Herron’s edited work has become a popular staple in libraries and library schools worldwide. Since the original publication in 1989, this resource has matched the growth of print and electronic information in the various social science disciplines covered. The third edition includes revisions to each chapter, with more expansive essays, annotations and electronic resources. The work is divided into four parts totalling 12 chapters: 1 General Literature of the Social Sciences (overview); 2 Literature of the Established Disciplines of the Social Sciences (Political Science, Economics, Business, History, Law and Justice, Anthropology, and Sociology); 3 Those Disciplines with a Social Origin or that Have Acquired a Social Aspect (Education and Psychology); and 4 Those Disciplines with Recognized Social Implications (Geography and Communication).
This title can be compared to Tze‐chung Li’s Social Science Resources: A Practical Approach (3rd ed. Greenwood Press, 2000, 495 pp.). Both works serve as practical guides to the foremost reference resources of the social sciences for students and librarians, and both represent major revisions to earlier editions. Herron’s work is the more current of the two and has increased in size by 171 pages, adding 616 resources for a total of 1,646 included resources. Li’s work decreased by 129 pages, covering a total of 1,600 resources. Both are now published by Greenwood Publishing Group, which acquired Libraries Unlimited in July 2001.
Li’s work does not include the subject field of communication, while Herron’s does. However, Li’s resource mentions crucial interdisciplinary subject areas such as African, Asian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and Slavic studies, while Herron’s does not; also, Herron ignores the ever‐growing information resources in the areas of women’s studies and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender studies. Herron’s work is visually more appealing than Li’s. Entries are very clearly labelled and have detailed annotations. Herron presupposes that readers will have an understanding of, or experience with, general reference sources such as Books in Print or large bibliographic utilities such as WorldCat; Li does not, and provides more background information.
Herron states that dated sources have been replaced with more current resources and that this third edition will “serve the year 2002 and beyond”. A word of caution is needed, because many significant changes have taken place since this work’s release. CARL UnCover is defunct and has been incorporated by another similar electronic product called Ingenta. John Michie published his ALA award‐winning Reader’s Guide to the Social Sciences. Also, many of the covered resources have added an electronic counterpart since the release of Herron’s third edition. It would have been beneficial if Herron had discussed the merits of print versus electronic for those resources that have both counterparts.
Herron’s work still contains some of the limitations noted by previous reviewers, including inconsistent cross‐referencing. For example, the Fourteenth Mental Measurements Yearbook entry makes no mention of electronic availability. It is not until several entries later that readers will find this out. This type of inconsistency affects many items with electronic alternatives. Sometimes reference to the electronic counterpart is made in the body of the annotation and other times as a separate notation beneath the annotation. Another editorial inconsistency is that core periodicals are not included in each discipline covered. Readers would be better served if each chapter followed the same categorical organization.
In all, Herron succeeds in introducing both the inquisitive student and the seasoned librarian to the varied and interconnected literature of the social sciences. Users must keep in mind that, as with any tool that contributes to knowledge based on subjective selection, gaps in coverage will exist, and further subject specific consultation is necessary. Li’s and Herron’s works are arranged differently and vary in the ways discussed above, but, in general, they both cover very similar sources. Thus, libraries with limited budgets need to decide on a purchase based on perceived need and the timeliness of previous editions owned. Both editions might profit from having an electronic version that could be more readily updated to reflect rapid changes occurring between editions.
