Electronic styles: A handbook for citing electronic information

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longer, and more prosperous than ever-the public remains convinced that better days have passed and the future is frightening” (p.91). Rozell is arguing that the press has forged a public anxiousness. This is a highly debatable point. It does, however, suggest an inability or unwillingness to analyze why the general public may be disillusioned, disaffected, and fundamentally alienated from the political process. Even a cursory look at the perennial issue of money within politics may provide some clues as to the cause of public discontent. House election candidates spent $370 million in 1996 compared to $187 million in 1986 (). Consistently PAC contributions to House campaigns heavily favor incumbents, thereby thwarting the election of candidates who may attempt to undermine the status quo (). By ignoring these issues Rozell is shortchanging the legitimate concerns of the American public. This fundamental shortcoming of the argument is belied by Rozell’s suggestions for reform. These include: Congress doing a better job of educating the press and public and of protecting its image; the formation of an office of public information like the White House; the creation of a visitors’ center in the Capitol modelled after the one in Williamsburg; and finally for journalism schools to educate students in the nature of the governing process. These all appear to be weak suggestions that do not go to the heart of systemic reforms of either the press or Congress. Rozell has done a creditable job of highlighting how a segment of the media in the postwar period has covered various important events. His reading and presentation of the chosen episodes is thorough and clearly presented. However, the attempt to portray the press coverage as shaking the “foundations of representative government” remains unconvincing when taken in isolation from real public concerns about the nature of Congress and its ability to reform itself while successfully representing all segments of the populace. MICHAEL LEVY Electronic Services Librarian School of Law (Boalt Hall) University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720 USA

Electronic Styles: A Handbook for Citing Electronic Information. 2nd ed. By Xia Li and Nancy B. Crane. Medford, NJ: Information Today, 1996. 213~. ISBN l-57387-027-7. LC 96-25799. $19.99. By the early 1990s electronic databases, e-mail, USENET, and gopher access to Internet data were widespread enough to create a dilemma for librarians, students, researchers, publishers, and faculty grading writing assignments. How does one cite data from electronic resources? Various electronic resources were becoming more readily available, but traditional style manuals had not included them in their discussions of citation formats. Two reference librarians from the University of Vermont filled the void in 1993 with the publication of the first edition of Electronic Style: A Guide to Citing Electronic Information. The intervening years have witnessed the graphics and full-text revolution of the World Wide Web and a proliferation of digitized data in various electronic media. Xia Li and Nancy Crane, the aforementioned librarians, have again met the challenge with the second edition of their electronic style guide. The first edition was based upon the standard citation form set forth by the third edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). The second edition of Electronic Styles is twice as large because, in addition to enhancing the material set forth in the 1994 edition of the A PA, it also includes parallel treatment of citations based upon the Modem Language Association’s MLA Handbook (MLA). The guide is now composed of two parts, seven chapters each, that address the wide variety of electronic sources available and how citation formats for them differ in APA and MLA applications. All citation examples were drawn from actual electronic resources and represent a 95percent content update from the first edition. The subject/title index is numerically coded to direct users to both Part 1 (APA) and Part 2 (MLA) for parellel format examples. Identical items are used in both Part 1 and Part 2 for each category of electronic resource, so that users may more easily follow the different citation formatting techniques. In developing the new edition, the authors tried to follow the recommenda-

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tions of the International Organization for Standardization’s Information and DocumentationBibliographic References-Electronic Documents or Parts Thereof (ISOIDIS 690-2). In discussing various types of resources, a basic form of citation is presented. One form is for known author resources and another form is presented for the same type of item with an unknown author. The elements of an electronic citation are discussed, along with suggestions about the order in which to list them. The 1993 edition advocated identifying each specific type of medium [e.g. CD-ROM, online, E-mail, or diskette] as part of an electronic citation. The edition continues that practice but suggests that electronic be accepted as a generic default when users cannot easily identify the type of database they are searching. Chapters 1 (APA) and 8 (MLA) describe how the authors have modified the respective style formats. New consumers of digital information are oriented to the critical roles punctuation and case sensitivity play in electronic “addresses.” Chapters 2 (APA) and 9 (MLA) cover citing entire or partial full-text works from CD-ROMs and commercial databases, E-mail, FTP, Gopher, HlTP, Telnet, USENET, and WAIS. Chapters 3 (APA) and 10 (MLA) address citations to electronic periodicals Ijournals, magazines, newsletters, and newspaper articles] from CD-ROMs and commercial databases, E-mail, FTP, Gopher, HTI’P, and Telnet. Chapters 4 (APA) and 11 (MLA) cover citing data from discussion lists, USENET groups, and personal e-mail. Chapters 5 (APA) and 12 (MLA) discuss citing United States government documents, legal sources, and international documents. These include legislative bills, census material, congressional records and reports, the United States Constitution, federal and state court decisions, the United States Code, patents, periodicals, presidential documents, the Code of Federal Regulations, the Federal Register, state codes, materials from NATO and the United Nations, and non-U. S. national documents. Chapter 6 (APA) and 13 (MLA) discuss citations to other sources, including works of art, film clips, sound recordings, maps, meeting proceedings and symposia, radio and television transcripts, wire service reports, theses and dissertations, and abstracts. Chapters 7 (APA) and 14 (MLA) provide examples of the respective documentation or reference styles: APA’s “in-text citation” and MLA’s parenthetical documentation in the text. Each section ends with a brief bibliography of works consulted. The audience for this electronic style guide is composed of those asking how to cite these resources: librarians, students, researchers, publishers, and faculty who grade various written assignments. The authors continue to limit the scope of their work to an electronic resources citation guide. They in no way attempt to provide instruction in the use of various electronic research tools. The motivation for a heavily revised 1996 edition was driven by the need to address World Wide Web resources. The goal is to provide standardized citation methods amidst the rapidly changing information technology environment. A quick review of several major style guides reveals the need for the second edition of Li and Crane’s handbook. The 1994 edition of APA mentions On-Line, FTP, E-mail, CD-ROM, electronic data tape, cartridge tape, computer programs, bibliographic databases, and software in its coverage of electronic media. It does not mention the Internet or the World Wide Web. The 1995 edition of MLA mentions CD-ROMs, online, diskettes, magnetic tape, and the Internet. It does not mention the World Wide Web. The 1992 United Press international Stylebook does not address the issue of citing electronic resources. The 1993 edition of the Chicago Manual ofStyle briefly mentions computer programs, software, and online database resources. There is no mention of the Internet or the World Wide Web. It defers to the International Organization for Standardization’s documentation system for guidance in citing electronic resources. In !:ght of this, Electronic Styles is a very welcome reference tool for every group in its target .udience. Reference librarians are faced with daily queries concerning how to deal with citations for electronic data. Faculty are receiving term papers with references to various electronic resources. Students are delighted to find full-text material via World Wide Web or commercial databases, but need guidance in documenting their sources in homework assignments. In making the decision to include the MCA format, Li and Crane have greatly expanded their target audience. The parallel outline format of the 1995 edition is attractive and easy to use. The authors have been very comprehensive in both identifying different categories of electronic sources and selecting examples for citation. The paperback edition is priced sensibly, enabling campuses with multiple libraries to afford copies at each reference desk or branch site. Li and Crane bring logic, consistency, and common sense into the contemporary digital information arena which is all too often characterized by nonstandardization. The second edition of Electronic Styles should be a major contender for the Best Reference Book of 1996 award.

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BETTY J. GLASS Reference Dept. The University Library1322 University of Nevada, Reno 1664 N. Virginia St. Reno. NV 89557-0044 USA

Electronic Democracy: Using the Internet to Influence American Politics. By Graeme Wilton, CT: Pemberton Press, 1996.204~. ISBN 0-910965-20-X. $19.95.

Browning.

In Electronic Democracy: Using the Internet to Influence American Politics, Graeme Browning, a journalist who covers technology issues for the National Journal, has crafted an informative and instructive brief history of the various ways in which the Internet community has either influenced or has been influenced by the political process. After an introductory chapter with the title of “Thomas Jefferson Was A Hacker,” Browning devotes two chapters to events that demonstrate the nascent development of political savvy by the online community. Many of these events, such as Jim Warren’s campaign to ensure public access to online Cailfomia legislative materials or Jamie Love’s battles with the West Publishing Co., will be quite familiar to documents librarians and others who also actively contributed their support on these issues. For example, Browning succintly describes such successful efforts as the development of the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory and the EDGAR database as prototype examples of governmental and nonprofit entity cooperation that ultimately benefitted the public. The most useful aspect of the book, however, is the chapter entitled “Pressing the Virtual Flesh,” in which Browning addresses the issue of the applicability of standard political techniques in the online environment. Advice such as “Remember that online organizing can’t win if it’s not combined with someone from your group making face-to-face contact with the policymaker you hope to persuade” (p. 61) “Never assume that everybody who reads your alert knows all the details of the issue just because you’ve already explained those details in your preceding messages” (p. 62) and “. . . just because a defiance of convention once worked well in cyberspace doesn’t mean that it’s the right tactic for rallying supporters to a cause in the mid-1990s. Throwing just any plea up on the Internet and expecting people with a wide variety of political philosophies and technical skills to figure out what you mean and take it to heart isn’t a very good strategy” (p. 56) should be required reading for the political novices who often seem to abound in cyberspace. Browning is admirably up to date on the most useful WWW sites relating to politics, and she makes prominent mention of GPO Access, FedWorld, Thomas, US. Business Advisor, and Defenselink. A concluding chapter arranges annotations of a wide range of politically oriented WWW sites under headings like “Advocacy Organizations, ” “Voter Information,” and “Fun.” While the incompleteness of many source citations in the text, an occasionally overly breezy tone, and a lack of an analytical concluding chapter mar the overall usefulness of the book, Graeme Browning has done a good job of condensing a wide range of disparate elements into a highly readable text. KEVIN FREDE’ITE West Virginia University Charles C. Wise Library P.O. Hox 6069 Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 USA

Cool Words, Cold War: A New Look at USIA’s Premises for Propaganda. By Leo Bogart. Abridged by Agnes Bogart. Rev. ed. Washington, DC: The American University Press, 1995. 250p. ISBN l-879333383-41-1$26.50 paper; ISBN l-879383-34-9 $62.50 cloth. Cool Words, Cold War includes the complete text of the author’s Premises to Propaganda published by the Free Press in 1976 and a revised and lengthy preface examining information