ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

New Publications

George M. Eberhart

Acoustic Guitars and Other Fretted Instruments: A Photographic History,by George Gruhn and Walter Carter (313 pages, July 1993), traces the evolution of the American guitar from its roots in the early-19th-century designs of C. F. Martin. Grouped according to type and historic period, the first section of the book is devoted to early guitars, banjos, and mandolins from the 1800s to the 1920s. The second half shows the development of the American guitar from the 1930s to the present. The book features the first published photos of Leadbelly’s 12-string guitar and Gene Autry’s Martin D-45. Some 700 full-color photographs accompany the text. The book costs $39 95 and may be ordered from Miller Freeman Books, 600 Harrison St., San Francisco, CA 94107. ISBN 0-87930-240-2.

Format Integration and Its Effect on Cataloging, Training and Systems,edited by Karen Coyle (110 pages, July 1993), is based on the papers presented at an ALCTS Preconference held on June 26, 1992, at the ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. The proliferation of multiple-format materials requires a method of cataloging that avoids duplicate processing and maintenance. By condensing the seven USMARC bibliographic formats into one, format integration allows systems to treat all bibliographic records the same way. This volume provides an overview of format integration and its history, discusses its effect on cataloging and systems, and explores issues in training and documentation. Copies are available for $20.00 from the ALA Order Department, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. ISBN 0-8389-3432-3. ALA Order Code 3432-3-0010.

Microsoft Encarta,an electronic encyclopedia on CD-ROM for multimedia PCs, boasts 21,000 articles in 93 categories ranging from mathematics and medicine to communications and Communism. Its graphics, animation, and audio are very impressive. The big question is—will this be a useful reference source for undergraduates? I think so. Even though the text cannot compete in comprehensiveness with the Britannica or Americana, and the timeline and atlas could stand improvement, Microsoft Encarta performs a few audiovisual tricks that no print encyclopedia can achieve: you can hear Harry Truman announce the atomic strike on Hiroshima, listen to the calls of a cardinal or cougar, and watch the transformation of a pupa into a butterfly. With its full-text search capability you can also look up all occurrences of the year 1711 or the words “root beer.” Anyone comfortable with Microsoft Windows will find the software easy to install and navigate.

The 1993 version of Encarta contains seven hours of music, natural sounds, historical speeches, and examples of foreign languages; more than 7,000 illustrations, graphs, and photographs; 800 full-color maps with voice pronunciation of place-names; 100 animations on such topics as dance, volcanos, fish, and lasers; 83,000 words from Webster’s Electronic Dictionary, Concise Edition, and 40,000 entries from Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus.

Minimum requirements for Encarta are a 386SX or higher processor with 2 MB of RAM and a 30 MB hard disk; VGA or better display; a CD-ROM drive; an audio board and music synthesizer with onboard analog audio mixing capabilities; headphones or speakers connected to your computer system; Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions; and MSCDEX 2.2 with a driver that implements the extended audio APIs. A Macintosh version is due to come out by the first quarter of 1994. A copy of Microsoft Encarta is available to teachers and librarians at a special price of $249.00 from Microsoft, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399. Inquire about network licensing agreements at (800) 426-9400.

Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of Technology,by Autumn Stanley (1,116 pages, July 1993), is an exceptional tribute to women inventors and innovators, most of whom have never gotten credit for their ideas in mainstream history books. The inventions are divided into five major topics, each one except the last beginning with Neolithic prehistory. Few books are as packed with facts that really should not be overlooked, and Stanley succeeds in making it all entertaining and well-organized. There are no less than 26 appendices keyed to the major topics. Whatever your gender, your consciousness cannot help being raised by realizing that women invented such essentials as the ice cream freezer (1843), the vacuum-canning process (1872), genetic engineering (1950), and the bobby pin (1916). Copies are available for $97.50 from Scarecrow Press, P.O. Box 4167, Metuchen, NJ 08840. ISBN 0-8108-2586-4.

The Online Manual,edited by Jill Cousins and Lesley Robinson (979 pages, 2d ed., April 1993), is a practical guide to the use of English-language business databases for online searchers. The manual describes relevant host services (BRS, Dialog, Wilsonline, etc.) and the technical requirements for accessing them, then provides lists of financial databases, subjects, and more than 60,000 periodicals and other sources and where they can be found online. A copy may be ordered for $195.00 from Blackwell Publishers, 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. ISBN 0-631-18931-9.

The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300–1990s,by Jane Davidson Reid (2 vols., 1,310 pages, May 1993), contains a detailed record of the representation of Greek and Roman mythological figures and stories in art, music, and dance, from the early Renaissance to the present. Each entry offers a brief definition and background on the personage or topic, a short list of references in classical literature, a reading list for further reference, and a chronological listing of artists or composers who have depicted the subject. This chronology includes the title of the work, its genre or medium, its date of composition, its location, performance data, publication data, and source references. Listings for major mythological characters are grouped into a general list and more specific lists (Dionysus, for example, has separate chronologies for his infancy, Dionysus and the Pirates, and Dionysus and Ariadne). These volumes will prove invaluable to art historians in tracing the evolution of myth in Western culture. An index of artists identifies the entries in which their works are cited. A copy is $195.00 from Oxford University Press, 200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. ISBN 0-19-504998-5.

Preparing for Accreditation: A Handbook for Academic Librarians,by Patricia Ann Sacks and Sara Lou Whildin (84 pages, 1993), is designed to assist academic libraries in preparing for the reviews of external agencies responsible for accrediting their institutions. The focus is on the accreditation review as a component of the overall planning, self-study, and assessment process. A final chapter gives suggestions on using accreditation results to satisfy the library’s agenda for improvement. Copies are $18.00 from ALA Order Department, 50 E. Huron, Chicago, IL 60611. ISBN 0-389-0621-4.

Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names,edited by John K. Bollard (894 pages, August 1993), shows the acceptable pronunciations for more than 23,000 names that may not easily be found in other reference sources. The dictionary includes difficult-to-pronounce place names, celebrities, political and historical figures, company and product names, biblical names, and literary references. Pronunciations appear both in a respelling system (Chicago = shuh-KAHG-o) and in a version of the International Phonetic Alphabet widely employed by linguists. In preparing this dictionary, pronunciations were “proof-listened” perhaps for the first time in lexicography. Ever wonder how to pronounce Azerbaijan or Zhengzhou? This book will show you. The book costs $68.00 from Omnigraphics, Inc., Penobscot Building, Detroit, MI 48226. ISBN 1-55888-311-8.

Victorian Yellowbacks & Paperbacks, 1849–1905: Volume I, George Routledge,by Chester W. Topp (557 pages, 1993), provides complete bibliographic descriptions of the yellowback books, 19th-century precursors of the paperback that were primarily sold in railway bookstalls in Victorian England. This volume describes the output of George Routledge; future volumes will cover Ward & Lock, Chatto & Windus, and 21 other smaller publishers. The author spent 30 years compiling this definitive bibliography, which is arranged chronologically and indicates the date of publication for the first English and American editions. Thirty color illustrations accompany the text. Copies are $135.00 from the Hermitage Antiquarian Bookshop, 290 Fillmore Street, Denver, CO 80206-5020. ISBN 0-9633920-0-X. ■