From Library Journal
- Mary Salony, West Virginia Northern Community Coll. Lib., Wheeling
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Anyone familiar with Gale's Encyclopedia of Associations or Encyclopedia of Associations, International Organizations will immediately recognize the format of this work. These titles as well as questionnaires and telephone surveys were used in compiling it. Most entries provide address, telephone and fax numbers, contact person, size of staff, year founded, languages, purpose, publications, and conventions or meetings. Some of this information is not available, but every entry contains enough information for a determined person to contact the organization.
The volume is arranged geographically by region and country with a map preceding each region. About one-third of the organizations are located in the U.S. Prefatory material is in English, French, German, and Spanish to help users understand what is in the entries, though the entries themselves are in English. Tables of address abbreviations, international country telephone-access codes, and currency units and abbreviations are provided. The work ends with an organization-name index and a "Organizations' Activities Index," which groups them by subject. This latter index has excellent cross-references. For example, abortion is cross-referenced to reproductive rights: right-to-life. African American has a see also reference to women of color.
The majority of the organizations listed here can be found in the Encyclopedia of Associations and Encyclopedia of Associations, International Organizations. What sets the Encyclopedia of Women's Associations Worldwide apart from its parent volumes is its organization. The Encyclopedia of Associations does not group women's organizations together, and the only index is a keyword one. Also, this new work focuses on narrower groups. For example, one can find the American Philological Association in the Encyclopedia of Associations but not a separate entry for the American Philological Association Committee on the Status of Women and Minorities. It is listed as only one of several committees.
The Encyclopedia of Women's Associations Worldwide is a well-organized and easy-to-use resource. It will be invaluable for locating national and international women's groups covering the entire spectrum of concerns. This is a must purchase for academic and public libraries where there is interest in this type of information.
