Reference serials

A visit last July to the American Library Association's annual conference in New York City proved both rewarding and frustrating. There was not enough time for the editor of this column to thoroughly inspect all the reference serials which were displayed—a mind‐numbing assortment of new and changing titles. In booth after booth, there were abstracts, indexes and bibliographic books and services worthy of consideration: Encyclopedia of Governmental Advisory Organizations (Gale Research), Principal International Businesses: 1974 (Dun & Bradstreet), Artbibliographies Modern (ABC‐Clio), Media Review Digest: 1973/74 (Pierian Press), Bulletin of Reprints (Verlag Dokumentation), International African Bibliography (Mansell), OTC Industrial Manual (Moody's), and International Bibliography, Information, Documentation (Bowker). H. W. Wilson distributed a brochure, “The Cataloging and Indexing Services of H. W. Wilson,” which had not been revised to reflect the creation of two services—Social Science Index and Humanities Index—form the Social Sciences & Humanities Index; but the first issue of each (June 1974) was displayed.