Smith, Dareen. Counties USA: A Directory of United States Counties. 2nd edition. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 2003. ISBN 0780805461; $120.00. 672 pp, maps.

This volume is more than a plain directory; it provides a compact description of each county, in addition to telling how to contact the county seat. The book is organized alphabetically by state and within each state by county. Each state section opens with a simple, clear outline map of the state and its counties. Each county’s entry gives its name, postal address, Web site, telephone number, fax number, a little information about its history and name, a statistical breakdown of the population, and an economic profile (e.g., per capita income, median house value). The opening entry under each state consists of similar information about the state itself. Of course, those data come from the 2000 federal census. At the back of the book, a “Counties Index” names every county in a single alphabetical list and gives the state, the telephone number of the county seat, and the page where the full entry can be found–very convenient. Unfortunately, the editors placed their sample entry on the front endpaper and some statistics on the back endpaper, where that information is likely to be concealed by the labels that libraries commonly paste inside the covers of their books. Despite that design flaw, this is an excellent reference work, and it should be on the shelf of nearly every library, especially those serving local historians, genealogists, and others who work in county records.

John Long
The Newberry Library