American reference books annual 2008 ed.; v.39.

9781591586913

American reference books annual 2008 ed.; v.39.

Ed. by Shannon Graff Hysell.

Libraries Unlimited

2008

697 pages

$135.00

Hardcover

Z1035

The 2008 edition of this venerable reference includes authoritative reviews of 1,356 books, CD-ROMs, and internet sites published in 2006, 2007, and early 2008. The crew of some 400 scholars, practitioners, and library educators provide reviews that are somewhat longer and more detailed than those found in Choice or Library Journal. Strengths and weaknesses are addressed, and coverage includes evaluation of usefulness, organization, excecution, prose style, format, availability of indexing (and other supplementary materials), and similarity to others works and to previous editions. The four sections--general reference, social sciences, humanities, and science and technology--are further subdivided by form (e.g. bibliography, biography, dictionaries, government publications) and by topic. Author/title and subject indexes provide access. The introduction asserts that ARBA aims to increase the number of website entries so that coverage of electronic references will ultimately be as thorough as coverage of print resources. Reviews of electronic resources are not listed or indexed separately; so there's no easy way to tell just how many electronic resources are included (numbers on the trend would be interesting). Previous editions of the annual are cited in Book for College Libraries, 3d ed., Guide to Reference Books, Wilson's Senior High School Library Catalog and Walford.

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