ACRL College & Researc Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

New Publications

George M. Eberhart

“At the Extremity ofCivilization”: An Illinois Physician’s Journey to California in 1849, by Is- rael Shipman Pelton Lord (441 pages, March 1995), is the meticulously written di- ary of Lord’s trip along the Oregon Trail to the Califor- nia gold fields. The docu- ment, owned by the Hun- tington Library, was trans- cribed and edited by Necia Dixon Liles, who had be- come interested in Lord when she ran across three volumes of his hand- written medical journal. His observations on mores, manners, disasters, and diseases are can- tankerous and candid and well worth reading 156 years later. $45.00. McFarland & Co., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640. ISBN 0-7864-0000-5.

Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture, by Peter J. M. McEwan (626 pages, March 1995), offers information on more than 11,000 artists, architects, designers, illustrators, and photographers who are Scottish by birth or marriage and who have been exhibitors in a major public institution or have executed at least one known work of repute. Paintings do not accompany the entries, but a handful of portraits of the artists are shown. All originators of Scots graphic arts and architecture between 1660 and 1990 are included. $99.50. Antique Collectors’ Club, Ltd., Market St. Industrial Park, Wap- pingers Falls, NY 12590. ISBN 1-85149-134-1.

Disaster Prevention and Response forSpecial Libraries: An Information Kit, by Miriam Kahn (70 pages, March 1995), includes suggestions for forming a disaster response plan, preventing disasters and emergencies, dealing with paper and nonpaper formats, assessing on-site service and equipment, checking vital and permanent records, and delegating responsibilities. An excellent resource for preserving collections through any type of unforeseen danger. $20.00 (SLA members, $15.00). Special Libraries Association, 1700 18th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20009-2508. ISBN 0-87111-436-4.

Fortean Studies,edited by Steve Moore (350 pages, vol. 1, 1994), is the first volume of an annual series featuring re- search into scientific and his- torical anomalies that main- stream journals would never consider for publication. The series is a spinoff of Fortean Times, a British journal de- voted to “strange phenom- ena,” that offers more news and commentary than in- depth research. This volume includes articles on luminous owls reported in Norfolk from 1897 to 1924, mysteri- ous airships seen in New England in 1909, odd hooflike snow-prints (the “Devil’s Hoofmarks”) found all over Devonshire in 1855, the book of prodigies written by the 16th-century Swedish scholar Joan Petri Klint, big cats in French cultural history, the evidence for a species of giant octopus, Paul Kammerer and the law of seriality, and ancient Chinese military automata. The standard of scholarship for each contribution is high. $44.00. Fortean Times, Box 754, Manhasset, NY 11030-0754. ISBN 0-870870-557.

Glossary of Typesetting Terms,by Richard Eckersley, et al. (169 pages, January 1995), presents definitions of typesetting terms using current technology, applicable standards, and historical context. This book is essential for desktop and other compositors as well as bibliographers involved in the printing process. Appendices cover definitions for the parts of a letter, the parts of a book, type styles, coding a manuscript and writing specifications, elements of house style, guidelines for tables, accents and special characters, and proofreaders’ marks. $20.00. University of Chicago Press, 5801 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, IL 60637. ISBN 0-226-18371-8.

The Great Astronomical Revolution:1534–1687 and the Space Age Epilogue, by Patrick Moore (258 pages, March 1995), is the story of Nicholas Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and Sir Isaac Newton and how their observations and calculations changed both the study of astronomy and the methods of scientific inquiry. These were the scientists who, under threat of religious persecution, stripped the earth of its exalted position in the center of the universe and identified it as one of several planets orbiting the sun in elliptical paths. Moore summarizes their lives and achievements and relates their discoveries to modern cosmology and space exploration. $34.95. Originally published in Great Britain by Albion Publishing. Distributed by Paul & Company, c/o PCS Data Processing, 360 W. 31st St., New York, NY 10001. ISBN 1- 898563-18-7.

Great Leaders, Great Tyrants? Contemporary Views of World Rulers Who Made History, edited by Arnold Blumberg (354 pages, January 1995), profiles 52 heads of state and reviews their accomplishments as great leaders and their evil deeds as tyrants. Rulers from the past (Akhenaton, Franz Joseph I, Richard III) are evaluated as well as modern leaders (Gorbachev, Castro, Gandhi, Tito). Written by subject specialists, these pro/con biographies encourage critical thinking and debate about the exercise of power. $49.95. Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, P.O. Box 5007, Westport, CT 06881-5007. ISBN 0-313- 28751-1.

The Internet Compendium: SubjectGuides to Social Sciences, Business and Law Resources, edited by Louis Rosenfeld, Joseph Janes, and Martha Vander Kolk (424 pages, March 1995), is the first in a series of topical guides to the Internet published by Neal- Schuman. Information in this volume is provided on Latin-American and Asian-American resources, German history, international trade, personal finance, operations research, federal government information, politics, women’s studies, and other related topics. All the chapters were written and compiled by librarians, faculty, and graduate students with subject expertise. This is a good choice for anyone who wants to avoid the distractions other books offer. $75.00. Neal-Schuman Publishers, 100 Varick St., New York, NY 10013. ISBN 1-55570- 220-1.

The Oxford-Duden Pictorial Thai & English Dictionary (865 pages, February 1995) is another in the series of pictorial dictionaries developed by Oxford-Duden to help identify some 30,000 objects in other languages. The same topical pictures and diagrams are used in all the dictionaries, whether Thai or Hungarian. (One wonders how often the Thai word for “snowball fight” is spoken.) However, this dictionary features 15 new pages on Buddhism, Thai architecture, Thai music and dance, and Thai flora and fauna. $55.00. Oxford University Press, 200 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. ISBN 974-89007-54.

Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’Records and the Sixties, by Ian MacDonald (373 pages, December 1994), is a song-by-song analysis of the Beatles’ EMI recordings placed within a historical context. Much more insightful than William J. Dowlding’s collection of quotes in Beatlesongs (Simon and Schuster, 1989), MacDonald presents the minutiae of each recording session along with commentary on the personality of the players and the social milieu in which the songs were written. His introduction, “Fabled Foursome, Disappearing Decade,” is one of the most lucid assessments of the Sixties that I have read. $25.00. Henry Holt and Co., 115 W. 18th St., New York, NY 10011. ISBN 0-8050-2780-7.

The Vonnegut Encyclopedia,by Marc Leeds (693 pages, December 1994), is the authorized, comprehensive catalog of the characters, themes, phrasing, and imagery found in Kurt Vonnegut’s novels, short stories, plays, and essays. This work allows the reader to recall the significance of any character, however minor, and to trace the recurrence of characters and images across numerous writings, from Player Piano (1952) through Fates Worse Than Death (1991). Everything—Tralfamadore, granfalloons, Bokononism, ice-nine, Midland City—is defined and placed in context in this thorough work. Entries are referenced to the original page and line numbers in Vonnegut’s first editions. $75.00. Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881-5007. ISBN 0- 313-29230-2.

World Music in the Music Library,edited by Carl Rahkonen (77 pages, December 1994), was compiled from papers presented at a plenary session of the 1992 Annual Meeting of the Music Library Association. Included in the book are reflections on the nature of world music, reference services relating to world music, collection development and access, the role of ethnomusico-logical archives, and world music in the public library. $24.00 (MLA members, $19.20) from the Music Library Association, P.O. Box 487, Canton, MA 02021. ISBN 0-914954- 49-0.