Editorial

Citation

Chalcraft, T. (2008), "Editorial", Reference Reviews, Vol. 22 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/rr.2008.09922baa.001

Editorial

The future shape of the reference and information world has frequently been a topic of speculation and discussion in this column. We make no apologies for this – it is impossible to track and evaluate the information resources being produced “here and now” without an eye to the future. In considering a new or updated reference tool it is not just current cost and content that counts, but how the source, whether acquired in print or electronically, will fit into the reference environment two, five and perhaps ten years ahead. Certain trends are clear: that e-content will increasingly dominate is indisputable, but other patterns are less easy to discern. Glancing through the riches on display in the 2008 reference catalogues, newly released at the time of writing, it is evident that publishers are exploring a variety of content mixes, access modes and interfaces. Some trends seem contradictory. On the one hand there is increasing specialisation and niche marketing, but on the other there is aggregation and the bringing together of content in “mega” sources, often driven by the consolidation that is also shaping the reference market place and to which this column has also frequently referred. Then there is the rush to digitise back content, the prospect of more pay-per-view and reaching out direct to the user beyond the library, visual rather than text based search interfaces, taming Google with links and deals, weaving in more multimedia, and offering reference information via blogs and social networking.

Untangling the trends and trying to see through the mist is no easy task, but as this issue of Reference Reviews was going to press I ran across an article in the latest number of Library Journal (Kuzyk, 2007) that shines a helpful light at least in the direction that commercial reference publishing may be heading. Based on the views of leading executives at some of the major players whose output is frequently represented here (ABC-Clio, Gale, Greenwood, Oxford University Press, Springer, H.W. Wilson amongst others), the article offers an overview of key trends over the short to medium term. While uncertainty and trepidation clearly lurk not far beneath the surface, the assembled thoughts exhibit a fair amount of consensus and confidence. Some of the key themes seem to be:

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  build on the bedrock of existing content;

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  exploit partnership deals with other platforms/suppliers;

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  focus on the academic curriculum (or at least the US curriculum);

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  provide seamless interfacing with library systems;

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  layer multiple content across different resource packages;

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  minimise clicks; and

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  present content in bite-sized chunks.

How are these already trends manifest in the crop of “here and now” resources reviewed here? Perhaps the “star” resource evaluated in this issue is the Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History (RR 2008/93). The four volumes of the traditionally bound and presented printed set are also available as part of the Oxford Digital Reference Shelf (see www.oup.com/online/digitalreference/hist), accessible either independently or, for Premium Collection subscribers, through Oxford Reference Online. Then there is EBSCO’s Communication and Mass Media Complete (RR 2008/59), certainly not the first EBSCO resource to combine indexing and abstracting with full text, but here the proportion of the latter is noticeably generous, with over 300 of the 420 titles indexed and abstracted also available in full text. And there is Greenwood Press, perhaps a little more “conservative” in its approach to the digital reference world, with a relatively small number of “package” resources such as Greenwood Daily Life Online, but all the company’s new titles reviewed here – Religion and Law in America: An Encyclopedia (RR 2008/58), Early Childhood Education: An Encyclopedia (RR 2008/60), Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion (RR 2008/61), Encyclopedia of White-Collar Crime (RR 2008/62), Western Drama through the Ages (RR 2008/78), Jewelrymaking through History: An Encyclopedia (RR 2008/88) and Holocaust Survivors: A Biographical Dictionary (RR 2008/91) are available on the publisher’s e-books platform.

We could go on and identify similar indicators of the road ahead in many of the other products evaluated here, but we should conclude by highlighting a few other notable titles reviewed. LISU Annual Library Statistics (RR 2008/53) has been a favourite, indeed essential, reference for most UK library managers, public and academic, but now, at the time of writing at least, appears to have come to an end through lack of funding. Not unsurprisingly, there has been a scarcity of English language reference in the field of Italian literature beyond general sources, but now we have Routledge’s two volume Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies (RR 2008/75). The three volumes of Springer’s Encyclopedia of Pain (RR 2008/81) will form a major reference for clinicians and others, while the first volume of Palgrave Macmillan’s Directory of Shakespeare in Performance 1970-2005 (RR 2008/87), covering the UK, will be another key Shakespeare resource in libraries of all types. African studies reference, recently blessed with the updating of two key reference guides, now has the trilogy with the second edition of John McIlwaine’s Africa: A Guide to Reference Material (RR 2008/96). Finally, we end this issue with a look at two image databanks, Images Canada (RR 2008/101) and the US history site PictureHistory.com (RR 2008/102), sites that epitomise one of the key trends in the evolving reference world, the emergence and importance of the visual.

Tony ChalcraftEditor, Reference Reviews, and University Librarian, York St John University, York, UK