march08c.indd George M. Eberhart N e w P u b l i c a t i o n s The Academic Library Manager’s Forms, Poli­ cies, and Procedures Handbook, by Rebecca Brumley (499 pages + CD­ROM, August 2007), brings together more than 600 policies from college, community college, and university li­ braries on many topics that directors or deans might find useful to adapt. Forms and proce­ dures on collection scope, study carrels, stu­ dent conduct, e­reserves, security systems, ref­ erence services for distance­learning students, preservation, and performance appraisal are all included. $145.95. Neal­Schuman. 978­1­ 55570­597­8. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Wom­ en, edited by Elizabeth Ewan, Sue Innes, and Siân Reynolds (403 pages, July 2007), describes the lives of 830 influential women who either were born in Scotland or infl uenced Scottish national life from the era of Roman Britain to the present. Be­ sides such famous individuals as Mary Queen of Scots, the dictionary includes women whose Scot­ tishness is not so obvious (Rebecca West), mythical women (Scáthach and Aífe, the warrior women of Alba), noblewomen (Marga­ ret of Scotland), victims of witch persecutions (Isobel Gowdie), folk singers and poets (Lady Elizabeth Douglas), radicals (Marion Henery), suffragists (Jessie Stephen), career women (Mary Somerville), and—unusual for this type of reference—a sampling of ordinary women who represent unsung areas of the Scottish economy, among them an East Coast fi shwife, a coal miner, a shepherd, a Shetland knitter, a prostitute, and a midwife. $32.00 (paper). Edin­ burgh University. 978­0­7486­3293­0. George M. Eberhart is senior editor of American Libraries, e-mail: geberhart@ala.org Che in Verse, edited by Gavin O’Toole and Georgina Jiménez (335 pages, October 2007), celebrates Argentine­Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, the world icon of revolution, through 134 poems and songs from 53 countries. In many of these poems, especially those written in the period 1967–1979 in reaction to Che’s death, Guevara is lionized as a martyr “bring­ ing hope for justice, freedom, and the fi ght against oppression.” $20.95. Afl ame Books. 978­0­9552339­5­1. Complete Guide for Supervisors of Student Employees in Today’s Academic Libraries, by David A. Baldwin and Daniel C. Barkley (296 pages, October 2007), covers everything you need to know about hiring and managing stu­ dent workers, from writing job descriptions to the complexities of student financial aid. The authors write plainly and succinctly, dealing with such time­consuming minefields as stu­ dent behavioral problems with tact and un­ derstanding. A glossary of financial aid terms rounds out this essential handbook, which features many checklists, examples, and sug­ gestions for further reading. $50.00. Libraries Unlimited. 978­1­59158­335­6. From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act, by Christopher M. Finan (348 pages, May 2007), recounts the various efforts to both limit and preserve the right to free speech in the United States from the first Red Scare of 1919 to Na­ tional Security Letter gag orders in the 2000s. Finan, president of the American Booksellers Association for Free Expression, highlights the role librarians have played in opposing censor­ ship, although he notes that prior to the 1930s they were more likely to dissuade prurient pa­ trons from reading salacious novels. A good review of First Amendment heroes and villains that nicely complements other books, among them Anthony Lewis, Freedom for the Thought We Hate (Basic, 2007) and Geoffrey R. Stone, Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terror­ 176C&RL News March 2008 mailto:geberhart@ala.org ism (Norton, 2004). $25.95. Beacon Press. 978­ 0­8070­4428­5. The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan, by Yasmin Khan (251 pages, Sep­ tember 2007), examines the politics, the per­ sonalities, the violence, and the bitter legacies of Britain’s sudden relinquishment of the Indi­ an subcontinent in the summer of 1947. Unlike other histories, this one focuses less on Brit­ ish motives and the wrangling between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, and much more on what the crisis meant for ordinary people. But the events are so wrapped up in con­ fusion, propaganda, and controversy that the student need­ ing to grasp a bigger picture will also require Narenda Singh Sarila, The Shadow of the Great Game (Carroll & Graf, 2006); Alex von Tunzelmann, Indian Summer (Henry Holt, 2007); Patrick French, Liberty or Death (Trafalgar Square, 1998); and even Leon­ ard Mosley, The Last Days of the British Raj (Harcourt Brace, 1961). As one of the 20th century’s darker moments, Khan writes, the hundreds of thousands of “people killed and forced to leave their homes merit greater recognition and a place closer to the heart of history writing.” $30.00. Yale University. 978­0­300­12078­3. The Haunted Observatory: Curiosities from the Astronomer’s Cabinet, by Richard Baum (416 pages, August 2007), hearkens back to an era of observational astronomy when amateurs could discover cities on the Moon, short­lived novas, mountains and polar caps on Venus, bright objects near the sun, telescopic meteors, and a “star on the dark part of the Moon.” Baum fi nds rea­ sonable explanations for most of these ob­ servations without tarnishing the talents of the 18th­ and 19th­century stargazers who reported them. $28.00. Prometheus. 978­1­ 59102­512­2. Undead TV, edited by Elana Levine and Lisa Parks (209 pages, October 2007), is one of two recent analyses of the popular TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer that of­ fer insights on the show’s marketing tech­ niques and its treatment of gender, sexual­ ity, death, class, ethnicity, and youth. One essay by Amelie Hastie comments on the series’ “research trope,” which emphasizes the library, the internet, and other research tools as essential to uncovering facts about demons. $21.95. Duke University. 978­0­ 8223­4043­0. Another study, The Psychology of Joss Whedon, edited by Joy Davidson (215 pages, December 2007), explores the “layered, near­epic quality” of the universe created by Joss Whedon in Buffy, Angel, and Firefl y and examines the elements of free will, evo­ lutionary psychology, the Jungian shadow self, terror management theory, existential­ ism, radical feminism, and neuropsychology within the three series. $17.95. BenBella. 978­1­933771­25­0. Who Needs to Know? The State of Public Access to Federal Government Informa­ tion, by Patrice McDermott (292 pages, October 2007), charts the roadblocks to finding relevant government information, especially digital records, in the 21st cen­ tury and examines the disturbing trend in the Bush administration to control access and manipulate news and data for politi­ cal purposes. McDermott, former deputy director of ALA’s Office of Government Relations, provides examples of poorly en­ forced legislation (the E­Government Act of 2002), increased exemptions to FOIA re­ quests, the overbroad categorizing of infor­ mation as “sensitive but unclassifi ed,” and the withdrawal of politically embarrassing documents from public access. A well­doc­ umented and organized overview. $19.95. Bernan. 978­1­59888­050­2. March 2008 177 C&RL News