Thomas A. Peters. Library Programs Online: Possibilities and Practicalities of Web Conferencing. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Libraries Unlimited, 2009. 159p. alk. paper, $40 (ISBN 9781591583493). LC2009-027036

works on French publishing history. He has also served as a trustee of the New York Public library and, early in his career, as a reporter for The New York Times. As a scholar, author, and reporter, Darnton brought an impressive, well-rounded understanding of traditional print publishing to the negotiating table with Google. Given this intimate personal and professional history with what he calls " e-books and old books, " Darnton brings interesting insights to this discussion of the role of print and electronic media in the present and future. " Far from deploring electronic modes of communication, " he states that his goal is to " explore the possibilities of aligning them with the power that Johannes Gutenberg unleashed more than five centuries ago. What common ground exists between old books and e-books? What mutual advantages link libraries with the Internet? " Darnton's grappling with these questions is the subject of this lively and highly readable collection. As the subtitle suggests, the book is divided into three sections: Past, Present, and Future, containing a total of eleven essays. It's really a compact anthology of Darnton's thoughts on the modern state of the codex, as all the essays were previously published between 1999 and 2009, mostly in the New York Review of Books and the Chronicle of Higher Education. The content has been revised and edited for this volume. Darnton covers a range of topics. He provides an overview of the " information landscape, " drawing on his background as a journalist and researcher to place the creation and " stability " of information into historic context. He discusses the significant merits and shortcomings of Google's book digitization project and discusses the role of the library in the electronic information age. He writes about other electronic publishing efforts, particularly the American Historical Association's Gutenberg-e project and the role of the monograph in the tenure process. In one essay, he takes on Nicholson Baker's controversial Double Fold, addressing each of Baker's main points, noting that Baker's text " should be read as a journalistic jeremiad rather than a balanced account of library history over the last fifty years. " Other essays address the importance of descriptive bibliography and the " heretical " work of Donald F. McKenzie, the love of reading and the work of seventeenth century British bibliophile William Drake, as well as the book's closing essay, the appropriately titled …