S. David Mash. Decision-Making in the Absence of Certainty: A Study in the Context of Technology and the Construction of the 21st Century Academic Library. Chicago: ACRL (ACRL Publications in Librarianship, no. 63), 2010. 160p. alk. paper, $38 (ISBN 9780838985717). LC2010-049544

Compiled by three academic librarians, Digital Collections Worldwide provides an exhaustive and valuable annotated listing of the world's most authoritative and comprehensive digital collections. The authors describe over 1,400 digital collections and include an extensive subject index. The Internet is full of digital collections that allow users to easily access information quickly, but it can be challenging and time consuming to sift through multiple links generated by a search engine such as Google. Digital Collections Worldwide is designed to help the user identify which digital collections are best for their needs. The authors accomplish this by organizing the book in a logical and succinct way. For example, the directory only includes digital collections from the following established organizations: governmental body, library, archives , educational institution, museum, corporation, or a scholar's personal Web site. In addition, the book will never be outdated because the authors maintain a companion Web site that updates broken links and incorporates new collections. The book is organized into eight chapters , each accompanied by annotations. These annotations provide information regarding what has been digitized (including photographs, documents, maps, illustrations, artifacts, audiovisual items, and so on), as well as the name of the host institution and its most current URL for the collection. The purpose of each annotation is to document why a collection is online, what the collection includes, who is responsible for the collection (both the physical and digital), and tips on the best way to explore the collection online. The annotations also include excellent information about topics such as copyright. One of the more valuable aspects of this directory is that non-English sites are included. The authors carefully selected foreign language sites that include digital collections that are easy to translate using one of the many free online translating resources, and they state in the annotations if there are any language restrictions for collections. Chapter 1, " World Initiatives, " introduces the audience to collections on Web sites that represent broad subjects and geographical contexts that encompass the entire globe or multiple countries. The remaining seven chapters are arranged alphabetically by the seven continents and, within each chapter, alphabetically by country. Each chapter helpfully includes an introduction to the continent by providing useful facts and figures, as well as information about digitization practices and available technology resources. Even though the primary audience for Digital Collections Worldwide is skilled researchers, a layperson can benefit from …