Presents an annotated bibliography of general and subject reference books covering the humanities, social and behavioral sciences, history, science, technology, and medicine.

The International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science was published to widespread acclaim in 1996, and has become the major reference work in the field. This eagerly awaited new edition has been fully revised and updated to take full account of the many and radical changes which have taken place since the Encyclopedia was originally conceived. With nearly 600 entries, written by a global team of over 150 contributors, the subject matter ranges from mobile library services provided by camel and donkey transport to search engines, portals and the World Wide Web. The new edition retains the successful structure of the first with an alphabetical organization providing the basic framework of a coherent collection of connected entries. Conceptual entries explore and explicate all the major issues, theories and activities in information and library science, such as the economics of information and information management. A wholly new entry on information systems, and enhanced entries on the information professions and the information society, are key features of this new edition. Topical entries deal with more specific subjects, such as collections management and information services for ethnic minorities. New or completely revised entries include a group of entries on information law, and a collection of entries on the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Religion and literature is the study of interrelationships between religious or theological traditions and literary traditions, both oral and written, with special attention to religious or theological underpinnings of, influences upon, and reflections in, individual “texts” (oral and written) or authors’ oeuvres. Religion and Literature: History and Method by Eric Ziolkowski considers the origins and history of, and methods employed in, that scholarly enterprise, focusing on the dual construals of “literature” in religious studies (as a body of sacred writings and as writing valued for artistic merit); the problematics of defining “religion”; the transformation of theology and literature as a “field” (pioneered by Nathan A. Scott Jr. et al.) to religion and literature; the affiliated fields of myth criticism, and of biblical reception; and the institutionalization, globalization, and future of the study of religion and literature.

Excerpts from and citations to reviews of more than 8,000 books each year, drawn from coverage of 109 publications. Book Review Digest provides citations to and excerpts of reviews of current juvenile and adult fiction and nonfiction in the English language. Reviews of the following types of books are excluded: government publications, textbooks, and technical books in the sciences and law. Reviews of books on science for the general reader, however, are included. The reviews originate in a group of selected periodicals in the humanities, social sciences, and general science published in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. - Publisher.