This is the seventh edition of this title, first published in 1971 and last published in 1996. The output of the publishers is well known, with their suite of directories in distinctive coloured bindings a familiar sight on UK library shelves. This title is one of two red ones!
The scope of this directory is to provide contact details and information of national industrial and trade associations in all the countries of Europe including, for the first time, the Transcaucasian republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Excluded are the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland which are covered in the Directory of British Associations (RR 2003/287), the orange one! We are warned about possible overlap with the companion Directory of European Professional and Learned Societies (RR 2005/281) and, I would add, the same publisher's directories of European medical organizations, sports organizations, and pan‐European associations. We are not told how many organizations are listed here but I estimate over seven thousand. Industry and trade includes agriculture (agribusiness).
This edition of the directory follows the general style of its predecessors: associations in the main directory sequence are arranged alphabetically by name, with the order ruthlessly ignoring all prepositions, articles and conjunctions. Liberally sprinkled throughout this A‐Z sequence are cross‐references to alternative, translated, former and familiar versions of the associations' names. In such a multi‐national work as this, and especially where an English version of the name of every association is given, cross‐references are necessarily numerous and, I suspect, are well in excess of the 7,000 associations featured. This is good, and it is clear that a lot of thought and experience has gone into the compilation of this directory. Entries are standardised and compact, relying on a fair amount of abbreviation.
Details of each entry can include name of association, acronym, year of foundation, translation of the name into other languages, address, telephone and fax numbers, internet and email addresses, contact names, fields of interest, activities, affiliations, membership data and former names. Thus for the entry for Assopannelli, we learn that an alternative name is Associazione Nazionale dei Fabbricanti di Pannelli e Semilavorati in Legno; that its sphere of interest is the manufacture of plywood; that its activities include conferences, exhibitions, information services, meetings, the collection of statistics and working groups; that it is affiliated to EFF and FEIC (a listing of international and pan‐European organizations is given); and that it has a membership of 200 firms. Not all associations have the full suite of information but coverage is generally pretty good.
An interesting development for this edition is the adoption of the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) two‐letter country codes in the indexes instead of the three‐letter codes used previously. The listing of Unverified and Lost Associations has also been dropped, but “Names that associations were using in 1996 but have since abandoned have been retained as cross references, to provide continuity between our sixth and seventh editions”. New also is the listing of some 450 international and pan‐European organizations (with internet addresses) to which national associations are affiliated. (The EFF and FEIC noted above are the European Franchise Federation and the Fédération Européenne de l'Industrie du Contreplaqué.)
This directory is well‐structured with several indexes and clearly laid out pages; the print is small but entries are well spaced. Abbreviations used in the entries are clearly indicated and helpfully located inside the front and back end‐boards. There is an index to the country codes and a separate Abbreviations index of some 6,200 entries, listing the initials and acronyms associated with the associations in the main section. There is a full subject index with 519 subject terms used, the headings in English clearly indicated in bold typeface with copious cross‐references from synonyms and French and German terms; a total of 1,200 headings are claimed. Within each subject, entries are arranged by country code. The choice of headings is impressive and would be a good model for anyone seeking a subject thesaurus. Subjects range from Abattoirs, Abrasives, Adhesives, Advertising and Aerosols to Yachts and Leisure Crafts, Yarns, Yeast and Zinc, with Parquet Flooring, Pasta, Pewter, Slag, Warehousing and Erotic Goods some of the others terms that caught my eye.
Priority is given to the English language though there are French and German contents listings and text to the guide to using the directory but not, surprisingly, to the Introduction or section headings.
Inevitably, with a work of such detail as this, and with such detail subject to constant change, one wonders why an electronic version is not available. If all eight CBD directories were combined in one database searchable electronically, what a phenomenally powerful reference resource that would be! No reason for such an absence is offered but the publishers do offer a CD‐ROM version for their Directory of British Associations plus customised lists and labels. And they also offer to provide information from their databases in response to simple enquiries, so maybe they are getting there. Meanwhile we have to thank compiler Christopher Ward for his amazing achievement. Commercial and industrial libraries working with European firms will need this directory for the next decade.
