Editorial

Citation

Chalcraft, A. (2005), "Editorial", Reference Reviews, Vol. 19 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/rr.2005.09919eaa.001

Editorial

Just before I sat down to compile this issue of Reference Reviews I was flicking through the publisher catalogues that tile my desk when, in that of UK publisher Facet Publishing (until recently Library Association Publishing), I noticed an announcement for The New Walford. According to the publicity blurb, which can also be viewed at www.lapwing.org.uk/cgi-bin/ miva?lap/merchant.mv+Screen=PROD&Store_Code= 1&Product_Code=515&Category_Code=877, the first volume of a three volume set is due for release in June, and should therefore be available by the time this column is being read. My attention was drawn to this announcement for three reasons: first, I should declare an interest in that I spent 13 years working on the “old” Walford and have a natural curiosity about its future; second, the imminence of a new Walford has been trumpeted by Facet for several years so it is a relief that promise appears about to become reality; and third, and most importantly, the revival of the title after a five year hiatus is a major development in reference and information publishing which is worthy of both note and celebration.

We will be reviewing The New Walford in depth in a future issue of this journal, but it is worth taking time here to reflect on significance of Walford and similar works. In its heyday Walford was the reference “Bible”, in the UK at least. Originally the single-handed labour and scholarship of the redoubtable John Walford, another great hero of the reference and information world, it was one of a number of attempts, now mostly abandoned, to identify and briefly describe all the major works of reference likely to be of use in a general public or academic library setting. This was an awesome undertaking, even when begun by John Walford back in 1959. It had precursors, of course, most notably the American Library Association’s Guide to Reference Books which begun as long ago as 1902 and last appeared in 1986 (Sheehy, 1986), and this will no doubt be the title more familiar to North American readers. There were other lesser-known attempts at global reference guides too, including the French language Les Sources du Travail Bibliographique (Malclès 1950-1958) and its updates and the German language Handbuch der Bibliographischen Nachschlagewerke (Totok and Weitzel 1984-1985).

What all these guides had in common was the aim of providing librarians with a navigational chart to the ocean of reference sources. What defeated them was the ever changing and expanding nature of that ocean, particularly when the electronic gale whipped it into a maelstrom of endless new products and innovation. Can the New Walford therefore succeed where others have faltered and been abandoned? Even if it does succeed in identifying and documenting major contemporary reference sources, how can it remain up to date and will librarians actually use it, especially when they have recourse to the plethora of electronic reference portals now available such as subject gateways, the likes of Oxford Reference Online or xRefer, not to mention Google and Google Scholar. The truth probably is that reference and information work has moved on. Electronic information sources have to some extent rendered a guide of the Walford type redundant. If we do need a new guide to the universe of reference information then what we need is a wholly electronic one. There are some small-scale versions available, but we need an inspirational individual or team to take up the challenge and develop an electronic international reference portal incorporating all major sources of reference information in one database that would act as a launching point for any enquiry requiring a voyage in unfamiliar waters. Is there anyone out there to ready to take up the challenge?

One source that would be certain to feature in any guide to major reference sources is H. W. Wilson’s Biography Reference Bank (RR 2005/271). Billed as the company’s “largest database yet” it is based on a vast range of Wilson and other biographical information sources. Together with other recently reviewed databases, particularly World Biographical Information System (RR 2005/115), it will continue to transform the process of locating biographical information. The last edition of Walford had about 325 entries for biographical information sources. A library that has access to Biography Reference Bank or World Biographical Information System is unlikely to need to check any of these as both sources, but especially the former, offer “one-stop” shopping providing a guide and source rolled into one.

Another major guide or portal site reviewed in this issue is GrayLit Network (RR 2005/258). Acting as a key to documents on five US federal government servers this free site helps unlock that vast morass of hard-to-find technical information frequently overlooked by conventional databases or catalogues. Another important electronic source subject to our scrutiny is Victoria Research Web (RR 2005/275). This established and respected site, also freely accessible to all, has as one of its chief features a page linking to other Victorian web sites – again it is both information bank and guide to further sources.

Another source that might be considered an “information bank”, but this time in printed form, is CBD’s longstanding Directory of European Professional and Learned Societies now in its 6th edition (RR 2005/227). One of relatively few reference works outside the commercial information sector with Europe wide scope to have stood the test of time, it is joined in this issue of Reference Reviews by Graham and Whiteside’s equally enduring Major Companies of Europe (RR 2005/243), a source that has been published annually since 1982. On a different tack, Encyclopedia of Geology (RR 2005/256) is a further major multi-volume work from Elsevier Academic Press. Like other titles from this publisher it appears the printed set will be followed by an electronic version. Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity from Gale (RR 2005/237) is a three-volume title of 350 articles covering a topic still much in the news – as I write this piece further awful information on the scale of the killings in southern Sudan is being broadcast on the radio.

Another region that saw genocide on a hideous scale not to long ago was Southeast Asia where Cambodia was subject to the hideous atrocities of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. This is one of hundreds of topics featured in Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia (RR 2005/278), a new three-volume work from ABC-Clio. Culinary related reference works have cropped up regularly in this journal of late and here we have two more. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (RR 2005/267) has already won awards in the USA and is joined here by Fitzroy Dearborn’s Encyclopedia of Kitchen History (RR 2005/257). Finally, although there is much else in this issue of Reference Reviews worthy of mention, I will end this overview by flagging the revamping of a nineteenth-century reference source. Chambers Book of Days (RR 2005/272) first appeared in 1864. Now it has been completely revised by the Edinburgh based publisher and forms a model work of its kind, one that, no doubt, like most of the others I have mentioned, should receive an entry in the appropriate section of the revived Walford.

Anthony ChalcraftEditor Reference Reviews and College Librarian, York St John College, York, UK