Australasia and South Pacific Islands Bibliography

Citation

Gorman, G.E. (1998), "Australasia and South Pacific Islands Bibliography", Asian Libraries, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 64-65. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1998.7.2.64.7

In Australasia and South Pacific Islands Bibliography, Thawley presents us with a timely and up‐to‐date bibliographic guide to two dozen countries in the region. The 5933 entries have been selected with a view to providing representative coverage of the South Pacific, including Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. “The vast majority of the references are to books in the English language.... There is also a concentration on works published during the past 50 years because other bibliographies...cover earlier literature satisfactorily” (p. xv).

With the exception of Australia, which stands on its own following a section on the South Pacific in general, countries are arranged alphabetically within their respective regions. Entries for each region and country are subdivided where appropriate, following alphabetically arranged Library of Congress subject headings: for example, Australia is divided into 82 broad subjects, New Zealand into 72, Papua New Guinea into 55, Fiji into 26, Wallis and Futuna into 10. In many instances these broad subjects are further subdivided; thus “Australia‐Aborigines” contains 18 subdivisions. Only for the South Pacific in general, and for Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, are these subdivisions listed in the table of contents; as there is no subject index, the subheadings for all countries and regions really should be listed in the contents pages as a service to users. Coverage ranges from about 2,400 entries on Australia to a mere 15 on Wallis and Futuna, clearly reflecting the availability of literature.

Thawley suggests that users will want to supplement his compilation by referring to the appropriate journal literature. To facilitate this, he includes a number of indexes and bibliographies, and there are two concluding lists of value in this regard: computer databases (26 items), and journals (38 entries). A comprehensive author index completes the work, which could well have benefited from a detailed title and subject index, although this may be precluded by a standardised series format.

One would expect a bibliographer of Thawley’s experience to exhibit meticulous taste and flawless attention to detail, and for the most part he meets our expectations. In terms of content there is little that this compilation lacks within its stated parameters (recent books in English). One area with which this reviewer is familiar, “Australia‐Wars‐Vietnam War”, covers all the basic literature an historian would expect to find and offers a judicious mixture of military, social and political titles. Likewise “Australia‐Religion‐General” lists 32 works, with most key writers represented. Seventy‐five per cent of the entries in this section are from the 1980s or later, a percentage reflected in many other subject divisions. In coverage of other countries Thawley is equally judicious; on Fijian historical and social topics, for example, he includes all the items I would require in a decent library used by students and members of the public. Only very occasionally does the compiler stumble. For instance, Tony Swain’s book in Greenwood’s Bibliographies and Indexes in Religious Studies series omits the series title, although other titles in the series do not. Just once or twice Thawley includes an item of questionable quality: the Collins Australian Encyclopaedia, for instance, has been superseded by more current titles.

Where does Australasia and South Pacific Islands Bibliography fit into the corpus of regional reference literature? It offers a broad general bibliographic introduction to countries in the region and should be regarded as a first resort for anyone new to the area; Thawley certainly warrants consultation prior to using the more comprehensive country volumes in Clio’s World Bibliographical Series (Australia by Kepars, Fiji by Gorman and Mills, and so on). Any good public library should have a copy of Thawley, as should larger school media centres and all tertiary libraries.