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Book Reviews
Eberhart, George M., comp. The Whole Library Handbook 3. Chicago: American Library Association, 2000. Purchase from Amazon.com.
This eclectic compendium of librariana will appeal to any librarian who revels in the serendipitous nature of our profession. Although some material remains unchanged from previous editions (notably a 1996 article on web graphics, which asserts that most users have 14" monitors and that designers should be wary of the poorly supported .jpg format), this is a minor quibble -- and most other information is new or updated from earlier versions. No other printed resource contains such a wealth of professional information in one volume. Subjects range from statistics on holdings and usage to job hunting information to the impact of technology on libraries and their users -- with a multitude of interesting side trips along the way. This book belongs on every librarian's shelf.
Bahr, Alice, ed. InPrint: Publishing Opportunities for College Librarians. Chicago: ACRL, 2001. Accessible online at http://acrl.telusys.net/epubs/inprint.html - ACRL members, $25, non- members, $35.
This e-book might more properly be described as a searchable and browsable database that contains information on a number of library- related journals. Each record notes whether the journal is refereed, and also provides its acceptance rate, average response time, contact information, and a journal precis. Other useful information includes preferred article length, requested submission formats, where to write for sample issues, and a publication URL (if available). Many of the publication URLs, however, are ill-formed and not "clickable." This is an unfortunate oversight by both the editor and ACRL, and does a disservice to readers, given that full guidelines and sample articles are often available on publishers' web sites. Some records are compiled from answers to a survey, while others are taken from published guidelines. The price includes two years of access, and entries will be updated as newer information becomes available. Overall, a useful resource for librarians interested in contributing to the profession through publication. No other recent publication brings all this material together, and the ability readily to access information on a number of journals (and to search, for example, by refereed or non-refereed status) can save a substantial amount of time.