Recommended Reference Books in Paperback

From The Critics

Librarians seeking sources of inexpensive reference tools, either for their own collections or to recommend for home use, will find this second edition of "Recommended Reference Books in Paperback" useful. It is a complete revision and update of the first edition, and more than 75 percent of the entries are for titles published from 1987 to the present. The editor annotates nearly 1,000 works in 37 broad categories from general reference to subjects ranging from agriculture to zoology. Sixty-two percent of the titles cost less than $15, and 98 percent cost less than $40. Some government documents and free publications are also listed Each entry includes author, title, imprint, collation, series, price, LC card number, ISBN, and an annotation. If the title was reviewed in "American Reference Books Annual", that fact is noted with a reference to the review. No other reviews are cited. Annotations are evaluative and especially useful. Frequently a work is compared to similar sources, and the history of the edition is noted. For instance, the entry for the abridged edition of "Bulfinch's Mythology" relates the purpose of the original three volumes, briefly explains what the cited edition includes, and notes that the full text is available in paperback with a different imprint. Separate author-title and subject indexes refer to the numbered entries This compilation is not intended to provide a comprehensive listing of paperback reference works. All the entries are for recommended titles, having been "selected for their quality, availability, and economy," and an effort was made to provide a "selection over a broad range of topics." Users will find many topics omitted (e.g., Islam, autograph collecting) without knowing whether the subject was viewed as too specialized or whether the available titles were thought to be substandard; other evaluative methods will need to be used in these instances. "Recommended Reference Books in Paperback" identifies and evaluates both hard-to-find inexpensive tools, as well as paperback editions of standard reference works. It will be valuable in a wide variety of libraries, particularly in these days of tight budgets.

Booknews

There must be interest in references bound in paper (seems a weird criterion) or LU would not be publishing a second edition. Some 90% of these entries are under $40, with an overall average price around $10. (One telling citation: Foundation Grants Index, 18th ed., $65. The 19th was available earlier than July 1992 at $125.) It is absurd for a publisher to save perhaps $5.00 a copy by dumping into libraries a reference in paper covers; if it is heavily used the library must pull it from the shelf, send it for binding, and pay around $20 for the pleasure. Paper binding of references meant chiefly for libraries should not be encouraged. A better compilation would be Good References at Modest Prices. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)