eReviews

Greenwood. www.greenwood.com/pcu

Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas at present contains the text and 6,621 images from 307 books, ranging from African American Icons of Sport to the Encyclopedia of Indie Rock (see review, p. 96), Icons of Talk: The Media Mouths That Changed America, Macho Man: The Disco Era and Gay America's "Coming Out," and A Word from Our Viewers: Reflections from Early Television Audiences (see the full title list at www.greenwood.com/pcu/product_information/titles.aspx). Content is added from newly published Greenwood titles.

The opening page shows a montage of pop culture icons and idols from the 2000s to the 1920s, beginning with the image of an iPod and ending with the Babe (Ruth). As you mouse over each image and each decade on the toolbar, you get the decade's pop designation: 2000s (Google Nation), 1980s (Greed Is Good), 1950s (Cold War and Conformity), etc.

Clicking on one of these decades takes you to a page that includes an overview of the decade, an "In the News" chronological listing of major events, a listing of major awards won, popular fads of the decade, new products and businesses that emerged, discoveries and inventions of the period, new words and phrases that came into the vernacular, clothing and appearance in style at the time, a summary of sports happenings and achievements, and obituaries of notable individuals. That's just one way to access the material, so let's go back to the opening page.

At screen top center is a Quick Search box with an Advanced Search option beneath it, and, significantly, just to its right, an orange splotch that exhorts searchers to "Tell Us What You Think!," which leads to a feedback form inviting "anything from general praise, to constructive criticism, to a simple typo report…." At screen top right are links to the Greenwood Skills Center, the PCU Blog ("A sister site of Greenwood Publishing Group's Pop Culture Universe, the PCU Blog is the place to go for fresh commentary, opinion, and comments on the pop culture of yesterday and today"), an About description of PCU, and the Help button.

At screen left is the list of subjects covered in the file (Arts and Visual Culture, Business and Advertising, Ethnic and Group Culture, Fashion and Appearance, Film, Food and Drink, Literature, Music, Politics, Recreation and Leisure, Religion and Spirituality, Sports, TV and Radio, and Technology and Media). At screen right is a list of Most Viewed Pages, Top Searches, another link to the Skills Center, and links to Student Resources, Teacher's Corner, Wizards, the Title List, the Image Index, and the Link Index.

At screen center is a continually updated Feature section that highlights blog postings from the PCU Blog, with links to related material both inside and outside PCU. WOOF! That's the factual reportage of the main screen only—now the fun begins.

Talk about a kid in a candy shop—this file may have put a permanent grin on my face despite keeping me up way past my bedtime. At first, I tried to approach it like any other file, browsing specific decades to begin with, then finding the Fads category, then browsing the Fads of the 1960s, then suddenly realizing I had to find out if the file includes "flubber" (which, course, it does), then going back to a très professional approach of working steadily through every section, noting the excellent manner in which you can browse progressively through subjects, dates, people, and places...then realizing I had to find out if the file includes "Etch-a-Sketch" (of course it does). Then I wondered if they gave sufficient space to Barbie (they do), and then it was just a matter of time before I tested the file with "Trout Mask Replica," "Soupy Sales," "troll dolls," "Silly Putty," "Mortimer Snerd," "My Mother the Car," "Coronet Blue," and "Beanie and Cecil."

I can't possibly list every word and phrase for which I searched, but the file virtually has it all. I stumped it only twice, first with "Hatchy Malatchy" (which was a regional kids' show that I think approximately five kids watched in my rural portion of upstate/downstate New York) and second with "fizzies," and I admit I was surprised they weren't mentioned.

The multiplicity of access methods serves this diverse material very well, as illustrated by my seemingly random search strategy above. There were things and people I thought to search for and, once there, I came across so much that was in some way related to what I was searching for. It is quite amazing that I'm not still working my way through the Fads category; my fingers are itching to go back to it. When I needed inspiration, I resorted to Browsing. I suspect this is the way many searchers will use this file.

Students will learn from it as they are using it, while many of us will alternately wax nostalgic and cringe, mesmerized by the history at our fingertips.

On the slightly down side, a few searches ran a bit slowly, and, frankly, the Advanced Search wasn't that important for finding what I wanted. Quick Search worked very well, and I think that's appropriate for this file.

The price for PCU falls within the following ranges: $495 for an individual subscription; $675–$1200 for colleges and universities, depending upon size of enrollment; $675–$1200 for public libraries, depending upon size of population served; and $495–$900 for school libraries, depending upon size of enrollment.

Discounts of up to 35 percent are available depending upon the number of Greenwood subscriptions an institution has.

This site combines the best aspects of web-based information (dynamic visual appeal, deep and broad content, and timeliness) with the best aspects of for-pay knowledge databases (stable, reliable information with a minimum of bias derived from authoritative sources). The result? A supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (oh, yes, it's in there) ten!

To paraphrase from the file itself, PCU is peachy, the bee's knees, swell, nifty, slick, mean, smooth, the most, cool, neat-o, groovy, far out, dyn-o-mite, rad, bitchin', mint, stupid fresh, dope, fly, en fuego, phat, off the hook, hot, awesome, and highly recommended for all libraries. It will serve every user with a pulse.