Guide to Information Sources in the Forensic Sciences

Citation

Millar, P. (2007), "Guide to Information Sources in the Forensic Sciences", Library Review, Vol. 56 No. 5, pp. 438-439. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530710750725

From the O.J. Simpson case to the current “CSI” TV series, more and more people are aware of and curious about the world of forensic science. Cynthia Holt takes that interest and directs it toward the literature that supports, and defines the study of how evidence is discovered at a crime scene, interpreted in a lab, and used in a court of law. Her bibliography, grouped by type of material, covers topics such as ballistics, DNA analysis, entomology, expert witnessing, and facial imaging/reconstruction, as well as contributions from academic fields such as anthropology, linguistics, and engineering.

The author of this book is a practising academic librarian serving a graduate‐level forensic sciences department and, from her own experience, sets out to provide a guide which will be helpful both for new researchers, working forensic scientists, and librarians seeking to build a collection in this area. The book, part of the “Reference Sources in Science and Technology” series, highlights the most important research tools in the forensic sciences. However, due to the interdisciplinary nature of this field, researchers may have to access literature in a wide variety of disciplines other than strictly “forensic sciences” and the book therefore includes sources from the interrelated disciplines of anthropology, chemistry, engineering, entomology, dentistry, and psychology.

The literature of forensics is expanding quickly, partly due to public interest generated by famous criminal cases and popular television series, and partly due to the increasing number of sub‐disciplines and specialties. The introductory chapter contains a useful explanation of the range of specialties within the forensic sciences, such as criminalistics, forensic linguistics, and forensic accounting, and aims to clarify the distinctions between them. This helps indicate the cross‐disciplinary nature of the forensic sciences and highlights the potential value of having a useful navigational guide.

The bulk of the book is arranged by type of material. The first chapter deals with bibliographic, historic, and biographical sources and subsequent chapters cover abstracting and indexing sources, journals, books, online sources, other non‐bibliographic information sources, and research essentials.

The chapter on abstracting and indexing tools necessarily covers a wide area as there is no one comprehensive index to the forensic science literature. The sources covered are arranged by category under the headings general/multidisciplinary, biological, physical, and criminology/legal. This is a useful arrangement in helping to select the most appropriate tool as the first question in a forensic science literature search would often be to identify which of these categories the search falls into. When using the criminology/legal section users in the UK should be aware that the sources mentioned are primarily American in content.

The chapter dealing with journals is arranged by identifying core titles in forensic science, secondary/specialised forensic science journals, and interdisciplinary journals covering forensic science topics. There is also a list of free full text online forensic science newsletters and journals. Another useful feature is the selective listing of titles arranged by sub‐discipline.

The chapter on books contains much more then an annotated list of selected reference books and monographs. There is also a very interesting historical overview of book publishing in this subject area, a list of key publishers and information on the book selection and buying process used in academic libraries. There is also a “Research Essentials” chapter providing bibliographical management tools, and copyright and citation information. Although useful this seems to be rather beyond the scope of the title. There is a detailed table of contents and two alphabetical indexes covering name/title/electronic resource, and subject. This makes it easy and quick to locate topics of interest.

The Guide to Information Sources in the Forensic Sciences would be a useful addition to the shelves of any academic library supporting a forensic science course or department. It should prove useful to students, researchers, academic staff, and librarians.