583 Condition of education. National Center for Education Statistics. U.S.
Dept. of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics, 1975–.
Annual. ISSN 0098-4752. $
370 L112
Annual data on sixty key education indicators that shed light on the condition of education in the United States. Data include student performance, resources in the schools, student characteristics, special education, and racial and ethnic compo- sition of schools. Introductory text summarizes positive developments and discusses areas of con- cern. Essential for public and academic collections.
Online edition and PDF downloads of publications available at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/.
584 Digest of education statistics. National Center for Education Statistics. U.S.
Dept. of Education, 1975–. Annual.
ISSN 0502-4102. $ http://nces.ed.gov/
programs/digest/.
370 L11
Essential compilation of educational statistics from the U.S. Department of Education, cover- ing preschool through postgraduate, with some
information on libraries and educational technol- ogy and some international comparisons. Online edition and PDF downloads available.
585 Education state rankings, 2005–2006:
Pre K–12 education in the 50 United States. 4th ed. Kathleen O’Leary Morgan and Scott Morgan, eds. Morgan Quitno, 2005. ISBN 0740107364. $
371 LA217
Hundreds of education statistics converted to first to last rankings. Statistics are presented alphabeti- cally by state. Finance, achievement, and safety are among the factors analyzed.
586 National profile of community colleges: Trends and statistics. 4th ed.
Kent A. Phillippe and Leila Gonzales Sullivan. Community College Press/
American Association of Community Colleges, 2005. ISSN 1083-2882. $
378.73 LB2328
Statistical information presented as charts and graphs on community college enrollment, the social and economic impact of community colleges, staff- ing and ser vices, and costs and financing. Some charts compare two- and four-year colleges.
587 Projections of educational statistics to 2014. William J. Hussar. http://nces .ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp
?pubid=2005074.
The National Center for Education Statistics, part of the Institute of Education Science and the U.S.
Department of Education, projects statistics to the future. This is an essential tool for educational planners.
588 State-by-state profiles of community colleges. 6th ed. 132p. Community College Press/American Association of Community Colleges, 2003. ISBN 0871173565. $
378.1543 LB2328
Arranged alphabetically by state, this volume pre- sents basic statistical information about commu- nity colleges in that state, demographics, including educational attainment, and workforce informa- tion, including highest-paying, fastest-growing, and fastest-declining occupations requiring some college or a community college degree.
Biographical Sources
589 Biographical dictionary of American educators. John F. Ohles, ed. 3v.
Greenwood, 1978. ISBN 0837198933. $$
370.973 LA2311
Articles about 1,665 American teachers, reformers, theorists, and administrators, from colonial times to 1976, including many state and regional educa- tors, women, and minorities. Many entries include bibliographical references. Individuals included must have reached the age of sixty, retired, or died by January 1, 1975.
590 A biographical handbook of education:
Five hundred contributors to the field.
Ann Keith Nauman. 237p. Irvington, 1985. ISBN 0829007229. $
370 LA2301
Short biographical sketches of prominent schol- ars and educators. Alphabetical entries cite further sources of information.
591 Directory of American scholars. 10th ed. Caryn E. Klebba, ed. 6v. Gale, 2002.
ISSN 0070-5101; ISBN 0787650137. $$$
001.202573 LA2311
Profiles more than 30,00 scholars currently active in the United States and Canada. Volumes are by academic discipline: volume 1: history, archaeol- ogy, and area studies; volume 2: English, speech, and drama; volume 3: foreign languages, linguis- tics, and philology; volume 4: philosophy, religion, and law; volume 5: psychology, sociology, and edu- cation. Volume 6 provides alphabetical, discipline, institution, and geographic indexes. Alphabetical entries include education, career history, member- ships, publications, and contact information.
592 Who’s who in American education.
Marquis Who’s Who, 1989–. Annual.
ISSN 1046-7203. $$
370 LA2311
Contains alphabetically arranged sketches describ- ing more than 23,000 prominent contemporary Americans from adult, elementary, secondary, and teacher education. Each entry contains full name, basic biographical information, education, nature of work, areas of practice, professional positions, memberships, awards, publications, research, and home or office address.
8
SCOTT kENNEdy
Words and Language
Encyclopedic reference sources focusing on the study of words and language are still rela- tively new. However, stylebooks, desk dic- tionaries, thesauri, and other practical writers’
aids have been around for decades and con- tinue to be in great demand: the supply has been robust, and the best products are con- tinually updated and augmented. Principal or unabridged dictionaries, the result of pains- taking and time-consuming scholarship, are few and far between in any language; English is fortunate to have several excellent sources to turn to. Though revised on a less-frequent basis than their thematic relatives, they are the sources from which the other products draw their data, and new editions are looked upon as great and significant events. Bilingual foreign- language dictionaries are in a middle ground.
The most studied languages—as one might expect—provide the largest market and see the largest number of commercial play- ers. When seeking a small to middle-sized English-based bilingual dictionary for the more popular languages, a visit to the pub- lications lists of Oxford University Press, HarperCollins, and Larousse generally reveals several viable options.
General Sources
Bibliographies and Guides
593 Linguistics: A guide to the reference literature. 2nd ed. Anna L. DeMiller.
396p. Libraries Unlimited, 2000.
ISBN 1563086190. $
016.41 ZA00; P121
The second edition of this strong annotated guide describes 1,039 linguistics reference sources pub- lished between 1957 and 1998. There are three principal divisions to the guide: general sources, including encyclopedias, biographies, core periodi- cals, periodical indexes and abstracts, and atlases;
interdisciplinary and discipline-specific sources, such as anthropological linguistics and sociolin- guistics; and sources on individual languages or language groups. The focus is upon publications in English. This new edition also includes websites existing as late as 1999. Author, title, and subject indexes.
Encyclopedias, Companions, and Atlases
594 The Cambridge encyclopedia of the world’s ancient languages. Roger D.
Woodard, ed. 1162p. Cambridge Univ.
Pr., 2004. ISBN 0521562562. $$
409 P371
Selected as an outstanding reference title by Choice, this encyclopedia of ancient languages contains
forty-three chapters prepared by thirty-five interna- tionally recognized scholars. Each chapter describes an individual language or language group; its his- torical relevance; and its script, grammar, phonol- ogy, morphology, syntax, and lexicon and suggests sources for further reading. Indexing by subject, grammar, linguistic law or principle, and language.
595 Compendium of the world’s languages.
2nd ed. George L. Campbell. 2v.
Routledge, 2000. ISBN 0415202981. $$
403 P371
This second edition of the Compendium, first pub- lished in 1992, was designated an outstanding reference title by Choice. Considerably expanded and reworked, this new edition follows the gen- eral structure of the first. Entries for several hun- dred languages, ancient and modern, are arranged alphabetically; descriptions range from four to ten pages in length. Each entry provides information about the language’s script, phonology, morphol- ogy, and syntax; sample texts are provided as is a bibliography. Scholarly yet readable, this is an excellent resource for any library.
596 Dictionary of languages: The definitive reference to more than 400 languages.
Andrew Dalby. 734p. Columbia Univ.
Pr., 2004. ISBN 0231115695 (pbk.). $
403 P371
This work was designated an outstanding refer- ence source by the American Library Association when it first appeared, in 1999. Its aim is to cat- egorize and describe the 400 major languages of the twentieth century, providing a historical, social, and geopolitical context as well as infor- mation about the language’s origin, dialects, number of speakers, characteristics, and alphabet.
Illustrative specimens include anecdotes and lit- erary quotations. Includes maps, extensive cross- references, glossary, and index.
597 Ethnologue: Languages of the world.
15th ed. Raymond G. Gordon Jr. and Barbara F. Grimes, eds. 1272p. SIL International, 2005. ISBN 155671159X.
$ www.sil.org/ethnologue/.
410 P371
Produced by the Summer Institute of Linguistics, a Christian orga nization based in Dallas, Ethnologue’s aim is to catalog “all the languages known to be spoken in the world today.” Started more than fifty years ago, the fifteenth edition of Ethnologue
includes descriptive entries for 6,912 known liv- ing languages, orga nized by content and country.
Entries include name of language, alternate names, estimated population of speakers, region where the language is spoken, dialects, availability of dictio- naries, and the linguistic classification. A total of 208 color maps display the location and distribu- tion of languages. The free web version provides the same content as the print in an easily searchable database format.
598 International encyclopedia of lin- guistics. 2nd ed. William Frawley, ed.
4v., 2142p. Oxford Univ. Pr., 2003.
ISBN 0195139771. $$$
410.3 P29
This second edition, appearing ten years after the first, highly acclaimed original, was designated an outstanding title by Choice. An excellent purchase for all libraries, it is especially appropriate for those unable to afford the fourteen-volume Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (Elsevier, 2006). Arranged alphabetically and signed, the entries in this four- volume set range from broad topical articles, such as “Sociolinguistics,” to concepts such as cognitive grammar, to descriptions of individual languages, to biographical essays. With contributions from 600 scholars, this work is authoritative, easy to use, accessible, up-to-date, well illustrated, and expertly indexed.