Sudden Selector’s Guide to Philosophy Resources. By George J. Aulisio. Chicago: ALCTS Publishing, 2020. $30.50, 100p. (ISBN: 978-0-8389-4843-9). ALCTS Collection Management Section Sudden Selector’s Guides Series.

The Sudden Selector’s Guide to Philosophy Resources, the ninth volume in its series, is a succinct introduction for the library professionals newly responsible for collection management and research assistance for the discipline. Its six chapters provide a broad overview of academic philosophy, issues of audience, common formats, flagship resources, and the financial aspects of effectively managing a philosophy collection.

As author George J. Aulisio notes, “Understanding philosophical concepts can be difficult even for trained philosophers” (1) and as one of the earliest and the broadest disciplines, to even know where to begin can be quite intimidating. Despite the complexity of the field, Aulisio provides an admirable breakdown of the traditions, subfields, and methodological approaches commonly used, as well as including a list of relevant professional organizations, conferences, and awards at the end of the first chapter. The latter resources provide a good reference for librarians seeking a more in-depth knowledge of philosophy.

Budgetary constraints and the prioritization of certain materials are duly addressed, which will doubtless be quite valuable to readers of this book as financial stresses from the COVID-19 pandemic are unlikely to ease in the near term. Heavy focus on monographs both as research material and academic output and a proliferation of serial titles both general and specific in their disciplinary coverage mean that philosophy resources tend to be more costly than those of the other humanities and social sciences, excluding business. Discussion of package deals, major indexes, publishers, and web resources, including suggestions of resources to prioritize based on institutional demographics and collection budget are another welcome inclusion. Of one index, the author boldly encourages librarians faced with a subscription request from the department “suggest that the philosophy department should pay for this resource directly” (56) due to its lack of academic value. Such blunt honesty may not endear the selector to their department, but it indicates the useful commentary this book provides alongside the expected resource lists.

Chapter 5 specifically highlights continuing professional development and networking for librarians, including the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Philosophical, Religious, and Theological Discussion Group and e-mail discussion lists and podcasts that Aulisio suggests may be well-suited to a philosophy subject guide (76).

A theme running throughout the book is the importance of understanding the characteristics of one’s audience and its needs, plus the role of the philosophy department within one’s institution, stating “many Catholic institutions require multiple philosophy courses” but another “may not require philosophy, but may have a highly regarded philosophy program that grants advanced degrees” (24). Readers are encouraged to get to know and build relationships with faculty and staff, to learn their preferences and research areas, as well as the broader direction of the department overall. Less emphasis is put on the need for cooperation with library colleagues due to the cross-disciplinary nature of philosophy, but subject overlap and package purchasing decisions mean that collaboration is likely unavoidable, if the philosophy and religion selectors or liaisons are not, in fact, the same individual, as may be the case at some institutions.

This book contains a few brief mentions of foreign language material, particularly primary source texts and European journals, but lacks in-depth discussion of how a new selector could approach this area of the collection, particularly if they lack the language skills to comfortably engage with these resources. It is also heavily focused on Western philosophical traditions (specifically Europe and North America), though Eastern traditions and a few major thinkers are mentioned in the overview section. Ideally more space would be given to these fields, but in-depth coverage may be viewed as out of scope for a book published by a subdivision of the American Library Association and presumed to have an audience of primarily North American and western European readers. These topics may also be better suited for discussion in a book targeted toward area- or religious-studies selectors instead of a philosophy selector.

Overall, this book is a worthy introduction to academic philosophy librarianship for those new to the role and does a commendable job providing a general introduction to the field, going beyond simply providing practitioners with a crash-course listing of relevant library resources.—Maggie Halterman-Dess (margaret-halterman@uiowa.edu), University of Iowa Libraries