The Penn Libraries have acquired two major online reference works on population studies and demography:
- Encyclopedia of Population (Paul Demeny and Geoffrey McNicoll, editors. Macmillan, 2003)
- Demography: Analysis and Synthesis: A Treatise in Population (Graziella Caselli et al., editors. Academic Press, 2005)
Encyclopedia of Population presents an updated version of the classic International Encyclopedia of Population (Free press, 1982) and pushes the boundaries of its subject beyond that work's traditional view of "the statistical study of human populations". Recognized as a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, the Encyclopedia of Population contains 336 short articles with brief reading lists on: the population field, population theory, and population history; demographic data, techniques, and models; demographic processes, structure, and behavior; spatial, economic, and environmental aspects of population; cultural and political aspects of population; and biographies of population scientists.
Penn faculty have contributed articles to the Encyclopedia of Population include Frank F Furstenberg ("Family: Future"), Hans-Peter Kohler ("Fertility, Below-replacement"), Luigi Mastroianni Jr ("Reproductive Technologies: Modern Methods"), Samuel H Preston ("Family Size Distribution"), Etienne van de Walle ("Cantillon, Richard", "Dumont, Arsene", "Induced Abortion: History", "Infanticide", "Moheau, Jean-Baptiste"), Daniel R Vining Jr ("Quality of Population"), Ingrid Waldron ("Mortality Differentials, by Sex"), and Susan Cotts Watkins ("Social Networks").
The print version of Encyclopedia of population (2 volumes. Macmillan Reference USA/Thomson-Gale, 2003) is available in the Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks, call number HB871 .E538 2003.
Demography: Analysis and Synthesis: A Treatise in Population is a remarkable handbook or textbook along the lines of the classic surveys of Landry, Shryock and Siegel, and Poston and Micklin. Translated from the French-language original in eight volumes published by Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques, 2001-2006, the Treatise offers 140 lengthy chapters with extensive bibliographies on: Population dynamics; Determinants of fertility; Determinants of mortality; Determinants of migration; Population in time and space: history of population and population forecasts; Population and society; History of population thought and policies; Observation, auxiliary methods, teaching, and research.
One of the editors of Encyclopedia of Population had this to say about the Treatise:
- "It seems unlikely that the resources and energies that were marshaled to produce the Treatise will soon - or perhaps ever - be matched." ("Taking stock of population studies: a review essay" / Geoffrey McNicoll. Population and Development Review 33, 3 (September 2007): 607-615.
The print version of Demography: Analysis and Synthesis: A Treatise in Population (4 volumes. Academic Press, 2005) is not available in the Penn Libraries. The first volume (on population dynamics) of Demographie: analyse et synthese is held in the Van Pelt Library stacks, call number HB849 .C374 2001.
For more information:
Lauris Olson, Social Sciences Bibliographer
