E-Views and Reviews: The Stuff of Legends

By Cheryl LaGuardia -- Library Journal, 2/1/2007

Health sciences & medical librarians If you haven't yet taken a look at Rittenhouse Book Distributors' R2 Library, you should. It offers digital full text with a lovely twist—your library selects and purchases only the titles you need rather than having to take a “blanket” list. In essence, you don't pay for what you don't want. For more information, and to request a trial, go to www.rittenhouse.com.

Quote of the Week “In [E-Views and Reviews, LJ 11/1/06, p. 32], Wikipedia was praised for having instantly published an entry on 'dwarf planet,' the new scientific concept associated with Pluto's recent demotion from full planetary status.

In fact, Britannica, too, has a published article on the subject, and it's an excellent explanation of the term written by the distinguished planetary scientist Clark R. Chapman. He wrote the article for us shortly after the meeting in Prague, where the term was hatched. Did Wikipedia's article go up on the web first? Perhaps. But if so, it would have been cobbled together hastily from news media accounts that were themselves rushed into print and possibly written by someone whose ability to synthesize those accounts was itself doubtful. This method of instant publishing results in a high rate of error and mediocrity. Encyclopedias are not newspapers, and when they try to be, the cost in quality is high.”—Dale Hoiberg, Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

World Folklore and Folklife

World Folklore and Folklife (WFF) is an online file “tracing the origins and development of all aspects of traditions around the world.” Covering art, history, languages, literature, music, social customs and structures, and religions of the world, its content comes from such titles as The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife, The Greenwood Library of American Folktales, various titles from the Greenwood “Folklore Handbooks” series, as well as such standards as the Hans Christian Andersen stories and Grimms' fairy tales. Updated twice a year, the file is available by itself or as part of Greenwood's Daily Life Through History and World Cultures Today database.

How Does It Work? The opening search screen offers a solid combination of searching and browsing capability. There's a Quick Search box at upper left, with an array of commands (e.g., Browse, Index, Advanced Search) to its right, then two types of Browsing possibilities: by Subject and by Region. At lower screen left is a contents list, “In the collection,” consisting of Folktale Library (an A–Z listing of 44 folktale collections), F & W Dictionary of Folklore, Multimedia (58 audio and video recordings), Aarne-Thompson Tale Numbers (a system for understanding elements of tales that tend to be recurring), and Title List (the 61 books included in the file).

Can You and Your Patrons Use It? My first Quick Search for “kachinas” found 20 articles and one book chapter. I was interested in Zuni kachinas and saw a box under the search box labeled, “search within your results,” so I added “and zuni” to my first search results and got two articles, both providing useful information. This is an easier way to modify a search than usual—and I like it.

My next search, for “urban legends,” found 5,053 results. Brief descriptions in each entry made me realize I'm remiss in my urban legend knowledge, but when I added the term cookies to my search, I was rewarded with the infamous $250 cookie recipe legend, along with 21 other urban cookie myths I hadn't heard before.

Browsing was a fascinating learning experience. I started within the Subject “Tales, Myths, and Legends” and found over 130 subcategories, ranging from “Adventure Tales” and “Ghost Stories” to “Runaway Pancake Tales” (not a typo!) and “Ymir Tales.” A quick check of the Runaway Pancake Tales found the stories “Johnny-Cake” and “The Wee Bannock,” and “Ymir Tales” gave an excellent explanation of Norse creation myths involving dismemberment of primordial beings.

Just How Good Is It? The design of WFF is outstanding. The content is useful and substantial. The price is affordable to many. But, most significantly, this exceptional file gathers into one place diverse material researchers have had to hunt for in the past. The combination merits a 10!

What's the Cost? The costs for an annual subscription to WFF are as follows: $450 for an individual; $650–$1100 for academic libraries with FTE ranging up to 25,000; $650–$1100 for public libraries serving populations up to 100,000; and $450–$875 for school libraries with enrollments up to 2000 students. Prices for the latter three types of subscription include multiple simultaneous user access and remote access.

The Bottom Line World Folklore and Folklife is strongly recommended for all collections serving students and researchers in the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences.