Given the enormous scope of the Guide, the individual entries are understandably brief. The descriptions note the educational focus of each title, the minimum hardware requirements, base language, publisher and price. In addition, there are several convenient listings of CALL related organizations, journals and bibliographies. Brief qualitative reviews of each of the titles would be enormously helpful -- though, unfortunately, reviews are outside the Guide's scope.

A more thorough system requirement section would also be helpful to anyone interested in using the Guide in making informed software purchases. Although entries specifically list the peripherals necessary for each title, the hard drive requirements are rarely listed, and RAM suggestions are included for only a handful of entries.

But what the Guide lacks in depth, it more than makes up for in breadth. Aside from the sheer volume of software titles, the editors have managed to achieve a fine representation of the software market at the time of publication. Although there is a wide selection of titles as expected for the major languages, such less commonly taught languages as Irish, Welsh, Swedish, and Turkish are also well represented.

While CD ROM based software was noticeably absent in the previous editions of the Guide, this year's edition lists dozens of CD ROM titles within a wide variety of applications, from language learning authoring tools to utility packages and translation assistants. It is references to the Internet and World Wide Web that are noticeable in their absence in this, the current edition. Perhaps the fifth edition of the Guide will include email and web page addresses among the contact data in addition to a growing number of online CALL applications and demos.

As always, the well organized and user-friendly index allows for quick selection of relevant titles from among a variety of criteria. And, although the ReCALL Software Guide does not help the reader choose the best software for the job, it is certainly effective in helping the reader find out how much is available and where to begin looking.