Library and Book Reviews (2)

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All the books in the NYMS library may be viewed on site by members on any Thursday evening, provided they call or email the Librarian, Mel Pollinger or the Curator, Don O'Leary, and receive an acknowledgement.

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As the librarian for the New York Microscopical Society, I get to review some interesting books each year (Mel Pollinger, Librarian, NYMS). Recently, I reviewed:

There have been many volumes written on amber, but only a few of these can be considered really well-written comprehensive works on the subject.  The “Atlas of Plants and Animals in Baltic Amber” is one of these. It is, in fact, one of the very best I have seen in my experience. Weitschat and Wichard not onlywrite about the nature and beauty of the amber and its inclusions, but provide a comprehensive collection of fine images demonstrating a microcosm of the multitude of once-living creatures and plant materials that have survived both natural and man-made destruction over the course of eons.  Some features of this book are as follows, but not limited to:
 
 

• Listing of images and their location in the book
• Magnification of each image
• Specific geographical locations for the amber
• Methods of preparation and imaging
• Descriptive text for each image
• Well color-balanced, well-arranged, sharp imaging
• Taxonomic index
• 31 color and 93 b/w figures in the text

Any good working book, should have well-planned contents pages, a substantial bibliography and a comprehensive index.  This book has those and lots more.  A researcher or serious amateur could easily compare the book’s images with field -collected material. The images are almost entirely in full color, with some b/w and the line drawings. All the imaging relates to both general and specific details as described in the text.  Each image and/or drawing is referenced and identified.  The text contains abundant details for its 256 pages.

Personal comment:  This is one great and most useful book.  It has already helped me to label images in my own collection. My thanks to the authors.

“Atlas of Plants and Animals in Baltic Amber” by Wolfgang Weitschat and Wilfried Wichard, 2002, hardcover, 24 x 21 cm., 256 pgs, 92 color plates containing 594 figures. 75.00 Euro.  ISBN 3-931516-94-6. See info@pfeil-verlag.de, www.pfeil-verlag.de for ordering information.

“Coastal Plankton – Photo Guide for European Seas” by Otto Larink and Wilfried Westheide.

 As a requirement for any good working book, this one boasts a well-defined contents page, a substantial bibliography and a comprehensive, taxonomy/morphology-based index. A worker could easily compare the book’s images with live material. The images, in full color and b/w, and the line drawings appear to have been selected to relate to both general and specific details as described in the text. Each image and/or drawing is referenced and identified. The text contains abundant details for such a volume of only 143 pages.

This is a book to be kept near the work table or, with care, taken into the field, but not buried on a shelf, although, even as a “coffee-table” book, it would still fascinate.

 My only suggestions to the publisher and author regarding “Coastal Plankton…” are that the next edition should be longer and be spiral-bound so that it could lay flat on the work table.

 “Coastal Plankton – Photo Guide for European Seas,” by Otto Larink and Wilfried Westheide, 2006, paperback (durable soft cover), 24 x 21 cm., 143 pgs, 60 color plates containing 649 figures. 30.00 Euro. See info@pfeil-verlag.de, www.pfeil-verlag.de for ordering information.

Mel Pollinger, FNYMS

 Treasurer/Librarian

 New York Microscopical Society

 21 January 2006