Annual Review of Cultural Heritage Informatics: 2012‐2013 . Edited by

This inaugural issue of the Annual Review of Cultural Heritage Informatics (ARCHI) consists of a series of 16 separately authored chapters gathered under the area known as cultural heritage informatics (CHI). This area examines topics that are located at the intersection of people, information, technology, and cultural heritage collections. Individuals with varied areas of expertise work within CHI to support the access, use, and preservation of cultural heritage materials. The text, organized into six thematic sections, highlights the rich variation to be found in the current research and practice surrounding CHI. Thoughtfully organized, this edited volume begins with a useful list of chapter titles and abstracts, which can be examined for direct access to items of particular interest. This is followed by a general overview of the volume’s contents through a brief introduction. Each of the volume’s six sections also contains a short introduction to the common theme of the papers, a summary of the contents of its chapters, and an account of the chapters’ authors. This background information is helpful for understanding the various approaches found in the gathered chapters and for explicating the commonalities to be found among the distinct chapters. An index arranged in a single alphabetical sequence is found after the final section, and it provides access to the volume’s topics and authors. A brief biographical sketch of the editor rounds out the text. The first part of the book, titled “Best Practices,” consists of three chapters offering recommendations on practices to support the preservation of, and access to, digital cultural heritage. The first chapter presents a historical overview of efforts to preserve our past and notes that the current approach to digital preservation is becoming a distributed effort supported through collective activities among stakeholders. The second chapter reviews the topic of folksonomies applied to cultural heritage collections through a discussion of traditional avenues of access (e.g., description, indexes, and controlled vocabularies), growing user expectations, and the strengths and weaknesses of folksonomic methods. The authors note that while user applied tags can be leveraged to provide increased knowledge of, and access to, cultural materials, their effectiveness is based on the support of institutional resources. The third and final chapter in this section presents case studies outlining sociopolitical barriers to the successful completion of digital preservation projects undertaken by library and information science (LIS) student groups assisting cultural heritage institutions. Suggestions for remedying difficulties in future digital preservation projects are provided. These consist of ensuring that institutional staff receive training as the project progresses, and that staff have clear expectations about what can be achieved. Additionally, these authors note that in future projects host institutions will receive a list of project requirements to ensure that appropriate resources are available to achieve expected outcomes. These three chapters, beyond providing recommendations, also point to the strong social forces that impact the work being done in cultural heritage collections. A continuation of social themes can also be found in Part II, titled “Digital Communities.” This brief section of the book offers two studies that examine the representation of cultural heritage in the online environment. The first chapter in this section examines how the holistic healing system Ayurveda is presented on U.S. websites, and shows how images and other representations can reveal incomplete cultural understanding. The second chapter presents a study of knitting blogs and advocates that preserving their content, represented through conversations, imagery, patterns, progress reports, difficulties, and accomplishments, allows for a deeper understanding of the craft and its online community. Both of the studies in this section bring into focus the importance of treating cultural heritage with sensitivity to the beliefs and norms of cultural groups. Part III, titled “Education,” provides specific details concerning the skills and knowledge needed by individuals to support their work with cultural heritage collections and their users. The two chapters in this section offer different approaches to the topic of education, but both arrive at a similar set of competencies required for working with cultural materials. The first chapter in this section reviews the Cultural Heritage Information Management concentration offered through the LIS department of the Catholic University of America. The curriculum is organized around the development of five core competencies consisting of an awareness of contextual factors, collection management (and preservation), information organization, information services, and technological skills. The second chapter, which provides VC 2016 ASIS&T