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This paper aims to present the results of an analysis about the subjectivity in the process of thematic representation of photographs.

The experiments were applied to students of the Course of Librarianship (Biblioteconomia) of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, during the discipline “thematic representation of images”. The methodology included two methods of analysis: in free form and using four methodologies: the methods of Panofsky (1979), Smit (1996), Shatford (1986) and Manini (2002).

The results showed that subjectivity is always present, even with the use of methodologies.

This paper shows the importance of doing the librarian course and the need to improve and update their methods, standards, techniques and tools to provide subsidies for the normalization of subject analysis as an essential procedure for information retrieval.

It is concluded that thematic representation of images requires clear and detailed indexation policies that can systematize the activity and minimize the effects of the subjectivity involved.

The determination of the subject of the document involves many factors. One of them is the cognition of the indexer, which is influenced by his prior knowledge, limitations and biases about the context. However, it must take into account, above all, the social reality of the user, as the main purpose of the representation is the retrieval of information.

This study contributes to reaffirm the importance of the indexing discipline in vocational training in librarianship courses, emphasizing the cognitive aspects to which the indexer will be subject.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

Despite widespread interest in the resources and people of Alaska, few libraries outside of the state maintain extensive collections on these subjects. In this article, David A. Hales reviews a multifarious sample of informative materials.

Here is the long‐awaited fourth edition of Ralph De Sola's classic Abbreviations Dictionary. This updated edition of a work first published in 1958 is the largest, most complete compilation of its kind — a reference book far surpassing all others in the field. Mr. De Sola has expanded his work to include more than 130,000 definitions and entries — over 77,000 definitions, over 54,000 entries. The current edition offers abbreviations, acronyms, anonyms, contradictions, initials and nicknames, short forms and slang shortcuts, and signs and symbols covering disciplines which range from the arts to the advanced sciences and embrace all areas of human knowledge and activity.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

THE Index of Christian Art is a division of the Department of Art and Archaeology of Princeton University. The purpose of the index is to catalogue by subject and iconographic type all the published monuments and objects containing representations of Christian subjects dated before the year 1400.1 To this end two principal files are maintained, the Subject File and the Monuments or Photographic File. At the present time there are about 35,000 monuments and objects filed under more than 21,000 headings or titles, the whole consisting of more than 425,000 typed cards. These are illustrated in the Monuments File by more than 80,000 photographs.

What a difference a few years make! In the fall 1982 issue of Reference Services Review I described forty reference monographs and serial publications on photography. That article concluded with these words, “a careful reader will be aware that not one single encyclopedia or solely biographical source was included…this reviewer could find none in print…A biographical source proved equally elusive” (p.28).

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

Shell companies are involved in two major industries, oil and chemicals, and are active in no less than one hundred countries. The activities themselves are many and varied—oil exploration, oil production, oil transportation (Shell has the world's largest single tanker fleet), oil refining and manufacture, oil distribution and sales. On the chemicals side there are manufacture and marketing. Throughout both fields there is a major research effort to improve methods and products and to find the new products which progress continually demands. Involved in this worldwide operation are over 200,000 people of differing races, nationalities, religions and political affiliations. Shell makes a very positive effort to keep the public informed about its activities through all the means at its disposal, including the Press, publications, employee mazagines, exhibitions, and lectures; and this, of course, results in a constant demand for photographs—photographs to explain, photographs to decorate, photographs to dramatize, and so on. This activity is carried on to a greater or lesser extent in all countries where Shell companies operate, and all of these companies require a source of photographs.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 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.