ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries October 1996/601 N ew Publications G eorge M. Eberhαrt African Americans and Civil Rights: 1619 to the Present, b y M ichael L. Levine (296 pages, 1996). A history book intended for un­ dergraduates, this stresses the political and legal dimen­ sions o f racism and resistance as w ell as the active role played by African Americans in shaping their future. A bib­ liography, chronology, glos­ sary, and biographies o f 60 individuals accompany the text. $29.95. Oryx Press, 4041 North Central Ave., Suite 700, Phoenix, AZ 85012-3397. ISBN 0-89774-859-X. Banned Books: 1996 Resource Guide, by Robert P. Doyle (139 pages, May 1996), is the latest compendium o f books that have been banned or censored since 387 B .C . Books that w ere challenged in 1995– 96 include Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, and (once again) Mark Twain’s The Adventures o f Huckleberry Finn. In addition to an annotated bibliography, this volume suggests promotional activities, publicity, and clip art for Banned Books Week, September 28– October 5, 1996. $28.00. ALA, 50 E. Huron, Chicago, IL 6061 1 . ISBN 0-8389-7791-X. The Dictionary o f Art, edited by Jane Shoaf Turner (34 volumes, October 1996), may well be a watershed in the history o f art reference. It certainly is an ambitious project which seeks the same niche that the publisher’s New Grove Dictionary o f Music and Musicians holds in music. With contributions from 6,700 scholars in more than 120 countries (many o f whose writings will appear in English for the first time), this set encompasses both the fine and the deco­ rative arts. Its sheer scope demands superla­ tives: the largest international collaboration in the history o f art publishing; the broadest cov­ erage in English o f African, Asian, Eastern Eu­ ropean, and Islamic art and culture; the most up-to-date scholarship on 20th-century artists, schools, styles, movements, theories, issues, techniques, patrons, collectors, and critics; the most art biographies (20,800) contained in any single work; the largest single collection o f images (15,000) in any one publication; the most com­ prehensive selection o f topi­ cal bibliographies in the field o f art history (300,000 entries); one o f the most detailed indexes anywhere, with 670,000 index entries p ro vid in g access to the dictionary’s 41,000 essays. With a list price o f $8,000, many libraries may need to find an art patron who will support this acquisition; however, this set will be in high demand once it is on the shelves. Grove’s Dictionaries, 150 Fifth Ave., Suite 916, New York, N Y 10011. ISBN 1-884446-00-0. An Einstein Dictionary, by Sachi Sri Kantha (298 pages, March 1996), includes 600 ency­ clopedic entries on Albert Einstein’s personal life, physics, philosophy, and politics. This vol­ ume is useful as a quick fact-finder. (What was the Einstein viscosity equation? Was Einstein a heavy smoker? Why did J. Edgar Hoover col­ lect thousands o f pages o f spurious informa­ tion on Einstein? What Librarian o f Congress wrote a poem entitled “Einstein”?) A bibliogra­ phy o f Einstein’s scientific articles accompanies the text. $75.00. Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881-5007. ISBN 0-313- 28350-8. The Elements o f Expression: Putting Thoughts into Words, by Arthur Plotnik (225 pages, April 1996), is a great book. It really, really is. And if you find yourself writing or saying words like “great” or “really” more than you think you should, then get a copy o f The Elements o f Expression and be inspired by it to write, speak, and even think more expressively, whether in slang or sonnet. Plotnik writes like W oody Allen imitating Calvin Trillin emulating William Safire. He entertains as he instructs you in the arts o f verbal forcefulness, apt quota­ tion, identifying the audience, and vocabulary improvement. T o dip into Plotnik before writ­ George Eberhαrt is editor and compiler of The Whole Library Handbooks f o r ALA Editions (1991, 1995). He served as editor o f C&RL News from 1980 to 1990. 602/C&RL News ing letters, leaflets, or literature is to sip a fine wine before assaulting the steak and potatoes. See? It even made this review better. $20.00. Henry Holt, 115 W. 18th St., N ew York, N Y 10011. ISBN 0-8050-3773-X. The E n c y c lo p e d ia o f th e V ic to ria n World, edited by Melinda Corey and George Ochoa (672 pages, April 1996), is a helpful reader’s companion to British and American culture and politics from 1837 to 1901. The entries are o f manageable length for quickly checking facts, people, and places. Have you always wondered about things like the Reform Bill o f 1867, Symbolist poets, cookshops and porridge, Annie Besant and Maud Gonne, and w h o discovered the satellites o f Saturn? This book holds the answers. $50.00. Henry Holt, 115 W. 18th St., N ew York, N Y 10011. ISBN 0- 8050-2622-3. D iscoverin g Fossil Fishes, by John G. Maisey (223 pages, July 1996), traces the evo ­ lution o f fishes over the course o f 500 million years, describing the discovery o f their fossils and their role as ances­ tors o f the terrestrial ver­ tebrates (like us). The author’s enthusiasm for the subject is infectious and the illustrations, both o f real fossils and artist’s conceptions, are enticing. O ther fossil books pass lightly over extinct fish families in a mad dash to describe the dinosaurs, but this one lingers fondly over the diversity o f ostraco­ d erm s, a rth ro d ire s, acanthoidians, placoderms, sharks, and tel­ eosts. Exciting and understandable. Henry Holt, 115 W. 18th St., N ew York, N Y 10011. ISBN 0- 8050-4366-7. In Our O w n V oices: The Changing Face o f Librarianship, by Khafre K. A bif and Teresa V. N eely (434 pages, December 1995), is a well- chosen collection o f essays by 25 African Ameri­ can, Asian American, Native American, M exi­ can American, and Latin American librarians w h o describe their introduction to librarianship, their encounters with racism, and their desire to succeed in a challenging profession. O f par­ ticular interest to academic librarians is Part I, which includes Monica Garcia Brooks ( “M exi­ can American Mountaineer”), Deborah Hollis ( “O n the Ambiguous Side”), and Edna Dixon ( “T o Be Y ou n g, M aybe G ifted, and Truly Black”). All types o f librarians w ill empathize with Tanya Elder’s dissection o f the children’s librarian’s experience, “Hip v. Nice v. Tradi­ tional v. Nasty v. AAAARRRGGGHHH!” With a foreword by E. J. Josey. $45.00. Scarecrow Press, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, MD 20706. ISBN 0- 8108-3074-4. M icrosoft B ookshelf 1996–9 7 Edition (CD-ROM, April 1996) has been improved by the addition o f an Internet Directory with in­ formation on and links to nearly 5,000 W eb sites and newsgroups (updates to the directory are available for downloading after the 5th o f each month), the Hammond maps have been replaced by a concise Encarta w o rld atlas (though nowhere near the detail offered by the full version), and a national zip code directory (you provide the address, Book­ shelf gives you the zip code). The user interface has also been im proved for this edition, and Macintosh support has been en­ hanced. Retails fo r a p p ro x i­ mately $55.00. T w o com p letely n ew M i­ crosoft products are Com plete G ardening CD-ROM and the R eader's Digest Com plete D o-It-Yourself G uide CD- ROM (both o f these require W indows 95). The Gardening CD-ROM gives concise descrip­ tions o f nearly 4,000 plants likely to be found in American gardens and offers solutions to such com­ mon problems as pests, diseases, adverse soil conditions, and overwatering. V ideo and ani­ mation sequences provide overviews o f types o f plants or gardening activities. The Do-It-Your­ self CD-ROM allows the home or library main­ tenance specialist to learn the best way to tackle repairs and use 600 different tools. You can also tour an interactive, animated 3-D house to learn how plumbing, heating, and wiring works. Each CD-ROM retails for approximately $35.00. Postcards in the Library: Invaluable Vi­ sual Resources, edited by Norman D. Stevens October 1996/603 (233 pages, March 1996), contains 18 articles on the importance o f postcard collections in scholarly research. Although postcards are vastly underutilized in research settings, Stevens re­ minds us that they may contain the on ly re­ maining visual images o f a building, m onu­ ment, person, or place during a specific time period; that postcard collections may repre­ sent the best set o f images o f a natural fea­ ture, an historic event, or a city or town; and that the messages written on the backs o f post­ cards can reveal a great deal about individual or societal attitudes. O f particular interest are articles on the Curt Teich Postcard Archives (Katherine Hamilton-Smith), the Marguerite Archer Collection o f Historic Children’s Materi­ als (Meredith Eliassen), G eorge Watson Cole’s plan for postcard classification and the hold­ ings o f the American Antiquarian Society (Jen­ nifer Henderson), and postcard preservation (IFLA cont. from page 593) Copyright and intellectual property rights The section sponsored a program on “Copy­ right and Fair Use in the Electronic Information Age: Implications for Academ ic Libraries.” Speakers were from the European Bureau o f Libraries, the Information and Documentation Association in Belgium, the Association o f Re­ search Libraries, and Trondheim University in Norway. Copyright issues were very much on the mind o f most conference delegates and other IFLA groups held meetings on the topic as well. A preconference seminar on the topic was held in Tianjin, China, August 22– 23, and attended by 55 participants from China and other countries. User education Another topic o f interest at the IFLA Confer­ ence was user education. The new IFLA Round­ table on User Education sponsored tw o pro­ grams in Beijing. One was on “Information Literacy: Global Perspectives,” featuring papers from Finland, China, South Africa, and the United States. Another program featured the theme o f “User Education for Remote Library Users,” with speakers from the United States and Canada. Other highlights Li Peng, China’s premier, addressed the open­ ing session o f the conference saying that China options (Jan Merrill-Oldham). Simultaneously published as Popular Culture in Libraries, Vol. 3, No. 2. $34.95. Haworth Press, 10 Alice St., Binghamton, N Y 13904-1580. The Seismo-Wαtch N ew sletter, a w eekly publication now in its fourth year, offers a worldwide survey o f earthquake activity with particular emphasis on North American events. Libraries in fault areas w ill find this newsletter especially useful as a timely record o f local quakes. Predictions and forecasting are explic­ itly excluded. Notable seismic events, trends, historical correlations, seismological and geo­ logical terms, and significant earthquakes o f the past are summarized in sidebars. Preparedness information is also included. A yearly subscrip­ tion is $65.00. Advanced Geologic Exploration, P.O. Box 18012, Reno, NV 89511. ISSN 1079- 2821. ■ is committed to the continued development o f its systems o f libraries, literature preservation and information, and to integrating them with the country’s overall progress. News about the IFLA Conference was featured on Chinese tele­ vision every day and written about in Chinese newspapers. Social and cultural events provided by the Chinese government and the Chinese IFLA Or­ ganizing Committee w ere impressive. All con­ ference participants were taken to tw o events across the city by 90 buses in a police-escorted caravan while all traffic along the route stopped. The first event was a kaleidoscope o f Chinese folk music, dance, acrobatics, and opera. The second event was a sit-down dinner in the Hall o f the People— an elegant, efficiently served dinner o f 12 courses. The host country and thou­ sands o f volunteers ensured that delegates en­ joyed the conference. The exhibits w ere interesting and educa­ tional and especially attractive to thousands o f Chinese w ho were able to attend them. Professional dialogues and exchanges with peers from China and other parts o f the world pro ved most enlightening and useful. The knowledge that w e in academic libraries share problems, issues, and challenges and must work together to find solutions encouraged many o f us to face these challenges here in the U.S. and to seek solutions globally in cooperation with our colleagues in other countries. ■