ACRL College & Researc Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

New Publications

George M. Eberhart

The Beast of Chicago: The Murderous Ca- reer of H. H. Holmes,by Rick Geary (80 pages, August 2003), is the sixth in a series of graphic novels on Victorian-era murders by California artist Geary, whose art has appeared in National Lampoon, Marvel and Dark Horse comics, Mad, American Librar- ies, and the Los An- geles Times. Geary is in fine form with this tale of Chicago’s no- torious murderer of the 1890s, who may have tortured and killed as many as 100 guests in his multi-room lodging house near the grounds of the World’s Columbian Ex- position. The black-and-white artwork con- tains little graphic violence, and Geary tells the story of America’s first known serial killer with a matter-of-fact curiosity. $15.95. NBM Publishing. ISBN 1-56163-362-3.

Citizen Labillardière: A Naturalist's Life in Revolution and Exploration (1755-1834),by Edward Duyker (383 pages, June 2003), describes the life and voyages of Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière, a French scientist who became one of the first to describe the plants, animals, and indigenous peoples of Australia. Duyker paints an intriguing picture of science during the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, as seen through Labillardière’s eyes. His experiences as one of Napoleon’s commissioners to examine and confiscate some of the treasures in Italian libraries and museums are instructive, but his Novae Hollandiae plantarum specimen (1804-1806), recognized as the first general flora of Australia, ensured him a place in scientific history. $44.95. Melbourne University. ISBN 0-522-85010-3.

Historical Aspects of Cataloging and Classification,edited by Martin D. Joachim and published simultaneously as Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, vol. 35, nos. 1-4 (604 pages, June 2003), offers some unusual tidbits of bibliographic history for the curious cataloger seeking insight into the origins of librarianship. Included are essays on the original 73 cataloging rules of the British Museum, the development of book and manuscript cataloging in Iran, the M and K classification in the Library of Congress system, and 23 others. $69.95. Haworth. ISBN 0-7890-1980-9.

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

Howto Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs,by Mark Collier and Bill Manley (179 pages, August 2003), is a practical guide to the hieroglyphs and structure of ancient Egyptian. A revision of the authors’ bestseller published by the British Museum in 1998, this grammar is far easier to understand than those by E. A. Wallis Budge (1910) and Gunther Roeder (1920). Collier and Manley describe the language in its historical context and give many examples of inscriptions found on stelae, tombs, and king lists. The appendices provide a classified guide to signs, reference tables, and an Egyptian-En- glish vocabulary. $24.95. University of California. ISBN 0-520-23949-0.

Introduction to Reference Work in the Digital Age,by Joseph Janes (211 pages, July 2003), takes the reader on a guided tour of the changes and challenges in current reference service. Sections of particular interest include guidelines for asynchronous reference (by e-mail or Web forms), the changing nature of the reference interview, the challenge of serving the “evaporating patron,” and a ten-step process for introducing a new reference service. A good mix of thoughtful speculation and practical advice. $59-95. Neal-Schuman. ISBN 1-55570-429-8.

Kappler Revisited: An Index and Bibliographic Guide to American Indian Treaties,by Charles D. Bernholz (121 pages, July 2003), remedies the limitations of Charles Kappler’s Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties (1904), a standard source for Native American law and culture. This supplement integrates the 375 treaties recognized by the U.S. Department of State with nine other resources, and provides indexes to original sources by treaty number and tribal group. $45.95. Epoch Books, 22 Byron Ave., Kenmore, NY 14223. ISBN 0-9629586-4-6.

Libricide: The Regime-Sponsored Destruction of Books and Libraries in the Twentieth Century,by Rebecca Knuth (277 pages, July 2003), argues that government-authorized book-burning often precedes or accompanies genocide, since the obliteration of a people cannot be accomplished without destroying its printed history. Knuth offers the case studies of Nazi Germany, the Croatian and Bosnian Serbs, Iraq in Kuwait, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and China’s takeover of Tibet as examples of extremist ideologies that attempted to eradicate competing cultural resources. $39.95. Praeger. ISBN 0-275-98088-X.

Musings, Meanderings, and Monsters, Too: Essays on Academic Librarianship,edited by Martin H. Raish (195 pages, July 2003), consists of 19 chapter-length, informal ruminations on the disquieting problems that threaten to change academic librarianship as we know it—primarily the escalating need to teach criti- cal-thinking skills and information literacy to students, and the transformative effect of information technology on the profession. Contributors include Barbara Fister, David Isaacson, Ilene Rockman, Diana Shonrock, and Tony Amodeo. $24.95. Scarecrow. ISBN 0-8108-4767-1.

October 1962: The "Missile" Crisis As Seen from Cuba,by Tomás Diez Acosta (333 pages, October 2002), presents the flip side of Kennedy’s showdown with Khrushchev from the perspective of the Cubans, who often get forgotten in accounts of the struggle between the superpowers. Acosta was a 15-year-old lit- eracy worker in the Cu- ban army at the time, and since 1987 he has been a historian at the Institute of Cuban His- tory in Havana. The author sees the drama as the Cuban revolu- tionary government’s firm stand against both U.S. plans to over- throw Castro and the Soviets’ Operation Anadyr, which called for the deployment of 42,0 Russian troops on the island. Supplemented with many little-seen photographs and documentation. $24.00. Pathfinder. ISBN 0- 87348-956-X.

Also from the same publisher is Marianas in Combat, by Teté Puebla (101 pages, March 2003), the highest-ranking woman general in the Cuban army, who in a series of interviews describes the women’s platoon in the Cuban revolution and the role of women in the armed services. $14.00. ISBN 0-87348-957-8.