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During the 1995 annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, I presided over a panel discussion on new perspectives in the sociology of culture. Most of the papers are being published in this volume. The contributions by Annie Ruth Leslie and myself are additional papers.

For centuries, Brer Rabbit stories have communicated the values and experiences of enslaved Africans and of indigenous African American culture (Abrahams, 1985; Brewer, 1968; Levine, 1977). According to Blassingame (1972, p. 127), Brer Rabbit stories are “a projection of the slave's personal experiences, dreams and hopes.” Dunn (1979, p.183) explained that the stories are “paradigms dictating how to act and how to live,” and Stuckey (1977, p.xuii) observed that they “revealed more about slave culture than… whole books on slavery by experts. Levine (1977) maintaned that Brer Rabbit stories survived the experiences of slavery and urban poverty because they were a vehicle by which African American cultural values could be shared by the masses of African American people, and Leslie (forthcoming) observed that urban Black mothers continue to share in these values by teaching their children that Brer Rabbit's tricks demonstrate the importance of “protecting the physically small and weak against the physically big and powerful.”

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

The food standards of the Indiana State Board of Health, which appear on another page, show that it is quite possible to lay down official definitions of various articles of food; and a study of these regulations may be of assistance to those authorities who are striving to arrive at some form of order out of the chaos which at present exists in this country in matters relating to food standards. With reference to milk, it will be seen that not only is the question of composition dealt with, but strict directions are given that milk derived from a cow which can in any way be considered as diseased is regarded as impure, and must therefore, says the Board, be considered as adulterated. In regard to butter and margarine, limits are given for the total amount of fat—which must consist entirely of milk‐fat in the case of the former substance—water, and salt; and not only are all preservatives forbidden, but the colouring matters are restricted, only certain vegetable colouring matters and some few coal‐tar colours being permitted. All cheese containing less than 10 per cent, of fat derived from milk must be plainly labelled as “ skim‐milk cheese”; and if it contains fat other than milk‐fat, it must be described as “ filled cheese.” Some exception is taken to the use of preservatives in cheese, inasmuch as it appears that cheese may contain a preservative if the name of such preservative is duly notified upon the label ; and the rules for the colouring of cheese are the same as those which apply to butter and margarine. All articles of food containing preservatives are considered as adulterated unless the package bears a label, printed in plain type and quite visible to the purchaser, stating that a preservative is present, and also giving the name of the preservative which has been used. Articles of confectionery must not contain any ingredient deleterious to health, such as terra alba, barytes, talc, or other mineral substance, nor may they contain poisonous colours or flavours.

Although none of the new music reference books of the past year totally replaces the old stand‐bys, some significant works did appear, especially in the areas of contemporary music, opera, and classical music discography.

The war against tuberculosis, which has been commenced under the auspices of HIS MAJESTY THE KING, if energetically prosecuted, must in the end result in placing that dread disease under a control similar to that which, among the more enlightened nations, is being gradually but surely established over many of the preventible diseases which have been the scourges of the human race. The establishment of Sanatoria, and the great extension of the more rational and scientific methods of treatment which the existence of such institutions will of necessity bring about, should lead to the saving of the lives of great numbers of sufferers who, under the old conditions, would have drifted inevitably to death. Cure is good, but prevention is better than cure, and it must not be thought that the war can be successfully carried on upon curative lines alone. It is now well known that there is a special predilection or idiosyncrasy in those who are attacked by tuberculosis; and, while relaxing no efforts to find and apply curative measures, attention to such enormously important factors as the nature and quality of the food supply and general hygienic conditions, must be fully maintained. A far more effective control than that which at present exists must be established over the milk and meat supplies of the people, so that the ingestion of the poison by those who are specially susceptible may as far as possible be prevented. Particularly will it be necessary to ensure that the supplies of milk and other food to the Sanatoria which are to be established shall be uninfected, and that they shall also be pure and of good quality. At the present time those terms are certainly not generally applicable to the supplies of most of our hospitals and large institutions, and it should be one of the first duties of those who will be concerned in the management of the new Sanatoria to see that no exception can be taken to the food supplied to the inmates.

LIBRARIES have come impressively into the public picture in the past year or two, and seldom with more effect than when Their Majesties the King and Queen opened the new Central Reference Library at Manchester on July 17th. In a time, which is nearly the end of a great depression, that the city which probably felt the depression more than any in the Kingdom should have proceeded with the building of a vast store‐house of learning is a fact of great social significance and a happy augury for libraries as a whole. His Majesty the King has been most felicitous in providing what we may call “slogans” for libraries. It will be remembered that in connection with the opening of the National Central Library, he suggested that it was a “University which all may join and which none need ever leave” —words which should be written in imperishable letters upon that library and be printed upon its stationery for ever. As Mr. J. D. Stewart said at the annual meeting of the National Central Library, it was a slogan which every public library would like to appropriate. At Manchester, His Majesty gave us another. He said: “To our urban population open libraries are as essential to health of mind, as open spaces to health of body.” This will be at the disposal of all of us for use. It is a wonderful thing that Manchester in these times has been able to provide a building costing £450,000 embodying all that is modern and all that is attractive in the design of libraries. The architect, Mr. Vincent Harris, and the successive librarians, Mr. Jast and Mr. Nowell, are to be congratulated upon the crown of their work.