Christopher Stewart. The Academic Library Building in the Digital Age: A Study of Construction, Planning, and Design of New Library Space. Chicago: ACRL, 2010. 116p. $44, alk. paper (ISBN 9780838985526). LC2010-024659.

artistic elements became more common in bookplates in the wake of Commodore Perry's visit to Japan (1853–1854); not long after, the art of the Indian subcontinent followed suit, as the English empire spread. The earliest bookplates chosen by Hopkinson are from the beginning of the sixteenth century, including one by Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), who engraved a portrait of his friend, the leading Nuremberg humanist Willibald Pirck-heimer (1470–1530). Pirckheimer pasted copies of this portrait into the books of his extensive library. Most of the bookplates (95%), however, date from 1850–1940, and Hopkinson provides us with some excellent models of interpretation, along with the dimensions, date, and mode of production. As an example, I will reproduce an entry here that is so detailed that showing the actual image is unnecessary: was an author, art and music critic, journalist and socialite, and a famous beauty. In 1886 she had been the subject of a famous divorce case in which she had the worst of the suit, despite the character of her husband, Lord Colin Campbell, a notorious roué, syphilitic and bully. This print was executed by the firm Walker & Boutall after Gyles's design. Its imagery of fawns and nymphs dancing round an altar probably reflects Gyles's interest in the occult (she was a member of the magical order The Golden Dawn, along with her friend W.B. Yeats). The Greek inscription at the bottom, meaning 'not granted to another,' may allude to admission to the mysteries of a sect as well as to Campbell's books, which are divided into thematic categories by the inscriptions at the left: cheerfulness, the heart, strife, beauty and dreamed things. " As you can see, Hopkinson feels quite free to speculate, and although one does not doubt his authority, the language he uses is not authoritative. Hopkinson's book is not so much a field guide as it is a primer. He gives the reader a framework within which to place the art of any bookplate, and a language with which to talk about it. After reading through Ex Libris, the neophyte will examine bookplates with a more nuanced appreciation of their artistry, and the more practiced eye will have a set of images to look at that which has hitherto been hidden away.—Richard J. Ring, Trinity College. Even in an age where more and more library-subscribed digital content is ubiquitously available via any Internet-connected device, The Academic Library …