Editorial

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Reference Reviews, Volume 24, Issue 7

The World Factbook (RR 2010/302), or as it is more commonly known the CIA World Factbook, is a core part of the reference armoury, especially in North America. It is one of those strange information ironies that a source originally begun as a classified US government document has become accessible to all, either as a printed annual or, as reviewed in these columns, a bi-weekly updated free website. Although the Factbook may not have the detail and depth of some commercial references such as The Statesman’s Yearbook (RR 2007/2010), and the CIA “branding” and US focus may invoke suspicion, it is generally a very adequate source for authoritative and current general information on the countries of the globe. Another source with global scope is CyclOpe: World Commodity Yearbook (RR 2010/316). A French-produced publication from Editions Economica in Paris reaching its 23rd edition with the 2009 annual, this provides statistical data and analysis of market conditions for agricultural, industrial, mineral and other commodities on an international scale. In economics, business and marketing collections this will be more useful than the CIA World Factbook and deserves to be more widely known and stocked. Also global in outlook and scope is The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace (RR 2010/313) from Oxford University Press. Published as a four-volume printed set and online (as reviewed), this boasts a Foreword by the Dalai Lama and 850 entries from international contributors. Essential in any situation where peace studies are part of the curriculum, the encyclopaedia will also have wider application in subject areas such as international history, politics and ethics. Finally, while focussing on sources claiming a global scope, mention should be made of The Palgrave Encyclopedia of World Economic History since 1750 (RR 2010/314). A compact but comprehensive single volume with 123 entries for key industries, events and people, this represents a useful and relatively affordable historical overview of key aspects of global economic history for the non-specialist library.

Two reference specialists that have been very adept at repackaging their products for an electronic environment are H.W. Wilson and Gale (Cengage). In this issue we coincidentally review separate print and online products from both publishers. From Wilson the new electronic package we consider is Current Issues: Health (RR 2010/328), a product joining similar databases for careers and the environment and sitting alongside the well known Reference Shelf series, available online as Current Issues: Reference Shelf Plus (see www.hwwilson.com/databases/RS_plus.cfm). It is fair to say that the Current Issues series has not always been received with unreserved critical acclaim, and our review is no exception, reservations being expressed regarding currency and breadth of content. More successful is the established and well known Fiction Core Collection (previously Fiction Catalog) reviewed here in its sixteenth print edition (RR 2010/320), but also available online as a continuously updated product (the print version is updated by four annual supplements). With its companion products Children’s Core Collection and Senior High Core Collection, this continues the Wilson tradition of providing products to help librarians enhance their collections. From Gale we also review a health and a literature product. In print we cover the second edition of Human Diseases and Conditions (RR 2010/331) (also available as an e-book) providing 450 encyclopaedia-like entries and updating the original edition published in 2000. In literature we cover the new digital version of one of the company’s flagship products Dictionary of Literary Biography, freshly repackaged as Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online (RR 2010/318). The print Dictionary of Literary Biography will soon run to a monumental 360 volumes. Merged here with the Dictionary of Literary Biography Documentary series and the now discontinued Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook, the Complete Online version revitalises the DLB and brings it firmly into the digital age. Libraries with shelves groaning under the weight of the print set will welcome the convenience and space saving potential of this repackaging.

Another revitalised reference is Bill Warren’s “21st century” edition of Keep Watching the Skies! (RR 2010/340), the definitive guide to American science fiction of the 1950s. This new version is a complete re-working of earlier editions, with rewritten entries and perspectives. Other updated editions we review worthy of special note are the fifth edition of the Handbook of Social Psychology (RR 2010/306), one of the core texts in its field, the 42nd edition of Black’s Medical Dictionary (RR 2010/326), perhaps the most widely known medical reference in the UK, and the sixth edition of the Routledge Atlas of American History (RR 2010/350), still charted by the ever-busy Martin Gilbert, who has also recently produced the eighth edition of the Routledge Atlas of Jewish History (review forthcoming). Alongside these continuing products we have several significant new encyclopaedic works. Greenwood Press has developed something of a specialism for reference sets relating to American minority communities. Their latest offerings are the two-volume Encyclopedia of Asian American Issues Today (RR 2010/311) and the more substantial and historical three-volume Encyclopedia of African American History (RR 2010/345). The latter set needs to be considered alongside other recently published references on African-Americans such as the Encyclopedia of African American Society (RR 2006/72), The African American Experience (RR 2008/187) and most significantly, Gale’s six-volume Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (RR 2010/245).

Finally, we began this column by highlighting sources labelled “World” or “International” to signal their global scope. It is unusual, however, to encounter a reference source with a “universe” billing. Pop Culture Universe (RR 2010/315) from Greenwood, may imply unrestricted coverage, but in fact its focus is American popular culture, being built on the imprint’s other products and comprising books, book chapters, encyclopaedia entries and images. This just serves to emphasise, as I’m sure readers need little reminding, that titles are not always what they seem. Products are often labelled to suggest wider scope and coverage than the contents justify – “world”, “international” and “global” should always be treated with some scepticism, but at least most of the titles so flagged we review in this issue match their billing.

Tony ChalcraftEditor, Reference Reviews, and University Librarian, York St John University, York, UK