referencebooks

Well, I won't be continuing this reference book review project... I'm going to let this all sit here until Livejournal deletes it. I will however link to this zip archive of all the reviews from my personal site when that happens.

Cheers!

I am going to take an extended break from reviewing reference books here. I will probably resume this blog in a few months, but may retire it.

I hope you've enjoyed it so far.

Past entries are organized in tags.

Tiller's Guide to Indian Country: Economic Profiles of American Indian Reservations

Edited and compiled by Veronica E. Velarde Tiller

Published by BowArrow Publishing Company, 1996 (newer editions are available)

This is an 8.5" by 11" hardcover book running to 698 pages including the bibliography and index, plus a brief preferatory section.

Note: This book is updated regularly. Ours is a pretty old edition. The most recent is a 2006 edition, just published.

What the book does is provide an economic profile for each indian Reservation in the United States, of which there are about 300. Most profiles give some simple stats (including address, area in acres, labor force, education levels, per capita income, unemployment rate, and population of the reservation and tribal enrollment); the location and land status of the reservation; the culture and history of the Tribe; description of the Tribe's government; description of the reservation's economic activity; and a description of the reservation's infrastructure and facilities. Many profiles give a little less information.

The Fond du Lac Reservation is near where I live, so I looked it up to see what I could learn. This entry is about a page and a quarter in length and is very informative. The section on location and land status describes the geography and the history of the reservation. The section on culture and history talks about the history of the tribe and a bit about their contemporary culture and situation. The section on the reservation's economy is the longest part, and has separate sections for types of economic activity (construction, agriculture, forestry, gaming, tourism, etc.). The prose is clear and very informative.

This is an essential reference work for those interested in getting quick information about reservations and the tribes that live on them. It is important to keep in mind that the basic unit of description is the reservation and not the tribe, because there are more than 200 recognized tribes in the United States that do not have reservations, and this resource does not provide information on them.

The Organ: An Encyclopedia

Douglas E. Bush, Editor
Richard Kassel, Associate Editor

Published by Routledge, 2006

This is an 8.5" by 11" hardcover book running to 679 pages including the index and the list of contributors, plus a brief preferatory section. This volume is part of a three volume set, the other volumes being encyclopedias on pianos and on harpsichords and clavichords. The three books are sold separately and paginated individually.

For a sense of what is covered, here is a list of the first fifteen entries in the "C" sequence, with SEE references included:

• CABINET ORGAN SEE CHAMBER ORGAN
  
• CADIRETA SEE RÜCKPOSITIV
  
• CAHMAN
  
• CALCANT
  
• CALLIDO
  
• CALLINET SEE DAUBLAINE-CALLINET
  
• CAMPANA
  
• CANADA
  
• CARE AND MAINTENANCE OF PIPE ORGANS
  
• CARHART, JEREMIAH (1813-1868)
  
• CARIBBEAN SEE CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
  
• CARILLON
  
• CARLIER, CRESPIN (CRÉPIN) (D. 1636)
  
• CASAVANT FRÈRES
  
• CASE
  

The entries include parts of organs and organ technology through history geographical entries that discuss organ building history in different countries and regions; and important organ builders and organ building firms. Entries for organ-builders actually make up the majority of entries in the book, which is quite interesting.

I happen to know a bit of random knowledge about Italian pipe organ history and about an Italian organ building firm, and was very satisfied to find and entry for Italy, which went into depth where my knowledge consists of very little, as well as an entry for the organ building firm. The entry for the firm even mentioned their organ at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, which I have heard. It is fun to find a bit of unusual knowledge reflected and validated in a reference book. Take that as a sign of the quality of this book or as reason to think that I can't be objective in evaluating it.

The information in the entries is very detailed and clearly written. Not too much knowledge of music theory or history is assumed by the contributors.

This is a useful resource for anyone doing serious research in music history and musicology where it concerns organs. A very serious and well-done reference book.

Encyclopedia of Water

By David E. Newton

Published by Greenwood, 2003

This is a 7" by 10" hardbound book running to 401 pages including the index, plus a preface, an introduction, and a classified guide to the articles.

See my entry for October 30, 2005, for the same author's Encyclopedia of Air, also published by Greenwood in 2003, along with another one called Encyclopedia of Fire.

Like Encyclopedia of Air, this encyclopedia looks at its subject in a vastly multi-disciplinary way, with articles covering topics in chemistry, biology, meteorology and other earth sciences, literature, mythology and religion, transportation, technology, visual arts, and history, as well as also providing many biographical entries on people whose work related to water and organizations that have to do with water. Here is a list of the first fifteen entries in the "H" sequence, "See Also" references included:

• Haliae See Nymphs
  
• Hard Water
  
• Heavy Water
  
• Holy Water
  
• Holy Waters See Sacred Waters
  
• Hookah
  
• Hovercraft See Boats and Ships
  
• "Hubbly-Bubbly" See Hookah
  
• Human Water Needs See Biological Functions of Water; Desalination
  
• Humidity
  
• Hydrate
  
• Hydraulic Device
  
• Hydraulic Press See Bramah, Joseph
  
• Hydraulics, Hydrostatics, and Hydrodynamics
  
• Hydroelectric Power
  

The entries are written in relatively simple prose given the scientific subject matter of many of them. Since it's such a multi-disciplinary encyclopedia it wouldn't be appropriate to assume too much significant background knowledge, and the author doesn't. However, he doesn't shy away from providing mathematical formulae where relevant. So, there is a fairly decent amount of information included given the breadth of scope.

Reference books like this that take a feature of the world like water and air and look at it from such a wide range of disciplines are interesting, fun, and rather odd from a practical standpoint. Usually when someone is studying something like water it is from the perspective of a particular discipline, and they will find deeper information in a resource that is created specifically for that discipline. This stems from the fact that the work that people do is usually of a certain kind. When I try to think of who would find a book like this most useful, I keep coming back to the notion of a literary writer or a visual or conceptual artist who needs to pull together ideas about water for thematic, exploratory reasons. It is difficult to say who else might find a good use for this book, but you never know. It does have a lot of good information relating to water in it.

Encyclopedia of Communication and Information

Edited by Jorge Reina Schement

Published by Macmillan Reference, 2001

This encyclopedia is in three 8.5" by 11" volumes and runs to a total of 1161 pages including the lengthy index, plus a preferatory section. The book is printed in larger type.

Like most other Macmillan reference books, this is a useful and fairly comprehensive but less than heavyweight work intended for a wide audience of students and researchers. Communication Studies, Media Studies, and Information Studies are the domains covered by this interdisciplinary work. Twenty different academic disciplines and professions are mentioned in the preface as being related to the subject of the encyclopedia.

This encyclopedia has 280 entries in an alphabetical arrangement. The preface identifies eight categories into which these entries fall. They are:

1. Careers (e.g. journalist, librarian, publicist)
   
2. Information science (e.g. human-computer interaction, information storage and retrieval)
   
3. Information technologies (e.g. broadband, the Internet, radio)
   
4. Literacy (e.g. computer literacy, media literacy)
   
5. Institutional studies (e.g. elections, information society, law, media history)
   
6. Interpersonal communication (e.g. groups, relationships, rhetoric)
   
7. Library science (e.g. cataloging, text-based literacy)
   
8. Media effects (e.g. advertising, opinion formation)
   

For a better idea of what's covered, here is the full list of entries in the "M" sequence, which has more entries than most of the alphabetic sequences:

• Machlup, Fritz
  
• Magazine Industry
  
• Magazine Industry, Careers in
  
• Magazine Industry, History of
  
• Magazine Industry, Production Process of
  
• Management Information Systems
  
• Marconi, Guglielmo
  
• Marketing Research, Careers in
  
• McLuhan, Herbert Marshall
  
• Mead, George Herbert
  
• Méliès, George
  
• Mills, C. Wright
  
• Minorities and the Media
  
• Models of Communication
  
• Mood Effects and Media Exposure
  
• Moore, Anne Carroll
  
• Morse, Samuel F. B.
  
• Murrow, Edward R.
  
• Museums
  
• Music, Popular
  

Entries are typically a couple of pages in length. The writing is clear but not as in-depth as one might like.

It is interesting to see a reference book that brings together these disciplines (media and communication studies, information studies) in this way. My feeling is that it is such a broad domain covering so much knowledge that either a much bigger encyclopedia (in the range of ten volumes or more) or a more narrowly focused encyclopedia is really in order. The problem with this one is that it gives noticeably shallow coverage in attempting to serve people in a number of disciplines. In bringing this information together in place, though, it does make an interesting argument for a disciplinary grouping of knowledge.

This is an interesting reference book but not as useful as it ought to be on account of its relative lack of depth.

Just a Note to Say... The Perfect Words for Every Occasion

By Florence Isaacs

Published by Clarkson Potter Publishers, 1996

This is a small book, 5" by 7", attractively printed and bound for bookstore sales. It's 159 pages long.

The book is a guide to how to write notes to people for different types of occasions where the well-bred person knows that he or she should write a note, but isn't quite sure what to say. Among the occasions covered are things like birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, rites of passage, illness, death and loss, holidays, and thank-you notes. The book includes advice about how to approach the process of writing a note, that is, now to think about what to say, as well as important tips about writing for various types of occasions that may involve some special background knowledge.

This book may seem to some to be kind of superfluous - who doesn't know how to write a note? And isn't it essentially an etiquette book, and aren't those irritating? And anyway, an honest note writer should say what they think and not rely on a reference book. But the book answers a real need. I made use of it when I had a reference question from a genuinely perplexed and troubled person who wanted to write a note to a friend or a relative who had been diagnosed with cancer and didn't know what to say. This book turned out to have three pages of advice about how to write a note for exactly that purpose. So I was glad that we had the book on our shelves.

This is a handy how-to book for real-life situations.

Encyclopedia of Fraud: 2005 Edition

By Joseph T. Wells, CFE, CPA

Published by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

This is a 7" by 9.5" hardbound book running to 848 pages including the brief bibliography, plus appendices and a preface.

The preface states that this encyclopedia is intended for an audience of "practitioners and academics," which could easily mislead a literal-minded person. It's not practitioners of fraud who are the intended audience, of course, but academics and accountants and other investigators of fraud.

The book has entries on numerous fraud schemes, organized by both topic and type of scheme, as well as entries about fraud cases and "notable fraudsters." Here is a list of the first fifteen entries in the book:

• Adelphia
  
• Antar, Eddie
  
• Antitrust
  
• Asset Misappropriation
  
• Asset Valuation, Improper
  
• Atkins, Charles and William hack
  
• Attitudes Toward and Perceptions of Fraud
  
• Auditing for Fraud
  
• Auto Sales Fraud
  
• Automotive Repair Fraud
  
• Avant!
  
• Avocational Crime
  
• Bait and Switch
  
• Banco Ambrosiano
  
• Bankruptcy Fraud
  

Entries on types of fraud are the longer ones, often going on to easily a dozen pages. Biographical and historical entries are a little shorter but are also often several pages in length. The prose is clear and enjoyable to read, so that it's easy to get a lot of knowledge about different varieties of fraud and fraud cases quickly and easily.

One entry caught my eye in the table of contents - an entry for Marcus Garvey. This two and a half page entry summarizes the story of Marcus Garvey and J. Edgar Hoover's politically-motivated pursuit of him on fraud charges. The entry is very clear in stating that the Garvey case was not a case of fraud but of persecution for political reasons; this makes it interesting that the case is written up in the book at all. I suppose the author felt that the record still needs to be set straight.

The book is good but somewhat weak from a design standpoint, which is not surprising given that its publisher is a professional association with priorities other than publishing. It's a useful reference work for business and history students and scholars.

Handbook of Sexuality-Related Measures, 2nd Edition

Edited by Clive M. Davis, William L. Yarber, Robert Bauserman, George Schreer, and Sandra L. Davis

Published by SAGE, 1998

This is an 8.5" by 11" hardbound book running to 589 pages including the index, plus a brief preferatory section.

This book is a compilation of about 200 questionnaires, scales, invetories, interview schedules and other instruments for measuring sexuality-related traits, attitudes, behaviors, and variations. All of the instruments included have been tested for validity and reliability by extensive use in research.

Here are the titles of a sampling of the measures included:

• The Sex Anxiety Inventory
  
• Hurlbert Index of Sexual Assertiveness
  
• Permissiveness of a Nurse's Sexual Attitudes (Brief)
  
• Sexual Irrationality Questionnaire (Brief)
  
• Condom Embarrassment Scale
  
• Styles of Conflict Inventory for Personal Relationships
  
• Sexuality After Spinal Cord Injury Questionnaire
  
• Indicators of a Double Standard and Generational Differences in Sexual Attitudes
  
• The Hyperfemininity Scale
  
• Herpes Knowledge Scale
  
• Power Sharing in Lesbian Partnerships
  
• The Anticipated Sexual Jealousy Scale
  
• The Sexual Self-Disclosure Scale
  
• Token Resistence to Sex Scale
  

Opening the book at random, I'll looking at the entry for The Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory (DSFI). This two-page entry does not have the instrument itself but simply describes it. The description is very detailed and provides plenty of information for a researcher to decide whether this is the appropriate instrument for his or her study, and gives contact information for the research organization that it can be ordered from. The entry finishes with a list of references to studies where the inventory was used. This entry is a typical one.

This is a very useful book for someone doing research in sexuality and sexual functioning, whether sociological or psychological. It's also interesting reading for someone who's interesting in getting a peek at the way social scientists view sexuality.

Encyclopedia of Volcanoes

Haraldur Sigurdsson, Editor in Chief

Published by Academic Press, 2000

This is an 8.5" by 11" hardcover book running to 1417 pages including the index and appendices, plus a preferatory section. It's printed on high-quality paper and is very heavy.

Her preface describes the book as follows:

The volume addresses all aspects of volcanism, ranging from the generation of magma, its transport and migration, eruption, and formation of volcanic deposits. It also addresses volcanic hazards, their mitigation, the monitoring of volcanic activity, and economic aspects and, for the first time, analyzes several specific cultural aspects of volcanic activity, including the impact of volcanic activity on archaeology, literature, art, and film. To compose a single volume that is a complete reference for such a far-ranging phenomenon is indeed a daunting task.

The entries are arranged thematically rather than alphabetically, though there is an alphabetical listing of the articles with their page numbers. The articles are in nine parts, with sample article titles for each:

1. Origin and Transport of Magma ("Migration of Melt," "Physical Properties of Magmas," "Plumbing Systems")
   
2. Eruption ("Earth's Volcanoes and Eruptions, an Overview," "Sizes of Volcanic Eruptions")
   
3. Effusive Volcanism ("Lava Flows and Flow Fields," "Lava Domes and Coulees," "Seamounts and Island Building")
   
4. Explosive Volcanism ("Hawaiian and Strombolian Eruptions," "Pyroclast Transport and Deposition," "Lahars")
   
5. Extraterrestrial Volcanism ("Volcanism on the Moon," "Volcanism on Venus," "Cryovolcanism in the Outer Solar System")
   
6. Volcanic Interactions ("Geothermal Systems," "Deep Ocean Hydrothermal Vents," "Volcanic Lakes")
   
7. Volcanic Hazards ("Lava Flow Hazards," "Volcanic Tsunamis," "Volcanism and Biotic Extinctions")
   
8. Eruption Response and Mitigation ("Seismic Monitoring," "Ground Deformation, Gravity, and Magnetics," "Volcanic Crisis Management")
   
9. Economic Benefits and Cultural Aspects of Volcanism ("Volcanoes and Tourism," "Archaeology of Volcanism," "Volcanic Soils")
   

So, that should give a sense of what's covered.

Opening the book at random, I'm looking at the middle of the article on "Plinian and Subplinian Eruptions," which is eighteen pages long. Plinian eruptions are named after the Roman author Pliny the Elder, who died in the eruption of mount Vesuvius, and his son, Pliny the Younger, who narrated the eruption in letters to Tacitus. This article is divided into four main sections: "Characteristics," "Direct Observations of Plinian Eruptions," "The Inverse Problem: From Deposits to the Eruption," "Discussion of Eruption Dynamics." Each of these parts has sub-parts. The prose is on the technical side, and assumes some knowldge of earth science and its quantitative methods. It is loaded with illustrations.

This is a very solid reference work on volcanoes that should satisfy serious users.