Annual list of Best Historical Materials selected by RUSA’s History Section experts

BOSTON—The annual list of Best Historical materials was announced by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Book and Media Awards Ceremony at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting in Boston on Sunday.

The list recognizes the evaluation and effectiveness in coverage of historical resources in all fields of history and promotes enhanced availability of historical works and information. Published in Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ), these sources are selected by the Historical Materials committee that seeks to improve the usefulness of bibliographies and indexes in the field of history and shared among bibliographers, indexers, publishers and professional associations.

The list includes:

NPSHistory, Harry A. Butowski and Randall D. Payne

http://npshistory.com/

The National Park Service Electronic Library at: http://npshistory.com/ is a portal to National Park History and curates historical documents, videos, and other e-resources that inform visitors of a comprehensive view of the NPS (National Parks Service). The portal, while not the the official .GOV site, provides what the site creators describe as an “American history textbook”(http://npshistory.com/about_us.htm). The value of the NPSHistory site is that it provides images and documents in a hierarchical, directory-file structure under the link “Digital Library” that is sub-divided by kind of documentation and includes: books, periodicals, brochures, and reports/studies.

Digital Irish Famine Archive. Jason King.

http://faminearchive.nuigalway.ie/

Arguably the worst famine to occur in 19th century Europe, the Irish Famine was also known as the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1849. The Archive is simple and easy to navigate. Its holdings have been divided into four sections, each containing the aforementioned accounts. Each section contains downloadable PDF’s and summaries accompanied by images related to the tragedy. Overall, the Archive will be an excellent resource for high school and college students in need of primary and secondary sources about the efforts made to help the Famine’s emigrants to Canada.

Free People of Color in Louisiana, LSU Libraries

http://lib.lsu.edu/sites/all/files/sc/fpoc/

Free People of Color in Louisiana is an NEH funded project that brings together disparate archival collections of personal and family papers, documenting the lives of people of African descent who were either born free or who escaped from slavery and lived freely in the United States, prior to 1865. The site is designed to facilitate easy access to the original catalog records and finding aids for the collections from their source libraries and archives, while presenting the digitized documents together on one searchable platform. The project represents an ambitious collaboration among its contributing institutions and will be of remarkable value to legal, cultural, social, and political historians and scholars of the U.S. and of the Atlantic World more broadly.

Wooster Digital History Project, College of Wooster

http://woosterhistory.org/

Presented by the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, the Wooster Digital History Project combines resources from the college’s own Special Collections, the Wayne County Historical Society, and the Wayne County Public Library to provide a variety of online resources on the town’s history.  Included are app-based walking tours, exhibits on topics such as settlement, agriculture, social movements, and civic development, and a town map with locations linked to pages on the site.  The four tours can be viewed via either web or mobile sites. This easily navigable, appealing site provides an excellent example of well-presented local history.

The Best Historic Materials selection committee consists of Matthew J. Wayman, Penn State Schuylkill, chair; Martin Firestein, Harper College; Susan L. Malbin, American Jewish Historical Society; Sue A. McFadden, Indiana University East; Kathleen M. Monti, Harrisburg Area Community College; Alexa L. Pearce, University of Michigan; Paul Victor, Jr., Eastern Washington University; and Mary Wilke, Center for Research Libraries.

The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), 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. Learn more about RUSA’s Book and Media Awards at www.ala.org/rusa/awards.

Reference experts announce annual Outstanding Reference Sources list for adults

BOSTON – The most noteworthy reference titles published in 2015 have been named to the 2016 Outstanding References Sources List, an annual list selected by experts of the Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of ALA. The list was announced today at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in Boston.
The Outstanding Reference Sources Committee was established in 1958 to recommend the most outstanding reference publications published the previous year for small and medium-sized public and academic libraries. The selected titles are valuable reference resources and are highly recommended for inclusion in any library’s reference collections.
The winners are:
“Black Stereotypes in Popular Series Fiction, 1851-1955: Jim Crow Era Authors and Their Characters” by Bernard A. Drew. McFarland & Company, Inc.
“Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters: 956 Confederate and Union Naval and Military Personnel, Contractors, Politicians, Officials, Steamboat Pilots and Others” by Myron J. Smith, Jr. McFarland & Company, Inc.
“The Encyclopedia of Victorian Literature” Dino Franco Felluga, editor. Wiley Blackwell.
“Modern Genocide: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection” Paul R. Bartrop and Steven Leonard Jacobs, editors. ABC-CLIO.
“The Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary” by David and Ben Crystal. Oxford University Press.
“The Peterson Reference Guide to Owls of North America and the Caribbean” by Scott Weidensaul. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
“The SAGE Encyclopedia of Alcohol: Social, Cultural, and Historical Perspectives” Scott C. Martin, editor. SAGE.
“Weird Sports and Wacky Games Around the World: From Buzkashi to Zorbing” by Victoria Williams. ABC-CLIO.
“Women’s Rights in the United States: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Issues, Events, and People” Tiffany K. Wayne, editor. ABC-CLIO.
“Worldmark Global Business and Economy Issues” Miranda Herbert Ferrara, editor. Gale.
The Outstanding Reference Sources selection committee consists of Annie Fuller, St. Louis County Library, chair; Adam Jackman, Pierce County Library; Kathi Woodward, Springfield-Greene County Library; Jessica McCoullogh, Connecticut College; Shelley Arlen, University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries; Kara Krekeler, University City Public Library; Paul Walker, Bluffton University; and Laura Birkenhauer, Miami University.
The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), 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. Learn more about RUSA’s Book and Media Awards at www.ala.org/rusa/awards.

Year’s best in books and media for adults unveiled at Midwinter

All ALA Midwinter Meeting attendees are invited to celebrate the announcements of adult literature’s next classics at the Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) upcoming Book and Media Awards Ceremony and Reception in Chicago.

This year the event will host special guest Margaret Hawkins, author of “Lydia’s Party” (Viking, 2013). The Chicago-based author has written two previous novels, “A Year of Cats and Dogs” and “How to Survive a Natural Disaster” and a memoir about her sister, “After Schizophrenia: The Story of My Sister’s Reawakening.” Hawkins wrote about art for many years for the Chicago Sun-Times and is currently a senior lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Following the ceremony Hawkins will be there to sign books. You can find more information about the author at www.margarethawkins.com.

Tradition continues with the announcements of the Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration, Reading List and Notable Books List—lists that are selected and used by readers’ advisory librarians nationwide—as well as the winners of the Dartmouth Medal for a significant reference source, Sophie Brody Medal for excellence in Jewish literature, Outstanding Reference Sources and many more. Avid readers and book lovers alike are sure to expand their own To-Be-Read lists.

The reception will be held from 5 – 7 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 1 in the Williford Room of the Hilton in Chicago and will offer food and a cash bar. For those who cannot attend, information about the winners will be posted on the ALA homepage, RUSA blog and tweeted via @ala_rusa and #literarytastes. This event is made possible by our sponsor, NoveList, a division of EBSCO.

The winners announced at this event will shape the author lineup for the Literary Tastes event at ALA’s 2015 Annual Conference in San Francisco. Attendees at this free event will enjoy a light breakfast while listening to authors speak about the art and craft of writing. Immediately following the event, authors will be available for book signings. This event is free to all Annual Conference attendees; registration opens Jan. 12, 2015 at www.ala.org/annual.

 

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