ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

New Publications

George M. Eberhart is senior editor of American Libraries; e-mail: geberhart@ala.org

African American Authors, 1745-1945: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook,edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson (525 pages, January 2000), describes the life and work of 78 African American essayists, novelists, short-story authors, poets, playwrights, and literary figures. Included are William Wells Brown, Countee Cullen, W. E. B. du Bois, Marcus Garvey Jr., James Weldon Johnson, Sojourner Truth, Phillis Wheatley, Richard Wright, and other writers representing the first 200 years of African American literature. $99.50. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30910-8.

ARL Annual Salary Survey, 1999-2000,edited by Martha Kyrillidou and Michael O’Connor (126 pages, March 2000), reports salary data for all professional staff working in the 121 member libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Major tables display average, median, and beginning salaries; salaries by position and experience, sex, and race/ethnic background; salaries in different geographic regions and sizes of libraries. Additional tables cover law, medical, Canadian, and nonuniversity research libraries.

Two new data tables this year show the average salaries of U.S. ARL university librarians by position and years of experience, and number and average salaries of U.S. ARL university librarians by years of experience and sex. ARL members $39/year, plus $6 p&h; nonmembers, $79/ year, plus $6 p/h. Association of Research Libraries, 21 Dupont Circle, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20036. ISSN 0361-5669.

Avatars of the Word: From Papyrus to Cyberspace,by James J. O’Donnell (210 pages, May 2000), is now available in trade paperback, in case you missed the original 1998 release. This entertaining rumination by a professor of classical studies shows how the viewpoints of ancient authors have a bearing on our postmodern confrontation with, and ultimate acceptance of, the digital information explosion. O’Donnell doesn’t provide any quick answers, but he does sketch an outline that offers some solace to those of us who remember the grand old days of traditional scholarship. This is not some old curmudgeon ranting about how bad things are; rather it’s an unconventional take on what the Latins and Greeks might say to luddites and geeks. $14.95. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00194-X.

Beating Publisher Price Discrimination,by Richard W. Meyer (82 pages, March 2000), reports on the results of a three-year study of cost control and pricing in the academic journal literature conducted by the libraries of the Associated Colleges of the South. One component looks at the savings potential for common access to a pool of Internet periodicals in lieu of print subscriptions; another establishes a model for comparing publisher list prices with statistically predicted prices. The study also evaluates the likelihood of electronic availability in inhibiting the magnitude of annual price increases. The cost of this report is a prepaid minimum of $35 “multiplied by the number of journal titles published per year by the principal employer of the individual receiving the report” (excluding zero, of course). Richard W. Meyer, 13151 N. Hunters Circle, San Antonio, TX 78230.

Becoming a Library Teacher,by Cheryl LaGuardia and Christine K. Oka (115 pages, March 2000), provides you with the necessary survival skills to endure and appreciate an assignment in user instruction. The emphasis of Part One is on practical preparation, with suggestions on clothing, eye contact, voice, expression, role-playing, coercion, and confidence. The chapter on “performance tempo” is especially revelatory, giving suchtips as checking your appearance in a mirror (how many of us forget that simple feedback?), scoping out the room, knowing your equipment, having visual backup, and being ready for Murphy’s Law. Part Two focuses on pedagogical structure, from preparing the class outline to the “seven commandments of the canned demo” and dealing with disrupters. A first-rate antidote for first-day jitters. $49.95. Neal-Schuman. ISBN 1-55570-378-X.

Building Planet Earth: Five Billion Years of Earth History,by Peter Cattermole (283 pages, 2d ed., March 2000), is a good beginner’s guide to geology that offers the latest theories accompanied by instructive maps, charts, and photographs. Succinct descriptions of the Alpine cycle, the Flysch deposition, the origin of silicate and non-silicate materials, the evolution of Gondwanaland, and Caledonian magmatism may inspire the curious undergraduate to decide upon a geology major. $39-95. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58278-4.

Burt Lancaster: A Filmography and Biography,by Ed Andreychuk (248 pages, May 2000), reviews Lancaster’s 72 theatrical films and 13 television films from The Killers (1946) to Separate But Equal (1991). Photographs and credit lists accompany the synopsis and commentary for each film, and the book begins with a brief biography of this energetic actor. $49.95. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0436-1.

The Chronological Encyclopedia of Discoveries in Space,by Robert Zimmerman (410 pages, January 2000), includes every mission, private or public, from the launch of Sputnik in October 1957 through the launch of the Galaxy 11 private communications satellite in December 1999. Its focus is on scientific knowledge; consequently it is less concerned with politics and the space race. Appendices offer satellites and missions listed alphabetically, by subject, and by nation. An intriguing summary of astronomical knowledge prior to 1957 is provided in an introduction. The text is amply illustrated with photographs and spacecraft diagrams, and the index is sufficiently detailed to pinpoint such minutiae as which missions used chimpanzees (Mercury 2 and Mercury 5 in 1961). Zimmerman also makes a point of connecting specific space discoveries with the missions on which they were made, despite the fact that results were often announced years later. $78.50. Oryx Press. ISBN 1-57356-196-7.

Civil Rights in the United States,edited by Waldo E. Martin Jr. and Patricia Sullivan (851 pages, 2 vols., February 2000), covers issues relating to people of color, women, immigrant populations, Indians, children, the disabled, senior citizens, the homeless, and other disenfranchised segments of society. Written by 332 contributors, the articles identify people, movements, organizations, events, concepts, and laws. A history of civil rights in each state is also provided. $225.00. Macmillan Reference USA. ISBN 0-02-864765-3.

The Designer's Lexicon: The Illustrated Dictionary of Design, Printing, and Computer Terms,by Alastair Campbell (320 pages, February 2000), reveals the meanings of 4,179 terms in the design-related lexicons of computing, photography, typography, prepress, paper, printing, and binding. The definitions are succinct, accompanied by color illustrations, and subdivided into alphabetic groupings of like terms within each major category. A master word finder allows you to pinpoint specific jargon. Be mystified no longer when your newsletter editor casually intones words and phrases like hyphenation zone, grayscale, baseline shift, Cromalin, unsharp masking, M weight, snowflaking, physical dot gain, binder’s creep, CMYK, or FPO. $22.95. Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118- 2625-2.

A Dictionary of Music Titles,by Adrian Room (298 pages, April 2000), offers a nutshell description of 3,500 classical compositions, including named symphonies, operas, oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, choral works, chamber music, keyboard compositions, and songs. Arranged alphabetically from Schumann’s Abegg Variations to Stockhausen’s Zyklus, the listings describe the origin of each composition’s title and the story behind the music. A handy reference when someone else is using the Grove’s CD. $55.00. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0- 7864-0771-9.

Dragon Bones: The Story of Peking Man,by Penny van Oosterzee (198 pages, April 2000), is a popular history of the discovery and loss of the famous Homo erectus teeth, jaws, and crania found at Zhoukoudian, China, in the 1920s and 1930s. By no means the most thorough treatment of the find, this compact work by a talented Australian writer nonetheless serves as an introduction to one of the more intriguing tales in paleoanthropology. $23.00. Perseus. ISBN 0-7382-0292-4.

Eggs, Nests, and Baby Dinosaurs: A Look at Dinosaur Reproduction,by Kenneth Carpenter (336 pages, February 2000), surveys everything currently known about the sex life of dinosaurs. Written entertainingly by Denver Museum of Natural History egg-fossil hunter Carpenter, the book does require some prior knowledge of biology and paleontology; however, the technical parts are explained clearly, and the hundreds of illustrations aid comprehension. Carpenter describes the ways eggs and embryos become fossilized, dinosaur courtship and mating, methods of studying fossil eggs, egg taxonomy, nests, eggs, hatching, and the growth of baby dinosaurs. Lists of all known egg-fossil sites and dinosaur-egg types are given in appendices. $35.00. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-33497-7.

Encyclopedia of 20th-Century American Humor,by Alleen Pace Nilsen and Don L.

F.Nilsen (360 pages, December 1999), presents 98 essays that explore such topics as American Indian humor, animation, comic books, gothic humor, hoaxes and practical jokes, metaphors, parody, politics and humor, slang, and stand-up comedy. Specific comedians, humorists, novels, movies, or TV shows are discussed within the context of relevant essays, but can be located in the comprehensive index. A good starting point for understanding the structure, formats, and varieties of American humor. $67.50. Oryx Press. ISBN 1-57376-218-1. ■