Canadian reference books

Abstract

1. Encyclopedia Canadiana. Kenneth H. Pearson, Editor‐In‐ Chief. Rev. ed. Toronto, Grolier of Canada, 1975. 10v. ill. maps. biblio. index. $106.00. ISBN 0–7172–1602–0. Since the first modern edition of the Encyclopedia Canadiana in 1957, it has made a significant contribution to Canadian resource materials. It has extended W. Stewart Wallace's Encyclopedia of Canada (1935–37, in 6 volumes) into contemporary times, and certainly it has always been reasonably priced — enough so as to sell copies in the United States and derive benefits from an over‐run. The EC is also one of the few nationalistic encyclopedias in existence. Its main emphasis is as an educational tool to inform, following Barzun's dictum, geared to schools and libraries. It “tells the story of Canada, past and present, in word and picture” through 800 contributors and a library advisory board. Sixteen librarians serve as consultants, and all are either in the government or in education except for one who directs a public library system. Over the years there have been eleven new copyright dates for the updated material. OED spellings, with Canadian variations, have been employed, and the alphabetical arrangement is letter by letter. Some points in common with other types of encyclopedias ‐ the Atlas is found in volume 10, with colour maps supplied by Hammond. While these maps are undated, the name changes appear to be up‐to‐date, as in the case of Cambridge, Ontario. But some names no longer used still appear in the index‐gazetteer, such as Galt, Ontario referring the user to a town no longer on the map. The index‐gazetteer itself contains the population figures (which despite the publisher's caption, makes it more than just an index), and of course there are the 1971 figures for Galt which no longer exists. Additionally, there are no population figures for any of the 2700 communities described in the EC, except in the index‐gazetteer, and this is not explained in the EC itself. It is a convenient way of keeping the EC up‐to‐date at minimum cost, for only the index‐gazetteer needs to be revised for population figures, and not all the plates of the EC itself. However, there appears to be no check on cessations. Thus, when towns go out of existence, so should the entries. But with no catches for the towns except new population figures, only the index‐gazetteer will be updated if the town still exists, and name changes or the like will not be pulled from the index file. This leads to the problem of Leaside, Ontario, a town that was annexed by East York in 1967, yet still has an entry in the index‐gazetteer and an entry in the EC, along with a black‐and‐white map showing its location. To all intents and purposes, in the one paragraph, the town still exists as there is no mention of the 1967 change. Some provision has got to be made to eliminate such “deaths” from encyclopedias.

Citation

Tudor, D. (1975), "Canadian reference books", Reference Services Review, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 51-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb048563