So, now we know: unlike the American Library Association, the Indian and just about every other country's library association the UK Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP, née the Library Association) does not count as a scientific or learned society. (Or did somebody at the Ridgmount Street headquarters just forget to send the questionnaire back?) This omission (or CILIP administrative error) does raise a couple of questions about this generally excellent directory, a typical product of the K.G. Saur stable. Nowhere is it actually defined what is considered to be a learned or scientific society (or what is not); and how thorough is the follow‐up on unreturned questionnaires? If CILIP did fail to return the questionnaire and had at least one reminder, members could have cause for complaint.
The mixture is much as one would expect from a Saur directory. The coverage is actually pretty wide and by implication takes a quite liberal definition. UK entries under Librarianship and Book Science include: Aslib; Bibliographical Society (as well as the Bibliographical Societies of Cambridge and Edinburgh); Bookplate Society; British Association for Information and Library Education; European Association for Lexicography; European Association for Library and Information Education and Research; Society of Indexers; Society of Scribes and Illuminators (a delightfully welcome survival in the electronic age).
An excellently thorough and clear subject index reveals some oddities, which may parallel the CILIP omission: bodies for Russian studies in Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Poland, the UK and the USA, but not apparently in Russia. There may be significance in only the UK and the USA having bodies for astrology. Apart from five Canadian bodies, why do only the UK and Italy have Canadian studies organizations? Don't their French cousins care about them? The Classics live on: 17 countries have entries for classical languages and literatures, the UK taking the lead with six entries. Is music education really unique to Germany? Is it a sign of changing energy production patterns that coal studies are apparently restricted to Australia, Belgium and Germany?
With some other Saur titles I have felt they are reaching – or have reached – their physical limits of usefulness before needing to be split up into more manageable volumes. This particular title is almost exactly the right size. Enough entries (about 17,500) to be worth consulting, but limited enough that the subject, name and persons indexes and the country‐by‐country layout make this a very easy volume both to browse and consult, as well as to look for the kind of oddity I have indicated in the previous paragraph. The persons index, by the way, covers those who have societies named after them: a lot of well known names, from Alfred Adler and Alcuin of York to W.B. Yeats and Carl Zuckmayer, as well as a number I have never heard of. This also reveals one or two points of comment: perhaps no surprise that Nietzsche has four entries, but more so at two for the Powys brothers who have a Powys Society in their native country and another in North America. There are a number of better‐regarded authors who don't appear listed at all, although Shakespeare naturally outnumbers the rest with ten entries.
The contents of the entries are of the usual standards of thoroughness and accuracy. Directory information includes Web site addresses and, where the information has been supplied, details such as year of foundation, names of officials, notes on publications and a short summary of what the association is about. All is clearly laid out and thoroughly indexed: the result is a very useful directory covering the entire globe and giving a great deal of information which simply will not be found – or at least not found as easily as in this volume – elsewhere.
