Colin Franklin. Obsessions and Confessions of a Book Life. New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Press; Camberwell, Victoria, Australia: Books of Kells; London: Bernard Quaritch, 2012. 262p. alk. paper, $49.95 (ISBN: 9781584563044). LC2012-018734

compelling examples of planning, developing an action plan, achieving being embedded, sustaining that achievement, and evaluating the success for continued sustainability. The Embedded Librarian is written in a clear and approachable style with Shu-maker's voice sounding through with concise and succinct information. He approaches the topic with knowledge and well thought-out examples. While there is not much here that has not been presented in the professional literature, it is a benefit that the author here brings together a great deal of information organized under reasonable chapter headings. It is a benefit to the reader that each chapter ends with a summary and a list of reference sources. Having the material laid out in this way will prove much more effective to those who would acquire this title as a tool to furthering their embedded librarianship or as an entry point. The chapter on " Evaluating Your Success " will also prove to be of great value to both groups as well, as it presents scenarios in the form of case studies and takes into consideration varying characteristics and types of libraries. In the current age of assessing all that information professionals do, it is useful to have such straightforward material. However, a prior section, " Chapter 7: Assessing Your Readiness, " will be most useful to those librarians who are ready to gauge whether they have, as Shumaker puts it, reached maturity. His questionnaire and scale are very useful. Additionally, the descriptors for interpreting the outcomes within the scale: " highly embedded, developing, emerging and not embedded " are as well. Clearly, in the current information professional arena, there are more and more forces driving change and more opportunities to do so. Technology has been both an advantage and a disadvantage to this change. The Embedded Librarian offers not only an assessment tool but a concrete methodology with examples, analysis, and processes. Written for information professionals, library school students, the embedded, and those considering it, the book offers a review, practical strategies, and applications about being embedded.—Loreen Both a memoir and a collection of discrete topical essays, Colin Franklin's book about his personal and professional intersections with the world of books is a delight. During his 88 years, Franklin has been a publisher, an author, a book dealer, and a book collector, and all these roles are depicted here. Though this is nowhere stated, the first seven of its fifteen …