College and Research Libraries


Book Reviews 
World Encyclopedia of Library and In-

formation Services. 3d ed. Ed. Robert 
Wedgeworth. Chicago: ALA, 1993. 
xvii, 905p. alk. paper, $200 ($180 for 
ALA members) (ISBN 0-8389-0609-5). 
This new edition (the first two were 

called ALA World Encyclopedia . .. ) fol-
lows the general principles of the earlier 
versions. Almost 500 articles, many with 
illustrations and tables, cover three 
areas: library services in the countries of 
the world and international organiza-
tions, biographies of eminent librarians, 
and broadly conceived articles on librar-
ies, librarianship, and their relation to 
society. Most of the biographies and 
many of the articles on individual coun-
tries occupy only a page, but the general 
articles on librarianship run from two to 
well over twenty pages. 

As in the earlier editions, the overall 
quality of the contributions is very high, 
and most are also very readable. The 
articles on countries typically follow a 
standard format, but there is much more 
variety in the general discussions of 
librarianship. That leaves authors free to 
choose a method appropriate to the 
topic, but the inconsistency results in un-
even coverage: some articles offer a his-
torical viewpoint, others do not; some 
include many examples, others are 
purely theoretical; some refer in detail to 
the literature, others have only a few 
references at the end. Good copyediting 
means that there are remarkably fewer-
rors for such a large book, but the list of 
contributors and the captions to the 
plates, both probably done at the end of 
the project, unfortunately received less 
attention. 

Given the original decision to focus on 
a relatively small number of large topics, 
it is hard to fault the editor's choices. 
Future editions will probably discuss 

technology more explicitly, but every 
aspect of the library profession finds 
some mention here. There is regrettably 
little discussion of commercial informa-
tion services, which are increasingly 
both a facet of library service and an alter-
native to it. On a more detailed level, the 
many articles on international organiza-
tions do not include the European Com-
munity. It has been slow to organize and 
fund a library policy, but has had a major 
impact on international information 
policy. 

The most obvious new feature of this 
edition is the inclusion of articles and 
sixteen pages of color pictures on five 
great libraries. The reproductions are ex-
cellent and many of the pictures are both 
attractive and interesting, but it is dif-
ficult to see what these few images of 
three U.S. East Coast and two Western 
European research libraries add other 
than a few dollars to an already high 
price. Like the biographies, the five arti-
cles are often interesting examples of li-
brary practice, but future editions might 
sample libraries with more diverse mis-
sions and cultural backgrounds. 

Pagination is virtually unchanged from 
the second edition, and there are few 
other new articles, but a close examina-
tion of the text bears out the editor's 
claim of 70 percent revision. Some arti-
cles have new authors and have been 
completely recast; others show the same 
organization, but have been updated. 
"Bibliographic Networking," for ex-
ample, has small changes in almost 
every paragraph. The articles on in-
dividual countries suggest that updat-
ing was done over several years. Most of 
them seem to have been prepared no 
later than 1990; some have no references 
later than the mid-eighties. The editors 
made a notable effort to deal with recent 

183 



184 College & Reseai".ch Libraries 

political changes, so that ~'Germany'' in-
cludes articles on the two separate states 
and an appendix on events since unifica-
tion. Affairs in eastern Europe sometimes 
moved too fast for the edUors. The 1986 
articles on Yugoslavia and the USSR are 
reprinted without change, although arti-
cles on two Baltic republics and Ukraine 
did arrive in time to be added. 

Indexing has been a concern in all edi-
tions of this complex work. The brief 
descriptions of indexed terms have been 
dropped in this edition to allow a reduc-
tion in index pages together with a slight 
increase in index terms. Access to the 
contents of the articles is improved, but 
still inadequate for many purposes. For 
example, the index entry "Periodicals" 
now refers to the article on "Indexing," 
but still not to the article on "Serials"; 
NOTIS and OCLC are there, but not the 
innovative PICA system in "Nether-
lands"; Enoch Pratt Free Library is 
missing, although half the article on 
Joseph Wheeler discusses his work 
there. Entries that simply duplicate titles 
of encyclopedia entries might be cut, and 
replacing the six. long lists of countries 
with a standard reference to those arti-
cles would free three to four pages for 
more index terms. 

Despite the title change in this edition, 
the tension between the ALA and the 
world as defining elements of the Ency-
clopedia continues. A sampling suggests 
that the United States and the rest of the 
world each account for about half the 
biographical entries. Of the general arti-
cles, a very few take an integrated, inter-
national approach; others describe the 
situation in the United States and then 
briefly survey other countries; still 
others make no reference to develop-
ments outside North America. When 
other countries are mentioned, they are 
most often wealthy, English-speaking 
nations. A major reason for this bias is 
the choice of authors. With few excep-
tions (notably "School Libraries," a 
model for writing about international 
librarianship), authors from outside 
North America write only about foreign 
countries, foreign people, or inter-
national organizations, and only one 

March 1994 

contributor to a general article is not 
from an English-speaking country. Diffi-
culties identifying contributors and 
translation costs undoubtedly played a 
role in this decision, but a return to the 
international advisory board of the sec-
ond edition and some use of volunteer 
translators (Could ACRL's international 
sections help?) might make this more 
truly a world reference work. 

The original editions had a thematic as 
well as an alphabetic approach. A table 
of contents provided access to articles on 
each of five broad areas, making it 
possible to use the work as an intro-
ductory reader as well as a reference 
book. The table of contents is gone in 
this edition, but many of the articles still 
seem more appropriate to an introductory 
anthology. They coexist strangely with 
the more factually oriented surveys of 
countries and the biographies. Perhaps 
ALA should consider dividing The World 
Encyclopedia into three volumes, the 
country articles, the surveys of libraries 
and librarianship, and the biographies. 
That would allow libraries to acquire 
those volumes that are most important 
to their mission and would allow a more 
flexible update schedule. A paperback 
edition of the thematic articles would be 
a wonderful addition to the available 
textbooks for survey courses in library 
schools. 

The World Encyclopedia has been my 
leisure reading on and off for several 
months, and it's met Horace's require-
ment for literature by being both delight-
ful and instructive. As it is, those with a 
strong interest in international librarian-
ship and information policy or in staff 
development or support of library 
school students will find the updated 
articles useful, but someone looking 
for a ready-reference work with many 
articles on individual topics will be 
disappointed.-James McLean Camp-
bell, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 
Virginia. 

Representations, no. 42 (Spring 1993). 
"Special Issue: Future Libraries." $7.50. 
This special issue of the journal Repre-

sentations, titled "Future Libraries," con-