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A recent article in The Chicago Tribune about how traditional maps have been vanishing from classrooms got me thinking about one of the staples of the print reference collection, the atlas. While print dictionaries and encyclopedias have crumbled under the onslaught of digitization, it has taken awhile for the atlas to be replaced by online sources, partly because [...]

Gale announced the release of two new 4 volume encyclopedias – Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of World Literature and Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of American Literature.  According to a Gale Press Release, the encyclopedias discuss an authors work/s in context including: Circumstances in the authors’  lives that are reflected in their work Historical Events affecting their work [...]

Like print encyclopedias and their online counterparts, museums run the gamut from extremely specialized to (at least as an ideal) comprehensive or encyclopedic in scope.   (I will limit my examples to art museums, although many museums straddle the boundaries of art, history, nature, and science.)  Examples of the specialized museum include New York’s Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art (limited to a [...]

Selected Web Sites for Audio Books Readers’ Advisory Audible, Inc. http://www.audible.com A subsidiary of Amazon.com, Audible is a subscription service and the leading provider of spoken audio materials (books, newspaper, magazines, original work, radio and television programming). Works with Apple and Microsoft programs. Also available for use on Amazon Kindle. The complete catalog (over 60,000 [...]

Barbara’s post earlier this week about reviewing reference reminded me of an outline that I had created to help my students in writing a review, a required assignment in all my classes. Below is the complete outline and question list, and while a few of the questions are for readers’ advisory reference books, most of [...]

When someone reads the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica or Oxford English Dictionary, it is so exceptional that it often seems to be the occasion for a book about the experience.  Nobody should be surprised, then, that when I reviewed Britannica for Reference Books Bulletin about ten years ago, I did not read every word.  I did not read [...]

An article in the Boston Globe  today reported that a private school, Cushing Academy,  has eliminated the books in the library.  The collection of 20,000 books will be given away and will be replaced by a digital library. The “learning center” will have lap-top friendly carrels  and where the reference desk was there will be a coffee shop [...]

Being inundated with information about the life of Edward Kennedy over the last two days got me thinking about biographical sources.  What role does print still play in biographical information?  Is there even a place for it? Every time I teach reference I include a couple of biographical questions; one about a living person, one [...]

Hearing Nancy Pearl on Morning Edition earlier today, “Mysteries you might have missed along the way,” reminded me that some reference books can be fun for browsing and inspiration.  Nancy Pearl’s Booklust and More Booklust for adult readers, and Book Crush for teens are some of my favorite fun reference books.  These are the kinds [...]

Check out this video from some clever folks in Norway. It seems especially apt when so many of us are having a hard time letting go of print.

The one print reference source I would find it hardest to do without is the small spiral-bound, college-ruled notebook I carry almost everywhere–to work, to museums, to lectures, and a few days ago to Port Isabel on South Padre Island, not far from Mexico.  One cryptic notation I made on the drive home (my wife drove) [...]

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 [...]

What do vampires and Virginia Woolf  have in common?  No, they’re not part of the new fiction trend that Neil Hollands talks about over at Book Group Buzz (at least not yet). Instead, they both occupy space in Encyclopedia of Time: Science, Philosophy, Theology, & Culture, edited by H. James Birx and published by Sage. Every so often [...]

Back in the day, at least 2/3 of my reference collection budget supported standing orders for hundreds of print statistical books, biographical sources, directories, dictionaries,and almanacs of all types.  Each year it seems to dwindle as we ask ourselves, do we really need to get that print source EVERY year?  This year is no different, [...]

Having learned from two of my librarian friends that they had read (unprompted by me) and approved of my July 19, 2009, Points of Reference post “The Catalogue Raisonné,”  I have been inspired to continue the theme. I announced my plan at the end of that post to return to the Houston Public Library’s central [...]

The quintessential asterisked record was Roger Maris’s single-season home run record.  In 1961 he broke by one Babe Ruth’s longstanding record of 60, but in a season that was eight games longer.  Whether the asterisk was real, metaphorical, or not deemed relevant depended on which reference you consulted.  Maris’s record stood until Mark McGwire (in a race [...]

Last year, when I was working on the 2008 Reference Books Bulletin Encyclopedia Update, I noticed that World Book Encyclopedia came with a Mixed Sources label from the Forest Stewardship Council, meaning “wood comes from FSC certified well managed forests, company controlled sources and/or recycled material.” Ever since then I’ve been looking for evidence of [...]

The catalogue raisonné is a wonderful and specialized category of art reference source whose ideals include completeness and authority, but which invariably falls short of at least the former ideal.  Publication brings to light a statement of what is known by an expert or team of experts about an artist’s works; at the same time, it is an invitation (reluctant, [...]

A classic reference title is now available online.  Gale/Cengage announced at ALA that the 17 volume Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia has been transformed to an interactive, media-rich online product (yes, this means subscription).  Touted as a knowledge portal, Grzimek’s will feature over 4000 species.  The online product will include audio tracks, maps, photos, videos, interactive [...]

During our panel discussion “Rethinking the Reference Collection” at ALA, the question came up – how do you measure the use of your reference collection?  Each of the panelists enthusiastically suggested a local “checkout” of the reference items before they are reshelved.  I must say that I do the same thing at my institution.  Several [...]