From Booklist
This reference source points to the best resources available, including scholarships, colleges, professional organizations, Web sites, and publications, to help prepare minorities for the workplace. The basis for the information is difficult to ascertain. It seems to be gleaned from several guidebooks listed in the preface and from professional organizations listed in opening articles. Short essays begin the volume: on financial aid, policies and legal rights, business, technology, and media and the arts. In each case, listings of relevant organizations follow the four-to-eight-page discussions. No rationale is given for choosing these topics and excluding others, such as science or sports, for instance.The main part of the book contains three alphabetically arranged directories: "Financial Aid," "Organizations," and "Additional Information." "Financial Aid" is subdivided into fellowships, grants, awards and loans, scholarships (with a separate section for United Negro College Fund scholarships), and internships. "Organizations" covers professional and other organizations, minority colleges, and fraternities and sororities (ethnicities for the last category are not listed). "Additional Information" includes periodicals, directories, and Web sites. Entries are a few lines long, giving contact information and a brief description of purpose. Some entries for colleges provide only addresses, with no description or details.Several indexes complete the volume: an "Institution and Financial Aid Name Index" listing all the resources, an index by state, an "Academic Index" that groups resources by academic discipline, and a "Minority Index" (including a section for multiethnic sources). The "Academic Index" is very general and does not capture all of the sources listed; for instance, Library Science is not included as a discipline although there are entries for the American Library Association, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and the E. J. Josey Scholarship Committee. The E. J. Josey Scholarship Awards mentioned in the Black Caucus entry can be found in the "Institution and Financial Name Index," but the Spectrum Initiative Scholarship mentioned in the ALA entry cannot. The indexes show that coverage is uneven. Journalism seems overrepresented, and athletics is underrepresented (one scholarship only!). The "Minority Index" has more than three pages of listings under African American but less than one under Asian American. The book would be strengthened by a fuller description of how selections were made and how data were gathered. A companion title, Pathways to Career Success for Women (0-89434-281-9), provides similar listings for a different audience. Although more complete information is available elsewhere--Gale's Encyclopedia of Associations or the line of financial aid titles (Directory of Financial Aid for Hispanic Americans, Directory of Financial Aid for Women, and so on) from Research Service Press, for example--some libraries may find it convenient to have a variety of resources pulled together into single volumes. REVWR
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
