Lesley S. J. Farmer. Instructional Design for Librarians and Information Professionals. New York: Neal-Schuman, 2011. 229p. alk. paper, $80.00 (ISBN 9781555707361). LC 2011-31233

challenges of preserving digital objects, metadata about these objects, user experiences with these digital objects, and information about the dynamic relationship between these technologies and culture, will find this book useful.—Anders Selhorst, Guilford Technical Community College. Intended as a handbook for working librarians as well as a textbook for library and information science courses, this book aims to improve librarians' instruction by making the planning process more systematic. Farmer follows Robert A. Reiser's and John V. Dempsey's 2007 definition of instructional design as an iterative process that moves reflectively through the stages of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. Early in the book, Farmer observes that the instructional design process has several characteristics that makes it well suited for the kinds of instruction engaged in by librarians. Instructional design is learner centered (for individual learners as well as groups); goal oriented (both learners and instructors know the goals); performance focused (learners are asked to demonstrate their new knowledge or skills); data driven (data is generated by both teachers and learners, throughout the process); and self-correcting (the instructor analyzes the data collected and makes adjustments to each step in the process). Farmer has strong credentials in instruction. Her PhD is in adult education, she has worked as a K–12 library media specialist and currently teaches in and coordinates the librarianship program at California State University, Long Beach. Her publications include more than twenty books and numerous articles. She received ALA's Beta Phi Mu Award in 2011 for distinguished contributions to education in librarianship. In each of the book's nine chapters, Farmer's exposition takes a broad view of instructional design, while her varied examples link the material to libraries. Chapter Two, " Instructional Design Overview , " illustrates this approach. Farmer introduces several instructional design models; each either is broad enough to apply to libraries or fits particular needs that libraries have. Within this survey of models, she provides a succinct, highly useful case study that illustrates the AD-DIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) model's application to a school library setting. The case study's steps are easily transferable to other types of libraries. She also introduces BLAAM (Blended Librarians Adapted AD-DIE Model), which better fits the smaller scale of most instruction in academic libraries. Rapid Prototyping (discussed further in the chapter on design content decisions) is a technology design process that academic librarians might find useful for designing online tutorials. Farmer …