Recommended Reference Books for Small and Medium-Sized Libraries and Media Centers

摘要

Recognizing that the American Reference Books Annual (AREA) includes many entries for works irrelevant to smaller libraries, the editors have designed this title to "assist smaller libraries in the systematic selection of suitable reference materials for their collections" (xi). By reducing the number of entries from the more than 1,500 included in ARBA to a more manageable 554, they have created a work that should prove of value to many smaller libraries. Each of the entries is taken directly from ARBA, which in turn takes most of its entries from review journals. Thus, there is little in the way of original material outside of the introduction. The entries are divided into thirty-seven chapters, each conveniently divided into four major categories: general works, social sciences, humanities, and science and technology. Both the categories and their subdivisions work well in allowing users easily to locate materials relevant to the topic for which they are searching. In addition to the breakdown in the table of contents, there is an author/title index and a subject index at the back of the book, enabling easy access.