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From Library Journal The current furor over Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein's The Bell Curve (Free Pr., 1994) is but the most recent skirmish in the war over the nature of intelligence and the public policy implications inherent in differing conceptualizations of the problem. Many such issues are covered in this title, heralded by editor Sternberg as "the most comprehensive and definitive compendium of information about human intelligence ever published." Indeed, there is much to admire here. Sternberg has assembled prestigious authors, e.g., Howard Gardner on his own theory of multiple intelligences, Arthur Jensen on race and IQ testing, and Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi on creativity. The text is generally jargon free and accessible to nonspecialists, and all articles include extensive bibliographies. There is, unfortunately, a tendency to break topics into a number of articles. For example, to explore that thorny topic of race, one would need to read at least six articles. The reasons for separation are sometimes unclear, e.g., Why separate articles on "Hyperactivity" and "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?" While generally adequate, the index and cross references do not fully link such separations. While these are not major problems, there is some question of the need for such compendia, which will not stay comprehensive or definitive for long. Academic libraries supporting graduate programs in psychology or education should certainly consider this title, although most four-year college library and large public libraries would probably get more bang for their bucks from the new edition of the standard Encyclopedia of Psychology (LJ 6/1/94), which covers the most vital material on intelligence but also works for a much broader audience. Smaller public libraries can get by with the latest edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which has a good article on intelligence and a short bibliography.Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Fullman, Wash.Copyright 1995