Booklist Online: More than 130,000 book reviews for librarians, book groups, and book lovers - from the trusted experts at the American Library Association

Have you ever tried to read a text mesage and given up because all of those acronyms made no sense? help is on the way. Ryan Jones, a web designer and marketing strategist at ZAAZ has create a site that explains all. Go to www.noslang.com to find a translator and dictionary of messaging acronyms. You [...]

Time has published its 50 Best Web Sites 2010. You can find it here.  Of course, not all of the 50 sites have much reference or educational value but there are several that might be worth bookmarking. Among them are sites with brand names that give them instant authority; for  example, Mayo Clinic, MIT OpenCourseWare, and [...]

Oxford University Press said on Sunday that it may phase out the print edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Here’s a link to a story in the Washington Post. To tell the truth, I’m less surprised by the announcement that the print version of OED may go away than by the fact the Oxford is still [...]

Reference Books Bulletin’s  team of encyclopedia reviewers, Barbara Bibel and Shauna Yusko  and I, just wrapped up the 2010 Encyclopedia Update, which will appear in September 15 issue of Booklist. The Encyclopedia Update is almost 30 years old and the updates that have appeared over the years shine a light on how encyclopedia and reference publishing have changed. [...]

The September issue of Wired has an interesting cover story called The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet. According to the authors, we are now living in a post-HTML, apps-dominated environment, and they describe this as “one of the most important shifts in the digital world” over the past few years. A number of reference [...]

EBSCO Publishing recently announced the added feature of text-to-speech support for all EBSCOhost® databases. The read aloud function is available at no cost through technology from Texthelp Systems. The functionality allows users to read along while a human-sounding voice speaks the text on the screen. Users have the ability to read-aloud by selected text, sentence, [...]

What do you do when the Internet goes down? With the growth of e-materials, how can we help patrons? Ebooks and databases are great, don’t get me wrong, but when these resources aren’t available, how can we help our patrons find what they need? Should we continue to purchase print materials for this situation, or [...]

The National Library of Poland is now online with many digitized special collections.  Go to http://www.polona.pl/dlibra/collectiondescription2?dirids=12 to find the library’s treasures including manuscripts such as Ptolmey’s Cosmographia, the Chopin collection which will eventually include digital versions of all of his manuscripts, the history of Warsaw, archives and periodicals covering World War II in Poland, and a [...]

Many college freshmen are off to college this month and they and their parents may wonder how they can save money once they are enrolled.  CollegeScholarships.org will help.  The site is best know for its information on scholarships and how to successfully receive them.  It also provides information on student loans and grants.  In the section “College Saving Tips” [...]

The Public Library Funding and Technology Access Study from ALA’s Office for Research and Statistics just released their 2009-10 statistics.  Included in this report was  U.S. public libraries providing access to ebooks–which was 65.9% A sampling of the % of Libraries Providing E-Books In: Florida–86.9% Hawaii–100% Illinois–46% New York–71% Ohio–83% Oregon–70.8% Washington–48.6 Note: Since e-books [...]

Rosen spent much of Spring and Summer updating their award winning Teen Health & Wellness resource with an abundance of new features.  The first interface was already a great one, so I’m glad to see even more features added. Here’s a summary of what’s NEW with Teen Health & Wellness for Fall 2010: Instant translation [...]

With school beginning very soon, elementary and high school teachers will find NASA eClips a useful resource.  The eClips are short videos exploring how discoveries used for space travel are interrelated with daily life.  Programs are divided by grade level - k-5, 6-8, 9-12 and the general public.  The material is based on curriculum standards of various teachers’ associations.   The [...]

The WPA murals in New York’s Harlem Hospital were commissioned in 1936. They were the first major U.S. commission awarded to African American artists. The murals depict both African American and medical history, covering topics ranging from ancient and modern medicine to surgery and anesthesia to recreational activities in Harlem. After many years of neglect [...]

Smartphones, the iPad or other handheld devices appear to be replacing computers for some people so we’ve decided to add an “App of the Month” to the blog.  Please let us know if you think this is a good addition to Points of Reference.  Public Radio Player is available for the iPhone, iPad or iPad touch.  The player is [...]

I had a great time testing out the new Rosen Online Publishing interface, Rosen Learning Center.  This center currently features 12 titles that spotlight Texas.  History, government, land, resources, and missions are just a few of the topics covered in the 12 titles, which are designed for 3rd grade reading levels.  The books meet the [...]

Maps are both useful and fascinating. Seeing how people viewed the world in the past is an important part of history. The David Rumsey Map Collection contains over 150,000 maps from the 18th and 19th century: atlases, globes, wall maps, pocket maps, school geographies, and maritime charts as well as books of exploration. 22,000 of [...]

As the new funding year looms, I start to wonder how others decide what to purchase.  Do you depend on patron input (i.e., faculty or teachers), trends in the circulation (how do you gauge this), book reviews, or some other method?  Generally, much time is spent reading reviews, but while these are great insights into [...]

Great news for libraries using OverDrive.  They now offer (in beta) the ability to download public domain, EPub titles from Project Gutenberg to a library’s virtual branch.  These titles don’t require authentication and have no hold lists or check out periods.  Boston Public Library was the first to implement the Project Gutenberg titles, adding 15,000 [...]

There are a number of free online dictionaries but my choice is Merriam-Webster Online.  The publisher claims that it is the “direct lexicographical heir of Noah Webster.”  The online dictionary is based on the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed., 2003, rev. 2008).  A search box is prominently displayed with the resulting search providing a format that [...]

The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe (YIVO stands for Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut, or Yiddish Scientific Institute), published in 2008, is a major work of scholarship. Now, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has launched a free online version. The online edition includes the contents of the 2008 edition, plus interactive maps, more color photographs, rare [...]