Review by Choice Review
Whatever the title may suggest, this is a description of the humanities and social sciences research institutes and the scholarly societies of the academies of sciences of the USSR, including its 15 union republics. It covers less ground than the International Handbook of Universities (9th ed., 1983), which lists for the various countries of the world their teaching and degree-granting institutions, or the World of Learning (36th ed., 1986), which lists teaching, research, and degree-granting institutions but gives much less information for each than Scholars' Guide. While World of Learning devotes three lines to the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Kazakh Academy of Sciences, Scholars' Guide gives an entire page, organized under headings such as ``Area of Research,'' ``History,'' ``Structure,'' ``Staff.'' Although no staff members are named, the director's name is given for each entry. Especially useful is detailed information concerning each institution's library, recent publications, and periodical publications. Titles of publications are given in modified Library of Congress transliteration, and are unusually free of misprints and of the British archaisms so loved by Soviet translators. In spite of the detailed information given for most institutions, however, the illustrious Leningrad Branch of the Institute of History of the USSR merits only seven miserly words. Indispensable for libraries which support programs on the USSR.-G. Koolemans Beynen, The Ohio State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
