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State legislatures: A bibliography
Reviews
In Andriot’s Guide to U.S. Government Publications, any committee not assigned a Superintendent of Documents number is omitted. The Senate Library’s Index To Congressional Committee Hearings leaves out many committees that met briefly and produced no noteworthy printed materials. Other retrospective sources such as Poore’s Descriptive Catalog or the Documents Catalog are basically subject ~r~gements; since the name of a committee may be totally unrelated to either the titles or subjects of its publications it is quite difficult to trace the committees themselves through these reference works. Until now, to obtain information on many early committees, one had to go directly to the Congressional Globe, House and Senate Journais, Annals of Congress and Congressional Record, a tedious process requiring materials probably not found in most newer and smaller documents collections. Therein lies the utility of Stubbs’ work: a definitive historical record of committees (compiled by going through primary materials such as the Globe) in one compact, inexpensive volume. This is a checklist in the true sense of the term. A list with a m~imum of biblio~aphic~ description. The major portion of the book consists of an alphabetical list of committees, arranged according to an underlined key word in the title of the committee. This key word system serves to group together most, but not all, of the committees relating to a particular topic. To cite an example, to locate committees that deal with the Civil War one would have to look under the widely separated terms insurrectionary, rebellious, outrages, and confederate. And one can certainly question some of Stubbs’ specific indexing decisions, such as alphabetizing the ‘Special Committee to Investigate the National Labor Relations Act” under national rather than under labor. For the most part, however, the list is judiciously arranged and sufficiently subject specific. Along with the committee title, each entry gives the committee’s date of establishment and termination (if applicable), a citation to the resolutions that created and disbanded the committee, and a Superintendent of Documents number if one had been assigned to the committee. The list is consecutively numbered, and these entry numbers are used to cross-reference significant name changes and the assumption of one committee’s responsibilities by another. Following the main list is a chronological list that identifies the committees initiated during each session of Congress. This ~r~gement is somewhat confusing since standing co~tte~ are identified by an asterisk but their termination is not noted; one would have to refer back to the main alphabetical list and check dates to actually determine committees in existence during a particular session. There is also a subject index that groups committees under broad topical headings and provides their entry numbers, helping to alleviate some of the problems generated by poorly chosen key words. A note of caution to those seeking information on a particular committee name: many early committee names that were quite lengthy have been shortened by Stubbs to “something more manageable, while rn~nt~ni~ their meaning.” Likewise, he has augmented the names of some committees that were judged to be insufficiently descriptive. The author does not claim to list every committee. He omits all ceremonial, housekeeping and honorary committees. No committees at all are listed for the Senate until 1816, when its first standing committee was established. Despite these omissions it is still fair to state that for the period 1789-1982 “many other sources give partial lists of committees, but none is as complete as this compilation.” It will be most valuable as a starting point for locating hearings and reports by fixing committee names and dates and ahowing entry into more detailed indexes. All but the smallest documents collections should obtain a copy for their index tables; it will prove to be extremely useful when used as an adjunct to the other standard retrospective documents indexes. In larger libraries, particularly those with a strong program in American political history, a second copy for the reference department would be an excellent purchase. Government
JOEL ZUCKER Documents Librarian duPont-Ball Library Stetson University Deland, FL 32720 USA
State Legislatures: A Bibliography. By Robert U. Goehlert and Frederick W. Musto. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Information Services, 1985. x, 229p. $35.00. ISBN O-87436-422-1. LC 84-24404. This bibliography claims uniqueness as the “first . . . to focus exclusively on state legislative research.” Intended to bring together all of the research done on the development, organization, structure, procedures, and functions of state legislatures, it is a convenient source for so&I scientists, his-
398
Reviews
torians, political scientists, lawyers, and graduate students doing scholarly research or students engaged in advanced studies. The contents comprise a total of 2,532 entries arranged in two parts. Part one lists general theoretical and empirical studies which treat state legislative bodies as a nation-wide political concept or phenomenon. This section is subdi~ded under twenty-five headings including constitutional aspects, structures of legislatures, legislator-constituency relations, legislative committees, councils, behavior, power, and voting behavior, along with legislative-executive relations, interest groups, reform, etc. Legislative behavior, incidently, refers to the behavior of individual legislators as it relates to earning, family influences, psychology, ambition, and other social topics. Part two is arranged by state, and consists of studies on the individual legislatures of the fifty states. As such, it contains no information on the legislative bodies of the U.S. territories or on the Council of the District of Columbia. The bibliography generally covers sources from 1945 to 1984, although, “. . . earlier works have been included if they provide coverage for areas that have not been extensively researched.” The publications listed are predominantly articles, books, and dissertations with some essays, research reports, and a very small number of documents. The works included are drawn from the fields of social science, law, history, public administration, and political science. Entries are consecutively numbered throughout the text and are arranged in alphabetical order by author within the corresponding subdivisions of each part. As an added convenience, the biblio~aphy has indexes by author and subject which refer to the text by entry number. The scope of the bibliography is comprehensive in that it provides treatment of all major areas of research on state legislatures. The compilers searched mainly the Index to Legal Periodicals, United States Political Science Documents, Social Sciences Index, Humanities Index, Public Affairs Information Service Bulletin, ABC POL SCZ, and Writings on American History. An “exhaustive key word search” was also made of Comprehe~ive Di~ertation Index. In addition, ‘$avariety of sources” was checked, “including numerous older bibliographies on state government and politics.” The bibliography is far less comprehensive in its coverage of the sources. The introduction states, “As a wealth of state documents deal with legislative studies, they are omitted here.” This is not quite true. A quick check of the author index reveals about eighteen entries under the names of government agencies. It is, nevertheless unfortunate that so few were selected. The compilers chose to write off a large group of valuable sources which are difficult for a researcher to locate. Geohlert and Musto do attempt to give the researcher interested in state government documents some direction by saying that scholars “. . . can identify state documents by using a number of indexes, including Legislative Research Checklist, Monthly Checklist of State Publications, and Index to Current State Documents.” This is all the information that is given on tracing state publications. A statement like this must be made with caution. Outside of LC’s Monthly Checklist, and some specialized indexes such as the State Government Research Checklist and the Statistical Reference Index, a “number” of comprehensive state publication indexes do not exist. The researcher also requires more information about the indexing tools mentioned. The Leg~iative Research Checklist has not appeared under that title since 1979. It is now the State government Research Checklist, published by the Council of State Governments. The Library of Congress’ Monthly Checklist of State Publications is widely available in federal depository libraries and research libraries, but it is indexed only annually and is now over two years behind in its indexing (1983 was the last). As far as the Index to Current State Documents is concerned, this source does not exist. The bibliographers have made an error here and apparently had something else in mind when they cited this source. The possibi~ty is that they intended to refer to the state documents indexing project attempted by Information Handling Services some years ago. The State Publications Index l~~~/Z~~~ (a later version of the Checklist of State Publications) lived briefly in the realm of prepublication before collapsing under its own weight, never to be revived. In fairness, it must be said that a telephone conversation with authors revealed that in an effort to aid the researcher interested in state documents, and to extend the utility of their bibliography, they included mention of a source for which they had publicity brochures and which they assumed would be published. Regardless, the information given the researcher here is incomplete and inaccurate. Overall, this bibliography is well organized and does represent a unique convenience to the researcher. It covers articles, dissertations, and special studies very well, and it gives clear and complete citations. It is definitely a useful tool and deserves its place in research and law school libraries. However, it does have its limitations for documents librarians because it does not pick up many government publications. It does an excellent job of cumulating relevant sources, but these are sources listed in well established, well-organized indexes, most of which have their electronic counterparts. Unfortunately,
399
Reviews
the work does not extend its coverage into an area where the researcher has no comparable indexes or similar on-line services available, i.e., state government publishing. JOHN State and Local Documents The PennsyIvania State University University Park,
SULZER Librarian Libraries PA 16802 USA
In Andriot’s Guide to U.S. Government Publications, any committee not assigned a Superintendent of Documents number is omitted. The Senate Library’s Index To Congressional Committee Hearings leaves out many committees that met briefly and produced no noteworthy printed materials. Other retrospective sources such as Poore’s Descriptive Catalog or the Documents Catalog are basically subject ~r~gements; since the name of a committee may be totally unrelated to either the titles or subjects of its publications it is quite difficult to trace the committees themselves through these reference works. Until now, to obtain information on many early committees, one had to go directly to the Congressional Globe, House and Senate Journais, Annals of Congress and Congressional Record, a tedious process requiring materials probably not found in most newer and smaller documents collections. Therein lies the utility of Stubbs’ work: a definitive historical record of committees (compiled by going through primary materials such as the Globe) in one compact, inexpensive volume. This is a checklist in the true sense of the term. A list with a m~imum of biblio~aphic~ description. The major portion of the book consists of an alphabetical list of committees, arranged according to an underlined key word in the title of the committee. This key word system serves to group together most, but not all, of the committees relating to a particular topic. To cite an example, to locate committees that deal with the Civil War one would have to look under the widely separated terms insurrectionary, rebellious, outrages, and confederate. And one can certainly question some of Stubbs’ specific indexing decisions, such as alphabetizing the ‘Special Committee to Investigate the National Labor Relations Act” under national rather than under labor. For the most part, however, the list is judiciously arranged and sufficiently subject specific. Along with the committee title, each entry gives the committee’s date of establishment and termination (if applicable), a citation to the resolutions that created and disbanded the committee, and a Superintendent of Documents number if one had been assigned to the committee. The list is consecutively numbered, and these entry numbers are used to cross-reference significant name changes and the assumption of one committee’s responsibilities by another. Following the main list is a chronological list that identifies the committees initiated during each session of Congress. This ~r~gement is somewhat confusing since standing co~tte~ are identified by an asterisk but their termination is not noted; one would have to refer back to the main alphabetical list and check dates to actually determine committees in existence during a particular session. There is also a subject index that groups committees under broad topical headings and provides their entry numbers, helping to alleviate some of the problems generated by poorly chosen key words. A note of caution to those seeking information on a particular committee name: many early committee names that were quite lengthy have been shortened by Stubbs to “something more manageable, while rn~nt~ni~ their meaning.” Likewise, he has augmented the names of some committees that were judged to be insufficiently descriptive. The author does not claim to list every committee. He omits all ceremonial, housekeeping and honorary committees. No committees at all are listed for the Senate until 1816, when its first standing committee was established. Despite these omissions it is still fair to state that for the period 1789-1982 “many other sources give partial lists of committees, but none is as complete as this compilation.” It will be most valuable as a starting point for locating hearings and reports by fixing committee names and dates and ahowing entry into more detailed indexes. All but the smallest documents collections should obtain a copy for their index tables; it will prove to be extremely useful when used as an adjunct to the other standard retrospective documents indexes. In larger libraries, particularly those with a strong program in American political history, a second copy for the reference department would be an excellent purchase. Government
JOEL ZUCKER Documents Librarian duPont-Ball Library Stetson University Deland, FL 32720 USA
State Legislatures: A Bibliography. By Robert U. Goehlert and Frederick W. Musto. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Information Services, 1985. x, 229p. $35.00. ISBN O-87436-422-1. LC 84-24404. This bibliography claims uniqueness as the “first . . . to focus exclusively on state legislative research.” Intended to bring together all of the research done on the development, organization, structure, procedures, and functions of state legislatures, it is a convenient source for so&I scientists, his-
398
Reviews
torians, political scientists, lawyers, and graduate students doing scholarly research or students engaged in advanced studies. The contents comprise a total of 2,532 entries arranged in two parts. Part one lists general theoretical and empirical studies which treat state legislative bodies as a nation-wide political concept or phenomenon. This section is subdi~ded under twenty-five headings including constitutional aspects, structures of legislatures, legislator-constituency relations, legislative committees, councils, behavior, power, and voting behavior, along with legislative-executive relations, interest groups, reform, etc. Legislative behavior, incidently, refers to the behavior of individual legislators as it relates to earning, family influences, psychology, ambition, and other social topics. Part two is arranged by state, and consists of studies on the individual legislatures of the fifty states. As such, it contains no information on the legislative bodies of the U.S. territories or on the Council of the District of Columbia. The bibliography generally covers sources from 1945 to 1984, although, “. . . earlier works have been included if they provide coverage for areas that have not been extensively researched.” The publications listed are predominantly articles, books, and dissertations with some essays, research reports, and a very small number of documents. The works included are drawn from the fields of social science, law, history, public administration, and political science. Entries are consecutively numbered throughout the text and are arranged in alphabetical order by author within the corresponding subdivisions of each part. As an added convenience, the biblio~aphy has indexes by author and subject which refer to the text by entry number. The scope of the bibliography is comprehensive in that it provides treatment of all major areas of research on state legislatures. The compilers searched mainly the Index to Legal Periodicals, United States Political Science Documents, Social Sciences Index, Humanities Index, Public Affairs Information Service Bulletin, ABC POL SCZ, and Writings on American History. An “exhaustive key word search” was also made of Comprehe~ive Di~ertation Index. In addition, ‘$avariety of sources” was checked, “including numerous older bibliographies on state government and politics.” The bibliography is far less comprehensive in its coverage of the sources. The introduction states, “As a wealth of state documents deal with legislative studies, they are omitted here.” This is not quite true. A quick check of the author index reveals about eighteen entries under the names of government agencies. It is, nevertheless unfortunate that so few were selected. The compilers chose to write off a large group of valuable sources which are difficult for a researcher to locate. Geohlert and Musto do attempt to give the researcher interested in state government documents some direction by saying that scholars “. . . can identify state documents by using a number of indexes, including Legislative Research Checklist, Monthly Checklist of State Publications, and Index to Current State Documents.” This is all the information that is given on tracing state publications. A statement like this must be made with caution. Outside of LC’s Monthly Checklist, and some specialized indexes such as the State Government Research Checklist and the Statistical Reference Index, a “number” of comprehensive state publication indexes do not exist. The researcher also requires more information about the indexing tools mentioned. The Leg~iative Research Checklist has not appeared under that title since 1979. It is now the State government Research Checklist, published by the Council of State Governments. The Library of Congress’ Monthly Checklist of State Publications is widely available in federal depository libraries and research libraries, but it is indexed only annually and is now over two years behind in its indexing (1983 was the last). As far as the Index to Current State Documents is concerned, this source does not exist. The bibliographers have made an error here and apparently had something else in mind when they cited this source. The possibi~ty is that they intended to refer to the state documents indexing project attempted by Information Handling Services some years ago. The State Publications Index l~~~/Z~~~ (a later version of the Checklist of State Publications) lived briefly in the realm of prepublication before collapsing under its own weight, never to be revived. In fairness, it must be said that a telephone conversation with authors revealed that in an effort to aid the researcher interested in state documents, and to extend the utility of their bibliography, they included mention of a source for which they had publicity brochures and which they assumed would be published. Regardless, the information given the researcher here is incomplete and inaccurate. Overall, this bibliography is well organized and does represent a unique convenience to the researcher. It covers articles, dissertations, and special studies very well, and it gives clear and complete citations. It is definitely a useful tool and deserves its place in research and law school libraries. However, it does have its limitations for documents librarians because it does not pick up many government publications. It does an excellent job of cumulating relevant sources, but these are sources listed in well established, well-organized indexes, most of which have their electronic counterparts. Unfortunately,
399
Reviews
the work does not extend its coverage into an area where the researcher has no comparable indexes or similar on-line services available, i.e., state government publishing. JOHN State and Local Documents The PennsyIvania State University University Park,
SULZER Librarian Libraries PA 16802 USA