ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

New Publications

George M. Eberhart

Architecture and Ornament: An Illustrated Dictionary,by Margaret Maliszewski-Pickart (198 pages, February 1998), serves as a field guide to many of the elements seen in American architecture and taught in architectural history courses. The first part consists of photographs and drawings depicting the various types and parts of windows and doors, walls, roofs, columns, stairs, ornaments, mouldings, arches, vaults, and domes. This section shows the difference between Flemish and one-third running brick bonding patterns, among other things. The second part is a dictionary with cross-references to the illustrations, and the appendix demonstrates how to describe a building by identifying its elements. $35.00. McFarland & Co., ISBN 0- 7864-0383-7.

Based on a True Story: Latin American History at the Movies,edited by Donald F. Stevens (243 pages, December 1997), examines 13 feature films that portray the history of Latin America, from the pretentious 1492: The Conquest of Paradise to the nostalgic Like Water for Chocolate and the gritty Pixote. Each of the essays addresses the past, both as seen in the movies and as scholars have interpreted it. According to Stevens, since many people are exposed to history through films alone, historians should consider this a challenge, not an assault, and address cinematic truths as well as inaccuracies: “People are interested in the past, and historians, plodding empiricists though we may be, have something important to say to a postmodern culture.” $50.00. SR Books, 104 Greenhill Ave., Wilmington, DE 19805-1897. ISBN 0-8420-2582-0.

The Dakota War: The United States Army Versus the Sioux, 1862-1865, by Micheal Cloclfelter (267 pages, April 1998), chronicles the conflict of an Indian War in Minnesota and the Dakota Territory that was prompted by the massacre of nearly 800 white settlers in August 1862. Largely overshadowed by the much bloodier events of the Civil War, the Dakota War pacified the Minnesota Indians but generated problems with other Lakota groups, which resulted in the much better- known Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee massacres. Contains a detailed analysis of the politics, strategy, and tactics of the campaign. $39.95. McFarland & Co, ISBN 0-7864-0419-1.

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

Desk Reference on the Federal Budget,by Bruce Wetterau (344 pages, January 1998), answers 516 questions about federal taxes and spending in a succinct and lucid manner. For example: How do we know when a recession has begun? What is “backdoor spending”? What was the 1997 balanced budget agreement? What was President Carter’s economic record? An excellent guide for beginners and the perplexed. $49.95. Congressional Quarterly Books, ISBN 1-56802-378-2.

The Encyclopedia of Native American Le- gal Tradition,edited by Bruce Elliott Johansen (410 pages, March 1998), includes detailed descriptions of nearly two dozen Native American legal and political systems, as well as summaries of Indian law cases, acts of Congress, and treaties. Few visitors to the site of the first English colony at Jamestown are aware that representative government in America was practiced by Native Americans centuries before European contact, and that the Iroquois Confederacy was one of John Adams’ models for his vision of the U.S. Constitution. An essential work for legal and Native American collections. $95.00. Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-30167-0.

The Handbook of Knotsby Des Pawson (l60 pages, March 1998), will appeal to anyone who as a child used to gaze at the knot pictures in unabridged dictionaries, wondering how in heck they actually worked. This handbook gives much better instructions, in color and with annotations. The need for tying an appropriate knot can strike unexpectedly, even in academia; so if your merit badge know-how has evaporated, check out the loops, hitches, and splices in this manual. $16.95. DK Publishing, ISBN 0-7894-2395-2.

The Historical Encyclopedia of World Sla- very,edited by Junius P. Rodriguez (805 pages, 2 volumes, March 1998), lives up to its title by encompassing the various forms of human enslavement practiced since an- cient times in most countries and cultures. The more than 650 entries written by some 200 specialists are notable for their scope, detail, and objectivity. In addition to com- mentary on the well-known “peculiar insti- tution” of the Antebellum South, these vol- umes offer facts, context, and analysis on such other topics as the Danish slave trade, Cherokee slave- owners, Russian serfdom, the Roman concepts of pecu- lium and servus vicarius, how the transition from slave to free labor evolved in various parts of the world, and abolition in Is- lamic countries. These volumes are a solid contribution to understanding the forces that shaped slavery and the ethics that con- doned it. $150.00. ABC-Clio, ISBN 0- 87436-885-5.

The History and Use of Our Earth's Chemical Elements,by Robert E. Krebs (346 pages, January 1998), is a reference guide for undergraduates that describes the characteristics of and uses for each of the 112 elements in the Periodic Table. A convenient source for looking up what bismuth and germanium are all about, the book contains an extensive glossary and schematic diagrams for each of the elements. $39-95. Greenwood Press, ISBN 0- 313-30123-9.

Information Imagineering: Meeting at the Interface,edited by Milton T. Wolf, Pat Ensor, and Mary Augusta Thomas (253 pages, March 1998), contains essays selected by editors for ALA’s LITA and LAMA divisions that exam- ine the effects technology will have on fu- ture libraries. Dedicated to and inspired by the ideas of the late Paul Evan Peters, the collection features essays by Charles W. Bailey Jr., Carol L. Ritzen-thaler, Howard Besser, Murray S. Martin, and others. $36.00 (ALA members, $32.40). ALA Editions, ISBN 0-8389-0729-6.

Another wide-ranging collection of prog- nostications is Finding Common Ground: Creating the Library of the Future Without Diminishing the Library of the Past, edited by Cheryl La- Guardia and Bar- bara A. Mitchell (478 pages, March 1998), consisting of papers presented at a March 1996 con- ference at Harvard College Library. Fo- cusing on practical, realistic solutions rather than free- floating specula- tion, the 50 con- tributors (largely academic and re- search librarians) explore ideas for coping with new technology, user instruction, evolv- ing methods of scholarship, new electronic resources, and changing organizational structures. $75.00. Neal-Schuman Publishers, ISBN 1-55570-290- 2.

Judicial Process in America,by Robert A. Carp and Ronald Stidham (432 pages, 4th ed., February 1998), is a succinct and readable overview of civil and criminal proce- dure in federal and state courts for the nonlawyer. Although the previous edition is only a few years old, this one includes a new section on juvenile courts, tort and product liability reform, and new material on the effect of party affiliation on a judge’s decisions. $36.95. Congressional Quarterly, ISBN 1-56802-394-4.