Along with many librarians who pick up RSR, I turn to “Personal Choice” as the first article to read. It is always intriguing to learn others' choices and their reasons. Most of…
Abstract
Along with many librarians who pick up RSR, I turn to “Personal Choice” as the first article to read. It is always intriguing to learn others' choices and their reasons. Most of us probably never think that the question will be dropped into our own laps, so though we might disagree with others’ choices, we rarely think seriously of those we would make ourselves. Fortunately, James Rettig does give enough time for us to think about it, to try to come up with a different approach, to philosophize on a specific desert isle. “If you were stranded on a desert island and had to create a reference/information service with only ten sources, which ten would you choose?”
At one time, reference librarians considered a good illustrated reference book to be one in which the plates were bound near the text they illustrated, rather than all together at…
Abstract
At one time, reference librarians considered a good illustrated reference book to be one in which the plates were bound near the text they illustrated, rather than all together at the back of the volume. Now there is an increasing number of reference books with high quality illustrations on almost every page, including works that have been designed around their graphic content. This article explores technological, intellectual, and economic developments that have contributed to this situation. Using recently published reference works as examples, the article argues that these developments have produced dramatic changes in the relationship between the text and illustrations in reference books, as well as important changes in the relationships between the informational content of reference works and the functions of book authorship and publishing. Criteria currently used for the evaluation of reference books, based as they are on characteristics of verbal or text material and on the assumption of traditional relationships among authors, publishers, and the content of reference volumes, are not sufficient for the selection and use of today's heavily illustrated works. Some suggestions toward the development of more appropriate criteria are made.
All seventeen had graciously agreed to my proposal to gather for a small conference to seek consensus. A generous grant from the Pierian Press Foundation would cover all of our…
Abstract
All seventeen had graciously agreed to my proposal to gather for a small conference to seek consensus. A generous grant from the Pierian Press Foundation would cover all of our expenses for a long weekend at a resort hotel; the only condition of the grant was that we offer our results to Reference Services Review for first publication. Over the past five years each of the seventeen had in turn accepted my challenge to answer the following question: