy (New York: Doubleday, 2000); James B.
Twitchell, Carnival Culture: The Trashing of Taste in America (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1992).

Library Juice Concentrate. Edited by Rory Litwin. Duluth, Minn.: Library Juice Press,
2006. xix, 238 pp. $25.00 (paper). ISBN 978-0-9778617-3-6.
Rory Litwins Library Juice Concentrate embodies the contradictions inherent in
the current tension between paper and digital materials in libraries. The essays
included in this book were all written for and originally published on Litwins Library Juice webzine from 1998 to 2005; thus this work turns born digital materials
into book form. Litwin, like his book, is a bit of a hybrid. He is a self-confessed
bridge between the two generational cultures in librarianship, specifically, the
baby boom generation, of which he is a member, perceived as more traditional
in their librarianship, and what he calls the younger, web-centric generation of
librarians, presumably Generations X and Y, with whom he seems to identify
politically (71). The book, and the zine that preceded it, are openly and unabashedly from a left-wing perspective. The first line of his Library Juice Manifesto
states: Libraries are special because they are at once communitarian, libertarian,
and models for sustainability (3). Much of Litwins writing is predicated upon a
call to social action, which he posits is intrinsic to the profession (or should be).
This philosophy permeates his essays in the book.
The sheer breadth of topics treated in Library Juice Concentrate is a testament to its
former life as a webzine and its current incarnation as a blog. Litwin examines the
rapidly disappearing alternative press; anarchist librarianship, including an interview
with Jessamyn West; Library 2.0 and differing perceptions of what is truly private;
Mitch Freedmans Better Salaries Initiative; the web-centric techie revolution; and
the Ontology of the Bo-ring while simultaneously arguing that it is important to
not discard knowledge in favor of information just because it is possible to do so.