The appearance of Benn's Media is an annual information event of importance. The 2005 event gives us more than 4,000 pages in four large floppy volumes. As before, Benn's Media provides listings of media that carry advertising or accept press releases, by print, electronic products and broadcasting. Key media organizations are also listed. The arrangement of the information is complex and this is one of those sources with which general reference librarians, in the UK at least, need to become familiar. I was going to write “librarians and other users”, but maybe Benn's Media is one of those works that needs a librarian intermediary since “media” is one of those areas where no one ever seems to have any time, let alone time to become familiar with the 4,000 plus pages featuring more than 78,000 entries from 214 countries. Librarians, the “meeja” needs you! This is in no way a criticism of the publisher: it is the subject itself that is complex. The finished work, indeed, is a marvel of industry, clarity and organization. There must be tens of thousands of page references embedded in the text, and those I checked were correct. Whether it is clever computers or clever human beings we have to thank, the publishers have done a highly competent job.
There is a “How to use this volume” page to each volume, but a close look at the contents pages and section headings is also necessary for efficient navigation, particularly since not all volumes are uniformly arranged. Taking the UK volume, sections include a list of publishers with full contact details and the titles of their publications; a list of daily and Sunday newspapers with key contact names; lists of regional newspapers arranged by county, by town, and by title (the latter giving details of price, frequency and contacts, even potted histories); lists of international media distributed or transmitted in more than one country or region, including in‐flight magazines and customer travel publications (arranged by broad subject); an index to the subject categories under which the publications have been organized; the main section where all the publications are listed alphabetically within subject (and these subjects themselves grouped within a main category) where full contact and publishing details are given; on‐line products grouped under subject with its own subject index; a listing of cable, satellite and digital radio and television services, plus maps showing BBC regional services and ITV franchises; media organizations grouped by subject; and finally, a master index of entries: publication titles and organizations. As already mentioned, there is copious cross‐referencing from titles to entries with fuller information.
A similar structure pertains in the other volumes, though since they feature more than one country, there are separate sequences to each after an international section. In the volumes for Europe and North America, each country has its own classification and subject index; the countries of Volume Four (“The World”) do too, though here there is a master classification of subjects that gives references to just those countries which have used them. In this volume countries are arranged alphabetically within each continent, viz, Central America and the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Pacific Islands.
The one great uncertainly I have with Benn's is predicting what is covered. (The same applies to its competitors such as Hollis UK (RR 2004/317)). A business and commercial focus is proclaimed with an eye clearly on marketing and promotion, so publications that carry press releases and advertising are noted, yet why include Library Review and not Reference Reviews? Under Libraries and Information Systems (unhelpfully classified under Government Services – thank heaven for the Classifications Index on blue paper!) there are, amongst 21 other titles, entries for Journal of the Society of Archivists and Interlending & Document Supply. Why? (Strangely, I thought, the user is referred to the Government Information sub‐category of Government Services for New Library World!). The Native Pony, Narrow Gauge World, The Local Historian, Notes & Queries are not obviously front‐line publicity organs, yet they are listed. These titles may well cover advertising, but so do other journals not listed here. Presumably this is a matter of some publishers not submitting details as I noted many are not included. But there is little future in such nitpicking. In practice, Benn's Media is often used as a directory of periodicals and newspapers. Given the massive quantity and the high quality of the information supplied, we must thank those clever computers (and humans) in Tonbridge, and be thankful for what we have here. I was thankful for the addresses of my local freebie newspapers and a gathering of library and information journals. Benn's Media is an invaluable information source for reference libraries.
