The African Studies Companion: A Guide Information Sources., edited by Hans M. Zell, 4th revised and expanded edition. Lochcarron, Scotland: Hans Zell Publishing, 2006. Print and online. 864 pp. cloth. £148.00/euro222.00/$296.00. ISBN: 0-9541029-2-4 Librarians and scholars alike very favourably reviewed the first three editions of this work and in many ways, not least of which the greatly expanded content, the value of this new edition surpasses even those uniformly positive assessments. But lest the reader stops reading in anticipation of an uncritical review, let me hasten add that by expanding its online accessibility and the breadth (some 2,900, mostly annotated, entries) author Hans Zell has raised the bibliographic bar still higher, in doing so leaving most competitors far behind, yet making his own task, and that of this reviewer, more arduous. As Zell notes in the Introduction, the study of Africa still very much requires both print and online resources; itself a good justification for the dual print-electronic format of this like the previous-edition. The aim also remains the same: to provide a compact, timesaving, and annotated guide print and electronic information sources, and facilitate easy access a wide range of information in the African studies field. Grouped in twenty-five sections, with a brief introduction and accurate index, there are numerous cross-references making it very user-friendly; a delight use. The technical production is excellent. The date when websites were last visited is given, and feedback from readers on broken links encouraged, an excellent idea enhance interactivity. Major changes in this edition include 475 new entries (including over 180 new online resources), 48 new print reference works, 86 new African studies journals, and 70 new publisher entries, all current October 2005. There are two new sections: the African press (with 250 African newspapers), and centres and programmes of African studies. African population statistics and social indicators have been added, as have links RSS news feeds and specific URLs of African serials, whilst the section on ICT in Africa has been extensively revised and updated. Of practical use many users will be the inclusion of an updated Using Google for African studies research: a guide effective searching. It is particularly useful for librarians have quite comprehensive listings of publishers, booksellers, African studies associations, and scholarly networks. Given the information explosion as well as the veritable pandemic of unscholarly sites on Africa, Zell has for this edition emphasised critical evaluation of resources and his annotations are generally accurate and well worth reading such as, for example, those for Wikipedia, the Database of African Theses and Dissertations, Ethnologue, and Kwetu.Net. Zell is always forthright and positive in his criticisms. Needless say, the book is now very large, with a very large number of links, and very expensive. Some will argue there are simply too many links, with addresses changing too quickly but in general Zell makes a judicious selection of websites and presents his choice of the best, all with astute annotations and up-to-date data. By the time this reviewer came check the links, several sites, including some marked worthy of attention (for example, #42: Global Mappings), had closed. There is nothing unusual in this; it merely underscores the Sisyphean task of maintaining Internet links by those of us engaged in crafting web guides. Yet there are, in my opinion, some rather less useful sites of a more commercial or amateur nature that could well be excluded in future editions if indeed the main audience is scholarly. Do we really need, for example, Frank's Compulsive Guide Postal Addresses? The editor's best starting points on the Web are marked throughout. This is ambitious, even for someone as experienced as Zell, given the breadth of interests of scholars, yet in most cases his judgement cannot be faulted. …
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Sep 25, 2007
Tony Chalcraft 
Open Access