Energy: An Annotated Bibliography by Joseph R. Rudolph Jr

Abstract

146 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE query by example (QBE) and standard query language (SQL), with a tailpiece on text searching. The methods are explained clearly, and the examples are good, but there is little indication of retrieval by methods other than these, which are not standards but rather popular approaches. An interesting chapter concerns “source ori­ ented systems,” an approach that favors an automated, text-based version of conventional historical research methods based on origi­ nal sources and rejects the organizing approach that constructs data­ bases with fields of similarly characterized information (e.g., name of port, name of ship, list of cargo). The merits of text-based versus controlled-language retrieval systems have long been argued in the information science world, but studies show generally that a con­ trolled-language system yields better results than a text-based sys­ tem, provided it is affordable. Ideally we need a combination of the source-oriented (text-based) approach and the categorized (rela­ tional) approach. Finally, I was sad to note the absence in this book of any references to libraries and librarians as creators and organizers of document surrogates in complex databases on three-by-five cards for a hun­ dred and fifty years, and now, of course, in machine-readable form. But in spite of such caveats, the book is satisfying. It explains, it ex­ plores, and it presents working examples. David Batty Dr . Batty is a professor of information science and a practitioner who designs information systems and controlled index languages. He is also an amateur histo­ rian, medievalist, and musicologist. Energy: An Annotated Bibliography. By Joseph R. Rudolph Jr., Met­ uchen, N.J.; Scarecrow Press, 1995. Pp. viii+175; index. $29.50 (hardcover). Energy, in the absence of soaring prices and gas lines, has fallen out of favor as a cause celebre. For almost a decade during and fol­ lowing the 1973 energy crisis, confronting the energy challenge reigned, in the words ofJimmy Carter, as “the moral equivalent of war.” Ameliorating energy dependencies and shortages was one of the nation’s highest priorities. But with the Reagan ascendency— and the disappearance of shortages—energy policy was relegated to the restricted context of the free market and deregulation. Energy has now become just another commodity. Energy firms go about their business, politicians debate abolishing energy agencies, and the general public is apathetic at best. Only when access to Persian Gulf oil is threatened does the nation momentarily arise from its energy lethargy. As long as average Americans can fill up their tanks at subsidized prices, what do they care? TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 147 Joseph R. Rudolph Jr. takes a contrarian approach. In the intro­ duction to this annotated bibliography he asserts that the 1973 en­ ergy crisis was one of three watershed events in the 20th century— the others being the Great Depression and the advent of the atomic age—that conspired “to produce new ways oflife [and] to mold the future in a different direction” (p. 1). Rudolph readily admits that political and public attention to energy ebbed as the energy crisis receded, and the great bulk of the works he cites were written in the decade from 1973 to 1983. He insists, however, that energy, as problem and promise, is not a dead issue. “We still live in the post­ energy-crises world,” he writes, in which “energy considerations are likely to remain a central part of our lives, of the world in which we live, and ofthe politics within and among the world’s nations during the foreseeable future” (pp. 2-3). Rudolph’s enthusiasm for energy is reflected in the quality of his annotations. He provides succinct evaluations that give the reader a good sense of each work. His description and analysis are lively and to the point. He tends to find just about everything “good,” “excellent,” or “outstanding,” but his upbeat appraisals do encour­ age readers to want to go directly to the sources and find out for themselves. Organization and selection ofcitations are not as strong. Rudolph divides his entries into six broad headings: “The Human Condi­ tion,” “Resources,” “Economics,” “Politics,” “The Environment,” and “The Future.” He further divides the...