ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

New Publications

George M. Eberhart is senior editor of American Libraries; e-mail: geberhart@ala.org regularly? Perhaps discovering the answers to these questions could instill an appreciation of the classics in the most postmodern minds. $35.00. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0599-6.

Africa and Blues,by Gerhard Kubik (240 pages, August 1999), pinpoints the areas in West and central Africa where blues music most likely originated, traces its genealogy through 18 African nations, and follows it to America where it influenced modern African music. Kubik shows how the blues, though it developed in the United States under a specific set of social conditions, essentially belongs to African culture. An essential book for music collections. $45.00. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-57806-145-8.

The Companion to African Literatures,by Douglas Killam and Ruth Rowe (322 pages, January 2000), is a detailed guide to African poetry, drama, fiction, and folklore written in English or widely available in translation. It includes authors’ biographies, notable titles, summaries of the literatures of various African languages, literary genres, and the politics of African literature. A rich source of information for this underappreciated body of literature. $49.95. Indiana University. ISBN 0-253-33633-3.

Directory of Financial Aids for Women, 1999-2001,by Gail Ann Schlachter (568 pages, October 1999), describes 1,750 scholarships, loans, grants, awards, and internships earmarked for women. Completely revised since the last biennial edition, this volume has 225 new entries. Information is arranged by type of program, with indexes by program title, sponsoring organization, residency, tenability, subject, and calendar. $45.00. Reference Service Press. ISBN 0-918276-80-2.

Famous Firsts in the Ancient Greek and Roman World,by David Matz (154 pages, February 2000), will come in handy for settling bar bets and trivia contests. What was the name of the first Vestal Virgin? Who was the first tree pruner? Who was the first to mention color gradations in marble? When was the first trial in Rome for poisoning? What was Plato’s first name? Who was the first Roman to shave

Food: A Culinary History,edited by Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari (592 pages, November 1999), consists of 48 essays on the culture of food consumption from Paleolithic times to the McDonald’s era. Though focusing primarily on European cuisine, the contributors also examine Middle Eastern foods in antiquity and the Middle Ages. They explore many interesting gastronomic byways, including the origin of Hebrew dietary laws; what the Etruscans ate; the Greek symposium feast, complete with poetry readings and dionysian possession; how people dined before forks were invented; Arab contributions to European cooking, such as cane sugar, rice, and pasta; medieval table manners; the 19th-century invasion of Europe by foreign foods; and the link between tourism and gastronomy. A good companion piece to James Trager’s The Food Chronology (Henry Holt, 1995). $39.95. Columbia University. ISBN 0-231-11154-1.

The Ghosts of Hopewell: Setting the Record Straight in the Lindbergh Case,by Jim Fisher (200 pages, December 1999), focuses on the physical evidence that implicates Bruno Hauptmann as the kidnapper of the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh in 1936. This work is an answer to critics of his previous book, The Lindbergh Case (1987), who feel that Hauptmann was framed by a conspiracy involving federal, state, and municipal law enforcement agencies. Fisher, a former FBI agent and criminologist, cuts through the cloud of speculation to make a strong case for Hauptmann’s guilt. $24.95. Southern Illinois University. ISBN 0-8093-2285-4.

Harrod’s Librarians’ Glossary and Reference Book,compiled by Ray Prytherch (787 pages, 9th ed., January 2000), contains more than 9,600 definitions of terms in librarianship, some 1,100 of them new since the 8th edition (1995) and 2,100 revised. New to this release is the addition of Web addresses for organizations and many bibliographic projects (like Project Gutenberg), especially those in the United Kingdom and the European Union. As always, this is a useful place to look for acronyms and initialisms, antiquarian and conservators’ terms, and obscure words and phrases like “pre-natal classification” and “titlonym” that might otherwise be difficult to track down. $166.95. Gower/Ashgate. ISBN 0-56608-018-4.

In the Benedictine Tradition: The Origins and Development of Two College Libraries,by M. Dorothy Neuhofer (260 pages, August 1999), traces the traditional Benedictine enjoyment of learning and libraries in Europe from the 6th century to secularization in 1803, and its subsequent reestablishment in the United States. The early history of the libraries of the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University, both in Minnesota, are examined in detail. $48.00. University Press of America. ISBN 0-7618-1463-9.

Killer Algae: The True Tale of a Biological Invasion,by Alexandre Meinesz (360 pages, November 1999), tells the story of how a bright-green, tropical seaweed, Caulerpa taxifolia, came to devastate the ecosystems of 10,000 acres along the Mediterranean coasts of France, Spain, Italy, and Croatia. Dumped into the sea by the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco when it was cleaning its tanks, the weed unexpectedly thrived in the cooler waters because it was actually a resistant variety that had been exposed to chemicals and ultraviolet light in the Stuttgart Aquarium. Meinesz, a biologist at the University of Nice, investigated the expanding patch at the dump site in 1989 and spent the next 10 years trying to get various authorities to do something about it. This ecohorror story maps the spread of this toxic weed, now expanding unstoppably throughout the Mediterranean; it also takes a realistic look at policymakers’ increasing scorn for biodiversity and the flawed ways in which scientific information is communicated. $25.50. University of Chicago. ISBN 0-226-51922-8.

Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers,edited by Joanne Herschfleld and David R. Maciel (313 pages, November 1999), is a collection of 14 essays that examine the first 100 years of film in Mexico, which has produced more films than any other Spanish-language country. Included are discussions on the silent era, comedy and ethnicity in the “golden age” of the 1940s, border cinema, women and gender representation in contemporary films, and the comedy of Tin Tan and Cantinflas. $55.00. SR Books, ISBN 0-8420-2681-9.

Preservation of Library and Archival Materials: A Manual,edited by Sherelyn Ogden (412 pages, 3rd ed:, December 1999), is an updated compilation of all the technical leaflets issued by the Northeast Document Conservation Center. The topics cover preservation planning, environment, emergency management, storage and handling, reformatting, and conservation procedures. Every leaflet has been updated and new ones written for this edition, which is about 100 years longer than the previous one. Though available for online downloading since March 1999 at www.nedcc.org/plam3/manhome.htm, the manual was also published in print form in response to requests by NEDCC’s clients. $50.00. NEDCC, c/o FPM SI, 220 Neck Road, Haverhill, MA 01835. ISBN 0-963-4685-2-9.

That American Rag: The Story of Ragtime from Coast to Coast,by David A. Jasen and Gene Jones (433 pages, November 1999), fills an important gap in musical history as it surveys the composers and performers of piano ragtime in all the major centers of American music from 1897 to 1980. Not a mere precursor of jazz, ragtime was syncopated piano music with a specific rhythm and structure that encapsulated the spirit of the new 20th century. Its influence was felt everywhere—not just in Missouri, Chicago and New York, but in the South, New England, and the West, as well. Illustrations of sheet music and photos of musicians enhance the text. Appendices list ragtime composers by birthplace, publications by state, and 2,002 published rags. $29.95. Schirmer. ISBN 0-02-864743-2. ■