Academic Librarianship Today. Todd Gilman, ed. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. 248p. Paper, $55.00 (ISBN 978-1-4422-7875-2).

Todd Gilman has put together a first-rate book on the issues facing academic libraries and librarians today. Moreover, he has selected a genuine who’s-who of thinkers and practitioners, each of whom is uniquely able to provide a critical perspective on the fifteen topics included in the book. While some collections of essays are uneven, this volume provides consistently excellent pieces on difficult and complex matters. Each essay is concise, but it is by no means cursory. The volume begins with a superior historical sketch by Deanna Marcum, who definitely has the depth of perspective to offer a thoroughgoing synopsis of the recent past. To augment the history, Marcum connects the past to the present. Barbara Dewey follows with an overview of governance, describing the external and internal intricacies that make up the structural elements of colleges and universities. The scope of inclusion—from state and federal influences all the way to the roles of institutional general counsels and alumni affairs—is extremely difficult to locate elsewhere.