Sudden Selector’s Guide to Political Science Resources. By Emily Keller and Laura Wimberley. Chicago: Core, 2021. 55p, $15.00 e-book (ISBN 978-0-8389-3884-3).

Sudden Selector’s Guide to Political Science Resources is written by Emily Keller and Laura Wimberley as part of the Core Sudden Selectors Series of Guides. This series of guides was created to assist those librarians who have subject-specific duties in collection development, but the guides are also helpful for those who have liaison duties or are new to either of these areas of librarianship.

With backgrounds in both political science and public policy, Keller and Wimberley have appropriate expertise to lend to the political science subject area. The book comprises seven chapters that go in depth into various areas. Each chapter is thorough and clearly laid out. At the end of each chapter, a bibliography is provided for further study.

The book begins with an in-depth bibliography of the key works that one needs to consult when learning about collection development, followed with review sources one can turn to when evaluating sources for one’s collection, and lastly a listing of websites and discussion lists one should follow in learning about what collection development is all about (ix–xii).With this information presented at the beginning of the book, the reader gets a solid background of how collection development works.

The book then explains the major branches and types of political science in the section “What is Political Science,” along with the various methods (1). Keller and Wimberley also have a chapter explaining some of the things that one could do when entering political science librarianship. This is helpful in understanding how an academic political science department works and informs the selection of the best materials to serve this diverse group of academics. The authors also remind the reader that new librarians need to be aware of their biases when purchasing materials. While some of the material may be controversial, it is important to include these works so that students and faculty can study them.

The last five chapters cover in detail areas such as the information cycle; specifics of primary sources and monographs; and journals and databases that are essential to have in a political science collection. The book ends with a discussion of political science librarianship and the professional community.

This work is essential for those librarians who are new to the profession and who do not have much experience being a liaison librarian or a collections librarian in the political science subject area. Although this work is mainly directed to academic librarians, it is also helpful to those who assist patrons in the public library or in special libraries. Keller and Wimberley have created an in-depth guide into understanding the political science subject area that is clear and concise as well as beneficial to new library professionals.—Christina Tooulias-Santolin (christina.tooulias@utoronto.ca), University of Toronto