Reference & User Services Quarterly articles from June 2004

Reference & User Services Quarterly archives from June 2004

Fourth Down and Two to Go
June 22, 2004... The summer issue of Reference & User Services Quarterly provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the past year, to thank the many contributors to RUSQ, and to assess how well we are meeting the journal's purpose: "to disseminate...

Currency for Coin and Paper Money Resources: Building a Numismatics Collection
June 22, 2004... This issue's guest columnist became interested in coins when he was a child, pulling them from pocket change and plugging them into holes in a coin folder. While interest in this hobby waned as he became older, Van de Streek rediscovered this...

Community, Identity, and Literature
June 22, 2004... "Literature does belong in essential ways to place, and always invokes place to speak its fullest voice."--Eudora Welty, 1997 (1) "Building community, character, and citizenship..."--Georgia Humanities Council, 2004 (2) Effective builders...

Recommended Readers' Advisory Tools: Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES) Readers' Advisory Committee
June 22, 2004... "Do you know who else writes like Tim LaHaye? I have read all of the Left: Behind series and am looking for a new author." "I just want a good book to read; what would you suggest?" "I need to read a novel that is set in medieval England,...

Best Bibliographies in History: RUSA History Section Bibliography and Indexes Committee
June 22, 2004... Each year the History Section's Bibliography and Indexes Committee continues its project to honor outstanding book-length English-language bibliographies in the field of history. It is our goal to encourage both the work of scholars in the...

Librarians without Borders: Reaching out to Students at a Campus Center
June 22, 2004... The Outpost Services Team was created at Rutgers University Libraries by the New Brunswick Libraries' Information Services Steering Group to study the demand for services at locations outside the physical library buildings. Upon the...

Internet Subject Guides in Academic Libraries: An Analysis of Contents, Practices, and Opinions
June 22, 2004... This article describes a research project to determine the uniqueness of Internet subject guides among Association of Research Libraries academic libraries. The authors examined guides in four subject areas (philosophy, journalism/communication,...

Rethinking Online Instruction: From Content Transmission to Cognitive Immersion
June 22, 2004... As faculty make greater use of Web-based instruction, pedagogical strategy sometimes evolves from the transmission of content to the creation of interactive courses that immerse students in the cognitive style of the discipline. One technique...

American Masculinities: a Historical Encyclopedia.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Bret E. Carroll. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2003. 562p. $150 (ISBN 0-7619-2540-6). A relatively new area of study that first emerged in the late 1960s and 1970s, men's studies is described as "the critical analysis of men and...

Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Popular Musicians since 1990.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... New York: Schirmer Reference, 2004. 2 vols. alkaline. $195 (ISBN 0-02-865799-3). The latest addition to the Baker's family of reference books reviews the accomplishments of 583 groups and musicians who have contributed to the popular...

Chemical and Biological Warfare: a Reference Handbook.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... By Al Mauroni. Contemporary World Issues. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 2003. 243p. alkaline. $45 (ISBN 1-85109482-2). The author of this introductory survey of chemical and biological warfare (CBW), a policy analyst at a think tank...

Colonialism: an International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Melvin E. Page and Penny Sonnenburg. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 2003.3 vols. alkaline. $285 (ISBN 1-57607-335-1). Melvin E. Page, the general editor of Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political...

Dictionary of Birds of the United States: Scientific and Common Names.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... By Joel Ellis Holloway. Portland, Ore.: Timber Press, 2003. 244p. $19.95 (ISBN 0-88192-600-0). Holloway's dictionary is a comprehensive list of the common and scientific names of birds of the United States, including Hawaii. This...

Distinguished Women Economists.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... By James Cicarelli and Julianne Cicarelli. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2003. 244p. alkaline. $65 (ISBN 0-313-30331-2). This work features profiles of women economists, living and dead, who "have performed or are performing at a high...

Encyclopedia of Buddhism.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Robert E. Buswell, Jr. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 2 vols. $240 (ISBN 0-02-865718-7). Buddhism is one of the three major world religions along with Christianity and Islam. It arose in India over 2,500 years ago and...

Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood: in History and Society.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Paula S. Fass. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2003. 3 vols. alkaline. $325 (ISBN 0-02-8657-14-4). It is rare that one would recommend that students of a discipline, let alone anyone with a general interest in a subject, read a...

Encyclopedia of DNA and the United States Criminal Justice System.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... By Louis J. Palmer, Jr. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004. 464p. alkaline. $95 (ISBN 0-7864-1735-8). The existence of DNA fingerprinting techniques is not even two decades old. A decade ago, the complexities of DNA evidence were publicly...

Encyclopedia of Optical Engineering.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Ronald G. Driggers. New York: Dekker, 2003. 3 vols. acid free. $1,500 (ISBN 0-8247-4258-3). Given the remarkable recent advances in the important interdisciplinary field of optical engineering and their many implications for...

Encyclopedia of the Aquatic World.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2004. 11 vols. $459.95 (ISBN 0-75147418-8). Librarians familiar with Encyclopedia of Aquatic Life (Marshall Cavendish, 2001), which gives young readers an introduction to a variety of aquatic species, will...

Encyclopedia of World Environmental History.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Shepard Krech III, J. R. McNeill, and Carolyn Merchant. New York: Routledge, 2004. 3 vols. acid free. $345 (ISBN 0-41593732-9). This encyclopedia is a bit of a surprise. Who reads the introduction to an encyclopedia (unless one is...

From Convent to Concert Hall: a Guide to Women Composers.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Sylvia Glickman and Martha Furman Schliefer. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2003. 403p. alkaline. $75 (ISBN 1-57356-411-7). Although touted as a "biographical reference book," the overall character of this volume is that of a textbook...

Fun and Games in Twentieth-Century America: a Historical Guide to Leisure.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... By Ralph G. Giordano. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2003.328p. $49.95. (ISBN 0-313-32216-3). In an era when the quality of American life is measured in large part by the substance and constancy of its leisure time, the study of this aspect...

The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Women's Issues Worldwide.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Lynn Walter. Westport, Conn: Greenwood, 2003. 6 vols. alkaline. $550 (ISBN 0-313-32787-4). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Women's Issues Worldwide covers some 130 of the world's most populated countries in six unnumbered volumes...

Handbook of Death and Dying.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Clifton D. Bryant. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2003.2 vols. $350 (ISBN 07619-2514-7). Despite its macabre title, this two-volume work is a singular reference tool. In fact, according to its publisher, it may become the de facto...

Human Diseases and Conditions: Supplement 2; Infectious Diseases.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Neil Izenberg. New York: Scribner, 2003. 472p. alkaline. $90 (ISBN 0-684-31260-3). Infectious Diseases, the second supplement to a three-volume set on human diseases and conditions, includes encyclopedic entries on more than one...

Life and Times in 20th-Century America.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... By Media Projects. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2004. 5 vols. alkaline. $200 (ISBN 0-313-32570-7). This multivolume work, detailing life in twentieth-century America, provides readers with well-written overviews and information regarding...

Major Acts of Congress.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Brian K. Landsberg. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2003.3 vols. alkaline. $290 (ISBN 0-02-865749-7). This work surveys more than 250 pieces of legislation dating from the first Congress through the administration of George W....

Mythology for Storytellers: Themes and Tales from Around the World.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... By Josepha Sherman. Armonk, N.Y.: Sharpe Reference, 2003. 369p. alkaline. $85 (ISBN 0-7656-8056). Taking the works of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell as her guiding stars, Josepha Sherman has assembled a cross-cultural collection of myths...

Religion and American Culture: an Encyclopedia of Traditions, Diversity, and Popular Experience.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Gary Laderman and Luis Leon. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 2003. 3 vols. alkaline. $285 (ISBN 1-57607-238-X). The first volume of this work could serve by itself as an excellent encyclopedia of religious movements and...

The Renaissance: an Encyclopedia for Students.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Paul F. Grendler. New York: Scribner, 2004. 4 vols. alkaline. $395 (ISBN 0-68431281-6). The accomplishments during the Renaissance related to many curriculum areas ranging from the humanities to the sciences. Based on the...

Reproductive Issues in America: a Reference Handbook.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... By Janna C. Merrick and Robert H. Blank. Contemporary World Issues. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 2003. 241p. alkaline. $45 (ISBN 1-57607-816-7). Reproductive Issues in America is one of the latest volumes in the Contemporary World...

Secondary Schools: a Reference Handbook.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... By Leila E. Villaverde. Contemporary Education Issues. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-Clio, 2003. 254p. alkaline. $45 (ISBN 1-57607-981-3). Villaverde provides a compressed account of American secondary education from Colonial times to the No...

Women During the Civil War: an Encyclopedia.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... By Judith E. Harper. New York: Routledge, 2003.472p. acid free. $95 (ISBN 0-415-93723-X). Women During the Civil War: An Encyclopedia is aptly named if one places an emphasis on "during." Although most entries do indeed discuss how...

World Writers in English.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by Jay Parini. The Scribner Writers Series. New York: Scribner, 2003.2 vols. alkaline. $265 (ISBN 0-684-31289-1). Reference works covering new English and world literatures are needed, especially works that provide critical treatment...

E-Serials Collection Management: Transitions, Trends, and Technicalities.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Ed. by David C. Fowler. New York: Haworth, 2004. 278p. $59.95 cloth (ISBN 0-7890-1753-9); $39.95 paper (ISBN 0-7890-1754-7). In recent years, there has been no shortage of discussion in the professional literature of the joys and...

Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... By Peggy Johnson. Chicago: ALA, 2004. 342p. $60 (ISBN 0-8389-0853-5). Collection development is a function at the heart of traditional librarianship, and electronic resources only add to the associated challenges. As aptly put by Peggy...

Libraries, Mission, and Marketing: Writing Mission Statements That Work.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... By Linda K. Wallace. Chicago: ALA, 2004. 82p. $27 (ISBN 0-873890867-5). Author Linda K. Wallace is ably qualified to write Libraries, Mission, and Marketing, a pithy and instructional volume. Not only has she worked for the American...

The Public Library Start-Up Guide.(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... By Christine Lind Hage. Chicago: ALA, 2004. 166p. $42 (ISBN 0-8389-0866-7). In thirteen short, logically arranged chapters, this helpful guide surveys the legal and financial groundwork for starting a public library system;...