Sports, Exercise, and Fitness is the first comprehensive guide to references sources in the field for over a decade and as such is most welcome. It has been compiled by a librarian employed in the Applied Life Studies Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign, one of the leading academic sports collections in North America. It follows a format used for all titles in the Libraries Unlimited References Sources in the Social Sciences series. This volume includes 16 chapters – General Sports Sources; The Olympic Games; Aquatic Sports; Nautical Sports; Precision and Accuracy Sport; Ice and Snow Sports; Racquet Sports; Small‐Ball Sports; Large‐Ball Sports; Combat Sports; Track and Field, Multi‐Disciplinary Sports and Gymnastics; Cycling and Equestrian Sports; Extreme Sports and Motor Sports; Mountaineering, Fishing, Camping and Hiking; Health and Wellness, Specific Exercise and Fitness Activities. With the exception of a few curious categorizations (e.g. Track and Field, Multidisciplinary Sports and Gymnastics) these divisions are fairly logical and helpful. Each chapter is divided further into specific individual sports; for example, within Precision and Accuracy Sports we have Archery, Billiards, Bowling, etc. Within these sub‐divisions we have further sub‐titles most commonly, Reference Sources, Instructional Sources and Web Sites. For each of the 987 titles listed are full bibliographical details followed by a descriptive paragraph about the publication's scope, organization and the occasional evaluative sentence. Or, in the case of web sites the URL and the date it was accessed.
As such this guide is a helpful source for the reference or subject librarian wishing to point the sports student or general enthusiast to further, more specialised information. Its strengths relate to the wide coverage of reference titles and the way the author gives a good insight into the publications' coverage and in some cases mention of how they link to other titles included in the compilation. Its weaknesses relate to its North American bias, especially so far as the web sites included. I know of many more helpful web sites on the mentioned topics that are not given entries. However, this deficiency is easily overcome if British librarians consult Altis (www.altis.ac.uk), the JISC funded refereed database to sport/leisure/health web sites. With the popularity of sport in today's society, it is inconceivable that even a small public library should be without this book in its reference section.
