College and Research Libraries 324 I College & Research Libraries • July 1978 were or are arranged by divisions of sci- ence, such as general science, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and so on. The Las- worth title and the present Chen work are arranged first by the format of the listed references, such as encyclopedias, dic- tionaries, handbooks, and bibliographies, then subdivided by science fields. Mark this difference well. Chen, who is an associate professor at the School of Library Science at Simmons Col- lege, says that the work "is intended primarily as a reference guide for science and engineering librarians and their assist- ants and as a textbook for library school stu- dents engaged in the study of the structure, properties, and output of scientific litera- ture." There are twenty-three sections in the new guide ranging from selection tools and guides-to-the-literature, through the usual reference book categories of hand- books and dictionaries, all the way into the newer fields of nonprint materials and data bases. Each entry is arranged by title within the sections and subsections and followed by a brief annotation of the book's coverage and character, and, finally and very use- Your Best Buy in 1978 ... Best Buys In Print complements Books In Print, providing access to quality books at discount prices . The second issue features the following : listings from 22 companies ; 7000 titles not included in the first issue of BBIP ; an as- terisk preceding titles not included in the first issue (you won't duplicate efforts in checking titles you ordered in earlier is- ues) ; and a double asterisk preceding titles which have an expiration date. A purchase of one title listed in BBIP can save the cost of y"our subscription to this quarterly publication, (lD Best Buys In Print. That's a best buy! PIERIAN PRESS P.O. Box 1808, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 fully, a listing of citations to book reviews for that particular item. The only index in the back is by author. Finding a work quickly, if one already knows the title, is sometimes difficult be- cause one must decide which one of the twenty-three main sections contains it. This operational difficulty of finding known works and the decision not to include older reference books (the majority here have im- print dates since 1970). limit somewhat the usefulness of this compilation. There are some bonuses: a good reference list of cita- tions to articles on a wide range of informa- tion science topics and up-to-date entries on guides to patents, technical reports, confer- ence proceedings, etc. Finding information for science library users almost always revolves around a sub- ject area of science first and then the technicalities of finding the proper type of handbook or periodical or whatever. Guides such as the present one have much useful bibliographical information, but their library-science oriented format often acts as a hindrance rather than a help.-David Kuhner, Nonnan F. Sprague Memorial Li- brary, Claremont, California. M uehsam, Gerd. Guide to Basic Informa- tion Sources in the Visual Arts. Informa- tion Resources Series. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Jeffrey Norton Publishers/ABC- Clio, Inc. 266p. $14.95. LC 77-17430. ISBN 0-87436-278-4 . . Bibliographic sources to the arts are not new. The earliest recorded art bibliography dates back to 1651 when Raphael Trichet du Fresne compiled a list of entries to accom- pany an important work by Leonardo. Since that time various books have erratically ap- peared throughout the years. I must here venture the statement that nothing so com- plete as Ms. Muehsam's guide has yet been published. The standard guide in the past has been every art librarian's intimate acquaintance, Mary Chamberlin's Guide to Art Reference Books, published by the American Library Association in 1959. Chamberlin's guide was prepared for essentially the same readers as was Muehsam's volume; these are art histo- rians, art librarians, and students. The works vary, however, in format since the Guide to Basic Infonnation Sources in the Visual Arts takes its title seriously and pro- vides guidance from one research tool to the next in an informative, easily read, and con- cise text, while Guide to Art Reference Books is an annotated bibliography of 2,500 entries. Although Donald Ehresmann attempted in 1975 to provide a new alternative to Chamberlin, his Fine Arts: A Bibliographic Guide to Basic Reference Works, Histories, and Handbooks was not well received due to its limited scope. Similar in style of prose and format to Muehsam's guide is Jack Dove's short work, Fine Arts, published in London by Clive Bingley in 1966. Dove di- vides the volume into chapters dealing with the varied branches of art and discusses each work briefly. Fine Arts is the smallest volume on the subject and, therefore, prob- ably the least useful. Ms. Muehsam, at the very outset of her publication, emphatically states the aims of her vast endeavor: to provide basic search strategies, to point out the essential refer- ence and research tools, to indicate au- thoritative sources for each of the principal periods of art, and to discuss the national schools of art. The author meets these goals by dividing the contents into four sections analogous to her stated aims; the sections are in tum subdivided into chapters. In guiding the scholar to accessible in- formation, the author provides interesting alternative methods for retrieving facts; she suggests the New York Times Index as an approach to locating reviews of exhibitions in New York City and oftentimes the entire country, and even abroad. Definitions of terms used extensively are clarified within the text and therefore aid the researcher in choosing the work most suitable to answer a query. Corpus and catalogue raisonne are defined and compared with the main attri- butes of each enumerated. While differences are established, similarities are also noted. The parallel type of information obtainable from the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Art and the Praeger Encyclopedia of Art is analyzed stressing the advantages and hin- drances of each. Several factors enhance the volume: fre- quent bibliographic notes supplement the Recent Publications I 325 text and facilitate its understanding, a statement on art prices (an area of concern often overlooked in bibliographies and source books) is included, and excellent pic- torial volumes are listed for the individual art movements. Obvious lacunae are to be found in the relatively new media of library holdings; video art is mentioned only in passing. The expanding medium of artists' books is ne- glected altogether. Despite these minor drawbacks, the vol- ume remains a uniquely well-written, well- organized, and lucid account of available sources in the visual arts. As an established art historian and experienced art librarian (presently art bibliographer and associate professor at Queens College), Gerd Muehsam emerges as the most probable au- thor to successfully accomplish this massive task. Guide to Infonnation in the Visual Arts will, no doubt, take its place on library and private reference shelves as the most comprehensive work in its field-Lamia Douma to, Museum of Modern Art, New York. A comprehensive, up-to-the-minute cyclopedic guide to the latest terminology and concepts in the theoretical, methodologi- cal and procedural aspects of modem line and staff leadership, communication and training in business, educational and public sector organizations and systems. For general and special collec- tions. Cloth . ISBN 0-912352-03-5. $12.95 Systems Research Co. ACRL-3 Box 74524, Los Angeles, CA 90004