Current Survey of American History Reference Sources

The two major trends in American history reference publishing, noted in last year's survey, continued throughout 1978: the refinement of past efforts and improved access, via micrographics, to elusive source materials. The genuinely new or unique reference work is indeed a rara avis, but the reason for this situation is not all that puzzling. Historians of American history and culture, each looking at a particular aspect of our past, need to gain access to a number of already existing historical records (out‐of‐print books, obscure government reports, archival records, regional studies, etc.) and publishers are merely attempting to fulfill these needs in a variety of ways. Therefore, the revision of standard sources, new titles in series, and the completion of large micrographics collections reflect the principal publishing activities of 1978. The few exceptions include the unique Dictionary of American Library Biography and the essentially new Handbook of North American Indians.