Editorial

Citation

Chalcraft, T. (2006), "Editorial", Reference Reviews, Vol. 20 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/rr.2006.09920baa.001

Editorial

A few issues ago (Vol. 19 No. 5) this column discussed the imminent release by Facet Publishing (previously Library Association Publishing) of a revamped and re-branded Walford’s Guide to Reference Material as The New Walford: Guide to Reference Resources. In this issue we carry an extended review of the first volume of this new set covering science, technology and medicine (RR 2006/62). Most information professionals, in the UK at least, will know of Walford’s Guide. The British equivalent of the ALA’s Guide to Reference Books, it has been around for nearly 50 years and for much of that time was, remarkably, largely the product of one person, the indomitable John Walford.

Dr Albert John Walford (1907-2000) was one of the most distinguished British librarians of modern times. For many years a senior librarian at the Ministry of Defence in London, he was also editor of the Library Association Record for six years in the 1950s, chair of the Library Association’s Reference, Special and Information Section and a lecturer at the North West London Polytechnic. He began work on Guide to Reference Materials, as it then was, in 1955 with the help of 80 contributors, the initial single volume appearing in 1959. This was so successful (nothing like it had existed in the UK previously) that the next edition expanded into three volumes, a pattern of publication that persisted and will be retained for the New Walford (the other volumes will cover Social Sciences and Arts, Humanities and General Reference). Although others made important contributions, for many years through the 1960s and 1970s John Walford put together the guide himself, developing an unsurpassed knowledge of reference materials in the process. Ever assiduous in tracking down new materials he is reputed to have scoured the libraries of London in his lunch hours and in the early evenings, becoming a familiar figure at the reference shelves and enquiry desks of many collections. Indeed, so dedicated was John to his quest that even a holiday could lead to the discovery of unexpected new items. I recall him once recounting how on a vacation trip in Dorset he chanced on a useful title about lifeboats in Poole public library and advising that no visit to any substantial place should be regarded as complete without a visit to the reference library, advice, perhaps sadly, I’ve frequently observed.

John’s method of compiling the Guide would now be considered quaintly archaic, but for him it worked. Details of items that might be of value for the Guide were recorded in tiny but neat handwriting on shreds of envelopes, scrap paper and the like. Every potential entry was allocated a UDC (Universal Decimal Classification) number (John was deeply attached to this classification now abandoned in the New Walford) and filed in boxes in classified order. When an item was encountered on one of the many library forays (nearly all the items included were examined at first hand) an annotation would be added, perhaps supported by a quotation from a reviewing source. It was these annotations, commonly described as “pithy”, that, above all else, characterized John’s work. Although a quiet and cautious man, he was also a person of firmly-held opinions, which he was not shy in expressing in the Guide if he felt that would inform users.

As the years wore on compiling the Guide in this almost single-handed fashion became less and less and viable and from the late 1980s a team of compilers took over the task. For some time the compilers remained in touch with John and I would regularly receive a small parcel containing scores of scraps of paper with the details of potential new reference items carefully recorded in his characteristic miniature handwriting. Although almost needing a magnifying glass to decipher, these were unerringly accurate and helpful. John guessed that compiling the Guide absorbed about 1,000 hours of spare time a year (that is over two-and-a-half hours every day), I suspect an underestimate as this probably did not include all the time spent scouring libraries (compiling the Guide before the age of the internet accessible OPAC was frequently a voyage of discovery). Bibliographers and scholars like John Walford will never again preside over the reference world, as it is simply no longer possible for one person to have a grasp of the range of sources available, but it is fitting that Facet Publishing have retained Walford in the title of this re-launched publication and, most of all, kept alive John’s mission to encapsulate the essentials of the reference universe in one source.

Alongside the New Walford we have a number of other important reviews in this issue of Reference Reviews. China is much in the media glare at present, partly because of the huge economic clout it is beginning to exercise and also due to the forthcoming Beijing Olympics. Publishers have spotted this growing interest and a number of new reference works have appeared on the country. Here we look at Greenwood’s China Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Peoples Republic (RR 2006/115) and Routledge’s less general Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture (RR 20006/116). Despite the emergence of China we still live in a world dominated by American power and culture, but it is important to remember that the USA is not a monolith. As well as diverse ethnic roots its nearly 300 million people have regional identities expressed in wide cultural variations. These are recorded in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures (RR 2006/117), a major new work aimed at that mainstay for reference publishers, the US high school and college market.

Two other major encyclopedic sets reviewed are Gale Group’s Encyclopedia of Science, Technology and Ethics (RR 2006/91) and Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport (RR 2006/105). The latter is from the newly-formed Massachusetts based Berkshire Publishing, a company that has produced a number of important new titles in the last year or so and whose products we will be looking at further in future issues of Reference Reviews. An amalgam of encyclopedias previously published in print, the major electronic source reviewed here is Routledge Reference Source Online: Religion Resource, given thorough and careful assessment by Stuart Hannabuss (RR 2006/71). Promising to be a major source in the field of religion and related areas, in the UK, together with its politics companion database, it is already being considered as a JISC backed source for education libraries. Modern libraries increasingly put the emphasis on full text sources such as this, but they also need portals to open the door to the vast wealth of sources available. This is where the New Walford should come in because, though disappointingly not available in an electronic format, it is, as it ever was even in the days of John Walford’s almost single-handed endeavour, a portal that points the way to other sources. Portals are at the heart of reference work and Walford is one of the original portals. Long may it continue.

Tony ChalcraftEditor, Reference Reviews and College Librarian, York St John College, York, UK