The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia: Third Edition

Features more than 17,000 entries, including more than five thousand biographies and three thousand up-to-date articles on science and technology

This new edition of The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia has 2,000 more entries than the second, published in 1989 [RBB Ja 1 90]. But it is not just updated relative to that edition but also to the fifth edition of The Columbia Encyclopedia [RBB S 15 93]. The Concise Columbia has never been just a spin-off of The Columbia Encyclopedia; it has always had some unique material. The editors of this new edition have taken advantage of the extra year since the publication of the parent work to update articles and to add some new topics. Editor Lagass{‚}e worked on both previous editions of the Concise.

The most obvious change since the second edition of the Concise is in the illustrations. The color insert of maps has been replaced by black-and-white maps accompanying country articles. One hundred black-and-white photographs, mostly portraits of such people as Aretha Franklin and Gertrude Stein, have been added. Some articles new to this edition (which weren't in the The Columbia Encyclopedia either) include Campbell, Kim; multimedia; network (which mentions the Internet); and Jordan, Michael. Entries updated over The Columbia Encyclopedia include the table of Justices of the Supreme Court, which now lists Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Euthanasia, which notes Jack Kevorkian; and a table accompanying Olympic Games, which includes Sydney as the site for the 2000 games. European Union replaces European Community, reflecting the name change since the Maastricht Treaty.

What does The Columbia Encyclopedia have that The Concise Columbia doesn't? It has 50,000 entries versus 17,000 (many entries for places and people were dropped in the Concise), bibliographies at the ends of longer entries, and pronunciation given more consistently. It also has a bargain price of $99.

The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia is admirably up-to-date and will prove useful in libraries and as a home and office desk reference. Sandy Whiteley