Maini's Arena Locations of Ontario

Jeffrey Moon is head of the Documents Reference/Data Centre at Queen’s
University.

Maini’s Arena Locations of Ontario is just what it says it is—over
660 maps (six to a page) showing ice-skating arena locations in Ontario.
Maps are accompanied by telephone numbers and addresses. Two indexes are
provided: one by arena name, the other by city. Abbreviations and a
legend appear at the beginning of the book, along with five broad
“reference maps” covering Ottawa to Hamilton.

The order of the maps appears to be random. It would have been much
more convenient to have all maps for a given city grouped together, with
cities arranged either alphabetically or by region. Users must rely on
the indexes, which are adequate but lack cross-references. For example,
the “Oshawa Civic Auditorium” is listed under “O,” but not under
“C”; this arena is known, at least by Oshawa natives, as the
“Civic Auditorium.” In contrast, two entries for “Civic Centre
Arena” (in Ottawa and Woodstock) are listed under “C” and not
under their respective cities. The indexes, which appear to include only
“official” arena names, would be improved if common variations were
added.

Maps are presented clearly, but vary considerably in scale. The absence
of scale bars could be a problem for those unfamiliar with an area. All
maps have “north arrows” and “reference maps” are useful,
although finding some of the smaller cities would be challenging without
an Ontario road map. Advertisements appear throughout the book, but are
not so numerous as to be distracting. Minor flaws aside, this directory
would be appreciated by hockey parents or bus drivers who are called
upon to chauffeur players to Ontario tournaments in unfamiliar areas.