<b><i>Mistakes in Academic Library Management: Grievous Errors and How to Avoid Them.</i></b> Ed. Jack E. Fritts, Jr. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2009. 132p. alk. paper, $50 (ISBN 9780810867444). LC2009-016939.

Abstract

to buck the trend. Nowadays the effect of the Booker on sales is "seismic." The eighth and final essay in the collection, "Advertising Books Online: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," is a little different from the rest. It is not a work of historical scholarship, but an account of the online used book business written by Udo Göllmann, Manager of Sales and Accounts at AbeBooks, Europe. Göllmann believes that the great strength of the Internet is that it offers "the largest possible selection of books" to the reader. Competition and collaboration among online mediators and vendors is in constant flux. Göllmann provides a formula for business success that has allowed AbeBooks to survive, which includes an active marketing plan. One of the virtues of this collection is that the authors do not press general ideas and interpretations; instead, they limit themselves to what the evidence supports. This allows the reader to participate in the act of historical interpretation based on primary sources, but with the guidance of an expert. There may be lessons to be drawn from the history of book advertising, but the main purpose and pleasure of this book is to understand a little better what life was like in times different from our own. The one thing that remained