ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 8 9 0 / C&RL News ■ Decem ber 1998 I n t e r n e t R e v i e w s Sara A m a to , e d ito r E t h n o l o g u e : L a n g u a g e s o f t h e W o r ld . A ccess: http://www.sil.org/ ethnologue. Also available via gopher ( gopher:/ /gopher.sil.org/11/gopher_ root_fileserv/ftp/ethnologl3/), ftp (ftp:// ftp.sil.org/ethnologl3/), and e-mail (send the command “send [ftp .eth n o lo g l3] 00index.txt” to mailserv@sil.org). Ethnologue is a catalog of more than 6,700 languages spoken in 228 countries. The Web version is drawn from three print publications: the 13th edition of Ethnologue: Languages o f the World, the Ethnologue Language Name Index, and the Ethnologue Language Family Index, edited by Barbara F. Grimes and pub­ lished in 1997. The Ethnologue database is produced by the Summer Institute of Linguistics, an orga­ nization that conducts research on both writ­ ten and unwritten languages and whose goal is to promote cross-cultural communication and develop usable literature in the form of dictionaries, grammars, and Bible translations. Ethnologue is simple to navi­ gate. The opening page includes a table of contents that lists lan­ guages by area and country, by language name, and by language fam ily. E th n o log u e o ffers a search engine that includes Bool­ ean operators, truncation, and limiting by a region. At the record level, the database is orga­ nized by country. An introductory paragraph provides background information listing the population, ethnic groups, and the literacy rate. Ethnologue cites the literature, grades the quality of information provided, and men­ tions whether a survey is needed to improve the entry. The rest of the record consists of a list of languages spoken in that country. A typical language entry includes the names of the lan­ guage or dialect spoken, a three-letter Lan­ guage Identification Code (important for re­ trieving a complete list of languages in one family), number of speakers, and the names of other countries where that language or dia­ lect is spoken. Each record classifies the lan­ guage by linguistic family; by whether it is a national, trade, endangered, or recently ex­ tinct language; by its status as a main, sec­ ond, or bilingual language; and by word or­ der typology (a way of classifying a language by how it orders subjects, verbs, and objects). The national language is not necessarily listed first under a country name, but is inserted within an alphabetical list. Use your browser’s “find in page” command to search for “na­ tional.” Many records also list whether there is a dictionary or a grammar and all tell whether the Bible has been translated. Ethnologue uses abbreviated language records for countries where the language is considered secondary. You are best off using the primary record— listed under the country of origin or where the majority of speakers live— for the most complete information about a language. For example, if you want to know how many Italian speakers live in Argentina, you have to go to the primary record listed under Italy— you won’t find “Italian” listed under “Argentina,” even though it is spoken by 1.5 million people there. Other sections include lan­ guages of special interest (Gypsy, Jewish, Creole and Pidgin, and D e a f Sign L anguages), g e o ­ graphic distribution of living languages by broad region, and the top 100 languages by number of speakers. The Web site also in­ cludes a list o f abbreviations and an exten­ sive bibliography. Ethnologue provides simple political maps of the world. In September 1998, they added their first linguistic map showing where languages are spoken within Argentina and Chile. They plan to add addi­ tional country maps in the near future. Until Ethnologue finishes loading its lin­ guistic maps, you will need to rely on the print version or on the much more compre- Sara A m a to is electronic resources and W eb developm ent lib ra ria n a t B o w d o in C ollege; s a m a to @ b o w d o in.ed u http://www.sil.org/ gopher://gopher.sil.org/ll/gopher_ ftp://ftp.ethnologl3 mailto:mailserv@sil.org mailto:samato@bowdoin.edu C&RL News ■ D e c e m b e r 1998 / 891 hensive Atlas o f the World’s Languages (Chris Mosely and R. E. Asher, Routledge, 1993). Ethnologue is unique on the Web— there is nothing else available that is anywhere near as comprehensive. To find similar informa­ tion, you must turn to print encyclopedias like the Intern ation al Encyclopedia o f Lin­ guistics (William Bright, Oxford University Press, 1992) in which Ethnologue based its linguistic families, or the Encyclopedia o f Lan­ gu age a n d Linguistics (R. E. Asher, Pergamon, 1994), or handbooks such as the World’s Ma­ j o r Languages (Bernard Comrie, Oxford Uni­ versity Press, 1987), and Compendium o f the W orld’s L an gu ages (G eorge L. Campbell, Routledge, 1991). While many o f these resources go into greater depth, none provides as extensive a list as Ethnologue. Overall, the editors have done a good job translating the print version to hypertext, al­ though the introduction could use some re­ vision to reflect the changes. As stated in the introduction, Ethnologue should be useful to “linguists, translators, anthropologists, mis­ sionaries, bilingual educators, government of­ ficials, field administrators, potential field in­ vestigators, and interested lay people.”— Mark Emmons, University o f New Mexico, emmorıs@ unm .edu T h e F e lix P o s e n B ib li o g r a p h ic P r o je c t o n A n t i s e m i t i s m . Access: telnet://har2. huji.ac.il. The Posen Bibliographic Project is an on­ going work of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study o f Antisemitism (SICSA) at the Hebrew University o f Jerusalem. The Posen Project currently consists o f three da­ tabases: an annotated (descriptive) bibliogra­ phy o f antisem itism (covering publications fro m 1 9 8 4 to th e present); a retrospec­ tive bibliography of antisemitism (covering materials prior to 1984, without annotations); and “The ‘Jewish Question’ in German-Speak- ing Countries, 1848-1914” (a bibliography that will eventually be expanded to also cover 1914-1933). Portions o f the bibliographies have appeared in print as Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography, edited by Susan Sa­ rah Cohen (1 9 8 7 - ), and “The Jew ish Ques­ tion ” in German-Speaking Countries, 1849- 1914: A B ibliography, edited by Rena R. Auerbach (1994). Searches can be performed by author, title, subject, journal title, or key­ word. Coverage includes monographs, jour­ nal articles, collections o f essays, and reports in all the major Western languages, as well as Hebrew, and full bibliographic information is provided. Search results can be manipu­ lated, such as filtering by the date the mate­ rial was added to the database or by language. Users can telnet directly to har2.huji.ac.il (username is SICSA, no password required) to connect to the Posen databases or connect through the SICSA Web site at http:// sicsa.huji.ac.il/bibsear.html—your Web browser must have telnet software installed, however. They are also accessible through the Israeli University Libraries Network (u sernam e ALEPH at the above telnet site). All of the ALEPH databases are very similar to search. From the Posen Project bibliography (or rom any o f the ALEPH sites), the user can type “lb ” followed by the three-letter abbre­ viation to connect to any o f the other avail­ able networked sites. For example, while con­ nected to Posen, if you were to type “lb rbi” (without the quotes) followed by ‹e n te r›, you would connect to the “Index o f Articles in Jewish Studies” (known as RAMBI, and cov­ ering materials since 1985); “lb cjd” ‹e n te r › would connect you to the Contemporary Jewry Database o f the Avraham Harman In­ stitute of Contemporary Jewry at Hebrew Uni­ versity; “lb bas” ‹ e n te r › connects you once again to SICSA’s annotated bibliography of antisemitism; “lb ret” ‹e n te r › connects you to the retrospective bibliography, etc. The com m and “b a se ” ‹ e n t e r › displays other ALEPH sites that one can connect to. Type “start” ‹e n te r › while in any o f the databases to display its opening screen; type “stop” ‹ e n ­ te r› to disconnect from any o f the databases and leave the Hebrew University. These databases are very easy to use, and should be o f interest to faculty and students (especially graduate) in Jew ish Studies, Soci­ ology, and History. The Posen Project can provide a w ealth o f citations relating to antisemitism in its broadest sense, including the Holocaust and Holocaust denial.—Jo h n A. D robnicki, York College Library/CUNY, drobnicki@ycvax.york. cuny.edu. ■