Recommended Reference Books for Small and Medium‐sized Libraries and Media Centers (RRB), now in its 17th year, consists of 555 books reviews chosen from the current edition of American Reference Books Annual (ARBA). As explained in the introduction, RRB has been developed for smaller libraries as an abridged version of the comprehensive ARBA.
How does one review a work like this? One way might be to go through ARBA and compare one’s own list with the list selected by Bohdan Wynar, RRB’s editor. But if one has the time and expertise to match wits with Wynar and argue about what was and was not selected from ARBA, then this book certainly is not a required acquisition! RRB is for those of us with limited time and expertise who nevertheless have a good sense about what our patrons should have available when they come into our libraries.
The book is arranged in four parts: General Reference Works, Social Sciences, Humanities, Science. There are 37 divisions within these parts, and there are author/title and subject indexes, with each index entry referring to the number of the review. Wynar annotates each review with a letter indicating its primary audience: C for college, P for public, S for school. That is not to say that the categories are mutually exclusive, and any library may well wish to acquire items from a range of categories; nevertheless, when using this work as a collection assessment tool the distinctions are important and useful. The critical reviews in this work are thorough and helpful for deciding which reference books to buy each year. By definition every title in this book is recommended, but shortcomings are noted, critical comments are included, and the reader is informed about other works in addition to or in lieu of the recommended work, depending on needs and clientele.
This book of reviews of reference books deserves its own place in the reference collection. Because of the focus, many if not most of the works recommended here are affordable by individuals. Anyone interested in languages or travel, for example, would be well‐served by the Non‐English‐Language Dictionaries section in which 19 dictionaries covering 15 languages are reviewed. The other sections are equally informative and valuable. In short, small and medium‐sized libraries of all kinds should acquire this book as a selection aid for their purchases and as a selection aid for their patrons.
