Booklist Online rolls out lively and informative reference blog
Contact: Mary Ellen Quinn
312-280-5720
mquinn@ala.org
NEWS
For Immediate Release
July 6, 2009
CHICAGO—
Booklist Online announces the addition of
Points of Reference to its growing family of blogs. Mary Ellen Quinn and a team of front-line experts from academic, public and school libraries post about reference sources and trends in reference publishing and services.
“The
Reference Books Bulletin [RBB] section of
Booklist reviews several hundred reference resources every year, but we’ve never had a space to talk about what’s going on at the reference desk or in reference publishing–until now,” said Quinn, editor of RBB and managing editor of
Booklist Online. “Over the next few weeks, you’ll start seeing posts from me as well as a team of reference experts ‘on the ground’ in different kinds of libraries.”
The categories of posts cover print and Web resources; current news; reference classics; technology; and general “At the Reference Desk” issues. Inaugural posts range from the informational to the humorous, including:
- Where can I find a recipe?
- We get questions….
- Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction
- Reference to Go
- Fact Man
The bloggers all write and review for a wide range of publications. They include Barbara Bibel, a reference-collection development librarian at the Oakland Public Library, Calif.; Christine Bulson, for more than 30 years an academic reference librarian and assistant director of Milne Library, SUNY Oneonta; Craig Bunch, librarian at Hamilton Middle School in Houston, Texas; Jessica E. Moyer, a doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, who teaches reference and readers’ advisory courses in the University of St. Catherine’s MLIS program; Sue Polanka, head of reference and instruction at Paul Laurence Dunbar Library, Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and chair of the RBB Editorial Board.
All readers are, of course, invited to join in the conversation by adding comments. Access Points of Reference at
http://points of reference.booklistonline.com.
Booklist’s blogs also include Book Group Buzz, Audiobooker, Bookenders and Likely Stories, all accessible from the homepage of Booklist Online:
www.booklistonline.com . The blogs are among the many free readers’ advisory and collection development resources on
Booklist Online.
Booklist is the book review magazine of the American Library Association, considered an essential collection development and readers advisory tool by thousands of librarians for more than 100 years.
Booklist Online, launched in 2006, includes more than 120,000 reviews as well as a free Web site offering the latest news and views on books and media.