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This ambitious collection of thirty-four essays speaks directly to the current economic times in which librarians work. After glancing through the essay titles, I questioned why some of the topics were addressed; was this book about how reference librarians can assist job searches, or was this a guide to help librarians run cost-effective library operations? My question was answered in the foreword, written by Loriene Roy. This book addresses both relevant programming and reference services to job searchers as well as how to get the most out of a library's operational resources. As a reader, I appreciated that this explanation was given so immediately in the text.

The book's scope is so broad that it is similar to attending a conference on relevant services and cost saving ideas. Like a conference, the contributions are uneven. There are contributions by public, academic, school, and multitype libraries from across the United States. The projects’ scales are also mixed, with contributions ranging from that of a one-person library, to those by the largest public research universities. In an attempt to present all of these diverse library perspectives, some essays will be immediately relevant to some readers, while other essays will not be as interesting. The essays are organized into nine categories or parts. While it is clear that each part was meant to stand on its own, a few essays could have easily been placed in more than one category.

Part 1, “Helping Patrons Job Search,” presents arguments that libraries are very relevant resources to job searchers. It also provides reference guidance that can help librarians be effective at helping job seekers. Germano's essay gives an overview of the most common business questions that job searchers have. Kuhl's essay emphasizes the role a librarian can play, and knowing when to make a referral. He also encourages librarians to work with outside experts, and to this end provides tips on locating and working with such specialists.

In part 2, “Librarian Survival,” the focus moves inward, addressing professional survival tips for librarians. Lund's essay on infusing his public library with an entrepreneurial spirit is insightful, and may be of use to many library leaders. Mancuso's essay describes his personal journey of being laid-off from his full-time library position, and his challenges and triumphs of managing to stay in the library field without moving. Harris's essay suggests free sources for ongoing education; it could have just as easily been placed in part 9, “Professional Development.” Lincoln's piece provides a case study of a library media specialist's career, within the context of Michigan Public Schools, and addresses other career options.

Grants are discussed in part 3. I found this section of the book to be the most useful. Stickell and Nickel's essay did a nice job in describing the grant process from beginning to end, and included a short case study from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Packard's essay follows, with an overview of helpful tools and suggestions. Brown provides discussion on what a grant proposal should address, and encourages applicants to think strategically about the needs of their diverse communities.

Part 4, “Programming,” includes an essay by Finley and Kluever on community-focused programs. Their essay supports Brown's in making the point that programming should be based on community needs. They argue that libraries can align these needs with staff strengths to provide “free” programming. I disagree with the suggestion that programming is without costs because the time of library employees is the most precious resource libraries have. Forrest's article looks at other ideas for inexpensive programming, but again does not cost out the time this work represents for librarians.

Part 5, “Sharing,” begins with an interesting essay by Bergstrom and Dugan on a collaborative project between the library and campuswide career services. They describe how the library's relationship with the career services office developed during a process of identifying overlapping subscriptions. As librarians came to know the curriculum better, they were able to identify outreach possibilities that provided added value for students.

They describe the pros and cons of building and maintaining a shared cost model with affected campus stakeholders, and note that the model needs to be revisited every year. They also discuss the very real challenges of being flexible with stakeholders’ changing budgets and priorities, while still trying to discourage free-riders. Dill looks at a joint-use library shared by Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus, Purdue University College of Technology in Columbus, and the Ivy Tech Community College. She credits the success of this project to shared planning, contributions and staff, and emphasis on mission and policy development. She talks about assessment by looking at common measurements that serve as proxies for shared use (circulation, computer log-ins, etc). Given the promise of large institutional savings by two institutions sharing a library, this model may grow in importance. While capturing the value of a joint-use library may be challenging, this is an area that would benefit from future study. Other articles in part 5 include the responses that were generated in Kansas from south central libraries in a meeting sponsored by the regional multitype library. Also included is an essay by Tuck and Fraser describing how King County Library System worked with a local museum to provide passes to its community members. They provide a very useful list of elements that should be addressed in a partnership agreement, and tips that help maintain the relationship. Helling contributes an essay about Indiana's public libraries moving to an open-source catalog, and the shared policy acceptance that allowed the budding consortium of Evergreen Indiana to exist. His argument for joining this consortium is strengthened by his discussion of the concrete savings for the Bloomfield-Eastern Green County library that resulted from this decision. Like the “Grants” section, I found “Sharing” to offer very useful and timely essays.

Part 6, “Management,” begins with an essay by Vega and Becnel that features ideas for public libraries, including a summary of a revamped children's program whose cost went from $16,000 a month down to $750. Crane describes how she uses spreadsheets to capture and report the costs associated with digital projects. This tracking allows her to answer the question, “What do your digital projects cost?” and build credibility through transparency. Farison writes another article that includes helpful advice on spreadsheet development as it pertains to periodical usage statistics. The Crane and Farison articles provide useful tips for the beginning library administrator. I believe our profession could benefit from more work in this area. Passonneau provides a valuable essay on green information technology approaches, and includes a rich list of URLs for further information. The last two essays of this section focus on the most valuable resources in libraries: people. Harris and Chimato write about staff stress in times of budget crises. While this essay serves as a review for effective and seasoned managers, it is essential reading for new managers. Johnson and Hisle provide an essay on training student workers in an academic library setting.

In part 7, “On the Job Success,” Cooper provides a very good overview of how he cut costs in his public library when he reviewed the library's service contracts and took them out to bid. Asch discusses the resources her library needed to build and maintain for its two strong digital collections. Soules and Nielsen provide tips for effective relationship building in advancement of the library's mission. In the following essay, Bailey describes the local politics of Providence, Rhode Island, and how a grassroots movement saved branch libraries in the city. I found the essay by Holley, a small Internet bookseller, to be very valuable. He offers a unique perspective on how to get the most out of gifts and discards. Driscoll ends this part of the book with ideas for increasing a small school library's resources.

Part 8, “Staffing,” begins with an essay by Britto that reviews sources of temporary library staff in a university setting. Evans describes how her library has worked with undergraduate computer science students to provide needed staffing in the technology arena. Laskowski and Gao describe how they managed two large-scale collection projects at the University of Illinois. They claimed success by articulating each step in their procedures and aligning tasks with appropriate expertise. Blackburn and Davis provide differing viewpoints on their creative staffing ideas.

The last section, “Professional Development,” includes two essays. Britto, providing his second essay of the book, describes the technology training program at the Central Washington University Library. This program provides basic and advanced technology training through tutorials and workshops. Britto also shares advice on making workshops attractive to busy faculty. The last essay, by Koury, provides justification for attending library conferences, in addition to money-saving tips that allow her to attend several national conferences each year.

The lack of focus on any one library setting or issue is both a strength and weakness of the book. Even though I found the quality of the essays uneven, I recommend the book for providing good suggestions and generating ideas for different libraries in different settings. It also provides a very good overview of challenges in library work for newer professionals.