12 points
to
consider
A48
1992
MAIN
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN - GEN LIBS
3001 ]. = 12031 .
0 5917 3001192036
THE LIBRARY
OF
HIE UNIVERSITY
OF TEXAS
AT
AUSTIN
Purchasing
an
Encyclopedia
12 Points
to
Consider
Fourth edition
Reviews by
the Editorial Board of Reference Books Bulletin
Revised Introduction by Sandy Whiteley
BOOKLIST
American Library Association
1992
Reference Books Bulletin Editorial Board 1992-1993: Cliristine Bui soil,
Assistant Director for Reference and Instructional Services, Milne Library,
State University of New York, College at Oneonta, Oneonta, New York,
Chair; Edwina Walker Amorosa; Hampton M. Auld; Susan Awe; Ken Black;
Jerry Carbone; Ronald J. Chepesiuk; Ann E. Cohen; Sharon E. Cohen;
Lesley S. J. Fanner; Elizabeth L. Fraser; John P. Hall; Robin Iloelle; Sarah
Sartain Jane; Jane Jurgens; Sue Kamm; Marlene M. Kuhl; Marvin Leavy;
Marilyn L. Long; Carolyn M. Mulac; Betty Page; David N. Pauli; Fannette
Thomas; Sarah Barbara Watstein; and A. Virginia Witucke. Interns:
Rochelle Clantz; Carol Sue Harless; Tom Klingler; Kathleen M. McBrooin;
and Elizabeth B. Nibley.
Guest Reviewers: Barbara Bibel; Brian E. Coutts; Ruth M. Hadlow; Mary
Ellen Quinn; Martin Sugden; Bobbi Walters; and Wiley J. Williams.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
American Library Association. Reference Books Bulletin Editorial Board.
Purchasing an encyclopedia
Rev. ed. of Purchasing an encyclopedia / American Library Association,
Reference Books Bulletin. 1989.
1. Encyclopedias and dictionaries—Book reviews. I. American Library
Association. Reference Books Bulletin.
Purchasing an encyclopedia. II. Title.
AE1.A48 031
ISBN 0-8389-5754-4
Copyright © 1992 by the American Library Association. All rights reserved
except those which may be granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the
Copyright Revision Act of 1976.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Changing World of Encyclopedias 5
One-Volume Encyclopedias 6
Electronic Encyclopedias 6
Why Purchase an Encyclopedia? 8
How to Select an Encyclopedia 9
Twelve Points to Consider 10
Conclusion/Bibliography 15
Reviews
Introduction 17
Academic American Encyclopedia 18
Collier’s Encyclopedia 21
Compton’s Encyclopedia 24
Encyclopedia Americana 2 7
Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia 30
The New Book of Knowledge 33
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica 36
New Standard Encyclopedia 39
The World Book Encyclopedia 42
Summary Chart 46
3
Introduction
The Changing World of Encyclopedias
Encyclopedias have been sold in American homes for
more than 150 years. Having a salesperson visit your home
is still the only way that some sets can be purchased.
However, changes in American society are starting to affect
the way encyclopedias are distributed. Because it is hard to
find anyone home during the day anymore and since people
guard their time more jealously in the evening, some en¬
cyclopedias are now sold in retail stores. Academic American
Encyclopedia and Compton's Encyclopedia can be found in
bookstore chains like Barnes & Noble and Encore and in
some warehouse clubs, sometimes under different tides.
Compton's is also for sale in the 1992 Sears, Roebuck
Christmas catalog. Encyclopaedia Britannica has booths in
malls and at state fairs where its products are sold. Funk &
Wagnalls has long been sold in supermarkets, but a smaller
version of Academic American Encyclopedia is now avail¬
able on the book-a-week plan, too.
If you are interested in buying a print set, and you haven’t
seen encyclopedias in local retail outlets, how can you
contact the publisher? If you live in a large city, look in the
yellow pages under Encyclopedias for the name of a local
sales office. Otherwise, call these customer service numbers:
Encyclopaedia Britannica: Children's Britannica , New
Encyclopaedia Britannica , 1-800-323-1229; Compton's
Encyclopedia , 1-800-858-4895.
Grolier: Academic American Encyclopedia , En¬
cyclopedia Americana , New Book of Knowledge? 1-800-
243-7256.
I Macmillan/P. F. Collier: Collier's Encyclopedia, 1-800-
N 257-9500.
T World Book: World Book Encyclopedia, 1.-800-621-
£ 8202.
D Remember that when you place an order for an en-
u cyclopedia in your home, the Federal Trade Commission
c guarantees a three-day “cooling-off period” during which
T you can cancel the purchase.
0 Buying a used encyclopedia is another option for families.
N Unfortuately, the encyclopedias usually found at garage
sales are too old to he of much use. Libraries tend to replace
their encyclopedias at least every five years. If you are
considering a used set, avoid one that is older than five years,
especially if it is to be used by children.
One-Volume Encyclopedias
In the last few years, a number of one-volume en¬
cyclopedias have been published that can be purchased in
book stores at prices ranging from $40 to over $100. Titles
include the American Spectrum Encyclopedia, The
Cambridge Encyclopedia, The Concise Columbia En¬
cyclopedia, The Random House Encyclopedia (3 rd ed.) and
Webster’s New World Encyclopedia. While these books make
usefid desk references, they cannot compete with multi¬
volume encyclopedias in terms of depth of coverage.
Electronic Encyclopedias
As computers become more common in homes and
libraries, encyclopedia publishers are making their sets
available in electronic form, both on CD-ROM (a kind of
compact disc) and online through such vendors as Compu¬
Serve, Prodigy, and America Online. (Academic American
Encyclopedia and Compton's Encyclopedia are both avail-
6
able online.) This means the sets can be searched in some T
innovative ways to locate information that cannot be found n
with a printed index. Some of the CD-ROM versions have T
been enriched with audio and video as well, so instead of ^
just reading about Mozart, you can hear his music or, in D
addition to reading about how the elbow works, you can see U
it move in a video clip. Initially, these encyclopedias were c
only available in versions to be used with IBM-compatible
computers, but two are now available for the Macintosh as o
well. N
Academic American Encyclopedia was the first to be
available on CD-ROM; the current version, the New Groller
Multimedia Encyclopedia , is available in both IBM-com¬
patible and Macintosh versions for $395. It can be ordered
through the mail from several software catalogs or pur¬
chased in retail stores like Computerland; a copy is included
with the purchase of many CD-ROM drives. Information
Finder , the CD-ROM version of The World Book En¬
cyclopedia , can be ordered directly from World Book for
$549. Comptons MultiMedia Encyclopedia was the first to
add other media. It costs $595 for the DOS version, $695
for the Windows version, and $795 for the Macintosh
version; it can be purchased in computer stores. Compton's
Family Encyclopedia is a slightly stripped-down version
with fewer illustrations and no animation that costs $295
in the DOS version and $395 in the Windows version. In
the fall of 1992, Microsoft is releasing Encarta , a new
multimedia encyclopedia that is partially based on Funk &
WagnaUs New Encyclopedia . It will be sold in software
stores for $395. Also new this year is a CD-ROM index to
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Encyclopedias have also entered the field of consumer
electronics, with versions available for CD-I (compact disc-
interactive) and CDTV, electronic systems that are used with
a television set instead of a computer. A stripped-down
7
j version of an encyclopedia is even available for Sony’s Data
N Discman, a portable disc player.
T
R
o
D
u Why Purchase an Encyclopedia?
c
T
I Encyclopedias are probably most frequently used to
^ answer specific questions (what librarians call ready-refer¬
ence questions). What is the population of New Orleans?
When was Abraham Lincoln born? When did Boston last
win the World Series? IIow much does a whale weigh? Some
sets include how-to-do-it information, with instructions on
creating an indoor garden or preparing an animal skeleton
for a science project, for example. In addition to answering
factual questions, encyclopedias provide an introduction to
and overview of topics that usually are accompanied by
reading lists leading to further information, so they are ideal
places to start research for a term paper. Some sets are
designed specifically to meet curriculum-related needs of
students. Encyclopedias arc excellent sources of illustra¬
tions. Whde all sets use photographs and drawings to clarify
the text, some encyclopedias particularly stress the visual.
An encyclopedia is also a wonderful tool for the independent
learner. A good encyclopedia inevitably encourages brows¬
ing. Columnist Bob Greene reminisced in the March 5,
1986, Chicago Tribune about his use of an encyclopedia as
a child: “On days when there was not much to do, I would
sometimes pick out a volume at random, and just go through
it until I found a subject that appealed to me. Then I would
read up on that subject until the end of the encyclopedia’s
entry—and then I would go on to another subject. And it
wasn’t boring. ... It was as if the world was contained in
those 26 volumes, and any time I felt like it I could jump
headlong into that world and come out with something I
never knew about before.”
8
How to Select an Encyclopedia
i
N
T
The most critical factor in selecting an encyclopedia is R
choosing a set appropriate for the age of the potential users. o
Often families want to buy a set for an elementary school D
child that will take him or her through college, and so they u
choose one of the sets for older students, hoping the child ^
will “grow into it.” Instead, the child may become dis¬
couraged by trying to use a set that is written at too advanced o
a level, and by the time he or she is able to use the N
encyclopedia, some of its contents will be outdated. When
buying an encyclopedia for an elementary school child, it is
best to select one written for younger readers. Your child
will be more likely to use it and develop the habit of using
reference books. Since young children are not able to go to
the public library on their own, parents will especially
appreciate having a set at home.
Families with older children will also find an encyclopedia
a worthwhile purchase. While high school students may be
able to go to the library independently, they will be grateful
for a set at home when they procrastinate on starting an
assignment until the library is closed. Finally, though it is
often the presence of children in the home that motivates
adults to purchase an encyclopedia, it is a useful resource
for adults as well. In addition to helping parents answer
children’s questions, a good encyclopedia will provide back¬
ground information for other books adults are reading or
television programs they are watching, will help resolve
informal debates, and will even help with puzzles and games.
Adults who work at home will also find an encyclopedia
useful.
The multivolume general encyclopedias on the market
today can be identified as being written for the following age
groups: (1) for 7- through 14-year-old readers— The New
Book of Knowledge; (2) for children from about 11 through
the teenage years— Compton’s Encyclopedia , New Stand-
9
I ard Encyclopedia, and The World Book Encyclopedia (the
N latter two with some articles or parts of articles written at
T the adult level); (3) relatively smaller sets appropriate both
for teenagers and adults— Academic American En-
D cyclopedia and Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia ; and
u (4) large, comprehensive sets for high school and college
C students and adults— Collier 9 s Encyclopedia , Encyclopedia
Americana , and The New Encyclopaedia Britannica. All
^ the sets for young people have material that is useful for
N adults as well. In some cases, articles in a children’s set may
be a better introduction to a very complicated topic for
adults than those in the comprehensive encyclopedias. For
instance, an adult with no science background may find the
explanations of black holes or supernovas in a children’s set
easier to understand.
12 Points to Consider before Purchase
After narrowing down the field based on the appropriate-
ness of the sets for the intended age group, there are 12
criteria that can be used in evaluating an encyclopedia. Each
characteristic is briefly explained below. Visit your local
public or school library and compare encyclopedias, looking
up topics you have some knowledge of to assess the relative
strengths of sets.
Authority . Encyclopedias differ in the extent to which
they use outside experts to draft articles. Most articles in
New Standard Encyclopedia are written by staff and
reviewed by outside experts. Many sets have longer articles
written by outside authors and short articles written by
editorial staff, while World Book has authors’ signatures at
the ends of even the briefest articles. Potential purchasers
of an encyclopedia can find the credentials of its con¬
tributors listed in either the first or the last volume of the
set. An examination of the lists of contributors to all these
10
sets shows that some of them are dead or long retired. While x
many distinguished experts contribute articles to en- n
cyclopedias, the editors determine what information to T
include as well as the format in which it will appear. Editors R
also do much of the updating of articles on a year-to-year ^
basis. u
Arrangement. All the encyclopedias reviewed here are c
arranged alphabetically, either word by word or letter by T
letter. (For example, a word-by-word arrangement is ice ^
cream , ice hockey , iceboating , Iceland. A letter-by-letter N
arrangement is iceboating , ice cream , ice hockey , Iceland .)
A word-by-word arrangement is easier for most children to
use. Also, it is helpful for younger readers if the alphabet is
divided so that all of one letter (or a combination of letters
like WXYZ) is in one volume.
To assist in finding related information, encyclopedias
have indexes, cross-references, and tables of contents or
boxed summaries at the beginnings of long articles. A
detailed index is particularly helpful in drawing together
information that may be scattered throughout the set.
Artists, for example, may have articles of their own but may
also be discussed in broader articles on painting or sculp¬
ture. To test an encyclopedia’s indexing and cross-refer¬
encing system, pick four or five topics and see how the
various keys lead to related information. To compare ease
of use, the same topics should be looked up in similar
encyclopedias.
Subject Coverage. To determine if subject coverage is
appropriate for your needs, consider the type and range of
topics included in the encyclopedia and the relative space
allotted to various subjects. Are “hot” topics and contem¬
porary issues covered or only those items that have been
proven by the passage of time to be a permanent part of our
cultural heritage? Does the allocation of space to various
subjects meet your requirements? Are you interested in such
practical topics as careers or nutrition or how-to-do-it
11
j information, or more scholarly subjects? Encyclopedias for
N children will, of course, devote more attention to such topics
T as pets, hobbies, and sports*
o Accuracy . Readers often take for granted that informa-
D tion in an encyclopedia is accurate, but outdated statistics
U and erroneous dates can be found. Generally editors take
C special care to make articles as accurate as possible, and all
copy goes through a lengthy checking procedure. Before
0 investing in an encyclopedia, inspect topics with which you
N arc familiar to see if articles on them are accurate. If
information is not correct, it may be because the article
needs updating (see Recency below).
Objectivity. Space limitations in encyclopedias make a
lengthy presentation of all points of view on controversial
topics impossible. We must depend on the editorial judgment
of encyclopedia editors to present a balanced picture.
Examine articles on topics like abortion or the Middle East
to see to what extent opposing viewpoints arc given balanced
consideration. Also be on the alert for the presence of racial
and sexual biases. Attempts to counter racism in en¬
cyclopedias have included adding biographies of people of
different races and other multicultural material. Similar
steps have been taken to eliminate sexual bias, but be on the
lookout for the stereotyping of women, overuse of the
pronoun /ie, and single-gender characterizations of voca¬
tions (for example, exclusively male airline pilots or female
secretaries). Encyclopedias that have revised their texts on
these topics may still be using older photographs that reflect
stereotypes. Encyclopedias are written to sell to the widest
possible audience, and therefore most articles represent
mainstream thinking. If you are looking for articles that
propound unorthodox views on health, for instance, you will
not find them in these sets.
Recency. There are facts that do not “date.” Much of the
information on the humanities—art, music, philosophy—
does not change dramatically over time. However, popula-
12
tion statistics, election results, important scientific j
breakthroughs, and sports records are among the many n
topics on which out-of-date information is misleading. The T
fact that the encyclopedias reviewed here all undergo an
annual revision does not mean that all facts are updated. D
Encyclopedia editors have budgets that limit the number of u
pages they are able to change in any one revision, with most c
sets making changes on about 10 percent of their pages per
year. Before investing in an encyclopedia, check the curren¬
cy of information on topics with which you are familiar.
Quality . All of the points discussed here influence quality.
An additional factor, however, is the length of articles, which
should vary with the importance and complexity of a
subject. Encyclopedias differ in the degree to which they
present information on specific topics or subsume material
on related topics into broad articles. Encyclopedia
Americana , for instance, tends to have articles on specific
subjects. Collier’s , on the other hand, has fewer, longer
articles on broader topics. The A lew Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica uses both approaches, with long articles on broad topics
in the Macropaedia and shorter articles on narrower topics
in the Micropaedia . None of these procedures is necessarily
better than the others; each appeals to some individuals.
Style. Even though the subject matter of an encyclopedia
is largely factual, it should be a pleasure to read. The
language should be appropriate to the subject and to the
intended audience. Some publishers of encyclopedias for
children use controlled vocabularies or test the reading level
of articles using various readability formulas in order to
guarantee that children will be able to understand them. In
sets for all age levels, technical and advanced terms should
be defined when they first appear. Difficult topics should be
introduced gradually and with sufficient explanation, so that
they do not overwhelm the reader. Read an article on a
technical topic and see if it is accessible to you.
13
o z
j Bibliographies . Most encyclopedias include lists of sug-
N gested readings as guides to further study. Books that are
T grouped on the basis of difficulty are particularly useful in
^ sets used by children. The works listed should be current
D and generally available. Bibliographies are most useful when
U they appear at the ends of articles instead of being segregated
C in a separate volume. Teachers sometimes discourage stu¬
dents from using encyclopedias because they suspect that
0 they rely too much on them when writing term papers, but
N the encyclopedia article can provide an excellent introduc¬
tion to a term-paper topic, and its bibliography will provide
titles of materials for further research.
Illustrations. Drawings, maps, photographs, diagrams,
and other graphics make encyclopedias appealing to readers
but they are an instructional component as well. Pictures
should be clear, informative, and attractive and placed
adjacent to the articles they illustrate, with captions com¬
plete enough to avoid confusion. The use of color enhances
the appearance of an encyclopedia, and encyclopedia pub¬
lishers are increasingly using more color. Some sets are
printed entirely on four-color presses, so that color can
appear on any page. Other publishers still print only selected
sections on a four-color press, which means the decision of
where to use color is partially determined by where the
article appears in the set rather than its subject. Since
children are more dependent on pictures for meaning than
adults, pay special attention to illustrations when selecting
a set for them.
Physical Format. Some encyclopedias have more than
one binding available at different prices. For home use, the
most inexpensive binding should be suitable. Test a volume
to see whether it lies flat when opened. The centers of
double-page maps and illustrations should not disappear
into the binding. The paper should be opaque so that the
print on one side of a page does not bleed through on the
reverse, lype should be clear and legible, and page layouts
14
inviting. Encyclopedias for young children are sometimes set T
in a large typeface that is easier to read. N
Yearbooks and Other Special Products . Some en- T
cyclopedias have extra features sold as part of a package, R
such as reference services or separate atlases and die- ^
tionaries, that are intended to lure hesitant buyers. Don’t u
let the presence of these features distract you from assessing C
the encyclopedia’s quality. T
All encyclopedia publishers issue a yearbook (except for
New Standard , which publishes a quarterly supplement).
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica contains cross-refer¬
ences to its yearbook, but most yearbooks, while being useful
sources of current information, are not related to the parent
set in arrangement. In fact, some publishers use the same
yearbook to update several different sets, and others con¬
tract out the preparation of their yearbooks to other en¬
cyclopedia publishers. When purchasing an encyclopedia,
you will be asked to subscribe to the yearbook. Do not feel
compelled to make a decision on the spot; you can subscribe
later.
Conclusion and Bibliography
We hope the following reviews make clear that most of
these sets have distinctive qualities and that, while their
coverage overlaps a great deal, imique information can be
found in each. Americans are fortunate to have so many
encyclopedias with complementary coverage to serve as a
mainstay of the home and library reference collection.
Readers wanting information on other encyclopedias
should consult one of the following books, which may be
available in libraries:
Kister’s Concise Guide to Best Encyclopedias by Kenneth
F. Kister. Oryx Press, 1988. $15 (0-89774-404-2).
15
2 o
Based on the title listed below, this book offers reviews of
33 encyclopedias for children and adults. It also has brief
notes on 187 specialized subject encyclopedias.
Best Encyclopedias: A Guide to General and Specialized
Encyclopedias by Kenneth F. Kister. Oryx Press, 1986.
$39.50 (0-89774-171-4).
In addition to reviewing all of the encyclopedias discussed
here, Kister also reviews 42 other sets, some of them out of
print and others in one volume. Appendixes give brief
comments on specialized subject encyclopedias and foreign-
language encyclopedias.
General Reference Books for Adults (Bowker Buying
Guides Series). Bowker, 1988. $69.95 (0-8352-2393-0).
Reviews nearly 300 encyclopedias, dictionaries, and at¬
lases for adults.
Reference Books for Young Readers (Bowker Buying
Guide Series). Bowker, 1988. $49.95 (0-8352-2366-3).
Evaluates encyclopedias, dictionaries, and atlases for
children.
Encyclopedia
Reviews
Nineteen ninety-one was another difficult year for en¬
cyclopedia editors, as dramatic events in the former Soviet
Union and in Eastern Europe continued through the end of
the year. One problem was getting updated maps of these
areas to accompany articles, since maps and text should be
consistent. Because an encyclopedia is not intended to serve
as a current-awareness source like a newspaper, coverage
of the events of late 1991 is not stressed in these reviews,
especially since the publication dates of encyclopedias vary
from January 1 to the end of March.
On the issue of consistency between maps and text, one
place where many of these sets fail is in the consistent use
of Chinese transliteration systems. The pinyin system has
been in use in this country since 1979, but only World Book
consistently uses it ( Compton’s does with a few exceptions).
Many sets use pinyin on maps but Wade-Giles in text (e.g.,
Tianjin on the map of China but Tientsin as the entry for
the city), and a few sets use Wade-Giles throughout.
Two encyclopedias for children underwent major struc¬
tural changes this year. Both Compton’s Encyclopedia and
Ihe New Book of Knowledge are eliminating the indexes,
which also included brief articles, at the end of each volume.
Compton’s removed all its “Fact-Indexes” at the ends of
volumes in the 1992 set, but the separate index volume still
contains many brief articles. The New Book of Knowledge
will be eliminating its “Dictionary Indexes” over several
years. The information in the brief articles will be integrated
into the body of the set.
17
r This year these sets incorporate the 1990 U.S. census
E population figures (except for New Standard , which has
updated state articles but not all city ones). The statistics
E the publishers provided us on these changes are a good
w measure of the relative coverage of American places in
S encyclopedias. For instance. The New Book of Knowledge
had to change about 3 5 city articles; World Book , 330 cities;
Funk & Wagnalls , 1,353; Collier's 1,530 ; The New En¬
cyclopaedia Britannica, 1,800; and Encyclopedia
Americana , 2,005. Since the census is only taken every 10
years, the inclusion of these new statistics makes this a good
time to purchase an encyclopedia.
Reviews of nine encyclopedias are reprinted here from
the September 15,1992 issue of Booklist/Reference Books
Bulletin . Two sets that were reviewed in previous years are
not included. Merit Student's Encyclopedia has ceased
publication, and Children's Britannica , while still available,
was not issued in a revised edition for 1992.
Academic American Encyclopedia. 21v. Lawrence
T. Lorimer, editorial director; K. Anne Ranson,
editor in chief. Grolier, 1992.
First published in 1980, Academic American Encyclopedia
is the most recently created general English-language en¬
cyclopedia. AAE emphasizes the subjects common to the
curriculum of American schools and universities. The
encyclopedia’s strengths include contemporary events, pop
culture, international affairs, and current technology,
though more than a third of the work covers the humanities
and the arts. AAE' s preface indicates that more than 90
percent of the encyclopedia has been written by outside
authorities affiliated with major academic institutions, cor¬
porations, and nonprofit organizations. Forty-four new
contributors were added to the 1992 edition, including
Jefferson W. Tester, professor of chemical engineering at
18
MIT (Geothermal Energy ), and Louise Bates Ames, as- R
sociate director of the Gesell Institute of Human Develop- e
ment (Child Development). However, many of the most V
timely new articles such as Gulf War, Cyberspace , and Bank 1
of Credit and Commerce International are unsigned, as are ^
over 25 percent of the articles in the set. s
AAE covers a broad spectrum of information through
28,940 concise, factual articles. More than half of them are
less than 500 words in length. This format plus excellent
tables, graphs, and illustrations makes it ideal for ready-ref¬
erence questions. The set also includes general overview
articles such as the new one Petroleum that could serve as
a beginning point in student research, identifying key con¬
cepts and controversial issues. The editors of AAE identify
their audience as upper elementary students through adults.
However, a tendency to technical detail, scholarly
vocabulary, and lengthy sentences makes some of these
articles challenging to even middle school readers. Nearly
40 percent of all articles conclude with a bibliography of
one to twelve entries. These include standard and recently
published English-language works that should be readily
available in most library systems. The bibliographic refer¬
ences are uniformly for college and adult audiences. More
than 2,000 bibliographies were revised this year, as part of
a five-year program to revise all reading lists.
As in the past, approximately one-third of the space is
devoted to the handsome illustrations for which AAE is
known—photographs, artwork, and maps, three-quarters
of which are in full color. Of the 1 6,900 illustrations, 167
are new this year. The replaced articles Landscape Architec¬
ture and Landscape Painting , for example, have been
entirely reillustrated with attractive pictures. Life-Support
Systems has two new photographs of space suits used in the
space program. There are also 93 revised maps document¬
ing the reunification of Germany, the union of two Yemeni
19
R states, and other recent changes in world affairs. Page
E layouts are striking.
v AAE’s substantial index of over 2 0 0,0 00 entries includes
E all articles, illustrations, and major map designations, as
w well as numerous see and see also references. However,
S valuable information in fact boxes and tables is frequently
ignored in the index. For example, no entry is found for
Elias James Corey, the 1990 Nobel Prize winner in
chemistry, although he is noted in the list of winners in the
article Nobel Prize . The 1992 index has been reorganized.
Index entries are now arranged in letter-by-letter order,
providing an alternative method of searching for subjects as
compared with the word-by-word order of the articles
themselves. This may improve accessibility to the set’s
contents by providing another means of approach, but it
may also confuse some readers. The index now sets all
headings in boldface type while preserving the distinction
between article tides and other headings by setting the article
titles in capital letters. Within the body of the set, there are
also extensive cross-references, both internal and see also
references, that will help the many encyclopedia users who
tend to avoid the index volume.
World events appeared to have triggered most changes in
the 1992 AAE. Eighty new articles, including such entries
as F-117A Stealth Fighter , High Definition Television ,
Fragile-X Syndrome , Language , and Thomas , Clarence ,
were added to this edition. There are also brief new entries
for Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and Edith
Cresson, the former prime minister of France. AAE is the
only set that has a separate entry for Suu Kyi; Britannica
and AAE are the only sets with an entry for Cresson. The
new entry Genetic Testing addresses the ethical aspects of
this topic as well as the scientific ones. In addition to these
new articles, 50 existing ones were replaced with lengthier,
signed entries. These include such subjects as Breast Feed-
ing, Germany , Vegetarianism , and Fellini, Federico . Nearly
20
5,000 existing articles and over 90 maps received major or R
minor revision. The Gulf War, the dramatic changes in e
Eastern Europe, and 1990 census data directly impacted V
the substantial revisions required in 1992. Approximately 1
17 percent of this edition’s articles were revised in some ^
manner, providing an extremely current text. s
A slightly modified version of the previous year’s edition
of AAE is sold in retail stores to consumers as The Grolier
International Encyclopedia and Barnes & Noble New
American Encyclopedia . A condensed version is sold in
supermarkets as The Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge.
AAE is available in several electronic versions. It is online
with such services as CompuServe and Prodigy. The CD-
ROM version. The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia ,
contains thousands of color pictures, over 250 color maps,
plus audio and motion sequences. Additional features in¬
clude a time line with links to articles and a “knowledge tree”
that allows the user to explore additional topics. The set is
also available for CD-TV.
Designed to provide quick access to factual information,
Academic American Enycylopedia is an attractive and
easy-to-use reference tool of great value to libraries serving
middle school, high school, and adult readers. Its brief
entries do not provide the historical depth found in larger
sets, but its specific-entry approach makes access easy. Its
currency is unsurpassed.
Collier’s Encyclopedia* 24v. Lauren S. Bahr,
editorial director; Bernard Johnston, editor in chief.
Macmillan, 1992.
First published in 1950, Collier’s is intended to be “a
scholarly, systematic, continuously revised summary of the
knowledge that is significant to mankind.”
Entries range from one paragraph to many pages (e.g.,
Architecture at 74 pages. United States at about 100).
Although Colliers is known for its broad topical approach,
21
r there are many short entries; these tend to identify
E geographic entities, people, specific flora and fauna, and
associations. Headings and subheadings are generously
E used; some longer articles have tables of contents to guide
w the reader. Most articles are signed. Volume 1 lists 5,000
S editors, advisors, and contributors, with identification at
time of service. Degrees, titles, and major publications are
listed. There are 61 new contributors this year.
Collier’s presentation of information is clear and
straightforward; articles are aimed at lay readers. Terminol¬
ogy used avoids jargon and pedantry. Some articles are more
demanding than others, but this appears to be a function of
the technical nature of the material, rather than inap¬
propriate presentation. Periodic instances of non-gender-
free language are found; for example, in Newspaper, a VDT
is described as a “keyboard attached to a television tube on
which a reporter can read his story as he writes.”
In some entries, glossaries (e.g., Musical Terms ) or capsule
biographies of personalities (e.g., Musical Theater in
America ) are provided. Pronunciation is given for most
terms, and the key is printed at the front of each volume.
Dates for population are noted; U.S. figures are from the
1990 census. However, population figures for cities in other
countries aren’t always as current. For instance, the 1971
population is given for Amalfi, Italy.
A 200-page bibliography in the last volume is arranged
by broad topics, broken down by form and subject; entries
are briefly annotated. Collier’s policy here is to emphasize
current books, readily available, written in English. Sections
of the bibliography revised this year include general refer¬
ence books, chemistry, mathematics, architecture, and
sports and games. Some sections need updating. Most of the
titles in the education section, for instance, date from the
1960s and 1970s. In recent years, bibliographies have been
appended to new and revised articles, but these are still
infrequent. This year, none of the new entries has a bibliog-
22
raphy. Bibliographies were added to six rewritten or revised R
articles. E
The publisher notes over 14,000 illustrations, 2 8 percent v
of which are in color, up from 10 percent in 1988. Collier’s 1
is moving toward a greater use of color; over 500 attractive w
color photographs were added this year throughout the set. s
For example, Argentina has 8 new photographs. Cactus has
9, and Eskimo, 10.
The index in the final volume has 450,000 entries;most
entries are identified briefly, for example, “Detroit Red
Wings (hockey team).” The index identifies bibliography
entries, illustrations, and maps. Page numbers include page
quadrant (a, b, c, or d). The “Study Guide”, also in the last
volume, mainly lists under broad topic some of the articles
to be found in Collier’s. For example, under “Modern
Philosophers” is a list of 2 7 people about whom articles are
found in the set.
The publisher indicates that this year there are 39 new
articles (e.g.. Baker, James ; Persian Gulf War; Marfan’s
Syndrome; Nursing Home; King, Stephen; Teleology;
Yeltsin, Boris; and Restoration and Conservation). The
lengthiest, Persian Gulf War, is 9V2 pages and has 9 color
photographs and a map. Among the 64 completely rewritten
articles are Columbus, Christopher; Germany (combining
both Germanys); Marsupial; Metallurgical Analysis; Nerv¬
ous System; Botticelli; and Haiti. Many sections of the USSR
entry were rewritten to reflect changes there. The publisher
claims over 2,600 “updated or otherwise revised articles.”
For instance, over 150 entries on German places were
revised to reflect the reunification of Germany.
Some articles, however, arc in need of revision. For
example. Abortion was written when the U.S. was moving
toward broadened abortion riqhts, not the opposite. Audio-
Visual Instructional Materials dates back to the late 1960s
and hence doesn’t mention video and other new tech¬
nologies. Library Research and Reporting (Louis Shores
23
R and Richard Darling, authors) cites superseded editions and
E gives minimal attention to electronic sources of information,
v A comparison of volume 17 of the 1992 edition with the
same volume in the 1981 set shows new and rewritten
w articles and new illustrations, but some dated material. For
§ instance, Newspaper badly needs revision. It provides ex¬
tensive historical information, but the section on the con¬
temporary newspaper is out of date. An accompanying
photograph, captioned “Modem Newspaper Equipment,”
shows a manual typewriter and a linotype machine. The
entry Music , History of also gives good historical treatment
but skimps on coverage of modern composers. The accom-
paning photograph of a synthesizer shows what must have
been a very early prototype. Narcotics, Control of contains
no mention of cocaine and recent antidrug initiatives.
Collier’s Encyclopedia is a large set with extensive histori¬
cal coverage of many topics, but it is not the first place to
turn for information on current subjects. The amount of
revision this year is considerably higher than in recent years,
and the addition of many new color photographs is improv¬
ing the set’s look; the publisher is encouraged to continue
these trends. High school, academic, and public libraries
could all benefit from owning Colliers .
Compton’s Encyclopedia & Fact-Index. 26 v. Ed.
by Dale Good. Compton’s Learning Co., 1992 .
Compton’s , published since 1922, continues to meet the
information needs of students at the upper elementary
through high school level. Compton’s completed a radical
six-year revision of the text in 1989. Now, for 1992, the set
has been completely reset and redesigned and extensively
reillustrated.
Articles are arranged alphabetically letter by letter; most
of them are not signed. However, for this printing, names of
more than 500 contributors were added to articles, bringing
the number of signed entries to 1,042. Many of the con-
24
tributors are affiliated with academic or government institu- R
tions; others are writers, teachers, or librarians. e
There are 23 new articles in the main text, including V
Animal Rights , Persian Gulf TFar, and Yeltsin , Boris. The 1
new entries Gangs and Scouting , each about a page in length, w
address topics of interest to children. In addition, around s
90 articles have been rewritten or extensively revised, and
more than 900 have been updated. About 120 bibliog¬
raphies were updated, and three new bibliographies were
added. Among articles that have been revised are Gor¬
bachev, Mikhail and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The article on Gorbachev is current through October 1991,
when he proposed the economic union of several republics.
To the article on the former USSR, the editors have added
a brief introductory paragraph noting recent changes and
stating that the article deals with the Soviet Union that
existed before the changes took place. The articles Egypt,
/raq, Kuwait , and Saudi Arabia have been updated to show
their role in the Persian Gulf War, but not the articles Israel ,
Jordan , or Syria . Last year, the Board noted that the Old
Slave Mart Museum shown in South Carolina had closed;
the picture of the museum has been dropped from the
rewritten and reillustrated article. The Board also com¬
mented on the fact that automation was nearly ignored in
Library . Though the text in the 1992 printing has not
changed, photographs have been added to show library
patrons using computers and online catalogs. Revised ar¬
ticles that will be of special interest to children include
Amusement Park and Fast Food.
One major change for 1992 is that the separate indexes
at the end of each volume have been dropped. These indexes
analyzed the contents of each volume and also contained
brief entries for topics not covered in the main alphabetical
sequence. They were cumulated in volume 26, Master
Fact-Index , which has been renamed Fact-Index , and now
serves as the sole index for the set. Compton’s is 694 pages
25
R shorter because of the elimination of these duplicate indexes.
E Almost 2,300 new short articles were added to the Fact-
v Index , including Abscam , Electronic Mail , Virtual Reality ,
* Voguing , and Thomas , Clarence . Entries on a number of
w people of interest to children, such as Fresh Prince, Whitney
S Houston, and Fay Vincent, are new. The Fact-Index notes
the 1991 deaths of Miles Davis, Rajiv Gandhi, and Dr.
Seuss. In addition, about 600 entries in the Fact-Index had
major revision. Also added were 65 new tables, including
“Basketball Hall of Fame” and “Major Volcanoes of the
World”. The list of volcanoes does not show the eruption of
Mt. Pinatubo, but it is noted in the Philippines article.
Besides the index, other features that aid access to the set
are cross-references, preview boxes that serve as tables of
contents for longer articles, and fact-finder boxes that refer
the reader to related topics.
By far the greatest amount of change has taken place in
the look of the encyclopedia, beginning with its bright,
royal-blue binding. The set is now printed on four-color
presses, and the entire text has been reset. Running text
appears in a new typeface, with ragged-right margins.
Captions were reset in a boldface italic type. All tables and
sidebars were redesigned. Over 1,000 two-color maps were
changed to four-color, and nearly 300 maps were added or
revised. There are more than 2,000 new four-color
photographs and more than 1,3 00 new four-color drawings,
graphs, and charts. According to the editors, Compton's is
now about 65 percent four-color, compared to 35 percent
in 1991. In addition, about 3,300 pages have been
redesigned, including all of the state and Canadian province
articles. New illustrations have been provided for many of
the articles of interest to children, such as Circus , Do//, and
Zoo, and for a number of the science articles, which are
Compton's traditional area of strength. Birds, for example,
now has more than 60 color photos, along with numerous
four-color illustrations to replace the pictures in the previous
26
edition, which were primarily two-color drawings. Not all R
the articles have been reillustrated to the same extent. In e
some cases, such as Egypt , Ancient and Byzantine Empire , v
the reillustration consists of replacing the old two-color map 1
with a new four-color one. E
w
Compton's is available in several electronic versions. s
Compton's MultiMedia Encyclopedia combines the text of
Compton's with illustrations, animation, and sound on a
CD-ROM. Compton's Family Encyclopedia , another CD-
ROM version, offers the same text and illustrations, but no
animation and less sound. Compton's Concise Encyclopedia
is available for Data Discman, Sony’s hand-held, battery-
powered CD-ROM player. A compact disc-interactive ver¬
sion of Compton's is imder development.
While it led the way in adding graphics to the electronic
version, Compton's had lagged behind its counterparts in
the illustration and design of the print set. Now Compton's
has taken a major step towards enhancing its visual appeal.
There is no question that the set benefits from its new design.
The increase in the number of four-color illustrations, the
crisper typeface, and the new page layouts give the 1992
printing a much more lively and up-to-date appearance. In
the past, the Board has made note of Compton's accuracy,
concision, and generally adequate updating. This year we
can also note its attractive appearance. Compton's is recom¬
mended for public and elementary and middle school
libraries.
Encyclopedia Americana. 30v. Lawrence T.
Lorimer, editorial director; Mark Cummings, editor
in chief. Grolier, 1992.
Encyclopedia Americana , originally issued between 1829
and 1833, was the first general encyclopedia published in
the U.S. Its intended audience is high school and college
students and adults. Although international in scope, the set
27
R emphasizes subjects for U.S. and Canadian audiences, for
E example, the entries New York State Barge Canal System
v and Antietam, Battle of with detailed maps. The second
j, largest of the sets reviewed here, Americana gives a balanced
^ assessment of controversial subjects like homosexuality, sex
s education, and Scientology.
Americana has over 6,500 advisers and contributors, 40
of them new to this edition. A random sampling determined
that approximately 36 percent of all articles are signed. A
contributors list at the beginning of volume 1 shows affilia¬
tions. Most contributors are university faculty; others are
government and private industry experts or members of
learned organizations. Among the new contributors this year
are Barbara S. Okun, Office of Population Research,
Princeton University ( United States: Population Growth
and Characteristics) and Elizabeth H. Pleck, Center for
Research on Women, Wellesley College ( Roe v. Wade and
Doe v. Bolton ).
Pronunciation guides are given for entries within the text.
Some specialized articles have a glossary of terms. Many
articles contain short bibliographies, most of which cite titles
published in the 1980s. There is a limited use of see and
see also references within the text. This moderate usage of
cross-references mandates the use of the 353,000-item
index to locate appropriate information. Maps and illustra¬
tions are also indexed here.
This year, about six percent of the set’s approximately
52,000 entries had some revision. There are 21 new entries,
79 replacement articles, 68 articles with major revisions,
and 2,986 with minor revisions. Among the new articles this
year are several excellent ones under Banks and Banking .
The new articles Homelessness , Persian Gulf War, and the
rewritten Canada: Health and Welfare treat timely topics
that will be of interest to students. Biographies are now
provided for John Major, Colin Powell, and Clarence
Thomas. Replacement articles include Cold War , Warsatv
28
Pact , Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation , and Savings
and Loan Associations . Among the articles with major
revision are AIDS , Black Americans , and Yugoslavia:
Yugoslavia after Tito . Of the 2,986 minor revisions, 415
are updated bibliographies, and more than 2,000 are
changes in U.S. population data. s
Among the numerous examples of the editors’ efforts to
keep Americana current, the article Assassination notes the
May 21, 1991, death of Rajiv Gandhi (as does his biog¬
raphy). Disasters lists the August 1991 Hurricane Bob and
the October 1991 California brushfires. Articles on
Czechoslovakia, boxer George Foreman, Supreme Court
Justice Thurgood Marshall, and Boris Yeltsin mention
events right up to the publisher’s deadline of September
1991.
In contrast, many articles demonstrate neglect. For ex¬
ample, Air Transportation , which we criticized in our 1989
review as outdated, still has not been revised. As was pointed
out in our review last year, the article Foundations cites
1967 figures, and Divorce gives 1975 and 1976 statistics.
Career Planning cites salaries from the 1960s. The articles
Automobiles , Beer , and Crime and Criminology have old
statistical data. The entry Apprenticeship states, “The
present-day apprentice in American industry can expect $2
an hour.” The reunification of Germany is not reflected in
all articles. Potsdam , for instance, is described as “a city in
the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).” Articles
on the Philippines, its provinces, and various cities cite
census data for 1980,1975,1970, and 1960,even though
a new census was conducted in 1990. The population for
Nantes (Franee) is from 1968, and for Antung (China) from
1958. An inconsistent writing style is found in some articles.
Susan B. Anthony, for instance, is referred to in her
biography as “Miss Anthony” while men are referred to by
their surnames.
29
< M
r There are approximately 22,865 photographs, maps,
drawings, and various other illustrations appropriately
y placed throughout the text. Added this year are 160 new
£ illustrations, including a map of Columbus’ voyages and new
w color photographs for several countries. About 14 percent
s of the set s illustrations are in color, the lowest proportion
among all the sets reviewed here. The editors state that this
year they have changed to using coated paper stock
throughout the set, which will allow for more extensive use
of color in future editions. We hope this change signifies an
effort to make improvements in this area. For example,
many country articles in Americana lack color photographs.
There are also omissions in coverage, such as no
biographical articles on such prominent persons as Norman
Schwarzkopf and Salman Rushdie. There is an entry for
Oral Roberts, but none for Pat Robertson. Only passing
references are made to significant black leaders like Ralph
Abernathy, Floyd McKissick, and Louis Farrakhan.
This encyclopedia does an excellent job of providing
historical coverage of many topics, but there is a problem
with keeping articles current. For this extensive historical
coverage of many subjects. Encyclopedia Americana
remains a useful reference for high school and college
students and adults.
Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. 29v. Leon L.
Bram, editorial director; Norma H. Dickey, editor in
chief. Funk & Wagnalls, 1992.
Founded in 1876, Funk & Wagnalls first published an
encyclopedia in 1912. The present title and a program of
continuous semiannual revision date from 1971. The set-
designed primarily for junior and senior high school stu¬
dents and the general, nonspecialist adult public—is dis¬
tributed in the U.S. and Canada through supermarket
“book-a-week” programs. In the past, schools and libraries
30
have purchased it directly from the publisher, but a special R
1993 school and library edition is being sold by Oxford e
University Press. V
In the spring 1992 printing, volumes 1—27 and the first T
half of volume 28 contain some 25,000 articles. The latter ^
half of volume 28 is a bibliography of 9,500 annotated s
entries divided into nearly 1,600 topical reading lists and
more than 300 biography reading lists. Volume 29 is the
index. Cross-references are provided within and at the ends
of articles, but the index should be consulted to find all
related entries. It has 130,000 entries and does not include
references to illustrations or to the bibliography. F&W does
not supply pronunciation for unfamiliar words.
Most entries in F&W are brief (less than a page); a few,
however, are fairly long (e.g., Europe , 40 pages; Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics , 52 pages; United States of
America , 108 pages). While over 900 contributors are
identified and their initials are appended to their entries,
most of the articles are unsigned and are the work of F&Ws
editorial staff. More than 3,000 entries conclude with
cross-references to the bibliographies in volume 28. Almost
every one of these lists contains some books from the 1980s,
including some recent titles (e.g., Atlas of United States
Environmental Issues , 1990; Cambridge Encyclopedia of
Ornithology , 1991). On the other hand, superseded editions
of some works are listed (e.g., the 1983 edition of The Negro
Almanac instead of the 1989). Works included tend to be
popular, rather than scholarly, treatments.
According to the publisher, the fall 1991-spring 1992
revisions added 10 new articles (compared with 24 in
1990—91) and updated more than 2,600 others. Seven of
the new entries are biographical (Rachel Field, Saddam
Hussein, Helmut Kohl, John Major, Colin Powell, Clarence
Thomas, Boris Yeltsin); the other three relate to a national
park, a European conference, and the Persian Gulf War.
Revised entries are many and varied. A major part of the
31
R substantially revised coverage has been in chemistry ( Ele-
E meats, Chemical; Periodic Law; Chemical Reaction ; and
^ 103 articles on individual chemical elements). There are still
E separate entries Germany, East and Germany, West, but
w each concludes with a paragraph describing reunification.
S Maps have been revised to reflect this fact, and 470 entries
were updated to remove the East-West designation. Some
2 5 articles were updated for the Persian Gulf War and other
Middle Eastern events (Air Warfare, Iraq, Kuwait, Pales¬
tine Liberation Organization, Saudi Arabia, etc.). Com¬
puter was substantially revised, and Nuclear Energy was
rewritten. The articles on more than 50 U.S. and Canadian
national parks were revised and updated. A change of
government in Ethiopia, the end of the Angolan civil war,
continuation of the U.S. banking crisis, the April cyclone in
Bangladesh, Rajiv Ghandi’s assassination in India in May,
and civil war in Yugoslavia are all duly noted. Also included
are the deaths of Miles Davis, Martha Graham, Graham
Greene, Rudolf Serkin, Dr. Seuss, and I. B. Singer. Dates
for population figures are given; those for the U.S. are from
the 1990 census.
This revision continues the pattern of recent years of
increasing the number of four-color illustrations by adding
45 new pictures. New color illustrations appear in such
articles as Canada, Kuwait, and Guided Missiles; new black
and white ones are included in Chemical Reaction, Conser¬
vative Party (UK), and France . About three-fifths of the
set’s 9,000 illustrations are in black and white.
The text of Funk & Wagnalls provides the basis for
Encarta, a new CD-ROM encyclopedia from Microsoft. All
new illustrations have been added, however, along with
audio and video.
Funk & Wagnalls Neiv Encyclopedia, while not as
detailed and scholarly as the major multivolume sets,
provides clear, up-to-date, worldwide coverage in a readable
style well suited for an audience from junior high school
32
upward. While designed primarily for home use, it may be R
a suitable purchase for libraries, for it gives good value for e
the price. v
I
£
The New Book of Knowledge. 21 v. Lawrence T. w
Lorimer, editorial director; Gerry Gabianelli, editor s
in chief. Grolier, 1992.
The New Book of Knowledge has been an alphabetically
arranged encyclopedia since 1966, when Grolier replaced
the topically arranged Book of Knowledge . This past year,
a major five-year revision of the set began. The most notable
format change will be the eventual elimination of the “Dic¬
tionary Index”, which is a separate index in each of the 2 0
volumes that also includes brief text entries. No new “Dic¬
tionary Index” entries were added this year, and existing
entries are gradually being integrated into the main body of
the text.
The 1,766 contributors to NBK are experts well posi¬
tioned to be knowledgeable about the subjects they write
about or review. Among the 66 contributors new to this
edition are Alan Nourse, author of Teen Guide to AIDS
Protection (Birth Control ), and Alan Palmer, author of The
Penguin Dictionary of Modern History 1 789-1945 (Bal¬
four, Arthur J.; Bruce, Robert; Chamberlain Family; Mac¬
millan, Harold ). A fist of all contributors and their affilia¬
tions appears between the text and the “Dictionary Index”
in volume 2 0.
NBK is written primarily for children “both in school and
at home” through middle or junior high school. The Dale-
Chall readability formula is used to make certain the
comprehension level of articles matches the ages at which
the topic would appeal to children or be introduced to them
in school.
The encyclopedia is organized letter by letter. Many
cross-references are included both within and at the ends of
articles. About 700 see references, including 122 new ones,
33
R are also included throughout the set. Unfortunately, some
E of these references are confusing. For instance, “Anteaters.
y See MAMMALS appears on the page preceding the new
£ three-page article Anteaters. A see reference for Anthrax
w appears out of alphabetical order before the article Anthony,
s Susan B.
Volume 21 is an index containing 85,000 entries. It
cumulates all the references from the 20 volume indexes and
also includes references to all “Dictionary Index” text entries
(but doesn’t duplicate those entries).
For the 1992 edition, five volumes of A 1BK were substan¬
tially revised (A, B, C, G, and L), compared with only four
volumes during the previous three years combined. Seven¬
ty-five new articles were added for 1992, including Am¬
phibians, Arabs , and Bible, People in the. Fifty of these new
articles are biographies of such people as Susan B. Anthony,
Judy Blume, John Major, and I. M. Pei. Many of these
biographies and some of the new narrow topical entries like
Aquaculture , Asfcesios, and Central Intelligence Agency
used to be in the Dictionary Index”. However, they have
been greatly expanded since being moved to the main body
of the text. Another 60 text articles were replaced, including
Books, Economics , Georgia , North Carolina , and North
Dakota. These three state articles bring the total to seven
given in a new format with attractive graphic features. The
Economics article exemplifies a new feature, namely, the
inclusion of biographical profiles of people important to the
context of the articles. In this case, five people are profiled:
Adam Smith, John Meynard Keynes, Paul Samuelson,
Milton Friedman, and John Kenneth Galbraith, several of
whom used to be in the “Dictionary Index”. Other major
articles replaced include American Literature , Banks and
Banking , Germany , and Columbus , Christopher.
Thirty articles were completely updated and substantively
rewritten, including Iraq , Kuwait , Robin Hood , Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics , and Yugoslavia. Minor revisions
34
or updates were done for 295 articles, including Cheerlead- R
ing , Democracy, Imperialism , and Little League Baseball . e
Even though Baltimore and Maryland were among the v
articles receiving minor revision, errors were noted. The
Baltimore article states that “Sports fans cheer baseball’s w
Orioles and football’s Colts at Memorial Stadium.” In fact, s
the Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1984, and the article
Indianapolis correctly notes that they play in the Hoosier
Dome there. This year, the Orioles started playing in Oriole
Park at Camden Yards, their new stadium. In the article
Legislatures , Bangladesh and Pakistan are noted to be
under martial law since 1982 and 1976, respectively, when
martial law was lifted in 1986 and 1985. Several entries
still refer to West and East Germany. There is no biography
of David Souter, who was appointed to the Supreme Court
in 1990.
For this edition, 653 new photographs, 180 new works
of art, and 27 new maps were added. Most of the new
illustrations are in color, as are over 90 percent of the set’s
pictures. The new graphic features of the past few years and
the heavy illustration make NBK a very attractive en¬
cyclopedia. The newly illustrated entries Animals , Books ,
Games , and Columbus , Christopher will appeal to children.
There are still dated illustrations in such articles as Paper
and Reading.
Special features of NBK , all indexed in the accompanying
Home and School Reading and Study Guides , include
articles on hobbies and leisure activities, literary excerpts,
projects and experiments, “wonder questions,” and articles
of interest to parents. The wonder questions provide excel¬
lent explanations; two examples are “How do we get salt?”
and “What happens at absolute zero?” This paperback
volume also contains a bibliography for parents and
teachers that relates NBK articles to the curriculum. Of the
more than 5,000 books for young readers listed, over 900
titles are new this year.
35
R The New Book of Knowledge will both satisfy curiosity
E and encourage further exploration in children. Parents,
v teachers, librarians, and school-age children up to and in
E some cases through high school will find it to be a valuable
w reference resource.
s
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 32v. 15th ed.
Robert McHenry, general editor. Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 1992.
Britannica was first published in Scotland, 1768-1771.
Around 1900 two Americans acquired the rights to the
encyclopedia. Currently, the encyclopedia is divided into
three parts: a one-volume outline of knowledge, the
Propaedia ; a 12-volume ready-reference set, the
Micropaedia ; and the 17 -volume Macropaedia with lengthy
scholarly articles. There is a superb two-volume index and
a yearbook, Britannica Book of the Year!Britannica World
Data that includes world statistics that first-time purchasers
receive free for that year.
This year’s Micropaedia includes 64,404 articles averag¬
ing just under 300 words. These include 282 entirely new
articles, 1,434 revised articles, and 1,850 that were up¬
dated to include 1990 U.S. census data. One hundred
ninety new photographs were added along with 15 drawings
and 63 maps. Approximately 40 percent of the new entries
are biographies. Examples include James Baker m, Manuel
Noriega, Salman Rushdie, and David Souter. Other new
entries describe companies such as Anheuser-Busch and
Quaker Oats; places like Ashland, Kentucky; institutions
such as the Public Broadcasting System; and such terms as
cha cha and sweetener . Examples of updating are many,
ranging from Abortion , which now includes discussion of the
1989 Webster v . Reproductive Health Services to Yeltsin,
Boris , covered through August 1991.
In recent years Britannica has made a more concerted
effort to update articles rather than relying so heavily on
36
the yearbook. However, more still needs to be done in the R
Micropaedia . The article Bahrain was not revised to note e
that country’s role in the Gulf War. In Sporting Record , v
which fists champions in various sports, the most recent
entries are for 1987 for events held annually and 1985 for w
quadrennial events. Numerous bibliographies continue to s
be out-of-date. The bibliography for explorer LaSalle stops
in 1964 despite many recent monographs while that for T.
E. Lawrence (of Arabia fame) lists biographies from 1938
and 1977, ignoring several published in the 1980s.
While Britannica has made strides in recent years to
increase the number of illustrations, especially in color,
the Micropaedia is riddled with tiny black-and-white
photographs.
The 1992 Macropaedia contains 674 signed articles
averaging 25 pages in length. These range from three- to
four-page articles on cities to 308 pages on the U.S. and
139 pages on the United Kingdom. Biographies make up 14
percent of the entries, cities 11 percent, countries 10
percent, national literatures 4 percent, and geographic
regions 3 percent. Africa is slighted in terms of separate
entries in the Macropaedia . While 26 European countries,
21 Asian countries, and 11 South American countries have
entries, only 4 African countries are listed separately. The
others are covered in lengthy regional articles. It is hard to
see why Luxembourg merits independent coverage in the
Macropaedia and Nigeria does not.
Since encyclopedias are usually static in size, with a new
entry meaning the elimination of an old one, entries in the
1992 set were compared with the 1989 one. Since 1989,
29 entries have been added to the Macropaedia and 33
deleted. New entries include Bhutan , Guyana , Madagas¬
car , and The Netherlands. Other notable new entries in¬
clude those on the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans;
Baltic States; and Telescopes . Among articles dropped are
several surprising ones: Education, Higher; Education,
37
R Special; Education, Social and Economic Aspects of; and
E Psychology.
I One of the great strengths of the Macropaedia has always
I? been its distinguished cast of contributors. The 115 new
W contributors include 35 Americans, 16 Australians, 11
S from the U.K., and others from Canada, New Zealand,
Chile, and France.
Some entries in need of updating in the Macropaedia
include the following: Alcohol and Drug Consumption,
which includes a world chart with statistics dating from
1971; Birds, with a bibliography citing sources principally
from the 1950s and 1960s; and Broadcasting, which
recommends Techniques of Television Production (2d ed.,
1962) in its bibliography. Despite the rash of new
monographs on exploration in recent years, the bibliog¬
raphy for European Overseas Explorations and Empire
cites nothing since 1969 on exploration. The bibliography
in the article on Columbus is short and dated (1967 or
older).
On the plus side is the revised article Australia , with one
black-and-white and 12 color maps, 20 illustrations, a
superb commentary, and a lengthy bibliography. Also
revised is Australia and New Zealand, Literatures of, which
is six pages longer than the previous version. Other notable
revisions include the articles European History and Cul¬
ture; Greek and Roman Civilization, Ancient; and Iraq.
The index with 665,000 references is superb. In checking
Belize, the index also lists the Spanish equivalent Belice and
the former colonial name, British Honduras. It refers to an
entry in the Micropaedia, one in the Macropaeida, notes a
map in the Macropaedia, suggests recent statistical infor¬
mation can be found in the World Data Annual, notes its
flag is illustrated on plate 2 of Flag, and suggests coverage
of topics in many other volumes.
This fall Britannica is releasing the Britannica Electronic
Index on CD-ROM to be used with an IBM PC or compatible
38
computer. This is more than an electronic version of the R
printed index to the set. Using the search software developed e
for Compton's MultiMedia Encyclopedia , it is possible to v
search by entry title (“Title Finder”) or to do a keyword 1
search (“Idea Search”). “People, Places, and Things” ^
searches subsets of the database. Under “People,” for §
instance, it is possible to get a list of all British writers or
French composers discussed in the set. All lists of citations
can be printed out. The disc also contains a version of
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary . While the
Electronic Index must be used with the print set, it does offer
enhanced access to it. It is available for $299 or for $99 as
a package with the 1992 NEB.
The Propaedia , designed as a kind of self-study guide, is
scarcely used in libraries. As the twentieth anniversary of
the fifteenth edition approaches, it may be an appropriate
time to drop it. Time and money spent on updating the many
outlines and lists could be more effectively used to update
articles in the Micropaedia and revise bibliographies. The
plates on the human body, missed by most patrons because
of their location in the Propaedia , could be moved to the
Macropaedia.
As Britannica enters its 2 2 5 th year, it remains the largest
and most scholarly encyclopedia in the English language.
Studies have shown that it is the most cited encyclopedia in
both academic and popular publications. This authoritative
set is suitable for academic, public, and many high school
libraries.
New Standard Encyclopedia. 20v. Douglas W.
Downey, editor in chief. Standard Educational
Corp., 1992.
A moderate-sized set first published in 1910, New Standard
Encyclopedia is designed for the basic reference use of the
general reader from middle school to adult. It is sold to
39
R schools and libraries by the Marshall Cavendish sales force;
E it is sold to consumers by various wholesalers.
' Following suggestions on how to use the set, there are
E listings of editorial board members, contributors, consult-
w ants, advisers, and authenticators. Most articles are drafted
S by editorial staff and are unsigned; authenticators review
these entries for accuracy. There are no significant staff
changes this year; however, 24 new authenticators were
added, and 12 were dropped. Among the new ones are Peter
M. Baker of the Laser Institute (Laser); Steve Peggs of Fermi
National Laboratory (Particle Accelerator ); and Gerald
Strauch of the University of Chicago (Surgery).
Most articles are only a few paragraphs in length, though
multipage coverage is given to such topics as Dress, Motion
Pictures, and United States. Writing is concise; in general,
vocabulary is accessible to upper elementary students.
Pronunciation is provided for foreign and difficult words.
Of the 17,400 articles in the set, 121 are new to this
printing; 96 of these are found in the volumes covering the
letters C and D. Among the new articles are Carpal Tunnel
Syndrome, Croatia, Cult, Domestic Violence, Desktop
Publishing, and Tropical Rain Forest. All the new articles
are less than a page in length, except for Drug Abuse, which
has two pages of text and a table listing commonly abused
drugs, and Persian Gulf War, which has four pages of text,
several photographs, and a map. More than 50 of the new
entries are biographies of such individuals as Jacques
D’Amboise, Margaret Drabble, Joshua Gibson, John Major,
and Boris Yeltsin. Thirty-six articles were rewritten (e.g..
Computer, Folklore, Protein, Zulus, and Degas, Edgar).
Computer, for instance, has 22 new color photographs, a
glossary of terms, and a bibliography with some titles noted
as being for younger readers. Extensive revision occurred
in 25 major articles (e.g., AIDS, Dinosaur, Germany,
Radio, Surgery). In addition to the above, over 1,000
articles were updated. New census data was added to all
40
U.S. state articles, and the indexes to state maps were R
updated to show new population figures. However* entries e
for some individual cities still list 1980 population. So, for v
instance, while a table in Louisiana lists the population of 1
Lafayette as 94,440, the separate entry Lafayette gives it ^ r
as 81*961. s
Updating was generally achieved to date of publication.
For example, the article Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
is prefaced with “As this article was being prepared for the
printer, the political situation in the Soviet Union was in a
state of flux and the country’s future was uncertain. This
article describes the Soviet Union as it existed in August,
1991.” Also noted are the following: political and economic
isolation of Cuba in early 1990s, fighting between Croatians
and Serbs in 1991, the bankruptcy of many airlines, and
the deaths of Dame Margot Fonteyn and Martha Graham.
Not noted were such items as the assassination of Rajiv
Gandhi and rebel forces gaining power in Ethiopia. There
is still a lack of adequate information on the homeless.
Homelessness is listed in the index with reference to the
article Vagrancy .
Two himdred one bibliographies were updated this year.
For the most part, bibliographies have titles from the 1980s,
with some 1990 ones. Usually a few titles are listed for
younger readers. Volume 20, the index, contains 100,000
entries. Tn addition, the 19 text volumes contain over
13,600 see entries and 40,000 cross-references. This ex¬
tensive cross-referencing system will be of help to students
who are reluctant to use an index volume. There are special
indexes within the set, for example, “Index to Star Maps,”
“Index to Breeds of Dogs,” “Guide to Reproduction of
Paintings.”
Revisions were made on 101 maps. Some two-color maps
were converted to four color. Examples are Canada, Ger¬
many, and Iran. The effort Lo update illustrations and to
increase the use of four color is evidenced by the addition
41
R of 524 new illustrations (450 of them in color) and the
E deletion of 469 old ones. Notable among the reillustrated
v articles are Dance , Drama, and Computer . About two-
* thirds of the set’s illustrations are still black and white, and
w some drab photographs need to be replaced. Some country
s articles, for instance, lack color.
New Standard Encyclopedia continues to provide basic
factual information on a great variety of topics. Within its
size limitations, it is a useful reference tool for students and
adults.
The World Book Encyclopedia. 22v. William H.
Nault, publisher; Robert O. Zeleny, editor in chief.
World Book, 1992.
The World Book Encyclopedia was first published in 1917;
this year marks its seventy-fifth anniversary. It continues to
be an outstanding general encyclopedia with fine illustra¬
tions, excellent layout, and up-to-date coverage of a world
that is changing rapidly.
World Book's primary objective is to provide information
about humanity, the world, and the universe for elementary
and secondary school students. It also serves as a general
reference source for adults and is popular as a ready-refer¬
ence tool in libraries. It provides balanced coverage of world
events, science, the arts, and other topics.
More than 3,000 experts contribute to the World Book
as authors, illustrators, authenticators, reviewers, and con¬
sultants. Their names appear in the preface to the A volume.
Among the new contributors this year are R. Michael Blaese
of the National Cancer Institute (Gene Therapy ) and David
A. Deese of Boston College (Persian Gulf War). Volume 22
is the index and research guide. The 3 5-page section, “A
Student Guide to Better Writing, Speaking, and Research
Skills,” at the beginning of this volume, has been extensively
revised. It includes information about using online and
42
CD-ROM sources. Many of the 200 reading and study R
guides that appear in this volume have been updated, too. e
Most of the sources for scientific and technical articles are V
from the 1980s and 1990s. Lists for humanities and social
science topics contain books with a wider range of publica- w
tion dates, but most of them contain some titles from the s
1980s.
Articles in World Book are written at the appropriate
vocabulary level for the anticipated reader, so they vary in
length and complexity. All technical terms are italicized and
defined in the text. An elaborate cross-reference system
within the text makes finding related material easy for young
users who may not consult the index. More than 1,600
bibliographies, divided by reading level, accompany articles.
Eight are new and 350 have been revised for this edition.
This edition of World Book contains approximately
17,500 articles. Fifty of these are completely new, 481 have
been extensively revised, and more than 2,900 have been
partially revised. The new entries include 19 biographies
(e.g., of Jim Henson, H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Clarence
Thomas, Chris Van Allsburg, Alice Walker). Most of the new
topical entries are brief (Emergency Medical Services ,
Green Party , and Zebra Mussel ). However, the new entry
Plate Tectonics is almost four pages in length and is il¬
lustrated with several drawings. Reproduction, Human ,
another new entry, is six pages and illustrated with drawings
showing the development of the embryo and the birth of a
baby. Nutrition is an example of a major revision. It includes
all new illustrations, a new bibliography, and revised food
groups and charts of recommended dietary allowances.
Earthquake , Evolution , and Iraq are other examples of
articles that were extensively revised and reillustrated.
General updating in this set reflects the turbulent world
events of the past year. The first printing shows events as of
December 1991. The second printing, available in April,
contains additional revisions through January 1992. The
43
R article on the Soviet Union includes information about the
E coup and the formation of a transitional government. The
v second printing covers the demise of the Soviet Union,
Gorbachev’s resignation, and the independent status of the
w former republics. The article Yugoslavia mentions the ethnic
s tensions and fighting that continue to plague that country.
The ethnic republic boundaries appear on the maps. The
end of the Angolan civil war, the beginning of the new
Ethiopian government, the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact,
as well as the repeal of South Africa’s apartheid laws and
the lifting of the U.S. sanctions are covered.
Two special features appear in the 1992 World Book .
One is a section at the beginning of the A volume com¬
memorating the encyclopedia’s seventy-fifth anniversary
with reprints of old articles to show how much things have
changed over the years. For example, a 1917 article about
flying machines is reproduced. Articles about Africa show
its transition from a continent of colonies to one of inde¬
pendent states. The other special feature is an eight-page
foldout section, “The Legacy of Columbus,” in the article
Columbus . It includes maps of the expeditions and informa¬
tion about the changing view of the world as a result of
exploration. The biography of Columbus covers both his
accomplishments and the current controversies about his
impact on the Americas.
World Book is known for its statistical currency. All
statistics are reviewed and revised on a regular basis.
Sources and dates are provided. Population data for
countries of the world include the most recent census figures
and, for most countries, a current estimate and a five-year
projection. Commodity statistics and economic indicators
such as those in articles Petroleum , Cost of Living, and Food
Supply are the latest available.
Outstanding graphics are another World Book strength.
There are about 29,000 illustrations in the encyclopedia,
80 percent of them in color. Maps, charts, graphs, and time
44
lines help explain material in articles. About 700 new R
illustrations have been added this year. Sixty-two maps were e
added or revised to reflect changes in the Soviet Union and V
Europe. There are new maps in the articles Persian Gulf 1
War,. Earthquake , Estonia , Greece , Iraq , Latvia , and ^
Lithuania . s
The Information Finder makes the full text of The World
Book Encyclopedia and The World Book Dictionary avail¬
able on CD-ROM.
The seventy-fifth anniversary edition of World Book , like
its predecessors, is an excellent reference source for schools
and libraries. It maintains the high standards for currency,
accuracy, accessibility, and readability established by the
publisher.
45
12 Points to Consider
when Purchasing an Encyclopedia
1. Authority
2. Arrangement
3. Subject Coverage
4. Accuracy
5. Objectivity
6. Recency
7. Quality
8. Style
9 * Bibliographies
10. Illustrations
11. Physical Format
12 • Special Attributes
Cover and text designed by Stuart Whitwell
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
THE GENERAL LIBRARIES
PERRY-CASTANEDA LIBRARY
DATE DUE
DATE RETURNED
A Collection Development Resource for Reference Librarians
Reference Books Bulletin, 199 / -92
This latest cumulation of more than 400 reviews of reference
sourc es from Boiiklist/Rejerence Books Bulletin is arranged by
subject. It also contains omnibus reviews of reference books on
law for the layperson, crime and criminal justice, science and
technology, and animals and of reference books in Spanish for
children and young adults.
S23 pbk. 184p. 0-8389-341 7-X 1992
BOOKLIST
American Library Association
50 East Huron Street
Chicago. IL 60(51 l
S7.95
0-8389-5 754-4