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The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online. Alexander Street Press LLC, 2010. http://glnd.alexanderstreet.com (Accessed October- December 2010). [Requires a Web browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 or Firefox 1.0 or higher recommended) and an Internet connection. Pricing: for academic libraries, $615 to $1025 per year (subscription, depending on size), or $4,333 to $5,200, plus $100 per year access fee (outright purchase); for public libraries, $600 to $2,000 per year (subscription, depending on population served), or $1,000 to $5,200, plus $100 per year access fee (outright purchase).]
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online is the online version of the venerable ten-volume Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (1998, 2002). Originally released in 2006, this database relaunched in 2008 with access to the accompanying CD content. The material is identical to that in the print volumes, with the addition of individual and musical group biographies from All Music Guide. Since little new material is offered, this review focuses primarily on the interface, its search and browse capabilities, and image and sound quality. Reviews of the individual print volumes abound in various journals, including Book - list, Journal of the American Musicological Society, Ethnomusicology, Music Educators Journal, Library Journal, Library Quarterly and Notes.1
The interface to the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online has the look and feel of other Alexander Street Press (ASP) database offerings. It presents the same banner background and toolbar headings: Home, Browse, Advanced Search, Playlists, What's New, Help, and a search box with dropdown limiters. The left sidebar offers "browse" and "genre" options. Like other ASP databases, the Web site has navigation terms in English, Spanish and Chinese (although the content is only in English). It is not priced by number of simultaneous users, and there are no subsets.
The first nine volumes of the print series focus on geographic areas, while the tenth provides general fieldwork perspectives and reference tools. The geographicallycentered works are divided into three sections: 1) overview of the region, its musics and cultures, 2) issues and processes that link the region's musics, and 3) explorations of specific music cultures. Varia - tions of this structure exist, as editors crafted their volume to suit the unique needs of the region.
This product mirrors the print content down to page numbers....