This handbook of topics in digital librarianship sets the bar rather high for itself. The title makes confident pledges to the reader, and the nine collected articles must stretch to fulfill these promises. The editors have arranged the almost entirely UK-based contributions into three themed sets: rethinking marketing and communication, rethinking support for academic practice, and rethinking resource delivery. The articles are largely descriptive of practice rather than prescriptive of mastery, which is a count against the work as a whole.

In the editors’ favor, digital librarianship is a broad topic, and the range of articles treats a variety of aspects. The themes they have assembled should, in theory, support libraries sympathetic to the title, and the introduction correctly characterizes the collection as “an honest appraisal by . . . librarians of their professional practices at a point in their transition” (xvi). Some articles are betrayed by the speed of change in the field; the social media outlets in a treatise on digital marketing are already slightly dated. Most are studies of projects or programs at the home institutions of the authors (actual case studies are set off in the text by sans serif type and a bold heading). The handbook includes an index heavy with proper nouns.

The third set of articles are the most forward thinking; they explore challenges and opportunities in delivering resources. A treatise on algorithmic title suggestions based on aggregated UK library user data forecasts the influence of the digital realm on library mores—patron privacy may be departing from among our core values. An insightful dissection of the myth that “digital” equals “free” is a highlight of the final entry. Ultimately, this is an uneven effort, hampered by the impossibility of comprehensively covering digital librarianship in nine topical, Eurocentric chapters. Academic libraries and libraries supporting information science programs might consider purchasing this volume for the articles, if they’re willing to take the promise of “mastery” lightly.