Scholarly collection of slang honored with 2012 Dartmouth Medal for outstanding reference work of the year

DALLAS - The 2012 Dartmouth Medal - an annual award from the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) recognizing the most outstanding reference work of the year - has been awarded to “Green’s Dictionary of Slang,” published by Chambers.

The dictionary was selected for its comprehensive and inclusive scholarship for slang in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and other English speaking countries. This source covers 500 years of slang usage with 110,000 words and phrases, more than 400,000 citations and 6,000 titles as sources. Scholars of language and history, as well as creative writers, and a wide range of curious readers will enjoy this dictionary for many years.

In addition to the winning title, the award committee also named the "International Encyclopedia of Political Science," published by Sage Reference in association with the International Political Science Association, as an honorable mention. Its international scope, objective coverage and extensive bibliographies will appeal to a broad readership. This collaborative effort of international scholars from 40 countries contains more than 1,500 articles about political science, foreign policy, law and religion.  

The committee will also present a Lifetime Achievement Award to the "Statistical Abstract of the United States," published by the United States Department of Commerce, which, for the last 133 years, has been one of the premier reference sources. It is the recognized authority for U.S. statistics and serves as an entrée into government documents. It went electronic early, in 1993, and continues to be viable in print. The legacy of the Statistical Abstract will continue as it provides an in-depth snapshot of American life.  

The Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, represents librarians and library staff in the fields of reference, specialized reference, collection development, readers advisory and resource sharing. RUSA is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need. Not a member, but  interested in discounted registration rates on conference, preconferences and other events? Join, renew or add RUSA to your ALA membership at www.ala.org/membership. Learn more about the association at www.ala.org/rusa.