Notes on key reviews in this issue

Citation

Chalcroft, T. (2013), "Notes on key reviews in this issue", Reference Reviews, Vol. 27 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/RR-06-2013-0163

Notes on key reviews in this issue

Article Type: Editorial notes and queries From: Reference Reviews, Volume 27, Issue 7

American Presidency Project (RR 2013/252). Gratis website offering comprehensive access to presidential documents dating back to 1789. Offers a convenient alternative to official sites or documents in print and microformats.

Encyclopedia of the Environment in American Literature (RR 2013/262) A compact single volume work providing over 100, mainly biographical, entries for poetry, fiction, drama (including film) and non-fiction relating to ecology, the environment and the natural surroundings of the Americas.

Encyclopedia of the Gothic (RR 2013/263). The latest contribution to The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Literature launched in 2010 and previously reviewed in these columns in its online version (RR 2011/324).

Encyclopedia Smithsonian (RR 2013/247) Provides online access to the collections of the 19 different museums that make up the Smithsonian Institution.

Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture (RR 2013/273). A new offshoot from Grove Art Online, this set, available in six volumes in its print version, has over 2,000 entries for art and architecture in medieval western Europe from the sixth to the sixteenth centuries.

Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues (RR 2013/256). M.E. Sharpe three volume encyclopedia covering more than 400 unique indigenous groups from the nearly 370 million people designated by the United Nations as original occupants of land later conquered or taken over by others.

Oxford Companion to Comparative Politics (RR 2013/257). New two volume Oxford companion with 350 entries, including 70 for countries and with 70 biographies. Has some overlap with The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World (RR 2001/370).

Also in this issue we take a look, in the latest of our ongoing “Reference Reviews Analysis” articles, at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Correspondence

Reference Reviews is always pleased to receive feedback on our reviews. We received the following letter from publisher McFarland, in response to our review of Antarctica: An Encyclopedia (RR 2012/322) which appeared in issue 26(7):

Dear Mr Chalcraft

Recently, Reference Reviews covered Antarctica: An Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. Reviewer Mr Gareth Johnson offered several criticisms about the encyclopedia’s visual presentation and arrangement, and we believe these criticisms would benefit from further comment. One of Mr Johnson’s criticisms of Antarctica is its lack of illustrations. For this particular work, the decision was to focus on the text. The text is 30,000 entries (double that of the first edition) and more than two million words. This book is about the text and the facts. We know that this approach does not serve every need for every sort of user, but we believe that the text is of extremely high value without illustrations. For not a small number of users, Mr Johnson’s criticisms are also compliments (“weighty textural detail … facts are crammed into the work … densely packed”). Mr Johnson also remarks about the absence of maps. From early on in the project, the possibility of including maps was carefully considered. Our view was that there are numerous excellent gazetteers or maps already available to the scholar/professional and there was no call for us to “complete” or duplicate. Doing so would have inevitably and unnecessarily raised the expense of the book. Another criticism about the text is the alphabetical order of entries. We understand that Mr Johnson was surprised by some of the choices (e.g. Dome A), but believe calling it “a flagrant disregard of the anticipated alphabetic entry sequence” to be an overstatement. The nomenclature of Antarctica is complex, varies widely, and is used by persons from many linguistic backgrounds. The alphabetical arrangement accommodates those who don’t know whether something is Mount Smith, Smith Mountain, Smith Peak, Mt. Smith, Mont Smith, Smith Station Hill, Smith Mound, Isla Smith, etc. It’s under Smith, so anyone looking for the proper noun can find the entry, even when a generic word stands before it in usual usage, or when the generic is in a different language. Some of the names of geographic features (in particular) have been named and renamed multiple times, and in many languages, through the years, and the encyclopedia offers extensive cross-referencing. Despite the possibility of confusion for the uninitiated user, we believe users will give much stronger consideration to the job the encyclopedia does of making use of many sources, especially in Spanish, that have not been accorded status previously (depriving the world of a large and valuable resource, which author John Stewart has now opened up). Why not eliminate the challenges of alphabetization by publishing just an electronic version? For one simple reason … there were people eager to buy second edition hardcovers, and McFarland did not want to ignore that. The original edition, with its foreword by Sir Edmund Hillary, was beloved by scientists and scholars worldwide. Thanks to our friends at Reference Reviews for all they do. Sincerely, The Editors of McFarland.

Tony Chalcroft