New! The Whole Digital Library Handbook

In announcing the publication of The Whole Digital Library Handbook, I thought I’d look at the project file for the original edition of its inspiration, The Whole Library Handbook, now in version 4. In the earliest filed memo from March 1989, Art Plotnik describes his concept to the Director of Publishing as an almanac of the “latest general library-related information in concise form.” In Fall 1990, the project got underway with the title “The Whole Library Handbook,” and with George Eberhart as compiler. Plotnik described WLH as his pet project. Over multiple editions executing the concept, Eberhart has made it his own. He worked behind the scenes for The Whole School Library Handbook, and for The Whole Digital Library Handbook, I asked him to take the formal role of series editor.

The Whole Digital Library Handbook is a co-publishing project with the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), and the idea for it came from my desire to work with that organization. I appreciated the quality of content and was thinking about ways we might work together to bring it to a broader audience. Kathlin Smith helped move the idea along at CLIR, and Nancy Davenport, then president of CLIR, recruited Diane Kresh to be the editor and compiler. While getting the ball rolling, I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea. Could digital library even be defined? Does it mean one thing to computer scientists, something else to librarians? Where would you draw the line? I remember raising these questions with Diane and gaining confidence that she was ready to take the concept and run with it. Flipping through the table of contents now, I see that the entire first chapter is “Definitions,” and the first piece, an excerpt of the Wikipedia entry for Digital Library. Not that we are blind publishers of the hive mind. Also weighing in the chapter are Christine Borgman, Donald J. Waters, Abby Smith, Richard De Gennaro, Joseph Janes, Alex Wright, Deanna B. Marcum, Karin Wittenborg, Lorrie Lejeune, Anne G. Lipow, Roy Rosenzweig, Scott Carlson, Chris D. Ferguson, and Charles A. Bunge. See the full table of contents here.