College and Research Libraries ADDITIONAL BOOK REVIEWS Distinguished Classics of Reference Pub- lishing. Ed. by James Rettig. Phoenix: Oryx Pr., 1992.356 p. alk. paper, $55 (ISBN 0-89774-640-6). LC 91- 33629. Romans erected heroic statues and triumphal arches so that future genera- tions would remember their glory. But for compilers of reference works, even those who labor long years in the biblio- graphic vineyard, immortality usually takes the form of a modestly signed fore- word. Sometimes, like Roget, Brewer, and Bartlett, they have the semblance of widespread fame through their epony- mous reference works. But who actually gives a thought to Edith Granger when tracking down a line of poetry? Like their unsung editors, most refer- ence works generate little critical com- ment aside from reviews in the library 1990-91 ACRL Univenity Ubrary SWislic:s ACRL Book Reviews 465 literature. A very few have figured in the history of their publishing firms or in the biographies of exceptionally well- known compilers, like Leslie Stephen and James A. H. Murray. Occasional ar- ticles about major reference works do appear in Reference Services Review, most notably in the "Landmarks of Refer- ence" series that began in 1980. Editor James Rettig has set out to rem- edy this long-standing neglect by collect- ing profiles of thirty-one major reference works and their compilers. He has chosen the titles carefully to represent a variety of subject areas as well as a range of genres, from atlases and guidebooks to dictionaries and encyclopedias. Each chapter consists of four parts: an analyti- cal, historical essay, the title's publishing history, a selective bibliography of sec- ondary sources, and the chapter foot- notes. Most of the analytical essays concentrate on describing and explain- University Library Statistics, 1990--91 $69.95 ($39.95 for ACRL members) 80 pp, 1992 ISBN 0-8389-7587-9 Order Department ALA Publishing Services 50 East Huron Street Chicago, IL 60611 Or call toil-free 1-800-545-2433 Fax: 312-944-2641 This edition provides data on 106 participating libraries from the United States and Canada. The general categories of library data collected include • collections •personnel • expenditures • interlibrary loans The institutional data elements reported include degrees offered, enrollment size, and faculty size. Use these data in making management decisions concerning your library. Purchasers of this book may request a free copy of the data in machine,readable form. 466 College & Research Libraries ing the conditions surrounding the his- tory and reception of the reference works. Some, like Emily Post's Etiquette, are obvious candidates for social analysis. However, Charles Bunge, in his essay on Brewer's Dictionary, perceptively identifies a number of Victorian values that con- tributed to the dictionary's unique mixture. These values included self-improvement, the sanctioning of controlled forms of popular entertainment, and the scholarly respect accorded philology and folk beliefs. The essays in this collection should interest not only reference librarians but also all those concerned with publishing, scholarship, or information manage- ment. The publishing business in both Great Britain and the United States figures in the background of many of the essays, not simply in the histories of in- dividual firms but also in the changes brought about by improved technology down to the current impact of computer- ized typesetting and CD-ROM. For librarians, these essays should prompt reflections on the beginnings of refer- ence service as well as the role that librarians played in the development of such standard sources as the Readers' Guide and the Encyclopedia of Associa- tions. At a more speculative level, the descriptions of editorial decisions and compiling methods should stimulate thinking about the organization of knowledge. For example, the intellectual distance between hypertext and Mur- ray's working method for the Oxford English Dictionary, thousands of paper slips in cubbyholes, may not be as great as we imagine. Although there is a great deal of inter- esting material in the essays, much of it has to be teased out of overly detailed accounts of editorial policies and pub- lishing histories. Most of the authors do not relate their titles to the broader con- text of the organization of knowledge, the professionalization of scholarship, and the formation of a high culture. The collection would have profited from a concluding essay that drew on examples from the various chapters to present an informed overview of the changing role of reference works and their relationship September 1992 to scholarship and official culture. A good example of this approach to the theories, assumptions, and goals behind the compilation of dictionaries and ency- clopedias may be found in Tom McAr- thur's Worlds of Reference (Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1986). Readers opening Distinguished Clas- sics of Reference may be disappointed that their particular favorite is missing. I would have liked chapters on Benjamin Spock' s Baby and Clzild Care and the Ency- clopaedia fudaica. The absence of any titles dealing with people of color and women, however, is a serious oversight. In the current climate of racism and the backlash against feminism, it is impor- tant to profile editors and titles that have attempted to set the historical record straight, sometimes without benefit of academic sponsorship or lavish financial support from publishers and foundations. For example, the noted black scholar Monroe Work compiled, virtually single- handedly, a series of bibliographies culmi- nating in 1928 with A Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America, which retains its great historic value, especially since no comparable bibliography has sub- sequently appeared. Another reference title that comes to mind in this regard is Notable American Women, which set out in part to profile those important individuals omitted from the Dictionary of American Bi- ography. Several of the essays in Distinguished Classics suffer from careless proofreading. This seems especially dis- heartening in a book devoted to reference sources that prize accuracy and clarity of expression. In most cases the errors are immediately obvious and simply disrupt momen- tarily the reader's train of thought. In his introduction, editor Rettig em- phasizes the pleasure that reference works afford readers. These essays, through their descriptions, analyses, and judicious use of quotations, serve to remind us of that pleasure as well as the value and in- fluence of the works themselves. The chief virtue of Distinguished Classics lies in the fact that it will prompt readers to rediscover or explore for the first time these reference treasures, from Fowler's witty prohibitions to Emily Post's sensi- tive reading of social niceties.-Margaret Schaus, Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania. Dillon, George L. Contending Rhetorics: Writing in Academic Disciplines. Bloom- ington and Indianapolis: Indiana Univ. Pr., 1991. 175 p. acid-free paper, $27.50 (ISBN 0-253-31743--6). LC 90- 25572. Many branches of scholarship have in the past decade become increasingly preoccupied with their own discourse. While this is certainly a healthy preoc- cupation, it can also be distracting and perhaps even hazardous-rather like trying to drive while looking at one's windshield instead of through it. Con- tending Rhetorics is an attempt by George L. Dillon, a professor of English at the University of Washington, to sort out and evaluate some of the main recent contributions to the study of how differ- ent academic disciplines use written lan- guage to create and regulate themselves. The book begins with an examination of the relationship between rhetoric and rationality, and of the extent to which rationality can be defined as a (or as the) fundamental attribute of academic dis- course. This is-followed by a discussion of the norms of formal academic com- munication, principally those of "imper- sonality I autonomy /universalism." The author then identifies two "aspects" of academic communication: there is a technical aspect that aims to contribute to a body of public knowledge in the discipline, is based on specific (but nor- mally unexamined) assumptions, · and conventionally ignores the personal or political background of the contributor; but there is also a critical aspect that seeks to study and evaluate those as- sumptions that underlie the production and acceptance of knowledge-the tech- nical aspect-of the discipline. The latter activity is often undertaken by an out- sider, someone who is not a practitioner of the discipline. Dillon then discusses three instances of this critical activity in the form of social studies of science; all three of the works he examines are ex- amples of social constructionism, a per- Book Reviews 467 While other publications gather dust, ours gather readers ... Publications that gather dust on a library shelf are the stuff that canceled subscriptions are made of. But then librarians tell us time and time again that the CQ Weekly Report is the one- stop resource for all their questions about Congress and national affairs. The Weekly Report is an essential part of any reference collection or government documents department. It crystallizes the key issues before Congress, gives patrons readable bill summaries and Supreme Court decisions, offers the texts of presidential speeches and news conferences, and out- lines the results of key votes. Your library subscription also includes useful wall posters, special reports, and that sought -after reference- the CQ Almanac. By now you should be getting the picture. The CQ Weekly Report is more than a magazine. It's the publication of record. Your patrons' ticket to following Congress. Find out how you can subscribe and leave others in the dust. Call Gigi Perkinson toll-free at 1 (800) 432- 2250 ext. 279. In Washington, D.C. call 887-6279.