Managing Electronic Resources: A LITA Guide is a brave attempt to fulfill an important mission: providing information and guidance on the many tasks involved in managing electronic resources. The book is divided into eight chapters and includes pointers to many useful Web resources and references. Electronic resources librarians will find a great deal of beneficial information here, but this book would also be useful for library administrators and supervisors.

Chapter 1, “Learning the Basics of Electronic Resources,” provides an introduction to this area of library work, and chapter 2, “Coping with Economic Issues and a Paradigm Shift in Collections,” includes a helpful description of current issues and describes the different skill set required to be successful in managing electronic resources. These sections are likely to be helpful for librarians who wish to convince administrators of the need for training and other forms of job support. Chapter 3, “Acquiring Electronic Resources,” begins with a discussion of the changing nature of library acquisitions and “describes acquisitions as a phase of work that initiates and facilitates the access and discovery of electronic materials, instead of as a specific department or position” (p. 38). This is an apt and concise statement of the modern acquisitions librarian’s role. Chapter 4, “Licensing Electronic Resources and Contract Negotiations,” begins with the assertion that dealing with licensing is arguably the most important job duty of an electronic resources librarian. This chapter provides solid information as well as a sample contract negotiation checklist and links to model licenses.

Chapter 5, “Making Electronic Resources Accessible,” focuses on the user interface. The discussion of discovery tools seems dated, and some readers might feel that the author understates the importance of bringing academic library resources to students by embedding librarians and the library within courses and course management systems. Chapter 6, “Gathering, Evaluating, and Communicating Statistical Usage Information for Electronic Resources,” presents a valuable overview of how to understand usage information and manage the challenges of working with this data. Chapter 7, “Staffing Changes to Facilitate the Shift to Electronic Resources,” provides a great deal of information about how to become an organizational leader, develop a learning culture, and understand and work with different social styles. Chapter 8, “Looking Ahead from Now to 2020,” discusses some important trends, including e-books and the challenges of the digital divide.

Managing Electronic Resources does show signs of being written quickly and of trying to compress more information into the space than would comfortably fit. A few sections might confuse a beginning librarian, but overall this is a useful guide to a demanding and sometimes overwhelming area of the profession.