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RUSA/CODES Reference Publishing Discussion Forum: Life after the Statistical Abstract. What will the proposed demise of the Statistical Abstract mean for reference librarians and library users?  Now in its 130th annual edition, Statistical Abstract has played a central role in guiding users to statistics since before we were born.   Since finding statistics can be challenging [...]

After reading David Tyckoson’s recent blog on “Reference Sources That We Once Loved…,” it reminded me of one of my favorites, Taking Sides. For those of you who don’t remember or are new to reference (before the internet),  TS is a multi-volume set arranged by broad topics and then includes popular issues of the day [...]

…but no longer use. Each day as I walk to the reference desk, I see the bright red and blue colors of the spine of the Encyclopedia of Associations. That work is dear to my heart because it was one of the very first — if not THE first — reference source that I learned about [...]

The following is a summary of the presentation from Paul Kobasa of World Book Inc. Paul represents the perspective of the traditional encyclopedia publisher/editor.                                                      World Book in a Wikipedia World Paul A. Kobasa Vice President, Editorial Editor in Chief World Book, Inc. Conventional Criteria to Evaluate a Reference Source. Which Still Apply Today? [...]

Here’s news about the latest updates to the Oxford English Dictionary: a story in today’s Chicago Tribune, plus this press release from Oxford. A new sense has been added to the verb heart in this update, and it may be the first English usage to develop via the medium of T-shirts and bumper-stickers. It originated as [...]

For Women’s History Month I’m taking a look at a few important women’s history reference sources. Back in 1971, Harvard University Press published the landmark Notable American Women, 1607-1950. The project had been proposed as early as 1955 as a companion but also a  corrective to Dictionary of American Biography, which included only 706 women among its nearly 15,000 [...]

H. W. Wilson’s WilsonWeb Service has a variety of new enhancements. Highlights include: • Record previews. Users can preview individual records without navigating away from the “brief display” search results screen, by mousing over the new “quick view” icon.  The pop-up “quick view” includes important fields such as Abstracts, Title, Author, Source, Publication Year, and Subject.  [...]

CQ Press will launch a new, revolutionary database in April of 2011 – First Street.  First Street consolidates congressional, government and lobbying data back to 1993, including CQs plethora of staff directories.  The First Street Coalition Builder (TM), the coolest part of the product, is a visual mapping tool which displays connections between staffers, lobbyists, [...]

The Oxford English Dictionary Online was relaunched last week, 10 years after it first appeared. The new versi0n has over 600,000 words and now incorporates the Historical Thesaurus of the OED. The RBB review of the previous version was long (really long) on technicalities, as were most of our reviews of electronic resources back then, when the [...]

Facts On File recently announced a content update to Ferguson’s Career Guidance Center database.  New data provided by Peterson’s Nelnet, LLC, on more than 4,000 schools that offer two- and four-year degrees in the United States and Canada, is now searchable in Ferguson’s. Users can filter school search information in a variety of ways: by [...]

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 [...]

Oxford has announced that Oxford English Dictionary Online is being relaunched in December. In addition to a fresh look and design and added functionality, the new version will incorporate Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, which was published last year. This is OED’s first makeover since it first launched more than 10 years ago.  Click here to [...]

The history of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary has been burnished into legend over the years, at least among librarians and linguists, many of whom are familiar with the story of the famous pigeon holes stuffed with quotations slips from contributors around the world. The OED has been called the word’s greatest dictionary, and [...]

Britannica announced the release of an iPhone and iTouch app for the Concise Encyclopedia 2010.  The app is available for download in the iTunes store for $24.95 and includes over 25,000 articles and 800 images and maps.  Search, search history, and “on this day” features help to navigate the content quickly.  The app takes minimal [...]

Grzimek’s Animal Life went online in 2009 (starred review in Booklist and 2009 Editor’s Choice, Reference Sources) and already has a number of new features added.  These include: Complementary content from UXL Encyclopedia of Biomes, 2nd Edition, has been integrated to provide coverage on 12 of the earth’s major biomes.  Each biome is explained through [...]

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 [...]

Featured as this month’s Reader’s Corner, the review for the 2nd edition of the Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction appears in the October 15 Booklist. As previously mentioned, this is a classic readers’ advisory and staff development tool and the 2nd edition has been eagerly awaited by librarians and educators.

Does correct English usage matter anymore? There’s plenty of evidence that no one cares, but for those of us who do, there’s the third edition of Bryan Garner’s Garner’s Modern American Usage.  When Garner’s was first published in 1998 it quickly became a standard guide, and the new edition continues to man the barricades against assaults on good grammar, word choice, [...]

Another Reference merger!  And, good news that the World Almanac will move online eventually. Infobase Publishing Acquires Iconic World Almanac Brand New York, NY (September 1, 2009)–Infobase Publishing announced today that it has acquired the World Almanac imprint from Weekly Reader Publishing Group. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

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 [...]