Download This PDF File
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ALICE T. COPELAND Philosophy Journals as Current Book Selection Guides In an effort to determine the adequacy of book review coverage in the fields of philosophy, thirteen philosophy journals were studied for a period of one year, and the books reviewed in them tabulated. These reviews were also correlated with library review media and compared with reviews during the same period in the Library Journal and Choice. Results indicate that comprehensive coverage is available only in the philosophy journals. ''J UST NAMING SOME of the topics COV- assumed between department and li ered by the Dewey classification in the brary, a broad interest on the part of field of philosophy suggests a major the department cannot necessarily be problem: ontology, cosmology, episte assumed, because, although one might mology, teleology, positivism, nominal hope that this would be the case, de ism . philosophy is a very technical partments do change, and the subject subject, indeed."1 In so saying, Carter specialty of its present members must and. Bonk, in their book, Building Li not unbalance the collection as a whole. brary Collections, have put their fingers In other words, if a department becomes on the crux of the selection problem in heavy with men interested in the phi the field of philosophy. losophy of science, the librarian's job The college or university librarian becomes that of making sure that the who is expected to take full responsi collection includes works in aesthetics bility for the completeness of a collec and philosophy of religion. The librarian tion in philosophy, without help from can never abdicate responsibility for a the departmental specialists in the field, collection in a subject field, however has a problem indeed. Not only are the esoteric and technical that field might areas within the field many and diverse, be; he must keep abreast of the subject but also the terminology itself demands matter as best he can and keep the gen intimate knowledge of this complex dis eral collection in order. cipline. Common sense is not enough It is with this purpose in. mind that the here, in a field where even terminologies current reviewing tools available in the such as "realism" and "idealism" have field of philosophy were analyzed; first meanings totally different from ordinary in terms of the journals themselves, and usage. secondly in terms of a study of the books The current tools discussed in this reviewed in them. Many of these jour paper are those which the librarian nals cover foreign books, some even hav might regularly use to fill out the collec ing reviews written in foreign languages; tion. Even if a good relationship were the journals are published all over the world. Some of the reviews, however, 1 Mary Duncan Carter and Wallace John Bonk, Building Library Collections (New York: Scarecrow lend themselves more to philosophical Press, 1959), p. 96. ' debate than to use as a library tool. Miss Copeland is Catalog Librarian, In all cases, of course, the reviewing Drew University, Madison, New Jersey. tool is only as good as the specific re- I 455 456 I College & Research Libraries • November, 1966 viewer. Reviews vary from person to per for Aesthetics at Wayne State Univer son and from topic to topic; generaliza sity, the. College of Liberal Arts, the tion is almost impossible. The ] ournal of University Press, and the Cleveland Philosophy, for example, publishes only Museum of Art. The American Society first-rate philosophical papers, but in the for Aesthetics was «organized in 1942 for review columns one has to decide the advancement of philosophical and whether a particular philosopher is writ scientific studies of the arts and related ing a first-rate review or whether he is fields." This journal is included in society grinding his own philosophical ax. membership. Another problem in using professional The 1964 fall issue was completely journals for current book selection is devoted to articles in honor of the form that often books are reviewed in them er editor of the journal and had no book long after the book is actually published. reviews. The winter issue included long Not all are guilty of an undue time lag signed reviews with the name of the and in the long run, a book that is worth college of the reviewer. It included re having and which had not been ordered viewers from the Cleveland Museum of upon publication is worth· having later. Art. Because of this time lag, and because About fifteen books are reviewed in of the difficulty in reading all of the an issue, only one of which in the winter journals in all areas for which a librarian issue was strictly a philosophy book; the finds himself responsible, would the li others were in art and literature. It may brarian be justified in relying solely on be that this journal would not be valu library reviewing tools to fill out the able in the field of philosophy, depend collection in philosophy? In order to an ing upon the arrangement of courses in swer this question a comparison was aesthetics in the particular school. made of the coverage of books reviewed Journal of Symbolic Logic. Published in philosophy journals with those re quarterly by the Association for Sym viewed in two widely used library tools, bolic Logic, Inc., with support from Library Journal and Choice. Also noted UNESCO through ICSO and from in are the journals which are covered by stitutional members. It comes out three Book Review Digest ( BRD), Book Re times a year, in March, June, and Sep view Index ( BRI ) , and the Index to tember. Book Reviews in the Humanities (IBRH). It reviews both books and journal ar It is interesting to note the comment by ticles. The reviews are in English, but Frances J. Kirschenbaum that of all the they include articles from foreign lan subjects indexed in the Index to Book guage periodicals. Each issue contains Reviews in the Humanities. «Only the reviews of four or five books which are field of philosophy is at present well scattered among reviews of articles. Cur covered."2 The books referred to as re rent bibliographies of individual authors viewed in the philosophy journals were are compiled, e.g. Ernest Nagel had a reviewed in 1964 only, thus giving a sur listing of nine books and articles. vey of one complete year's coverage. The Septemher issue was devoted to abstracts of papers given at the annual NOTES ON REVIEWING IN THE meeting of the Association and had no PlnLOSOPHY JOURNALS reviews. This is a technical field and has Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criti technical reviews. Cross references from cism. Published quarterly (two issues journal articles abound. only in 1964) by the American Society I ournal of the History of Philosophy. Published twice a year by the University 2 Frances J. Kirschenbaum, "Periodicals in the Hu manities," Library Trends, X (January 1962), 326. of California Press. «The Journal of the Philosophy Journals as Current Book Selection Guides I 457 History of Philosophy is an international a year, January, May, October, by the journal which publishes articles, notes, Leicester University Press. discussions, and reviews about the his This is the only journal devoted ex tory of western philosophy, broadly con clusively to book reviews. It averages ceived. Publishes material in Eng about twenty-three an issue. Shorter ar lish, French and German." And hopes ticles tend to be more to the point of for Spanish and Italian in the future. the book-are less apt to be philosoph This journal has long signed reviews, ical dissertations. occasionally in French. It is apt to have The journal lists collections separately, long quotations from the book in the although without review, at the end. It original language even though the re tends to be up-to-date, even the January view may be in English. 1964 issue had only 1963 books. The The section called Book Notes has October issue reviewed only 1964 books. capsule annotations for about four books The Philosophical Review ( IBRH) per issue. "New Translations" lists and ( BRI contemplated). Quarterly journal, annotates about six. "New Editions" has edited by the Sage School of Philosophy, about nine. It also contains a section Cornell University. Published January, called "Books Received" which lists April, July, and October. many more but without comment. This is a first-class journal with high Journal of Philosophy (BRD, BRI, reviewing standards. Articles are signed IBRH). This is one of the leading jour and university origin is given-some of nals in the field, published fortnightly the outstanding names in American and at Columbia by the Journal of Philos British philosophy appear in these pages. ophy, Inc. (every four weeks in July and Mostly American books are reviewed, August). The October and November is with a sprinkling of British and French sues contained agenda and papers for imprints in the year 1964. Most of the the American Philosophical Association books which were reviewed in 1964 were meetings. Some issues have no reviews; published in 1962. others have one or two. All are long, The section entitled "Books Received" signed philosophical reviews. Occasional gives current listing of some one hun sections list "New Books" with the dred books per issue. length varying from nine to fifty of the For the most part these are long crit unannotated lists. February 27 issue list ical articles, often consisting of philo ed "Paperbacks, Reprints, and Anthol sophical critiques on the part of the re ogies"-four of them; October 29 cited viewer. The use of regular size print in "Reprints and Selected Writings." the Book Review section makes it easier Mind ( IBRH).