Selected New Reference Books

"The Encyclopedia of New York State is one of the most complete works on the Empire State to be published in a half-century. In nearly 2,000 pages and 4,000 signed entries, this single volume captures the impressive complexity of New York State as a historic crossroads of people and ideas, as a cradle of abolitionism and feminism, and as an apex of modern urban, suburban, and rural life. The Encyclopedia is packed with fascinating details from fields ranging from sociology and geography to history. Did you know that Manhattan's Lower East Side was once the most populated neighborhood in the world, but Hamilton County in the Adirondacks is the least densely populated county east of the Mississippi; New York is the only state to border both the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean; the Erie Canal opened New York City to rich farmland upstate . . . and to the west. Entries by experts chronicle New York's varied areas, politics, and persuasions with a cornucopia of subjects from environmentalism to higher education to railroads, weaving the state's diverse regions and peoples into one idea of New York State.

Lavishly illustrated with 500 photographs and figures, 120 maps, and 140 tables, the Encyclopedia is key to understanding the state's past, present, and future. It is a crucial reference for students, teachers, historians, and business people, for New Yorkers of all persuasions, and for anyone interested in finding out more about New York State." --From the publisher's website (Syracuse University Press)

"This encyclopedia contains 562 entries, which are short scholarly essays of several pages. Each entry includes a selection of further readings and cross-references to other entries. About one-half of the articles deal with "groups" such as Afro-Brasilians, Amish, Avars, homosexuals, or any group that qualifies as a minority. The encyclopedia does not attempt to give a definitive definition of minority status. Even numerical inferiority is not a necessary attribute of a minority, as apartheid in South Africa and the recent Baathist system in Iraq demonstrate. The editors state in the preface that they have not attempted to include every minority group in every nation of the world. For those that are profiled, there is a description of the groups cultural, political, and social conditions and an examination of their minority status and relationships with the majority group or dominant political system. The second largest group of entries deal with the nations of the world. For each there is a description of the existing minorities, their situation, and the majority culture. This leads often to two views of a given situation. For example, the Albanian minority in Greece is covered under the entry under Greece and then again under the entry for Albanians as a minority in various nations of the world. The third group of articles deals with various topics such as afrocentricity, U.S. Civil War, police bias, the IRA. There are also biographies of such individuals as W.E.B Du Bois and Yasser Arafat. All of these entries certainly relate to minorities, although this assortment does seem somewhat disparate, especially if the reader browses though a volume of the encyclopedia. This is an invaluable resource for any student or scholar who wants a convenient, scholarly introduction or review concerning the historical or current situation of minorities throughout the world."

Reviewed by Henry E. York - Head, Collection Management, Cleveland State Univ., Ohio for ARBA 2006.

"As its subtitle states, the World Press Encyclopedia is a survey of the press systems in 232 countries around the world. Each signed entry consists of a current in-depth and comparative essay on the press corps in that country covering both common statistical data ( i.e., official country name, population, language, and literacy rate) plus a summary of the general characteristics of the nation, its economic framework, press laws, censorship, state-press relations, and attitude toward the foreign media. There is a brief overview on broadcast and electronic news media, but the focus of this work is on the print media. All entries include a sidebar on significant dates in the nation's history and a bibliography. Most entries include some assortment of interesting charts and graphs, such as the estimated number of Internet users.The 2d edition of the World Press Encyclopedia has corrected many of the format problems found in the initial edition. The essays now appear in alphabetic order by the country's English name, maps have been included, and the overall format has been standardized to ease comparison.There are three appendixes included in the second volume that are of interest. Volume 1 contains nine tables of newspaper statistics. The second appendix includes a list of worldwide news agencies, press-related unions and associations, and a list of the world's great daily newspapers (defined as those with a circulation of over 500,000). The final appendix is a list of countries grouped by region and a series of regional maps. The excellent index covers not only the countries listed but significant terms, organizations, individual's significant court cases, and key legislation."

Review written by Steven J. Schmidt - Assoc. Librarian, Indiana Univ./Purdue Univ. at Indianapolis Libraries for ARBA 2003.