Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

With 16,778 entries spanning 1,712 pages plus 428 pages of indexes (name, subject, and title) in two volumes weighing together more than 14 pounds, this monumental work was compiled by the Indonesia-born Southeast Asia specialist in the Library of Congress's (LC) Asia Division. It includes only LC-held titles in Western languages or with Western-language summaries; otherwise it would be more than twice the size. Historically, LC has had one of the best Indonesian collections in the world, but under budgetary pressure and restrictive collecting policies, it has for more than a decade had to share comprehensive collecting with other US research libraries. Coupled with LC's declining role as a lender of last resort, this publication's value for many users will lie in identifying sources that may be found at some other research library. Yet the compiler's purism complicates this by opting for author entries at variance with LC name authority and AACR2 (although, confusingly, the name index offers only the widely used LC form). Although the work sacrifices utility to accuracy, it is likely to stand as one of the last such comprehensive compilations in print. The compiler cogently asserts the impossibility of replicating the volumes by computer; however, users will probably increasingly prefer machine retrievability to comprehensiveness. Weighing these factors plus its near-bargain price, this work is a necessity for research libraries and is recommended as the one bibliographic title to have on Indonesia for libraries likely to have only one or a few reference sources about the fourth largest nation in the world. K. Mulliner; Ohio University