Catalogue 2.0: A Book Review

Late last year, the review editor for the German library publication BuB Forum Bibliothek und Information asked me to review the book Catalogue 2.0: The Future of the Library Catalogue (n.b.- I serve on BuB‘s editorial board as the lone non-European). Typically, when I write for German publication, I write directly in German, which kind editors then slightly polish to remove some of my infidelities. This time, it seemed to make more sense to review a book written in English in English, my thought being that I could then post the English original for anyone interested. It took me a while to remember this, but I’ve finally managed to do that. Feel free to download and distribute this review (CC-BY, as noted on the PDF).

An interesting sidenote: this work was published by ALA Neal-Schuman. I wrote to them to request a review copy, noting that the review had been solicited by BuB, which is Germany’s largest circulation library publication. Not only did they not provide a review copy, they didn’t even deign to respond to the request. Despite that–and the book’s $90 price tag, which seems excessive–I’ve linked to their store above because it’s a really excellent volume that should be widely read.