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Recently I was writing a review of Difford’s Encyclopedia of Cocktails (Firefly, 2009) and discovered diffordsguide.com.  Simon Difford apparently includes on this site, all or at least the majority of the recipes that are in the encyclopedia.  You don’t have the opportunity to gaze upon a page (heavy stock paper) of recipes for a variety of cocktails using raspberries [...]

  Another question from the Booklist Webinar. I talked a lot about integrating reference and circulating books, which brought this question: Q: Are the reference books shelved with the circulating collection cataloged as Reference or just made a circulating item? A: That depends on how you want to handle them. If you want the reference [...]

I agree with Dave. Working in a public library, we find a print encyclopedia  very useful. We keep a current set of World Book at the desk because it is so handy for answering a wide variety of questions. We also circulate older sets (past three years).  Students doing reports love them. So do people [...]

This is the first of several installments that answer questions asked at the Booklist webinar on 21st Century Reference Collections Q: Two school librarians, one at an Ohio high school and one at a Connecticut elementary and middle school, each asked a version of the same question. Since we have access to an online encyclopedia, [...]

With the growing availability of ebooks, particularly reference and popular fiction, the question arises – print or electronic.  Print is traditional, you can pass it along, and no technology is needed.  Print is also limited to one user at a time, it deteriorates quickly, and the information in the item is never updated.  Ebooks are [...]

 As I was about to write the “Web Site of the Week,” I checked Points of Reference,  and saw Sue Polanka’s entry of today, “How Do Today’s Students Research?”   “How to Find Anything Online:  Become an Internet Research Expert”  from webdesignerdepot.com may be used by high school students and undergraduates in their online research.  In this rather [...]

Last Saturday at the ALA Conference I attended a session sponsored by Serials Solutions.  They brought in a speaker from EDUCAUSE to discuss the millennials and their research habits.  Carie Page, a millennial herself, did a fantastic job summarizing some interesting points.  Many of her points can be found in the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied [...]

The ALA Reference Sources Committee has announced the Outstanding Reference Sources list for 2010. Here are the titles: American Countercultures Archaeology in America Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy  Encyclopedia of Gender and Society Encyclopedia of Human Rights (also the [...]

Each year librarians gather at the ALA Midwinter Conference to choose the best resources in a number of areas. Reference works are honored by the Outstanding Reference Sources Committee and the Dartmouth Medal Committee. The members of these committees spend lots of time looking at the submitted works before the conference. At the meeting, they [...]

OCLC’s QuestionPoint service is now collaborating with Mosio, a text messaging service to provide even better options for virtual reference. Mosio serves as a cell phone text messaging solution for reference, allowing libraries to monitor multiple text messages through one online dashboard. Combine this with OCLC’s QuestionPoint service of chat, email, and search widgets, and [...]

The 2010 Dartmouth Award Winners were announced yesterday at the RUSA Awards Ceremony in Boston, MA.  The winner was Oxford’s Encyclopedia of Human Rights, chosen for its comprehensive coverage of a timely and important topic.  Two titles were awarded Honorable Mention.  The Encyclopedia of Modern China from Gale and The Encyclopedia of Journalism from SAGE Reference. [...]

Now that I helped you with getting a great hotel room in Boston tripkick.com, (1/08/10), here is a suggestion for finding food.  Urbanspoon.com does a great job of covering restaurants in the city and it is a free app.  You may search by area of the city, type of food or the fun slot machine widget.  Once [...]

I’m off to the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Boston. If you’ll be attending the meeting, I hope you can take some time to stop by the Booklist booth (number 1814). Especially if you’re a regular Reference Books Bulletin reader, I’d love to meet you and hear any comments and ideas you might have about our coverage [...]

Just wrapped up the Webinar, Twenty-First Century Reference Collections, hosted by Booklist and sponsored by Encyclopaedia Britannica, M. E. Sharpe, World Book, and ABC-CLIO. We had presentations from each of those publishers as well as from Dave Tyckoson, who’s the Associate Dean at the Henry Madden Library, California State University, Fresno. The panelists all did a [...]

As librarians and experts weigh in with their annual best lists, the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section (CAPHIS) of the Medical Library Association presents its annual update of  the Top 100 Health Web Sites You Can Trust. These sites have been chosen and evaluated by medical librarians using criteria established by the Health Summit Working [...]

Here’s a twist on the “top words” lists that come out each year. Lake Superior State University has released its 35th annual “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use, and General Uselessness.” Among the banished words (although the idea of banishment is really wishful thinking) are tweet, toxic assets, and bromance. The words [...]

Most of the end-of-year “best” lists of Web sites seem to hover around the 100 mark. The PC magazine list has 100 entries. The Guardian also lists 100 essential Web sites.  Even Family Tree Magazine managed to come up with 101 Best Web Sites 2009 just for geneaolgists. By comparison, Time’s 50 Best Websites 2009 is  relatively lean. Getting at the best [...]

If you are traveling to Boston next week for ALA and don’t want to have a hotel room facing a building three feet away, look at tripkick.com.  For selected hotels in major cities the site suggests rooms to request based on features that are important to you - quiet rooms, corner rooms, rooms with great bathrooms [...]

Travelers must do a fair amount of research to prepare for a trip. We have patrons who request maps, guidebooks, language-learning materials, and in-depth information about their destinations. We also get locals trying to figure out how to get from pointA to point B via public transportation. One of our regular patrons wants to find [...]

Formerly known as the Fiction Catalog, the  16th Edition of Fiction Core Collection is now available.  This is a great resource for collection development and maintenance, readers’ advisory, and general reference. According to a Wilson press release, “the new edition highlights more than 11,300 novels for adult readers, including analytic entries for novellas and novels [...]