Michael Dowling

International Biographical Directory of National Archivists, Documentalists, and Librarians. 2nd Edition. Ed. by Jeffrey M. Whilhite, Todd J. Kosmerick, Laurie Scrivener, Lanham, MD; Scarecrow Press, 2000. $60. ISBN 0–8108–3780–3.

This second edition, which expands and updates the first edition in 1997, provides a current directory of national archives, national documentation centers, and national libraries around the world with biographical information on the senior administrator responsible for these institutions. It is a resource created to assist in increasing cooperation and communication between information professionals worldwide.

The first edition included information on 192 countries with 248 biographies and 205 address–only entries. Thanks to the admirable efforts of the editors the 2nd edition includes information on 213 countries and 317 biographies and 177 address–only entries.

The directory includes institutions with a national focus or mandate and excludes those with regional, international, or provincial specializations. Documentation centers, though, not well known in the United States, are common elsewhere in the world. Most document centers concentrate on the collection, processing, and distribution of scientific and technical literature.

The editors nicely lay out in the their methodology in the preface. The directory is in country order alphabetically with information on archivists, documentalists, and librarians in descending order (if information is available). The biographical information includes name, title, address, contact information, personal information (education and languages), career, publications, honors, other activities (professional and social), a brief history of development of the institution and a recommended resource of history and description of the institution. Not every entry provides information for all of the fields, but the standardized layout is easy to review.

Appendixes include a list of the countries surveyed, a copy of the data sheet, the data instructions, and a copy of the letter of introduction. There are three indexes, by institution, people, and places.

Most of the information was collected at the end of 1998, and though a number of entries include websites and email addresses the number will certainly grow if there is a third edition, which would make contacting individuals easier. Almost every entry includes a fax number along with a phone number. The inclusion of languages is very valuable when it comes to attempting to contact an individual to determine if there is a need to translate correspondence.

The brief history of the development of the institutions, which sometimes includes a list of past administrators, provides perspective. The editors purposely did not ask for information on collections and services but a short paragraph on collections and services would be a welcome. It would nice to include list key collections to help to determine which institution to contact since the responsibility for collection of specific materials varies by country for archive, library, and document center.

This 2nd edition of International Biographical Directory of National Archivists, Documentalists, and Librarians is a welcome edition to the meager resources providing information on libraries, archives, and document centers internationally, with the added plus of biographical who's who on the directors of these institutions. At $60 it is not a purchase for every library, but those university and other institutions whose users do international research will find it to useful for the contacts it provides.

Compiling such a directory is a long and laborious process and thought may be given in the future to an easily updateable web version.

About the Author

Michael Dowling is Director, International Relations Office, American Library Association. Email: mdowling [at] ala [dot] org