This webinar introduces Guide to Reference, an online resource that provides evaluations of over 17,000 reference sources. It aims to show how Guide to Reference can support reference, collection development, and teaching. The webinar discusses the history and strengths of Guide to Reference, including its selective and broad coverage across many subjects. It highlights how the online version allows for powerful searching, saving work, and sharing annotations. The webinar also addresses current challenges in reference, collection development, and teaching, and how Guide to Reference can help address them. It demonstrates key features like the taxonomy, Editor's Guides, and saving searches before concluding with next steps and Q&A.

1. Essentials Webinar

2. Guide to Reference
Essentials Webinar
Welcome
Today we’ll introduce you to Guide to
Reference, a foundational tool for
librarians, teachers, researchers,
students, and other library users. We’ll
show you how it can help you in your
work.

3. Our goal today
We’ll show you how to leverage Guide
to Reference to support your work in
the following areas:
» Reference
» Collection development
» Teaching and training

4. Who we are
James Hennelly
Managing Editor, ALA Digital Reference
Dan Kaplan
Marketing Manager, ALA Publishing
Special Guest
Denise Beaubien Bennett
General Editor of Guide to Reference

5. Preliminaries
If you have questions, please submit them
through the questions function during the
presentation.
We’ll collect your questions and answer them
during the webinar and during the Q&A at the
end.
For any technical difficulties, please send a
questions to Dan Kaplan.

6. Library Journal’s 2012 Best
Database
Library Journal named Guide to
Reference as the Best Database in
the Professional Resource Category
in 2012.
This award was based on votes from
librarians, readers of LJ, and
reviewers.

7. Guide to Reference is
―(1) a reference manual . . . ; (2) a selection
aid for the librarian; (3) a textbook for the
student who . . . is pursuing a systematic
study of reference books.‖
Constance Winchell
Preface to the 8th edition, 1967

8. The premier evaluative
bibliography
» Reflects the accumulated knowledge and
wisdom of the reference community over
many years
» Continues to serve as a center for learning
about and practicing reference
librarianship
» Some call it ―the Bible‖ of reference
sources

9. How does the Guide do it?
» It’s selective and broad in coverage
» It gives you nearly 17,000 of the best and
most authoritative reference sources in 56
disciplines arranged under 6 major subject
divisions, with in-depth annotations
» It’s kept up-to-date by an Editorial Board
and 70+ contributing editors—your
colleagues and peers in the reference
community
» greditor@ala.org

10. Traditional strengths
» Titles are chosen by reference librarians
and subject experts
» In-depth evaluative annotations
» Broad subject coverage: General
Reference Works; Humanities; Social and
Behavioral Sciences; History and Area
Studies; Science, Technology, and
Medicine

11. New strengths
» Sources include cutting-edge online
resources and websites, free and licensed
» Powerful and versatile search and browse
» Interactive features that let you save and
share your work
» New interdisciplinary fields: Cognitive
Science; Communication/Media Studies;
Environmental, Cultural, and Gender
Studies

12. The advantages of being
online
» Quickly browse and search in many
subject areas
» Customize and save your searches
» Create lists of resources and share
» Add notes/comments to titles and share
» Hyperlink among titles inside and outside
the Guide
» Connect to local holdings via WorldCat

13. Reference
» Direct library users to best and most
authoritative sources for answers
» Train and orient new reference staff and
students/paraprofessional staff
» Create subject bibliographies, finding
aids, and instructional materials

14. Reference: Current
Challenges
» Reference questions are fewer but
―harder‖
» More questions require subject or content
knowledge
» Too much dependence on Google and
other search engines

15. Reference: How the Guide
can help
» Find best sources quickly by drilling down
into taxonomy and by refining searches
» Use Editor’s Guides for orientation
» Use annotations for guidance
» Create lists of resources for bibliographies
and finding aids
» Save your best searches for regular use

16. Collection development
» Evaluate your collection:
» What’s missing
» What needs to be updated
» What should be retired
» Build collections for new programs and for
special libraries (law, medicine,
corporate)

17. Collection Development
Current Challenges
» Making do with less: Budget cuts
» Print vs. online sources
» Buying for library staff vs. library users
» Small collection development staff; limited
staff time

18. Collection Development
How the Guide can help
» Use Editor’s Guides to understand shape
and direction of reference literature
» Use annotations to compare resources
» Create lists of titles for possible purchase
and share with colleagues
» Add notes/comments to titles that should
be updated or retired
» Customize and save searches to run at
regular intervals

19. Teaching and Training
» Introduce next generation of reference
librarians to reference sources and
reference practices
» Differentiate among types of reference
sources and their value and use
» Communicate nature of information-
seeking and reference process

20. Teaching and Training
Current Challenges
» Value of bibliographies and traditional
reference works in an online world
» Difference between print and online
sources
» Too much dependence on Google and
other search engines

21. Teaching and Training
How the Guide can help
» Orient students to the taxonomy
» Ask students to read Editor’s Guides
» Ask students to evaluate different
resources based on their annotations
» Ask students to find best resources for
answering questions
» Ask students to create subject guides
» Create lists of resources for class projects

22. Three major points of entry
» Home page – take a trial; subscribe;
participate and connect
» Browse page – see the subject
organization of the Guide at a glance
» Advanced Search page – construct and
manage your searches

23. Take advantage of Editor’s
Guides
» They discuss overall shape of reference
literature in different subject areas
» They discuss characteristics of the
literature outside the scope of annotations
» They discuss changes to publishing and
research patterns caused by the online
revolution
» They’re written by the Editorial Board and
contributing editors

24. If you like your search,
save it and run it later

25. Wrapping up
» Taking a trial
» Subscribing
» Special offer for LIS programs
» We’ll archive this webinar
» guidetoreference@ala.org
» greditor@ala.org

26. Q & A
We’re ready to answer your questions

27. Guide to Reference Essentials
Webinars
» Recurring series of webinars every
other month
» Please tell your colleagues about the
webinars
» Join us again
» We welcome any feedback
» Contact us at:
guidetoreference@ala.org