Books in Brief

Edited by Rick Docksai

Living Libraries

The Atlas of New Librarianship by R. David Lankes. MIT Press. 2011. 408 pages. Illustrated. $55.

A library in this century will be valuable not so much for its book collections as for its community space, argues library information sciences professor R. David Lankes in The Atlas of New Librarianship. He describes a new ethos of “participatory” librarianship taking hold in the profession: Librarians as dynamic facilitators of conversation and knowledge creation in their communities.

Lankes cites one survey in which a majority of teenagers said they wanted their local librarians to run blogs that would review and recommend books, with space for readers to comment. This would enable them not only to see book recommendations, but also to know who was recommending them.

Although librarians aren’t blogging en masse just yet, some are hosting faculty blogs and servers through which users can explore academics’ articles. Also, many are quickly adopting social-networking sites, such as Flickr and Facebook. Lankes further describes how library catalog systems are becoming more user-friendly; they may reach the point where, as with iPhones, users can tailor them for personal use by adding or removing custom apps.

Some libraries construct live social space, such as a café or a music performance center that has a stage with pianos on which musicians can practice. Lankes also discusses how libraries can encourage aspiring local entrepreneurs and cultivate civic awareness among their neighborhoods’ elementary- and secondary-school students.

Lankes wrote The Atlas of New Librarianship with librarians and scholars in mind, but the text covers such a vast array of pertinent subjects that almost any reader—parent, community leader, business professional, student, job seeker, etc.—may find a few topics of personal interest.

Neighborhood-Based Futuring

Collective Visioning: How Groups Can Work Together for a Just and Sustainable Future by Linda Stout. Berrett-Koehler. 2011. 198 pages. Paperback. $17.95.

You don’t have to be a prolific speaker, brilliant writer, or gifted organizational leader to bring about change in your community, says nonprofit director Linda Stout in Collective Visioning. What you need, in her view, is a collective vision around which you can rally people to work together to achieve.

Stout’s principle is “collective visioning,” and it means focusing on an ideal of what you want your community to be, rather than on the particular problem that you want to solve. She shares stories of organizations, faith groups, and circles of neighbors and friends who successfully applied collective visioning. For example, residents of a low-income community in Louisiana prevailed on the state’s legislature to close down a juvenile prison that had been abusing its inmates, and then convert the property into a community college.

In another case, after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, a group of students in a dilapidated school in New Orleans took charge to plan repairs of its classrooms and buildings. They also implemented brand-new garden plots, outdoor meeting spaces, and energy-efficient architectural designs.

Stout guides readers on how they, too, can carry out collective visioning in their own communities. She explains how one would bring together a diverse group of people and get them to interact in an atmosphere of equality and acceptance; then, through session exercises and activities such as storytelling, he or she would inspire them, break down barriers of mistrust, and make sure that everyone is sufficiently heard.

Collective Visioning is a powerful depiction of the positive impacts a motivated group of people can have on their community. Community activists and all who want to improve their neighborhoods’ quality of life may find in it both inspiring examples and useful tips.

Arctic Ice in the Hot Seat

The Fate of Greenland: Lessons from Abrupt Climate Change by Philip Conkling, Richard Alley, Wallace Broecker, and George Denton. Photographs by Gary Comer. MIT Press. 2011. 216 pages. Illustrated. $29.95.

As Greenland’s climate goes, so may go the climate of the rest of the world, according to conservationist Philip Conkling, glaciologist Richard Alley, oceanographer Wallace Broecker, and geologist George Denton. In a firsthand account richly illustrated with dozens of photographs of Greenland’s landscapes and glaciers, they explain how researchers’ findings about the land mass’s geological past and present raise grave concerns about its future—and ours.

Researchers agree that Greenland experienced several major climate shifts in its past, and each one precipitated weather changes and sea-level rise across the globe. Greenland seems to be on the verge of yet another major shift due to warming trends that melt gradually larger and larger quantities of its ice sheet. The world cannot afford not to pay attention.

Uncertainty lingers over exactly how much warming will take place. Some amount is inevitable, however, and it will surely be higher if humans persist with business as usual, the authors warn. As small amounts of ice continue to disappear from the ice sheet’s edges, the center will lower and warm up. Eventually, warming will imperil all of the remaining ice. The full process would take place over the next few centuries, but coastal cities everywhere could be in jeopardy from flash floods within the next few decades. Meanwhile, the changing climate would inflict desertification and storm patterns that wreck economies and food supplies on every continent.

The Fate of Greenland beautifully presents the challenges of forecasting climate change and the care that researchers must put into getting it right. It also compellingly explains the serious harms that humanity stands to suffer if it mistakes forecasters’ uncertainty for an excuse to take no action on greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists and non-scientists from all walks of life will find this an eloquent and timely read.

Forward-Thinking Classrooms

The New Digital Shoreline: How Web 2.0 and Millennials Are Revolutionizing Higher Education by Roger McHaney. Stylus. 2011. 247 pages. Paperback. $29.95.

Web 2.0 is second nature to millennial-generation students, but it baffles many educators, notes management information systems professor Roger McHaney. He has good news for the grownups: If they learn to understand Web 2.0 and incorporate it into their classroom practices, they will stay relevant and their students will stay engaged.

McHaney profiles many virtual learning software programs, educational Web sites, and mobile apps, and how teachers can use each. He also identifies larger market trends, such as printed textbooks’ replacement by wikibooks and e-books.

He further describes how digital media influence the millennials’ learning patterns—e.g., they are more inclined to collaboration with peers, creativity, and processing multiple streams of information. Over time, he speculates, schools will adapt by basing more course material on projects from previous classes of students and by expanding provisions of video editing software, recording facilities, and Internet interfaces. The most effective teachers, according to McHaney, will act less like instructors and more like facilitators, guiding the students as they take charge of their own learning experiences.

Also, mobile Web services will become components of classroom instruction. Students will consult search engines during class discussions and ask professors questions by texting them, while the professors podcast their own lectures for reuse by classrooms everywhere.

As McHaney makes clear, teachers have much to learn. But they have much to contribute, as well. Students need teachers’ help to separate valuable information from useless information, and to use digital technologies properly while avoiding the pitfalls of laziness, sloppy scholarship, and compliant thinking.

The New Digital Shoreline is a fascinating overview of where education is heading. Parents, teachers, and everyone else involved in learning would be well-advised to read this book.

New U.S. Leadership for a New World

The Next Decade: Where We’ve Been … and Where We’re Going by George Friedman. Doubleday. 2011. 243 pages. $27.95.

This century will challenge U.S. leaders to exercise wider foreign-policy vision than ever before, according to George Friedman, founder and CEO of geopolitical intelligence firm STRATFOR, in The Next Decade.

The United States has traditionally considered certain countries more strategically key than others, but in this century practically every country on earth will matter, Friedman argues. Leaders will need to develop a balanced global strategy that is not singularly focused on combating terrorism, but on myriad issues taking place on all corners of the globe.

Friedman sees major shakeups ahead in U.S. foreign policy. For example, the United States will distance itself from Israel and strive to accommodate Iran; it will also attach far more importance to several countries now regarded as only somewhat important, such as Poland and Singapore.

Across the globe, alliances will shift, Friedman predicts. Germany will build closer economic ties with Russia, while Turkey and the Arab states increasingly eye Iran as a competitor and adversary. Europe will struggle with internal economic rivalries and fade as a global power center. Brazil might become a formidable economic and military influence in Africa.

As Friedman assesses each global region, he details how it will affect U.S. national interests and how leaders should respond. In general, he advises pragmatic policy focused on cultivating balances of power within each region, rather than building democracy or preserving historic alliances.

Friedman displays fresh thinking on many of the oldest, most complex diplomatic problems facing the United States and its allies. Foreign-policy enthusiasts may not all agree with every argument he presents in The Next Decade, but they will surely admire its depth of research and clarity of voice.