ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

New Publications

George M. Eberhart

George M. Eberhart is associate editor ofAmerican Libraries

The Authoritative Guide to Web Search Engines,by Susan Maze, David Moxley, and Donna J. Smith (178 pages, September 1997), summarizes the values and drawbacks of seven Web search engines and explains how they work in terms familiar to most librarians. The authors provide examples of how to obtain the best results in the least amount of time with each. $49.95. Neal-Schuman Publishers. ISBN 1-55570-307-0. Also by Neal-Schuman is

Webmaster,by Lisa Champelli and Howard Rosenbaum (182 pages plus CD-ROM, August 1997), which offers guidance on designing a library Web site, dealing with intellectual freedom and acceptable use policies, and training. $175.00. ISBN 1-55570-307-0.

Blacks in Colonial America,by Oscar Reiss (293 pages, November 1997), is one of the few books to focus on slavery and racism in 17th-and 18th-century America. Reiss covers the historical development of slavery and how it evolved into the concept of black slavery only; slavery in Africa, the passage by ship to America, and the slave’s life in various colonies; African-American freedmen in peace and war; and opposition to slavery by both blacks and whites. Rich in detail and documentation. $45.00. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0339-X.

The Business Phone Book USAfor 1998 (20th ed,, October 1997), formerly called the National Directory of Addresses and Telephone Numbers, has for the first time been issued in two volumes—one an alphabetical white pages, and the second, a yellow pages directory arranged by type of business or organization. Toll-free numbers, e-mail addresses, and Web site locations are given when known. Other new features include expanded listings for Canadian companies, a table of contents for the subject volume, and such new categories as automobile dealers, labor unions, and weekly newspapers. Save yourself numerous 411 telephone charges by consulting these volumes first. $148.00. Omnigraphics. ISBN 0-7808-0293-4.

The Complete Guide to Performance Standards for Library Personnel,by Carol F. Goodson (216 pages, July 1997), may help to prevent the tensions involved in job reviews, merit increases, promotions, and accusations of favoritism. Goodson recommends clearly defining job responsibilities and duties so that employer and employee agree on a set of consistent standards that can be used to appraise job performance effectively. Sample performance standards are provided for different types of professional and support staff. $49-95. Neal-Schuman Publishers. ISBN 1-55570-262-7.

The Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball,by Jonathan Fraser Light (888 pages, November 1997), details the lore, historical minutiae, and social significance of America’s national pastime (first called that in the 1890s). This encyclopedia is no bland recitation of batting averages. Employment attorney Light spent seven years tracking down elusive baseball information and rearranging it into convenient categories. Even people who are not particularly keen on sports will enjoy browsing in this homage to American pop culture. Where else could you find, for example, the time and place of the first action photograph of a baseball game? (1863, at Fort Pulaski, Georgia.) Or what did disgruntled Dodger Darryl Strawberry say when told of the November 1993 fires in his home town? (“Let L.A. burn. I don’t live there anymore.”) Or what classical composer wrote a musical score celebrating the 1907 Giants vs. Cubs game? (Charles Ives.) Perhaps a reference book like this is what Casey Stengel had in mind when he captioned his portrait which now appears at the entrance to the National Baseball Library in Cooperstown, New York: ‘You could look it up.” If you don’t look in the right place at first, you can use the 55-page index to narrow down the relevant pages. A steal at $75.00. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0311-X.

Pickett’s Charge in History and Memory,by Carol Reardon (285 pages, November 1997), is less a description of the Confederate assault on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg than a complete reassessment of how Pickett’s Charge—despite, or because of, the scarcity and conflicting nature of eyewitness testimony—came to be seen as the “high water mark of the Confederacy” and endowed with the qualities of a romantic myth by both North and South, especially Virginia. Reardon explores how the myth evolved in the past 130 years, from veterans’ reunions and postwar squabbling over the generalship of Lee and Longstreet to Ted Turner’s monumental 1993 film

“Gettysburg.” Although participants in the assault bemoaned the fact that the truth would never be known, Reardon has come closer than any other scholar in discerning the legend’s impact on Civil War attitudes and research.

$29.95. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-2379-1.

Promoting Preservation Awareness in Libraries: A Sourcebook for Academic, Public, School, and Special Collections,edited by Jeanne M. Drewes and Julie A. Page (368 pages, July 1997), offers practical approaches and case studies of preservation education in libraries. A representative sampling of articles includes: “Preservation Awareness for Student Workers: Adding a Quiz to the Agenda” by Anthony J. Amodeo; “The World Wide Web as a Preservation Resource” by Michael G. Moore and Jeanne M. Drewes; and “Integrating Preservation Information into Basic Library Skills” by Sara Williams Trapolin. Appendices provide bibliographies, a video-graphy, and tips on designing effective graphics for displays and handouts. $75.00. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30206-5.

Reaching for the Stars: The Illustrated History of Manned Spaceflight,by Peter Bond (128 pages, November 1997), is a capsule history of U.S. and Russian astronautics from Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard to the space shuttle and Mir. This is the trade paperback version of the 1996 Cassell clothbound edition, so beware of duplication. However, Bond offers a British perspective on the space race that will satisfy undergraduate curiosity. $19.95. Distributed by Sterling Publishing. ISBN 0-304-34953-4.

Serials Management in Academic Libraries: A Guide to Issues and Practices,by Jean Walter Farrington (177 pages, August 1997), addresses the issues that serials librarians are facing and provides some practical information for meeting future challenges. Some of the key issues discussed are access versus ownership, electronic dissemination, document delivery systems, standards for electronic data transfer, and the debate over the outsourcing of cataloging. A good introduction to serials librarianship. $59-95. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-27378-2. ■