"I found it a prodigious achievement and comprehensive in its scope." - Encyclopedia review

Resources for the future - An International Annotated Bibliography for the 21st Century by Alan Mayne (SMN) (Adamantine Press, 1993, 351 pp., £45 h/b ISBN - 0-7499-0077-8)

Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential, 3rd edition. (K.G Saur, 1991, 2 volumes, 2,133 pp., US$415 or DM598, ISBN- 3-59810844-7, available from Postfach 71 10 09, D-8000 Munich 70, Germany).

This review appeared in Network, no.52, August 1993, p. 68. Network is the Newsletter of The Scientific and Medical Network.

The torrent of information pouring from the world's presses is enough to create a short circuit in the most organised of minds. All network organisers must suffer from information overload and find it increasingly difficult to distinguish the wood from the trees. Books like these are designed to recreate a modicum of order in the informational chaos swirling around and threatening to engulf us. Alan Mayne's book is a follow-up to his 1992 volume: Into the 21st Century. It contains over 1,600 entries under the headings of books, periodicals, newsletters, non-print media, networks organisations trusts and 21st century projects. Two thirds of the book is devoted to an annotated bibliography of 1,000 key books relating to the future. The other entries contain brief descriptions with corresponding addresses and phone numbers. There is then an index of subjects at the back which would enable a reader to discover what was available in a particular field. The book can either be read through with a view to finding out what exists, or else used more specifically. I found it a prodigious achievement and comprehensive in its scope.

The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Potential is even more ambitious. Volume I provides an overview of any and every problem submitted to the Union of International Associations. These can vary from housefly resistance to pesticides to uncritical thinking, from duststorms to international trade in endangered species. No list could possibly convey the range of problems listed and the cross-references made. Most problems are discussed in terms of their nature and incidence. Volume II contains an equally complex classification of human development concepts ranging across discipline, various forms of meditation, psychosynthesis, family therapy and risk-taking. Each entry has a description and cross-references. There follow sections on integrative knowledge, metaphors and patterns, transformative approaches and values. The concern here is not simply to analyse problems and potential abstractly but to suggest positive ways of moving forward on the basis of, for instance, new methods of running conferences or suggestive metaphors which may change the way a problem is viewed and tackled. The Encyclopedia contains admirably clear instructions about its use and many innovative suggestions. It is a resource which many individuals will find beyond the reach of their pockets, but readers should be encouraged to draw it to the attention of their local libraries.