referencebooks

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.

Dictionary of Dictionaries, 2nd Edition

By Dr. Thomas Kabdebo and Neil Armstrong.

Published by Bowker-Saur, 1997.

This is a 6.5" by 9.5" hardcover book running to 418 pages including the extensive keyword, author and title indexes, plus an introduction.

The introduction says,

The Dictionary of Dictionaries is a reference book for those people who use dictionaries, but wish to know more of them, and want to know more about them. It deals with sources, their organization and evaluation, and where need be it treats the criteria of dictionaries, and calls up the definitions for sundry dictionaries and other word-based books. Since it cannot hope to encompass the whole world of dictionaries, it relies on English, both in terms of that being a subject of, or a participant language of, dictionaries.

...[T]he number of sources quoted/included in this book is about one-third of those consulted. Out of a potential ca. 24,000 single sources, nearly 1,400 headings were constructed, utilizing 8,000 plus titles. (As we shall see below, 8,000 titles can make 10,000 dictionaries.) Quoting a source, in this circumstance, is already evaluative; yet further hints are given in some of the notes, or by the stratification of certain entries. Evaluation is not attempted at every case: sometimes a source is unique in its category, so it invites no comparison; elsewhere the mere expression of size will suffice; occasionally, the present lexicographers do not go beyond finding a title and presenting and providing further keywords to the source.

The book is arranged alphabetically by the subject headings that group the dictionaries included. Each heading is numbered (up to 1398).

Opening the book at random, we're on facing pages 246 and 247, looking at entries 1078 to 1091, which are:

• PUBS
  
• PUERTO RICO
  
• PUGET SALIS
  
• PUNJABI
  
• PUNS
  
• PUPPETS
  
• PUSHTO
  
• QUECHUA
  
• QUICHE
  
• QUILEUTE
  
• QUOTATIONS
  
• RACE RELATIONS
  
• RADIO
  
• RADIOLOGY
  

The heading PUBS has one dictionary listed: A Dictionary of Pub Names. It's a long description for a single dictionary relative to others in this book, going on for 15 lines on a double-column page. After a bibliographic description including its ISBN, it says:

Who was The Wicked Lady? Why are there so many Royal Oaks? Pub goers or not, we all ask ourselves this sort of question - not realizing how fascinating the answers are and what a tapestry of history, folklore, and local legend they unfold. This dictionary tells the tales of thousands of pub names in modern Britain. Their origins are many, ranging from trades and professions, sport and pastimes, natural history, military achievements, heraldry, national and local heroes, to modern visual jokes and verbal puns. Nearly 5,000 entries and 96 colour illustrations reveal a whole way of life, history, and humour.

Quechua, Quiche and Quileute are Native American languages.

The entry on Quotations is interesting in revealing something of the authors' selective approach. There are enough quotation collections, even ones arranged in some alphabetical format, to write a small book about, but this entry is just over a half a page long and includes descriptions of just seven books.

The authors have a British perspective, and it shows in their use of language as well as in some of their choices for inclusion in the book.

Overall, this is a fantastic book for someone involved in building a library reference collection, or who just likes reference books.

Encyclopedia of the Library of Congress: For Congress, the Nation & the World

John Y. Cole and Jane Aiken, Editors.

Published by the Library of Congress, in association with Bernan Press, 2004.

This is an 8.5" by 11" hardbound book running to 569 pages including the bibliography, index, and statistical appendices, plus a portfolio of photographs of the Thomas Jefferson Building, a preface, an introduction, and acknowledgements. The book is printed on slick, high-quality paper and weighs a ton. It's a very official-looking book.

Besides being a thorough encyclopedia of the Library of Congress, this book testifies to the advantages of books over websites even for some reference purposes. Its fourteen broad essays and 79 encyclopedic articles provide a much deeper understanding of the workings and history of the LoC than their website, which is good mainly for basic facts needed by users of the Library's services.

The fourteen articles in the first section are:

• America's Library: A Brief History of the Library of Congress
  
• The Congressional Research Service
  
• The Law Library and Collections
  
• The Copyright Office
  
• The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
  
• The International Role of the Library of Congress
  
• The National Digital Library and the Library's Electronic Resources
  
• The Library of Congress and Its Digital Future
  
• The Library of Congress and Scholarship
  
• The Library of Congress and American Librarianship
  
• The Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution: A Legislated Relationship
  
• The Library of Congress and the National Archives
  
• American Literature and the Library of Congress: A Personal Perspective
  
• The Library of Congress in Fiction and Film
  

Among the encyclopedia entries are articles on Acquisitions, the Adams Building, the African and Middle Eastern Division and Collections, the American Folklife Center and Collections, Americana, the Asian Division and Collections, Automation, John James Beckley, the Bibliography Division, James H. Billington, Daniel Boorstin, etc. These articles are considerably long for encyclopedia entries, and go into a lot of historical depth.

This is the definitive book on the Library of Congress as a whole.

The Encyclopedia of Ephemera: A Guide to the Fragmentary Documents of Everyday Life for the Collector, Curator, and Historian

By Maurice Rickards; edited and completed by Michael Twyman.

Published by Routledge, 2000. Text copyright The Centre for Ephemera Studies.

This is an 8.5" by 11.5" clothbound book running to 402 pages including the bibliography and index, plus an introduction by the editor. It is illustrated with numerous color plates and smaller black and white photos of actual ephemera.

It's an encyclopedic work on what the author defined as the "minor transient documents of everyday life," especially as they are of interest to historians and collectors. Maurice Rickards spent decades working on the Encyclopedia; it was his main activity up until his death in 1998, after which the book had to be finished by others.

Most of the entries are for types of ephemera, and there are surprisingly many. The full sequence of entries in the M's are:

• Magazine sample sheet
  
• Manual alphabet card
  
• Marriage certificate
  
• Marrowbone announcement
  
• Match-tax stamp
  
• Medicine-show papers
  
• Menu
  
• Milk-bottle closure
  
• Miniature newspaper
  
• Miniature text
  
• Mock money
  
• Moral-lesson picture
  
• Motto, shop window
  
• Mulready caricature
  
• Mulready envelope
  
• Myriorama
  

These entriie take up a total of eight of the large pages in the book.

It's mainly British and American ephemera that are covered, and the terminology tends to be British.

The entries for these ephemera types go into the historical background of each and describes them at length, often giving examples showing what their text was like. Photographs of ephemera provide visual examples on most pages, supplemented by a nice section of full color plates.

The book is a fine publication, on nicely-bound, high-quality paper.

Finding the correct entry for some existing piece of ephemera that you want to understand better could be a challenge if you don't know the correct words to use to look it up, but the index could be helpful in those cases.

All told, it's an indispensable resource for someone who needs a good information about types of ephemera.

Alternative Publishers of Books in North America, 5th biennial edition

Byron Anderson, Editor. Additional authorship credit to the American Library Association / Social Responsibilities Round Table / Alternatives in Publication Task Force.

Published by CRISES Press, 2002.

This is a small paperback, measuring approximately 5.5" by 8.5" and running to 183 pages.

What it is is a directory of book publishing companies that are considered by the editor to be "alternative," and whom he says, by way of definition, "are independent of corporate control and commonly take risks that corporate publishing houses are unwilling to take by publishing diverse voices and points of view." He goes on to say, "The presses in this directory are socially progressive and publish in three general categories: translations, literary/poetry, and subject areas such as anarchism, erotica, environmentalism, social justice, hunger, socialism, gender studies, Third World, and indigenous populations."

There are 162 presses listed in the directory. Information given for each includes contact information (name, address, phone and fax numbers, and web and email addresses); byline or tagline; chief editor(s); organizations associated with; ISBN range; average number of new titles published per year; number of titles in print; distributor's name; subject areas of its publications; and finally a paragraph describing the publisher and its history.

In addition to the entries for the publishers there is a foreword by Herbert Schiller and a preface by Sanford Berman; the editor's introduction; a list of presses described; a bibliography on alternative book publishing; a webliography of alternative book resources; a geographic index and a subject index.

An update to this useful book was due in 2004 but wasn't produced. I have inside knowledge to the fact that a new, expanded edition is ready for publication and will probably be released in an online form this later year or next, with a print version probably following.

Encyclopedia of the Book, 2nd Edition

By Geoffrey Ashall Glaister

Published by Oak Knoll Press and the British Library, 1996.

This is a thick paperback measuring 7" by 10" and running 551 pages of relatively small type, including four appendices, plus 22 pages of preferatory material and eight pages of color plates.

This edition isn't really new; it's a reprinting of the 1979 edition with a new introduction. The work contains "three thousand alphabetically-arranged definitions of the terms used in bookmaking, printing, papermaking, and the book trade, and provides biographical details of printers, authors, bookbinders, bibliophiles, and precise notes on machinery and equipment, famous books, printing societies, book-related organizations, customs of trade, and other book lore." As such it's really more of a dictionary than an encyclopedia. Most of the entries take up less than one or two column inches, and few are more than a page in length. In addition to the color plates, the encyclopedia has many black and white illustrations intermixed with the text.

For an idea of what's here, the entries on page 133 are:

• demonym
  
• demotic
  
• demy
  
• demy octavo
  
• dendritic growths
  
• Denham, Henry
  
• densitometer
  
• density
  
• dentelle bindings
  
• deposit copies
  
• depth of strike
  
• De Ricci, Seymour
  
• Derome bindings
  
• De Roos, S. H.
  
• descenders
  
• descumming
  
• desensitization
  
• Design and Industries Association
  

Of those, four are "see" references.

The book has a British bias, using British spellings and paying more attention to the British book world than the book world in other places. It is also much stronger in book history than in modern publishing. That said, it is a unique, important, and very useful reference book.

Newsletters In Print, 12th Edition: 2000. Jeff Sumner, editor.
Published by The Gale Group, 1999.

This 1276 page, single-volume hardbound directory covers more than
11,200 newsletters, included based on criteria given right up front:
they are published serially, in the US and Canada, available to the
public, of a national or broad regional interest, and tend to treat
specialized interests and topics.

The book is divided into a sections as follows:

Descriptive listings of the newsletters, three columns to a page, with
each listing numbered and taking up about two column inches of space.
The listings include contact information, information on who the
editors are, a description of the newsletter of a couple of sentences,
notes on illustrations, audience, size, date started, frequency of
publication, circulation, price, ISSN (where available). This section
is itself divided into 33 sections by subject areas, which themselves
are grouped into seven broad categories: Business and Industry, Family
and Everyday Life, Information and Communications, Agriculture and Life
Sciences, Community and World Affairs, Science and Technology, and
Liberal Arts.

Following those descriptions are the indexes.

The first index is for Online Newsletters. (That section is hopelessly
out of date.) Following that is the index of Free Newsletters. Then
the Index to Newsletters with Advertising, useful if you want to
advertise something to a specialized readership. Then there are the
Publisher Index, the Subject Index, and the Title and Keyword Index.

This is a great resource with the one major weakness that it covers an
area of information that changes so quickly it's difficult to keep up
with in a resource that's only updated every few years.