ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

New Publications

George M. Eberhart

All Politics Is Local,by Christopher Collier (224 pages, December 2003), tries to answer a question that has often been asked but rarely analyzed: What did the framers of the U.S. Constitution expect to gain from this new experiment in democracy? And, more specifically, at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, what led the delegates from Connecticut, especially the 40 antifederalists in a former colony known as a vigorous proponent of its own rights, to agree to a strong central government? Collier finds that the answer was not ideology, but a variety of family, militia, economic, and personal concerns and connections in an extremely local context. This intriguing approach could prove enlightening if applied to other states as well. University Press of New England. $39.95. ISBN 1-58465-290-X.

Conflict in Afghanistan: A Historical Encyclopedia,by Frank A. Clements (376 pages, December 2003), is a guide to key Afghan figures, organizations, historical events, and customs from the creation of the modem state in 1747, through the three Anglo-Afghan Wars and the Soviet invasion, up to U.S. operations through August 2003. Nearly 400 entries with references, accompanied by 50 photographs and a 55-page chronology, help to explain this remote, exotic nation. $85.00. ABC- CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-402-4.

Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives,by Gregory S. Hunter (456 pages, 2d ed., October 2003), covers all aspects of organizing and maintaining an archival program for any type of organization, but especially special collections and corporate libraries. This new edition has three additional chapters on audiovisual archives, management, and the nature of the archival profession, and it has many checklists, photos, helpful suggestions, and topical bibliographies. $65.00. Neal-Schuman. ISBN 1-55570-467-0.

A companion volume, Building Digital Archives, Descriptions, and Displays, by Frederick Stielow (229 pages, October 2003), offers technical tips for Web-based archives. $75.00. ISBN 1-55570-463-8.

Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939-1945,by Michael S. Shull and David E. Wilt (246 pages, 2d ed., March 2004), is an analysis and annotated filmography of historical and political material found in cartoons released to the general U.S. public during World War II. One important section that did not appear in the first edition in 1987 is a chapter on the Private Snafu cartoons, produced by Warner Brothers and distributed to military bases in Europe and the Pacific. This series, which warned GIs about the dangers of loose talk and various diseases, featured the talents of Friz Freleng, Frank Tashlin, Ted (“Dr. Seuss”) Geisel, Phil Eastman, Carl Stalling, and Mel Blanc. $38.50. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1555-X.

Coauthor Wilt has also written a monumental Mexican Filmography, 1916 through 2001 (778 pages, December 2003), a comprehensive list of feature-length films arranged chronologically with an English-language synopsis for each. $195.00. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1537-1.

Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World,edited by Richard C. Martin (823 pages, 2 vols., December 2003), presents more than 500 essays by an international group of some 500 scholars on all aspects of Muslim life. The entries describe individuals (al-Tabari, Salman Rushthe), empires (Abbasid, Ottoman), culture (cartography, calligraphy, law), sociology (homosexuality, public roles of women), ideologies (fundamentalism, pan-Islam, modernism), regions (Africa, the Americas, Southeast Asia), religion (‘Ibadat, the Qur’an, Shi'a), and places (Fez, Karbala, Qom). A three-page entry on Islamic libraries has been included. Edited carefully to make it easy on readers with little knowledge of Islam, these volumes are an excellent source for understanding the modem religion within its 1,400-year historical context. Appendixes include a glossary and several genealogies and timelines. $265.00. Macmillan Reference USA. ISBN 0-02-865603-2.

Macmillan’s The Encyclopedia of Buddhism, edited by Robert E. Buswell Jr. (981 pages, 2 vols., October 2003), offers a similar scope for a religion that is approximately 1,000 years older and perhaps even less understood by most Americans. The 470 entries cover Buddhist doctrines, writings, culture, politics, concepts, folk religion, mon- asteries, and individuals. $265.00. ISBN 0-02- 865718-7.

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

Fossil Frogs and Toads of North America,by J. Alan Holman (246 pages, January 2004), contains detailed systematic descriptions of fossil anurans and the localities in North America where they occurred. Holman provides illustrations and modem descriptions for species that are still liv- ing, and in the last chapter he gives a chronologi- cal overview of frogs and toads from the Meso- zoic to the Pleistocene. $79.95. Indiana University. ISBN 0-253-34280-6.

Freedom's Journey: African-American Voices of the Civil War,edited by Donald Yacovone (568 pages, January 2004), presents 58 documents written between 1860 and 1910 by black Americans who describe their unique experi- ences during the Civil War, as slaves, solthers, sail- ors, or witnesses to momentous events. Only a few of the writers are relatively well known today, but all offer a perspective on the war and the broad issues of free- dom and human rights that lie at the core of why it was fought. Included are Frederick Douglass’s 1863 call for volun- teers to join the 54th Massachusetts regi- ment (“Men of Color, to Arms!”); minister J. Stella Martin’s 1865 sermon on his experience in bondage (“Well, I am a negro, and I was not contented”); three of Sgt. George E. Stephens’s regular dispatches from the front to the New York Weekly Anglo-African; a slave narrative written in 1866 by Mattie J. Jack- son; the reminiscences of Susie King Taylor, who served as laundress for the 1st South Carolina Volunteers (a Union regiment); and the wartime memoirs of the Rev. Elijah P. Mans, who joined the 12th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery in Louis- ville in 1864. $40.00. Lawrence Hill; distributed by the Independent Publishers Group. ISBN 1- 55652-511-7.

PC Annoyances,by Steve Bass (176 pages, October 2003), offers numerous tips and tricks to fix aggravating computer glitches, slowdowns, and software defaults. Bass, a contribut- ing editor to PC World, includes chapters on e- mail, Windows, Internet browsers, Microsoft Office, Windows Ex- plorer, music and video, and hardware that are filled with such gems as “Protect your system from dumb installations,” “Spam zappers extraordi-naire,” and “Revealing Word codes. ” Many fixes can be down- loaded from the publisher’s Web site at www.oreilly.com/pcannoyances/. $19.95. O’Reilly. ISBN 0-596-00593-8.

The Revolution of Peter the Greatby James Cracraft (192 pages, November 2003), summarizes the comprehensive military, diplomatic, bureaucratic, and cultural reforms introduced by Peter the Great (1689—1725) and the resultant opposition to his “Europeanization” of the empire. A good place to start for students, who may turn to Cracraft’s more comprehensive volumes on the Petrine revolution for more details. $25-95. Harvard University. ISBN 0-674-01196-1.

A Right Worthy Grand Mission: Maggie Lena Walker and the Quest for Black Economic Empowermentby Gertrude Woodruff Marlowe (286 pages, December 2003), documents the life of Maggie Lena Walker (1865-1934), the first black woman in America to charter a bank, which survives now as the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company in Richmond, Virginia. An ardent feminist, Walker fought for women’s suffrage and brought the Independent Order of St. Luke, a fraternal and cooperative insurance society, to prominence. One of the wealthiest and most influential African American women of the early 20th century, her home in Richmond has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The author, a Howard University social anthropologist, spent the last ten years of her life researching Walker's life and legacy. $36.95. Howard University. ISBN 0-88258-211-9.

Science in the Enlightenment: An Encyclopedia,by William E. Bums (353 pages, November 2003), offers a snapshot of Western scientific knowledge in the 18th and early 19th centuries, an era when chemistry, geology, astronomy, and biology underwent significant development. The book contains 192 biographical and topical entries, covering scientists from d’Alembert to Wolff, theories, disciplines, and organizations. The index conveniently includes significant book and journal titles mentioned in the text. $85.00. ABC- CLIO. ISBN 1-57607-886-8.

Sea Dragons: Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans,by Richard Ellis (313 pages, October 2003), should satisfy most people who have longed for an undergraduate-level overview of extinct marine reptiles. Equally as entertaining and well- written as Ellis’s other books on the sea, Sea Dragons describes the likely physiology and habits of ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, pliosaurs, and mosasaurs that populated the Mesozoic seas 250 to 65 million years ago. Fifty-one of the author’s distinctive line drawings accompany the text. $29.95. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-1269-6.

Dinosaur fans will be pleased to note there is a new supplement (726 pages, 3rd Supp.‚ January 2004) to Donald F. Glut’s Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia, last updated in early 2002. Glut continues to keep readers current with the latest scientific findings, ideas, studies, and such controversies as whether or not dinosaurs were warm-blooded (endothermic) and the specific evolutionary path from dinosaurs to birds. $95.00. McFarland. ISBN 0- 7864- 1518-5.

The Tango in the United States,by Carlos G. Groppa (239 pages, December 2003), charts a century of American interest in this Argentinean dance from its introduction and instant acceptance in New York dance halls in the winter of 1913-1914 to the nuevo tango of Astor Piazzolla in the 1980s and its increasing exposure in competitions, on the stage, and in the movies at the end of the millennium. Groppa describes the influence of the dance’s prominent proponents—Irene and Vernon Castle, Rudolph Valentino, Carlos Gardel, and Xavier Cugat—as well as such lesser-known aficionados as Osvaldo Fresedo and Francisco Canaro. $39.95. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1406-5.

World War I,by H. P. Willmott (317 pages, October 2003), serves as a broad visual introduction to the Great War, in the grand DK style. In addition to the maps and illustrations of the paraphernalia of the time (posters, letters, weapons, and uniforms), the volume’s timelines are most helpful in straightening out overlapping campaigns. $40.00. DK. ISBN 0-7894-9627-5.

The Sto›y of the West,edited by Robert M. Udey 020 pages, September 2003), is another successful DK-Smithsonian Institution collaboration, with a good amount of space devoted to pre-contact Indian cultures and the Spanish colonies as well as the 19th and 20th centuries. $40.00. DK. ISBN 0-7894-9660-7.

ACRL to offer three preconferences in Orlando! Friday, June 24, 2004

Information Commons 101: Nuts and Bolts Planning

During this full-day preconference, presenters will provide nuts and bolts instruction for early-stage Information Commons (IC) planners. Increase your understanding of IC planning, implementation, and assessment issues. Return to your institution with increased clarity of IC problems and possible solutions, as well as practical guidelines.

Information Literacy: Time for a Comprehensive Plan

Using a workbook created by the preconference presenters, be guided through the process of creating a comprehensive plan for information literacy. Learn how to identify essential elements in constructing a plan and discover how to apply those elements to build a successful long-term plan. Leave the session with an outline and draft information literacy plan for your home institution.

Scholarly Communication 101

Receive an introduction to the scholarly communication landscape from ACRL members who are experts on scholarly communication issues. Become fluent with scholarly communication issues and trends, and position yourself to participate in campus communication programs and other advocacy efforts. Preconference topics include the developing crisis in the system of scholarly communication and strategies for change.

Register now for these events! Complete details and registration materials are online at www.ala.org/acrl/events.