Booklist, publication of the American Library Association, has named The Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics and Plagues, edited by Honors Program Professor Joe Byrne, an “Editor’s Choice” for 2009, noting “…notable for authoritative content on a topic of broad appeal, [it] is highly recommended.” This places it among the top 23 references works reviewed by Booklist this past year. Typically they review over 60,000 books and publish 8,000 reviews of recommended works; in 2009, only 185 were listed as “Editor’s Choice.” Byrne worked with associate editors from Yale, UCLA, Vanderbilt and Indiana University along with 100 authors from across the globe. These included Belmont Professors Devon Boan of the Honors Program, and biologists Nick Ragsdale and Steve Murphree. Contributing editorially were Honors students Beth and Becky Repasky, Sarah Bennett, and Beth Schriner. Byrne is currently writing The Encyclopedia of the Black Death for ABC-CLIO and a book in the seven-volume medical history series Health and Medicine in Daily Life, of which he is the editor for Greenwood Press.
