Jack O’Gorman is a reference and instruction librarian and Associate Professor at the University of Dayton’s Roesch Library and has over 30 years’ practical experience in university, government and business libraries. He has co-edited and edited various reference resource volumes over the years while serving on the editorial board of Reference Books Bulletin; he has been active on several award committees for outstanding reference sources and is recognized by the American Library Association for his in-depth knowledge of reference works.
Due to the ever-changing world of technology and the exponential increase of information in the different disciplines, this book presents resources not available at the time of the last edition (an increase of 40 per cent), as well as resources that have stood the test of time. It covers 19 major subject areas: general reference; philosophy, religion and ethics; psychology and psychiatry; social sciences and sociology; business and careers; political science and law; education; words and languages; science and technology; health and medicine; households; visual arts; performing arts; music; crafts and hobbies; games and sports; literature; history; and geography, area studies and travel. An additional chapter on the contributors and an index complete the book.
Each subject area lists database products, CD-ROMs, Web sites and other electronic resources in addition to print materials pertinent to that discipline. It includes thorough annotations for each source, with information on author/editor, publisher, cost, format, Dewey and library of congress (LC) classification numbers.
Because print reference resources are declining in libraries, it is essential that librarians become acquainted with the variety of electronic reference resources that can be obtained. Part of the reason for this decline is the expectation that library users will go online to find an answer to their reference query. Online search tools are needed for today’s library to meet the needs of patrons, and O’Gorman has made sure that a section on discovery layer tools and online public access catalogs (OPACs) is found at the end of Chapter 1. Especially appreciated in this eighth edition are the free resources noted that are immediately adaptable to the librarians’ repertoire of “go to” places for reliable data.
This is a must read for those librarians who want to provide the best in the way of reference resources for their users, and it is recommended for small- and medium-sized public and academic libraries; in addition, other types of libraries may also benefit.
