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What exactly are reference serials and why should they be reviewed? To answer the second question first, it is important that readers' services librarians be aware of the multitude of materials which can help them in their daily work. Furthermore, in this world of rising costs, a good critical review can be helpful to the librarian who is trying to determine how to spend his or her reference collection budget wisely.

“Reference Serials” began in Reference Services Review, April‐June 1974 and last appeared in RSR, October‐December 1974. It was transferred to Serials Review with the inaugural double issue of SR, January‐June 1975, and appeared there through SR, October‐December 1978. With this issue it returns to RSR because the editors determined, after much examination, that this is where it belongs.

This column has always intended to provide indepth, comparative reviews of abstracting services, indexes, serial bibliographies, yearbooks, directories, almanacs and other serial tools which would normally be housed in reference departments. For the purposes of this column, reference serials are materials which must meet two rather flexible requirements: they must be useful as reference sources and they must be issued as serials or be titles which are superseded periodically by new editions.

This column has always intended to provide in‐depth, comparative reviews of abstracting services, indexes, serial bibliographies, yearbooks, directories, almanacs and other serial tools which would normally be housed in reference departments. For the purposes of this column, reference serials are materials which must meet two rather flexible requirements: they must be useful as reference sources and they must be issued as serials or be titles which are superseded periodically by new editions.

This column has always intended to provide in‐depth, comparative reviews of abstracting services, indexes, serial bibliographies, yearbooks, directories, almanacs and other serial tools which would normally be housed in reference departments. For the purposes of this column, reference serials are materials which must meet two rather flexible requirements: they must be useful as reference sources and they must be issued as serials or be titles which are superseded periodically by new editions.

This column has always intended to provide in‐depth, comparative reviews of abstracting services, indexes, serial bibliographies, yearbooks, directories, almanacs and other serial tools which would normally be housed in reference departments. For the purposes of this column, reference serials are materials which must meet two rather flexible requirements: they must be useful as reference sources and they must be issued as serials or be titles which are superseded periodically by new editions.

“Reference Serials” intends to provide in‐depth, evaluative reviews of abstracting services, indexes, serial bibliographies, yearbooks, directories, almanacs and other continuations which would normally be housed in reference collections. For the purposes of this column, reference serials are defined as materials which meet two rather flexible requirements: 1) they must be useful as reference sources, and 2) they must be issued as serials or be titles superseded periodically by new editions.

Why do we need an article which reviews and compares almanacs? Can we learn anything new by re‐examining these heavily used, everyday tools? The authors — two experienced reference librarians, frequent users of almanacs — were surprised by what they learned. Not only did their opinions of individual almanacs change, but also they were pleased to discover information on topics they never thought were covered.

The major bibliographic utilities in North America were established in the 1970s. What role are they playing in the 1980s? This select bibliography provides a synopsis of what is happening in the world of bibliographic utilities.

This index accompanies the index that appeared in Reference Services Review 16:4 (1988). As noted in the introduction to that index, the articles in RSR that deal with specific reference titles can be grouped into two categories: those that review specific titles (to a maximum of three) and those that review titles pertinent to a specific subject or discipline. The index in RSR 16:4 covered the first category; it indexed, by title, all titles that had been reviewed in the “Reference Serials” and the “Landmarks of Reference” columns, as well as selected titles from the “Indexes and Indexers,” “Government Publications,” and “Special Feature” columns of the journal.