The publication history of this title is indicative of the growing tendency of reference publishers to reduce the interval between editions. There was a gap of five years between the publication of the first edition in 1985 and the appearance of the second in 1990. A pause of seven years followed before the third edition was produced in 1997. Just three years later, the fourth edition, reviewed in this publication (RR 2000/285), was available. Now, only two years on, we have a fifth edition. Increasing publication frequency is, of course, a largely welcome trend, not least because it should improve currency. It is also an obvious response to the growth of electronic information sources that threaten print sales. On the other hand though, reference librarians can be forgiven for wondering whether reduced intervals are a device to increase publisher revenues and prey on those who conscientiously order new editions. They might also wonder, in an age when statistical sources can be relatively easily identified and often directly accessed from organisational WWW sites, whether there is really a need for a print publication of this type at all.
Certainly, on first examination, there seems little in this book that would not be more usefully offered in WWW format. Entries for the 879 statistical sources produced by over 430 organisations almost invariably carry a WWW address that could be opened with a mouse click in an Internet version. An electronic product would also reduce or eliminate the inevitable dating of information between compilation and publication. With data gathered through spring and summer 2001 but publication not until May 2002 this is an important consideration. A WWW version linked to organisational sites would probably have the added benefit of providing more expansive information on the sources included. Although the annotations offered are helpful, they are inevitably concise and do not always offer the depth of detail users might require. Another advantage would be to reduce the confusion potential of some of the typographical and indexing errors that were evident. Examples of the former include some improbable e‐mail addresses, while for the latter we have the subject heading “Motor vehicles – northern” when the source covers the Northern Ireland car market, not Northern England as most users are likely to assume.
Another major advantage of a WWW version is that it would probably make the treasure trove of information highlighted in this work known to a wider audience. While a few titles included such as British Social Attitudes and Leisure Forecasts might be familiar to many, most others, for example, Children’s Pocket Money Monitor and Bottled Water the Facts are hardly household names. Similarly, although UK academic librarians will know Average Prices of British and US Academic Books or SCONUL Annual Library Statistics, those outside the field are unlikely to seek them out if they cannot zoom directly to details of the source at the flick of a finger. On a more frivolous note, it might also help shed light on some intriguing questions thrown up by the print version. Why, for example, are the British Egg Information Service, the British Egg Products Association with Breaking and Production and the National Farmers Union with National Weekly Egg Market Intelligence Report all collecting data on the products of British hens?
Whether Gower intend a future electronic version is not clear from either the book’s short introduction or the promotional material accompanying the review copy. In the longer term it is hard to see how such a development can be avoided if the product is to remain valuable to librarians and thereby a viable proposition for the publisher. For the moment most libraries that own the third or fourth edition, especially those serving a business or marketing clientele, will want to purchase this print volume.
