ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

New Publications

George M. Eberhart

American Music in the Twentieth Century,by Kyle Gann (400 pages, December 1997), surveys the art music composed in the United States from the tone poems of Charles Ives to the total ism of Mikel Rouse. Writ ten for the general reader with a basic knowledge of music, the book covers ultramodernism in the 1920s, populism in the 1930s, experimen- talism, atonality, John Cage and the New York School, post-Cage conceptualism, minimalism, new romanticism, electronic music, rock and jazz fusion, postminimalism, and totalism. Each chapter offers a discussion of recommended musical examples and concise composer biographies. An essential guide for those who want to move beyond Mahler and Brahms. $39.00. Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-02-864655-X.

Schirmer has also published a revised, concise edition of Daniel Kingman’s American Music: A Panorama (433 pages, March 1998), which covers folk and ethnic music, blues, country, rock, popular sacred music, pop from colonial times to the present, jazz, and classical music. Though written as a textbook, it is equally useful as a quick reference source. $25.00. ISBN 0-02-864614-2.

Charging and Collecting Fees and Fines,by Murray S. Martin and Betsy Park (146 pages, May 1998), offers suggestions for a cost-benefit analysis of fee structures for circulation services, photocopying, interlibrary loan, reference services, Internet access, cooperative library services, and other library cost centers. The authors’ approach is a practical one, with many checklists and worksheets. $49.95. Neal-Schuman. ISBN 1-55570-318-6.

Chinese American Names: Tradition and Transition,by Emma Woo Louie (230 pages, July 1998), explains the mysteries of how Chinese immigrants acquired Americanized names like Lee, Woo, or Chen. The first section of the book describes traditional Chinese naming conventions, while others explore names as clues to regional origin, Chinese-American name styles and customs, and identifying a Chinese surname character. An appendix provides a list of common surnames and their Chinese characters. $32.50. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0418-3.

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

If Chinese ethnic groups are your interest, consult An Ethnohistoricαl Dictionary of China, by James S. Olson (434 pages, March 1998). Every significant anthropological and linguistic group is described here, not just the 55 minority “nationalities” officially recognized by the People’s Republic. An extensive essay on China’s largest ethnic group, the Han, covers their history from the Neolithic to the 1990s. $89.50. Greenwood. ISBN 0-313-28853-4.

The International Director of University Histories, edited by Carol Summerfield and Mary Elizabeth Devine (780 pages, April 1998), is actually a collection of historical essays on 168 selected academic institutions worldwide. The editors have chosen diverse types of universities with differing education requirements, regional demands, and philosophical goals. Slightly less than half are U.S. schools, allowing for comparisons with a wide set of overseas counterparts. Histories of older institutions are not limited to 19th- and 20th- century summaries; for example, the entry for Cairo’s Al-Azhar University starts right in at its founding in 972 A.D. A comprehensive index enhances access. $125.00. Fitzroy Dearborn, 70 E. Walton St., Chicago, IL 60611, ISBN 1- 884964-23-0.

A Stephen Crane Encyclopedia,by Stanley Wertheim (413 pages, December 1997), catalogs the life, writings, friends, and activities of this American journalist and novelist who, though best known for his Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage (1895), was one of the first to write realistically about urban slums and the retreat of the frontier. This well-organized and comprehensive guide is an essential purchase for collections of American history and fiction of the 1890s. $85.00. Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-29692-8.

Disaster Response and Planning for Libraries,by Miriam B. Kahn (128 pages, 1998), is filled with practical advice on planning for and recovering from various types of disasters. Emphasizing the importance of a detailed, workable disaster plan, Kahn enumerates the duties of a disaster response team and recommends that priorities for recovery be in place before a disaster occurs. The book is filled with suggestions on how to salvage different media, checklists and forms, and contacts for additional assistance and supplies. $34.20. ALA Editions. ISBN 0-8389-0716-4.

The Encyclopedia of Mummies,by Bob Brier (256 pages, February 1998), should serve as a useful reference for all those questions inspired by undergraduate interests in Egyptology and horror films. Mummies created by both natural and artificial means are included, along with mummy lore and legend. A directory of museums that house mummies and an adequate subject bibliography are included. $35.00. Facts on File. ISBN 0-8160-3108-8.

A much more detailed study of the 20th- century preservation of human remains is Modern Mummies, by Christine Quigley (263 pages, June 1998), which incorporates carnival mummies, religious incorruptibility, freak accidents, mortuary science, and cryogenics. $35.00. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0492-2.

The Evolution of the Book,by OCLC founder Frederick G. Kilgour (180 pages, April 1998), reviews the history of book production from clay tablets to computers, spanning roughly 4,500 years of civilization. As might be expected, the role of libraries in knowledge dissemination is emphasized. Kilgour identifies seven “punctuated equilibria” in the history of the book: clay tablets (2500 B.C.), papyrus rolls (2000 B.C.), codices (150 A.D.), printing (1450), steam power (1800), offset printing (1970), and electronic books (2000). Other inventions such as paper, eyeglasses, indexes, title pages, typewriters, and hypertext are examined in context. $35.00. Oxford University. ISBN 0-19-511 859-6.

If this title gets you excited about bibliology, then you will also want to read Cuneiform to Computer: A History of Reference Sources, by William A. Katz (417 pages, April 1998). Beginning with the premise that “Reference books reflect the will of the compiler who … mirrored the place and period in which he lived,” Katz delves deeply into reference history to reveal the origin and development of encyclopedias, quotation books, almanacs, handbooks, dictionaries, maps, travel guides, biographies, bibliographies, indexes, and government documents. Every page is filled with facts that you can drop casually at the next cocktail party or budget hearing: “Chatty chronicles, as much fiction as fact, became the popular reference works of the 13th and 14th centuries”; “The Great Exhibition of All Nations, held in London in 1851, was not only symbolic of the Industrial Age, but a gold mine for guidebook publishers”; and “The first modern indexes were conceived as a method of analyzing the contents of the Bible.” $46.00. Scarecrow. ISBN 0-8108- 3290-9.

The First Men in the Moon,by H. G. Wells and edited by Leon Stover (321 pages, August 1998), is the latest in a series of texts of Wells’ first editions, extensively annotated and analyzed by Stover, who argues persuasively that the 1901 novel is in keeping with the author’s espousal of Saint-Simonian scientific utopianism. The notes demonstrate that Wells was well-read in science as well as in the literature of fanciful travel beyond the earth. Future critical texts of The Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, and When the Sleeper Wakes are planned. $55.00. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0411-6.

Grasses, Sedges, Rushes & Ferns of Britain and Northern Europe,by R. Fitter, et al. (256 pages, 1984), is just one of the many pocket nature guides, field guides, and safari guides published by HarperCollins UK that are for the first time being distributed in the United States. Although the species described are European, there is a considerable overlap with North America. The taxonomic and biological notes, as well as the detailed illustrations, are excellent throughout the series, which covers both European flora and fauna. For a complete list of titles, contact Whitman Distribution Company, 10 Water Street , P.O. Box 513, Lebanon, NH 03766; (800) 353-3730.

The Life and Times of Constantine the Great,by Dimitrios G. Kousoulas (511 pages, December 1997), tells the story of the first Roman emperor to promote Christianity, the first to be baptized (by an Arian bishop one week before his death in 337), and the first to treat the empire as a family possession. Kousoulas is equally familiar with classic sources and modern scholarship on Constantine, and he recounts the biographical details in an easy-going manner, supplemented by notes, maps and coins of the period, and a bibliography. Find out here why the Milvian Bridge was so important in European history. $24.95. Rutledge Books, Box 315, 8 F.J. Clarke Circle, Bethel, CT 06801-0315. ISBN 1-887750-61-4

The New Mexico Atlas & Gazetteer (72 pages, May 1998) is the latest state topographic atlas in the DeLorme series, which has been inching its way towards covering all 50 states by the year 2000. Company publicist Andy Sturtevant said that when it is done mapping the United States, DeLorme will develop atlases for other countries, possibly in Eastern Europe where road atlases are scarce. The level of detail that goes into these maps is prodigious—they are essential tools for any cross-country travel by foot or car, and indispensable purchases for map libraries. Other recent atlases are South Carolina, Georgia, and Iowa (April 1998); Indiana and Oklahoma (March 1998); and Missouri (January 1998). Prices vary, but most are $16.95. DeLorme, Two DeLorme Drive, Yarmouth, ME 04096.

Ol’ Blue Eyes: A Frank Sinatra Encyclopedia,by Leonard Mustazza (436 pages, April 1998), was in print prior to Sinatra’s death, so the author can’t be accused of opportunism; however, it is not a true “everything you’d ever want to know” encyclopedia. Primarily consisting of annotated lists of all Sinatra songs, albums, films, radio and TV shows, Web sites, major concerts, awards, and recording sessions, the book is more vita than biography. Richard Ackelson’s Frank Sinatra: A Complete Recording History (McFarland, 1992) has much the same session data, with the addition of bios of composers, lyricists, and arrangers. $59.95. Greenwood. ISBN 0-313-30486-6.

Rocks from Space,by O. Richard Norton (447 pages, 2d ed., April 1998), is a significant revision of the 1994 edition that updates the history and science of meteorites. Not only has Norton expanded his sections on Martian meteorites and asteroid impacts, he has also included new groups of meteorites, the most current classification schemes, and many new photographs of rare specimens. When I was growing up there were only a handful of meteorite books, most of them out of date and supertechnical, that left me with a lifelong taste for reliable information on tektites, chondrites, and impact craters. This book—along with John Burke’s Cosmic Debris: Meteorites in History (University of California, 1986)—fills that void. $30.00. Mountain Press. ISBN 0-87842-373-7.

The Silver Canvas: Daguerreotype Masterpieces from the J. Paul Getty Museum,by Bates Lowry and Isabel Barrett Lowry (240 pages, May 1998), offers an intriguing look at the impact of the daguerreotype’s discovery on the scientific, social, and artistic movements of the 1840s and 1850s. Seventy-eight images from the Getty Museum’s photographic collection are reproduced, most of them never published before; the daguerreotypes of an “early operation using ether for anesthesia,” “man with open mouth” (used to illustrate tooth decay for oral surgeons), and “portrait of a [black] nurse and young [white] child, about 1850” are quite striking. The authors provide an insightful history of the daguerreian process and successfully convey the excitement it provoked in Europe and America when its many uses were recognized. $80.00. Getty Trust Publications, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 599, Los Angeles, CA 90049- 1682. ISBN 0-89236-368-1.

World Holiday, Festival, and Calendar Books,edited by Tanya Gulevich (475 pages, May 1998), describes 1,057 English- language books on religious festivals, regional holidays, and calendar systems. Essentially an annotated bibliographic supplement to Sue Ellen Thompson’s Holiday Symbols 1998 and Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary, this volume includes a list of Web sites featuring holidays as well as comprehensive author, title, and subject indexes. ISBN, Dewey, and LC class numbers are provided for most titles. $55.00. Omnigraphics. ISBN 0-7808-0073-7.