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Book details

Gateways to Knowledge

The Role of Academic Libraries in Teaching, Learning, and Research

by Lawrence Dowler

Published 1997250 pagesISBN 978-0-2620-4159-1

Gateways to Knowledge is about change: about suspending and adapting old ideas and rethinking and redefining the missions of the university and the library. Proponents of the gateway concept - which ties together these fifteen essays by scholars, librarians, and academic administrators - envision the library as a point of access to other research resources via technological tools; as a place for teaching; and as a site for services and support where students and faculty can obtain the information they need in the form in which they need it. Struggling to define the library of the future, librarians have too often bolted new technology, programs, and services onto existing library functions. These essays focus instead on how information may be packaged and disseminated in a networked environment, as well as on how to think about the nature and qualities of electronic information.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.

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What the reading experience may hold

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Themes to notice

Nonfiction

Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.

Content notes

No specific content concerns can be confirmed from the available English catalog information. Consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.

These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.

Reading experience

Balanced tone · Steady pace

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Who it may suit

A good fit if…

Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.

At a glance

This book's DNA

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ToneBalanced
LuminousDark

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No plot details

Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc

A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.

Spoiler-free
12345
PeakRelative emotional intensity
Gateways to KnowledgeLawrence Dowler
Powerful4.4/5

This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.

Before you choose

A quick reading snapshot

Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.

Reading lengthA standard-length read250 pages in this edition
Publication eraModernFirst published or edition dated 1997
Primary categoryNonfictionExplore similar books below
ISBN-13
978-0-2620-4159-1
Language
English
Edition record
OL9871082M
BookenDeX editorial lens

A more thoughtful way into this book

This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.

Good to know

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.

Try this reading approach

Read for connection, not completion.

Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.

Three questions to carry with you

  1. Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
  2. Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
  3. How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?

Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.