Bookverdict.com

It is probably impossible for a reference work that claims world scope and encyclopedic reach ever to be truly complete. So while this third edition adds a new level of achievement to the previous two (Professional Reading, LJ 5/15/81; ALA, 1986. 2d ed.) and while editor Wedgeworth is closer to his goal of creating a "one-volume overview of the history, the major institutions and the distinguished personalities that have shaped the field as we know it,'' the World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services remains a carefully compiled set of contributions beginning to take on some of the characteristics of a true "world encyclopedia'' but not yet finished. In its area of greatest strength--the 160 articles on libraries and librarianship in individual nations--this volume is informative, authoritative, and, where possible, up-to-date. The articles provide the book's greatest substance, and despite the editor's admitted inability to rewrite them all, they suggest no reason to doubt that the whole book has been 70 percent revised. This is laudably noticeable in articles like Seth M...Log In or Sign Up to Read More