As a youth services librarian for 20 years Sue Barancik is well aware of what makes a good reference book – meeting researchers' needs and ease of use. In her Guide to Collective Biographies for Children and Young Adults she demonstrates her knowledge of both of these areas by crafting a book that is incredibly useful and easy to use. She explains in the preface that children are frequently required to gather biographical material on prominent figures for school projects and that this material is often best located in the collective biographies that can be found in many school and public libraries. Her Guide aims to “organize and utilize the growing number of collective biographies in an efficient way, therefore easing the searches of librarians, media specialists, teachers, and students”.
Barancik gathered information from 721 collective biographies published between 1988 and 2002. Together these provide information on 5,760 astronauts, crime‐fighters, hate‐mongers, Nobel Prize‐Winners, wrestlers, and numerous other types of notables. The book is organized into four sections: Part I: Titles Indexed and Their Codes; Part II: The Biographees; Part III: List of Subject Headings; and Part IV: Subject Guide to Biographees.
The titles indexed in the guide vary widely in terms of scope, coverage, and style. Some of the books have very specific subject matter like The President has been Shot!: True Stories of the Attacks on Ten US Presidents, whereas others, like 100 World Leaders Who Shaped World History, have a much broader scope. Since Barancik took such care in compiling the titles listed in the Guide, it has an auxiliary use as a tool for collection development librarians purchasing materials for children and young adults. The title list is arranged alphabetically by author when possible. The codes given for each book are letters formed from the authors' last names. When no author is available, the title is used for the alphabetization and codes. This follows methods employed in numerous reference books and librarians will be able to orient themselves with the Guide easily. Since many of the books belong to a series, it would be of added benefit if the book provided an additional list of the titles by series or by publisher.
The straight alphabetical list of biographees in part II provides quick access to the relevant biographical collections. This is useful for when students have already chosen a notable to study. This list is enhanced by the inclusion of basic information about each name (birth and death dates, nationality, career or other noteworthy information, and nationality/place of birth for emigrants). While the list is exhaustive and international in scope, it is compiled from a US perspective and gives more attention to Americans. The extensive subject headings in Part IV provide a comprehensive list of options for undecided students. This is particularly good since it makes it easy for student learners to make their own choices about which notables to study. The subject listing is well rounded, focusing on the famous and the lesser known, and will suit students with biographical projects that correspond with current curricular topics as well as holidays and other assignments.
The obvious problem with a book like this is that by the time of publication, it is already three years out of date. While the book will be incredibly useful for collective biographies that are already available in many libraries, it will need to be continuously updated to include titles published after 2002 to remain useful.
