Book Review: American libraries and the Internet: The social construction of Web appropriation and use

One can hardly find any aspect of human life that has not been affected one way or another by the Internet. Most of the Internet’s impact is because of the changes it has brought about in the areas of communication and availability of information. Facilitating information availability and information communication are among core activities of libraries. Since the advent of the Internet, libraries have tried to adopt this technology and make the best of it for their services. The Internet has been considered by librarians both as a source of concern and as a gate to fascinating opportunities. It is of much interest to see how librarians have reacted to this technology in its early days and how they have perceived it and made effort to apply it in their libraries. The book ‘American Libraries and the Internet’ by Bin Li, a research-based book, aims to answer questions such as: how do librarians define their roles in the changing environment? How do they understand and appropriate the Web in their profession and workplace? How have they perceived the World Wide Web from its early period of its implementation? And finally how the Web is appropriated and used in libraries?