Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

Alexander Street Press has been producing outstanding research databases for years. Most of them are best suited for academic libraries (or large public libraries with research collections), but some of Alexander Street’s newer databases would be great resources for high-school students and a more general library clientele. One example is American History in Video, a collection of archival films [...]

Those of you who subscribe to Credo Reference can now purchase nearly 70  SAGE Reference titles in your subscription.  The titles look great and include the very popular Ency. of Global Warming, Ency. of Disability, and the Ency. of Counseling.
In the Credo Reference press release, John Dove, Credo President said “Librarians have long called for [...]

Oxford Handbooks Online launched in November, bringing over 65 handbooks to the platform.  The handbook series provides scholarly articles and chapters on a wide range of topics.  At site launch, business/management, philosophy, religion, and political science handbooks were online, with plans to add over 8 new topic areas between 2011 and 2013.
The platform provides cross [...]

Gale/Cengage announced today the launch of the digital Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia.  Grzimek’s covers over 4,000 species and includes thousands of images, maps, videos, audio clips, and links to articles and real-time web sites.  According to the press release, features of the newproduct include:
•    Articles written by scientists and subject experts, peer-reviewed by world-renowned authorities [...]

If you’re ever looking for a central source of books, periodicals, and online resources relating to Texas and things Texan, I highly recommend Texas Reference Sources Online.  It is, according to the home page, “a continuation and update of the 5th edition published by the Texas Library Association in 2004.”  The site provides full bibliographical [...]

In a field where no Nobel Prize is awarded, the Pritzker Architecture Prize has often been likened to that honor.  The prize, according to the official website, is intended “[t]o honor a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision, and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions [...]

For several years, one of my favorite websites has been Arts Journal: Daily Arts News.  I would spend an hour a day on it if I had the time (and frequently I have).  In the left column are Arts Journal’s titles–usually different from the actual title–and a few lines of  new and interesting articles selected by the [...]

A few days ago, during a library orientation of 6th graders, the subject of pink dolphins came up.  A teacher had asked her students to produce evidence that they did or did not exist.  (The teacher had turned a student’s question into an assignment for the class.)
On the big screen, we searched the phrase “pink dolphin” in [...]

I spent Monday with several librarians in a discussion on the future eReference platform.  I’m referring to products like Credo Reference, GVRL, Sage Reference Online, Oxford Scholarship Online, etc.  Our discussion revolved around platform features, good features and not so good features.  I’m going to list some highlights of the discussion below, but would really [...]

There are currently 890 UNESCO World Heritage sites.  The list of sites, alphabetically arranged by country, can be found with extensive supporting information (in most cases descriptions, documents, maps, image gallery, etc.).  From the website, sites on the Official World Heritage List can be located in Google Earth.  In addition to the 890 sites themselves, features [...]

Recently I was doing research on the chef Thomas Keller and also wanted to know what farro and broccolini are.  Unknowingly I compared traditional reference sources to Wikipedia.  I began the search for Keller using Academic Search Complete and Lexis Nexis Academic.  Through these two subscription databases, I found reviews of his books and restaurants and an interview with Keller [...]

Atlas, the database of the collection of the Louvre is now in English as well as French.  The collection of 35,000 works of art may be searched by keyword, artist, title, technique, medium, department and even room.  For each work there is a high-resolution image, a description and the location of the work in the Louvre.  A [...]

It seems nearly all database providers are offering free widgets these days.  Widgets are search boxes embedded in a website, email, course management system, or other online source to provide easy searching and access to information.  Britannica, Ebsco, Gale, Infobase, Credo Reference, and a host of others offer widgets.  Sara Kelly Johns, one of the [...]

There’s so much going on in reference publishing (on the electronic side, I mean) that it’s hard to keep up. A spare hour or so rushing through the great bazaar that is the ALA Annual Conference exhibits barely scratches the surface. Here are are few things I saw. There are many others I missed.
At the Oxford [...]

This morning in the McCormick Center RBB hosted a lively and informative program, “Rethinking the Reference Collection,” in a packed room in the new West wing of the convention center.  Dave Tyckoson, head of reference services from Fresno State spoke from the academic libraries viewpoint; Barbara Bibel, reference librarian from Oakland Public Library spoke from [...]

This afternoon I attended EBSCO’s luncheon for academic librarians.  This post will be a quick overview of the new projects and upgrades, I will post more detailed information after the conference when I get a chance to read over all the handouts.
Over the fall and winter, EBSCO will be premiering 3 new databases.  An all [...]