ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL News ■ March 1998/203

N e w  P u b l i c a t i o n s George M. Eberhart

Alternate Realities: How Science Shapes 
Our Vision of the World, by Jo e l Davis 
(309 pages, Novem ber 1997), is an invigo­
rating lo ok  at som e o f the ways scientific 
revolutions have extended our five senses 
to allow  us to see the infinite and the invis­
ible. Davis uses the history o f telescopes, 
cosm ological theory, and quantum physics 
to penetrate the nature o f scientific reality, 
especially focusing on recent research. The 
writing is visionary and the explanations are 
lucid. $27.95. Plenum  Press. ISBN 0-306- 
45629-X .

Biographical Dictionary of American and 
Canadian Naturalists and Environmen­
talists, edited by Keir B. Sterling, et al. (937 
pages, January 1998), provides personal and 
professional information on som e 445 rep­
resentative individuals w ho lived betw een 
the late 15th and late 20th centuries, includ­
in g  s o m e  w h o s e  a c c o m p lis h m e n ts  are 
undeservedly obscure. A valuable contribu­
tion to biographical research, this volume 
contains facts and figures that are difficult 
to track down elsew here. $175.00. G reen­
wood Press. ISBN 0-313-23047-1.

Chocolate: Food of the Gods, edited by 
Alex Szogyi (228 pages, January 1998), e x ­
amines the history o f chocolate and its use 
in literature, art, music, folklore, psychol­
ogy, and business. Som e surprises will be 
found here— chocolate as the food  o f liber­
tines in the writings o f the Marquis de Sade, 
large-scale cacao production in Spanish c o ­
lo n ial A m erica, th e c o n c e p t o f  ration al 
chocoholicism , and conventions o f war and 
p eace in O scar Straus’s The Chocolate Sol­
dier. $49.95. G reenw ood Press. ISBN 0-313- 
30506-4.

For those w ho n eed  visuals, Ultimate 
Chocolate, by Patricia Lousada (144 pages, 
O c to b e r 1 9 9 7 ), has an eyefu l. Although 
mostly recipes, the pictures are excellent and 
do show  various types o f con fections and

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

their preparation. $29.95. DK Publishing. 
ISBN 0-7894-2084-8.

Directory of Geoscience Libraries: North 
Am erica, 1997, c o m p iled  by C o n n ie J. 
M anson and Ian D. Gordon (113 pages, 5th 
ed., O cto b er 1997), briefly d escribes the 
holdings o f 538 g e o s cie n c e  libraries and 
collections in the United States and Canada. 
Relevant nonbook collections are included, 
such as data libraries and collections o f well 
logs and w ell cores. $35.00. Lois Heiser, 
G e o scie n c e  Inform ation Society, G eology 
Library, Indiana University, Bloom ington, IN 
47405-1405. ISBN 0-934485-25-9.

Eclipse! The What, Where, When, Why 
& How Guide to Watching Solar & Lunar 
Eclipses, by Philip S. Harrington (280 pages, 
O ctober 1997), provides all the information 
you need  to go to central Europe to s ee the 
next total solar eclipse on August 11, 1999- 
(Sorry, you just missed the Caribbean one 
on February 26.) Harrington describes sp e­
cialized eclipse equipm ent and offers tips 
o n  eclip se  photography. Nearly h a lf the 
b ook is taken up with describing the times, 
paths, and w eather prospects for all solar 
and lunar eclipses from 1998 to 2017. $14.95. 
Jo h n  Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-12795-7.

Encyclopedia of American Indian Wars, 
1492-1890, by Jerry  K eenan (278 pages, 
D ecem ber 1997), summarizes the major con­
flicts with Native Americans since coloniza­
tion. Individuals, wars, and other incidents 
are briefly described, follow ed by sugges­
tions for further reading. For som e reason, 
only events that occurred within eventual 
U.S. boundaries are included, so Indian wars 
in Canada and M exico are not represented. 
E sp e c ia lly  u sefu l fo r q u ic k  fact-fin d in g . 
$73-50. ABC-Clio. ISBN 0-87436-796-4.

The Facts on File World News CD-ROM
(q u a rterly , S e p te m b e r 1 9 9 7 - )  p rov ides 
handy access to 70,000 full-text articles from 
17 years o f the Facts on File news database. 
T h e program  now  in tegrates its m enus,

mailto:geberhart@ala.org


204 / C&RL News ■ March 1998

sea rch  e n g in es , and  hy p erlin ks w ith the 
N etscape Web brow ser (with no requirem ent 
to b e onlin e) to m ake navigation easier. T he 
only draw back to the lo o k  and feel o f  the 
W eb is th e exp ectation  that articles are com ­
pletely up-to-date, w hen often they are sev­
eral m onths old; however, perhaps the pub­
lishers will b e  adding Web hyperlinks in 
future releases. Facts on  File has also added 
to its database o f 3 00 m aps from Magellan 
G eog rap h ix 70 maps, charts, and graphs il­
lustrating specific new s stories that originally 
appeared  in their print publications. Articles 
o n  new s top ics and o th er d ocu m ents are 
find able by keyw ord search  and  a general 
su bject index, as w ell as lists 
o f  k ey  ev en ts, issu es, and 
p e o p le . M inim um  re q u ire ­
m ents are a 4 86 p ro cesso r or 
higher, W indow s 3-1 or 95, 8 
M B RAM, 7  M B fr e e  d isk 
s p a ce , and  a d ou b le-sp eed  
CD-ROM drive. List p rice is 
$995 for o n e  year’s w orth o f 
quarterly updates. Facts on  
File News Services, 11 Penn 
Plaza, 15th Floor, New York,
NY 10001-2006.

Notable Latino Americans:
A Biographical Dictionary, by Matt S. Meier 
(431 pages, 1997), profiles 127 Hispanic m en 
and w om en w ho have m ade m ajor contri­
butions to Am erican life and culture. Actors 
(Rita Hayworth), com m unity leaders (H ector 
P érez G arcía), con d u ctors (X avier Cugat), 
edu cators (G eo rg e I. Sanchez), journalists 
(Jo s é  Martí), politicians (H enry Cisneros), 
singers (Mariah Carey), sports figures (Chi 
C ıi Rodriguez), and many other occupations 
are represented. In addition to detailing life 
achievem ents, the biographies can also serve 
as role m odels to Latino students. $65.00. 
G reen w ood  Press. ISBN 0-313-29105-5.

Poland's Holocaust, by Tadeusz Piotrowski 
(4 3 7  pages, Janu ary 1998), exam ines the role 
o f  radical ethnic m inorities in the collapse 
o f  th e Polish R epublic in the 1930s. P oland ’s 
ethnically fragm ented population included 
substantial minorities (Ukrainian, Lithuanian, 
B eloru ssian , and Je w ish  nationalists) that 
w anted ind ep en den ce. With the approach 
o f  World War II, their leaders collaborated

eith er with the Soviets or the Nazis and a 
self-destructive pattern o f siding with hos­
tile occup iers em erged. This asp ect o f  the 
P olish H olocaust has n o t b e e n  very w ell 
docum ented, and this study fills the gap with 
142 pag es o f docum ents, notes, and bibli­
ography. $ 5 5 .0 0 . M cFarland & Com pany. 
ISBN O-7864-0371-3.

T h o s e  w h o  n e e d  to  c a tc h  up o n  th e 
events and personalities o f  the rest o f the 
H olocaust w ould do well to consult Dictio­
nary o f  th e  H olocaust: Biography, G e­
ography, a n d  Terminology, by Eric Jo se p h  
E pstein and Philip R osen (4 1 6  pages, D e­
cem b er 1997). O n e n ice feature is its trans­

lation and definition o f  Ger- 
m an-language terms relating 
to the subject. $49-95. G reen ­
w o o d  P r e s s . ISB N  0 - 3 1 3 -  
30355-X .

Resource M anagem ent in 
Academic Libraries, edited 
by David B ak er (2 3 7  pages, 
Sep tem ber 1997), covers fi­
nancial m anagem ent from a 
British perspective, although 
m uch o f  it will b e  relevant to 
A m e rica n  in s titu tio n s . S e ­
lected  chapters include ser­

vice-level agreem ents, by Je a n  Steward; al­
lo c a tin g  fu n d s fo r  p u rc h a sin g , b y  Jo h n  
H u tchins; re s e a rc h  c o lle c tio n s , by K eith 
W ebster; operating costs, by Elizabeth Hart; 
and m odels for the future, by David Baker. 
$ 80.00. B ern an  A ssociates, 4 6 1 1-F Assem ­
bly Dr., Lanham, MD 20706-4391. ISBN  1- 
8560 4 -0 3 6 -4 .

Toxic Waste Sites: An Encyclopedia of 
Endangered America, by Mark Crawford 
(3 2 4  pages, D ecem b er 1997), is a state-by- 
state description o f  1,300 seriously polluted 
w aste dum ps (Superfund sites). E ach entry 
d escribes the site’s location, history, type o f 
c o n ta m in a tio n  th a t a ffe c ts  th e  s o il and  
groundw ater, n u m ber o f  p e o p le  w h o  are 
th re a te n e d , c le a n u p  w o rk  c o n d u c te d  or 
planned, parties responsible for the contam i­
nation, legal actions taken, and sou rces for 
further inform ation. Not exactly a vacation 
g u id e, but u sefu l fo r d ecid in g  w h ere not 
to live. $ 6 5 .0 0 . A BC -C lio. ISBN 0 -8 7 4 3 6 -



C&RL News ■ March 1998/205