Q:  As an Education subject specialist contributing to the new Resources for College Libraries, what aspect of education publishing do you feel has changed the most since 1988?

A:  Like many fields, education has seen a decreased emphasis on book publishing. Throughout the 90’s journals became increasingly important. Now the field is beginning to take an interest in open access and information equality -- challenging the so-called digital divide. This decreased emphasis on books is most evident in textbook publishing. There are lots fewer mammoth texts with accompanying readers today than there were two decades ago.

Q:  There have been so many technology advances since 1988, how has this impacted the material published on education?

A:  Over the years, because of the foresight and hard work of the people involved in the ERIC system, education has been out in front on digital access to information. The ERIC indexes were among the first digitally available -- some readers may remember that ERIC was file #1 in the dialog system -- and the system began steps to implement full text online availability in 1993, well ahead of the crowd. This leadership led to other innovative ventures, education also has a open access journal, Education Policy Analysis Archives that is more than a decade old. So in many respects technology has played a huge role and given the discipline an opportunity to be in a leadership position.

Q:  Would you consider any one major advancement in the field of education as standing out above the rest?

A:  No, education has seen huge advances on many fronts. Distance learning and online course development are two obvious areas. But the federal initiatives in education research are also leading a host of new developments. The period between these two editions saw the development of the standards movement and now the relentless testing of No Child Left Behind. Collaborative learning and group work have taken hold in higher education displacing the talking head style lecture. Just a wealth of new avenues.

Q:  How many new subject categories, would you guess, have evolved under the heading of education since 1988?

A:  There’s been 5.

Q:  What are the challenges that you face tackling such a high-growth segment of academic literature?

A:  Developing the taxonomy was the most challenging part for me. One wants to be sure to cover all the bases, which led me to rely heavily on the Library of Congress cataloging schedules, but one also wants to adequately accommodate the new developments in the field, which is not a strong point for the cataloging schedules. So finding that balance was a struggle. After we got started actually building the database, the selectors had questions so we had to continually refine how the taxonomy would be interpreted.

Q:  Can you give us 3 must-have titles that you feel every library should carry in this subject?

A:  That’s like asking “Can you name three vegetables that every person should eat?” The answer is “No.” There are just too many important players. It would be easier to name three areas that have changed dramatically in the interval between editions, such that every library should have several recent books about these topics. I would pick social justice in education settings, teaching methods, and online course development.

Q:  What has this project brought to you, personally and/or professionally, that you did not anticipate?

A:  We used a lot of the people who write reviews for me in my role as editor of Education Review to do the selecting. I wanted to ask them because their writing had demonstrated to me that they were thoughtful, knowledgeable people. So I didn’t expect so many of them to tell me that this had been a valuable experience because they learned so much about the discipline. I guess I thought we were picking them because they already knew the discipline.

Q:  What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

A:  I tend to be pretty equal opportunity for ice cream, never met a scoop I didn’t like.

Q:  Where did you go to library school?

A:  One of the now closed schools, Western Michigan University.

Q:  How many titles have been selected thus far for your subject area?

A:  At last count there were 1374 titles listed under education.

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