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

With major conflicts in the world, a royal wedding is a pleasant diversion this week. Officialroyalwedding2011.org is the site developed by the British monarchy. Since the first of the year it has provided the public with hints of what will be happening on April 29.   Yesterday  a summary of information in ninety-six pages was [...]

For those fascinated by the possibility of life on other planets, NASA has just released the first issue of the Astrobiology Graphic Novel. You may download either a PDF or a mobile app to read it. The illustrations are worth a bigger screen. This issue commemorates the 50th anniversary of astrobiology and it tells the [...]

MapQuest 4 is the app of MapQuest.com.  For those who don’t have a gps in their car this will do the same thing.  It is has an option for walking so is great in cities for finding your way to a tourist attraction, store or a friend’s apartment. It is free and available for iPhone, [...]

ALA’s Reference and User Services Association has announced that Digital Harlem: Everyday Life, 1915-1930 is the the 2011 winner of the ABC-CLIO Online History Award. The site is part of a collaborative research project undertaken at the University of Sydney, using legal records, newspaper articles, and other sources to map the everyday lives of people who lived in Harlem [...]

Earlier today I was discussing reference publishing trends with a colleague. We noted that, as far as e-reference goes, there seems to be at least as much emphasis these days on new methods of delivery as on new databases. For example, World Book has just introduced World Book Mobile, “a mobile-friendly version of its comprehensive reference database, which includes tens [...]

It’s National Library Week, and to celebrate ProQuest is giving libraries and their patrons a nice gift:  free access to some of it key databases, including  ebrary’s Public Library Complete and School Collection, ProQuest African American Heritage, ProQuest Civil War Era, CultureGrams, eLibrary, SIRS Issues Researcher, and SIRS Discoverer. In addition, ProQuest is asking Facebook [...]

Librarians and or researchers may forget that library web sites may be a trove of information.  I was reminded of this when reading an article in the Boston Globe. The Boston Public Library has digitized a collection of photographs from their Special Collections, which were taken by Leslie Jones, a photographer for the Boston Herald [...]

Here’s a press release I received about some new developments at Alexander Street Press. (I wonder if they’ve ever had the same conversations about the word “Press” in their name as I’ve had about the word “Books” in Reference Books Bulletin.) Electronic publisher Alexander Street Press today announced plans to launch an integrated online repository of [...]

The Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health unveiled their new website. It offers reliable, evidence-based information about dietary supplements as well as current news, resources for researchers, and information about the composition and functions of supplements. Fact sheets about individual vitamins, minerals, and other supplements are available for professionals, consumers, and [...]

Here’s an article from today’s New York Times about New York University’s Fales Library, whose Food and Cookery Collection has just become one of the biggest food studies collections thanks to the donation of a 21,000- volume trove of  books. The Fales Library now has more than 50,000 volumes on food and cooking, rivalling the collections of the [...]

Infobase’s acquisition of Films Media Group in 2007 enabled it to add videos to its online products, such as the Facts On File collection of history databases. Below is a a press release I just received about a recent development, a new service called Access Video on Demand, intended for public libraries. Infobase also offers Classroom Video on Demand for [...]

There’s an article in The New York Times today about how the recent court ruling derailing Google’s digitization project has given new impetus to The Digital Public Library of America.   Announced late last year, The Digital Public Library of America is being coordinated by Harvard Law’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. You can read more about the [...]

While I was getting ready for work this morning, I heard this on NPR’s Morning Edition about what a boon it is for fashion researchers, writers, and designers to have free access to the online Berg Fashion Library via New York Public Library. It’s good for reference publishing when a reference work jumps over the garden wall and [...]

I’m leaving for a spring vacation in Missoula MT this week.  (Am I the only once that goes to Montana in April?) I need to check if I can bring yogurt to eat on the plane.  The Transportation Security Administration is the web site which has all the information on security when you fly.  In [...]

A new Watergate Gallery just opened at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. Its creation was not without contoversy. According to an article in The New York Times, the exhibit has “exploded” the tradition of presidential libraries avoiding history’s darker side. And “the unveiling ended a nearly yearlong struggle between national archivists and the Richard [...]

It was a little over a year ago that OCLC announced it was selling NetLibrary to EBSCO.  Last month, EBSCO released the preview of eBooks on EBSCOhost®. EBSCOhost libraries will be able to access the preview site through the Try New Features link on EBSCOhost while NetLibrary users will see a banner with the link on [...]