ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

PUBLICATIONS

• The Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign of1862: A Bibliography, by D. Scott Hartwig (117 pages, April 1990), brings together all major references to the bloodiest day in North American history, September 17, 1862, when nearly 25,000 American soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured. To many people Antietam is little more than a vague memory of a question on a high school history exam, but to our ancestors— both black and white—it was a turning point that prompted Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation about 100 days later. This bibliography will be of interest to those who have read Stephen W. Sears’s definitive account, Landscape Turned Red (1983). Copies are available for $45.00 from Meckler Corporation, 11 Ferry Lane West, Westport, CT 06880. ISBN 0-88736-321-0.

• CD-ROM Technology for Information Man- agers, by Ahmed Elshami (280 pages, March 1990), contains all the information you need to get started with a CD-ROM collection. Some of the topics covered are: different types of optical disks, the current lack of standards, different types of indexing and search techniques, the use of CD- ROM for archival storage, online search services, CD-ROM hardware, and a comprehensive list of 450 CD-ROM products. Copies are available for $35.00 from ALA Publishing Services, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. ISBN 0-8389-0523-4.

• Chronicle of the World., edited by JeromeBurne (1296 pages, 1990), is one of those books that has been prominently displayed in bookstores; thus one might automatically equate it with cursory scholars!; p and glib popularization. However, its excellent illustrations and its intriguing way of using contemporary journalistic headlines and copywriting to describe historical events cannot help but captivate the casual reader and may even lead the unwary business school student into a lifelong fascination with history. The headlines are often intentionally amusing: “Heady brew found in fruity ferment, Near East, c.3500 B.C.,” on early wine manufacture; “‘Tabaco’ pipe is good for your health, say American smokers, Europe, 1496,” on the importation of tobacco to Europe; and “Things happen like this—probably, Paris, 1812,” on Laplace’s essay on probability. The chronology starts off in East Africa 3.5 million years B.C. (“Early humans stand tall on rear legs”) and continues through 1945. Other volumes fill in the gaps with the Chronicle of the 20th Century, the Chronicle of America, and the Chronicle of the French Revolution. Chronicles of aviation, Canada, and World War II are due out soon. A painstakingly thorough index and alphabetically-arranged descriptions of modern nations supplement this chronology. Copies may be ordered for $49.95 from ECAM Publications, 105 S. Bedford Rd., Suite 311, Mount Kisco, NY 10549-9911.

• Electronic Color: The Art of Color Applied to Graphic Computing, by Richard B. Norman (186 pages, 1990), covers the application of color theory to architecture and design by using color graphic computing. With more than 180 color illustrations, this book explores the ways in which computers use color and how digital color is different from that of traditional color media. Largely theoretical and for the artistically inclined, although it contains an analysis of how the computer creates color and an explanation of how the monitor and other components work. Copies may be ordered for $59.95 from Van Nostrand Reinhold, 7625 Empire Dr., Florence, KY 41042. ISBN 0- 422-23539-9.

• The Encyclopedia of World Crime, by J.Robert Nash (May 1990, 6 volumes), is another fact-filled reference blockbuster from the author of Bloodletters and Badmen. Most of the entries are biographical, covering many otherwise hard-tofind facts about criminals, victims, and law enforcement agents of every stripe from the famous to the obscure. All periods of history are included, so that one finds the Roman poisoner-empress Livia Drusilla and the assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand in company with Patty Hearst, John Wayne Gacy, and the Abscam trials. Western outlaws, Depression-era gangsters, prominent Nazis, bordello madames, political prisoners, unsolved murders—even accused cannibals—are only a few of the subject areas in which these volumes excel. The author makes every attempt to sift fact from fiction in each account, showing how, for example, the real Bonnie and Clyde bore no resemblance to their appealing, cinematic namesakes. In some cases this work makes a better movie companion than his multi-volume Motion Picture Guide; I found the “Alcatraz” entry very helpful while watching Escape from Alcatraz. Nash himself does not glamorize the criminals and pulls no punches when he thinks a crime to be particularly odious. Unresolved cases, such as Jack the Ripper, the Black Orchid case, and John Dillinger’s death at Chicago’s Biograph Theater, are examined at some length.

Volumes 1-4 contain the alphabetical entries, each of which includes a list of short-title references. Volume 5 of the set is a comprehensive dictionary of crime jargon and slang, both historical and current, while the 700-page Volume 6 contains a proper name index, a subject index, and fullcitation bibliography. As with any 10-million-word reference book there are a few typos, generally in place names or other proper names, but abundant source notes should lead fact-seekers to the right spelling. Some 4,000 illustrations make browsing an interesting if occasionally gruesome pastime.

All six volumes will be available for shipping in July. Libraries may purchase a set for a discounted price of $500 from Marshall Cavendish, 2415 Jerusalem Avenue, North Bellmore, NY 11710. ISBN 0-923582-00-2.

• Envisioning Information, by Edward R.Tufte (126 pages, 1990), is a companion piece to the author’s 1983 work, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. This volume explores the principles of information design by enhancing the dimensionality and density of portrayals of information—with vivid illustrations showing maps, the manuscripts of Galileo, timetables, dance notation, aerial photographs, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, electrocardiograms, the drawings of Calder, Klee and Lichtenstein, computer visualizations, and a textbook of Euclid’s geometry. Readers of this book will be much more critical of garden-variety graphs and charts. Highly recommended for anyone involved in design. Copies are available for $48.00 from Graphics Press, Box 430, Cheshire, CT 06410.

• Ethnographic Bibliography of North America: Supplement to the 4th Edition, compiled by M. Marlene Martin and Timothy J. O’Leary (3 volumes, February 1990), updates the 1975 edition and contains over 25,000 new citations to publications on Native Americans published from 1973 through 1987. The combined 50,000 citations in the 1975 edition and this supplement provide the most complete bibliography available on Native Americans. Citations include scholarly and popular books and articles in anthropology, history, sociology, law, political science, linguistics, literature, and the arts. Also included are citations to ERIC documents, dissertations and theses, and U.S. and Canadian government publications. Indexes are provided for subjects, ethnic groups, and authors. Copies may be ordered for $395.00 from Human Relations Area Files Press, P.O. Box 2015 Y.S., New Haven, CT 06520. ISBN 0-87536-254-0.

• Free and User Supported Software for the IBM PC: A Resource Guide for Libraries and Individuals, by Victor D. López and Kenneth J. Ansley (216 pages, 1990), describes 60 free or inexpensive MS-DOS programs that could be used in libraries. Several programs in each category (word processing, spreadsheet, database management, communications, financial, utility, and games) are evaluated. Information on how the program works, its strengths and weaknesses, are accompanied by graphic screen dumps. A rating chart covers such aspects as ease of use, ease of learning, documentation, and general usefulness. Complete author, company and address information is given for each program. The book costs $20.95 and may be ordered from McFarland & Company, Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640. ISBN 0- 89950-499-X.

• High Definition Television: A Bibliography,S by William Saffady (121 pages, May 1990), is an unannotated listing of books, reports, articles, papers, and news items on HDTV technology. The publications cited, many of them in German or Japanese, deal with a varied group of topics, including technological fundamentals, broadcasting methodologies, HDTV display and recording equipment, applications, and the national and international policy implications of new television technology. The citations range from brief commentary about the potential of HDTV to highly specialized and detailed treatments of HDTV system components. The book is available from the Meckler Corporation, 11 Ferry Lane West, Westport, CT 06880. ISBN 0-88736-422-5.

• The Movie List Book: A Reference Guide to Film Themes, Settings, and Series by Richard B. Armstrong and Mary Willems Armstrong (377 pages, May 1990), may prove useful in silencing the occasional undergraduate who begs for a reference book that lists all (or at least most) of the films dealing with, say, lighthouses, dentists, or zombies. Librarians will be pleased to find an entry for films with librarians (12 in all), but shocked by the omission of Desk Set and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold in that category. Oh well, the authors admit that comprehensiveness was not what they intended. Each genre list is preceded by commentary. Not an essential book, but I don’t know where else to look for a list of movies about horses, hotels, or the abominable snowman. The cost is $31.95 postpaid, from McFarland & Company, Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640. ISBN 0-89950-240-7.

• The Quiet Struggle: Libraries and Infor- mation for Africa, by Paul Sturges and Richard Neill (172 pages, January 1990), discusses the problems of access to information in Sub-Saharan Africa, not only in the context of libraries but throughout a range of issues from literacy to satellite communications. The authors present the various arguments and offer the solutions most likely to solve some of Africa’s information problems. Written by two lecturers in library studies, one British, the other Botswanan, The Quiet Struggle very clearly outlines the “famine of published information” in Africa today, and how closely it is linked to political and social instability. Copies may be ordered for $55.00 from Mansell Publishing, Publishers Distribution Center, P.O. Box C831, Rutherford, NJ 07070. ISBN 0-7201-2019-5.

Incidentally, if you are looking for African books, you might investigate the African Books Collective, a self-help initiative by a group of African publishers to promote their book lists outside of Africa. At present the Collective stocks only English-language material, with an emphasis on scholarly and academic books, creative writing by African authors, critical works on African literature, and certain general interest titles. A limited range of pre- 1988 backlist titles are also available. For more information, contact African Books Collective Ltd., The Jam Factory, 27 Park End Street, Oxford OXI 1HU, England.

• The Vanished Library: A Wonder of the Ancient World, by Luciano Canfora (205 pages, January 1990), chronicles the heydays and dark days of the ancient Library of Alexandria, Egypt. Originally published in 1987 in Italian, this translation gathers together what little information exists about the library from primary and secondary sources. Erudite but entertaining, this book describes vividly what it must have been like to be a scholar in the ancient Mediterranean world. Copies are available for $22.50 from W.W. Norton & Company, 500 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10110. ISBN 0-09-174049-5.