ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

New Publications

George M. Eberhart

Absolut Mail Art, edited by Martina Corgnati (85 pages, January 1998), is a tribute to an adver- tising icon that enjoys international recognition and popularity—the Absolut Vodka bottle. The Swedish company challenged 20 established Ital- ian artists to produce a work of mail art on the Absolut theme. Their creations, reproduced and explained in this book, were the subject of a month-long exhibition in Milan. If you buy this, put it in closed stacks (next to Richard W. Lewis’s Absolut Book, Charles E. Tuttle, 1996), be- cause all things Absolut are highly collectible. $31.95. Published by Electa in Milan. Distributed by Art Books In- ternational, 220 Stewart’s Road, London SW8 4UD, En- gland. ISBN 88-435-6265-7.

The Dial Recordings of Charlie Parker: A Discog- raphy, compiled by Edward M. Komara (215 pages, June 1998), details the 1945-1947 recordings of one of the great- est saxophonists of all time. Since Parker wrote very little about his music and rarely no- tated his themes and solos, his recorded output becomes a primary source in understand- ing this legendary jazz innova- tor. Music librarian Komara provides a historical narrative, a catalog of titles, and commentary. $69-50. Greenwood. ISBN 0- 313-29168-3.

Jazz collections will also need the third edition of Michael Erlewine’s All Music Guide to Jazz, which has thickened by 400 pages since 1996 (it’s also wider by an inch). Few books (or Web sites for that matter) are packed with so much useful information. $29.95. Miller Freeman. ISBN 0-87930-530-4.

The Dorling Kindersley Ultimate Visual Dictionary of Science (448 pages, August 1998) is another DK reference book that fits nicely into an undergraduate collection. This fact book is more encyclopedia than dictionary, but the photographs and other illustrations are the real selling points. Scientific concepts are more easily grasped if you can actually see thin film interference, prion proteins, or chromate ions in a reversible reaction. It even has an illustration of the Schrödinger’s-cat thought experiment, complete with cat. All the science is up-to-date; for example, the medical chapter explains the difference between CT, MRI, and PET scans. A good book to browse in between refer- ence questions. $29.95. DK Publishing. ISBN 0-7894- 3512-8.

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

Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History, by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne (180 pages, Octo- ber 1998), examines the his- tory of Halloween and its tra- ditions, from ancient Celtic festival to Colonial fall cel- ebration and its varied per- mutations over the past 200 years. Current Halloween fans may be surprised at the odd customs their ancestors prac- ticed. A handy collection of hard-to-fınd folklore. $14.95. Pelican Publishing, P.O. Box 3110, Gretna, LA 70054. ISBN 1-56554-346-7.

Special Libraries: A Cataloging Guide, by Sheila S. Intner and Jean Weihs (452 pages, June 1998), explains the principles and standards of cataloging with examples of materials found in health science, law, art, music, sci-tech, and corporate collections. The authors unveil the mysteries of cataloging art and science with succinct, pragmatic essays on access, subject authorities, classification systems, and management issues. A textbook, but one that might be useful if you suddenly found yourself working in a technical services area. $55.00. Libraries Unlimited. ISBN 0-87287-955-0.

Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popu- lar Songwriters, 1880-1930, by David A. Jasen and Gene Jones (435 pages, August 1998), pays a belated tribute to the many African-American composers, lyricists, and singers of vocal music in the 50 years from Reconstruction to the Great Depression. Few of their names are remembered today, but the indelible mark they made on American popular music underlies much of what we listen to now. Their achievements are even more remarkable given the climate of bigotry and segregation that existed then. Such men and women as James Reese Europe, Black Patti, Will Marion Cook, James A. Bland, Mamie Smith, and Noble Sissle overcame vast obstacles to get their music performed. This excellent history goes well beyond Thomas L. Riis’s Just Before Jazz (Smithsonian, 1989), which deals with part of the same era. $29.95. Schirmer. ISBN 0-02-864742-4.

Titanic Adventure, by Jenni- fer Carter and Joel Hirschhorn (320 pages, October 1998), is the story of how Carter in 1987 got the job managing the camera crew on the first expe- dition to take pictures of the Titanic on the floor of the At- lantic. She also was to act as liaison between employees of the French and the American companies who sponsored the expedition, neither of which got along perfectly. The person- ality conflicts, the artifacts re- trieved from the ship, the struggles that Carter had to put up with as the lone woman among a shipful of sailors, all make for a quick and exciting read. Her coauthor and second husband Joel Hirschhorn is, ironi- cally, the composer of “There’s Got to be a Morn- ing After” for The Poseidon Adventure. William F. Buckley Jr., who went along for part of the ride, wrote the foreword. $26.95. New Horizon Press, P.O. Box 669, Far Hüls, NJ 07931. ISBN 0-88282- 170-9.

Uncommon People: Resistance, Rebellion, and Jazz, by Eric Hobsbawm (360 pages, September 1998), consists of 26 essays on radicalism, peasants, contemporary history, and jazz (considered as a grassroots art) written between the late 1950s and mid-1990s. Hobsbawm’s point of view is both British and labor-oriented, but his knowledge and ideas are wide-ranging as he comments on the mafia, the sexual revolution, Billie Holiday, guerrilla war, and Christopher Columbus. Idiosyncratic, but worth reading if you’re in a socialist mood. $27.50. New Press, 450 W. 4lst, New York, NY 10036. ISBN 1-56584-466-1.

Yellowstone and the Biology of Time: Photographs Across a Century, by Mary Meagher and Douglas B. Houston (287 pages, May 1998), presents a panoramic record of the ecological and geological changes that have taken place over the past 100 years at specific landmarks in Yellowstone National Park. From 1971-73, the authors took a series of photographs in locations that matched images captured between 1871 and 1943- Then, after the park’s massive fires of 1988, the authors documented the altered vegetational landscape as the plant life recovered in the 1990s. One hundred trios or pairs of photos are compared on two-page spreads, with commentary on the apparent changes in vegetation. Especially for those familiar with Yellowstone, this is an invaluable photographic record. $80.00. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2996- 4.

The Zeppelin Reader, edited by Robert Hedin (290 pages, May 1998), brings together some of the finest writings, stories, songs, and poems that illustrate what the airship era (from the 1890s to the Hindenburg disaster in 1937) was like in fact and spirit. Included are reports by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin and Alberto Santos- Dumont, as well as diaries, memoirs, and logs by dirigible commanders, crews, and survivors of ill-fated flights. Many of these have been long out of print, especially such songs as “Come, Take a Trip in My Air-Ship,” “Akron, Queen of the Skies,” and “The Zeppelin Polka.” John R. McCormick’s reminiscence of seeing the Graf Zeppelin pass over his boyhood Illinois home in 1929 is particularly poignant. $27.95. University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-629-1. ■