The webinar provided an overview of the Guide to Reference and how it can be used for reference, collection development, and teaching. It introduced the editors of the mathematics section, John Meier and Annie Zeidman-Karpinski, who discussed how they work as a team to select entries and described challenges such as working with interdisciplinary topics. The webinar demonstrated features of the Guide and encouraged librarians to get involved by contributing notes, becoming editors, or subscribing their libraries.

1. Essentials Webinar

2. Preliminaries
Please submit questions through the question
function at any time during the presentation.
We’ll answer them during the Q&A at the end.
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We will archive the slides and video of this
presentation sometime next week.

3. Who we are
Melissa Wood
Sales and Marketing Director, ALA Digital Reference
James Hennelly
Managing Editor, ALA Digital Reference
Denise Beaubien Bennett
General Editor of the Guide to Reference
Special Guests
John Meier
Annie Zeidman-Karpinski
Editors, Mathematics Section of the Guide to Reference

4. Guide to Reference
Essentials Webinar
The 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. Our outline today
1. How to leverage Guide to Reference
to support your work in:
» Reference
» Collection development
» Teaching and training
2. Case study of the Mathematics
section

9. 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

10. Reference: Current
Challenges
» Reference questions are fewer but
“harder”
» More questions require subject or content
knowledge
» Print and online reference sources not
housed together for easy scanning

11. 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

12. Collection development
» Evaluate your collection:
» What’s missing
» What needs to be updated
» What can be withdrawn or sent to
circulating stacks
» Build collections for new programs and for
special libraries (law, medicine,
corporate)

13. Collection Development
Current Challenges
» Budget cuts: fewer sources bought
» Dilemma of buying print vs. online
» Convenience of format for staff vs. patrons
» Fewer collection experts; limited staff time

14. 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

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

16. 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

17. Case study: Mathematics
Meet the Math editors
How the discipline affects their
selection of entries in the Guide
How they work as a team

18. John Meier
 Science Librarian
 Penn State University
 Physical and
Mathematical
Sciences Library
 Subjects: Math,
Statistics, Patents
and Trademarks

19. The Guide to Reference
Mathematics Section
Learn mathematics reference resources
rapidly
For electronic resources you can be sure of
quality and currency of information
History and longevity important in
mathematics

20. The Accidental Math Librarian ™
In lean budget times, it is more likely that
you may gain new subject responsibilities
(or additional duties as assigned) in your
job
As branch libraries close, collections and
services for those subjects will move to
main libraries and service points.

21. The laboratory of Math is the library

22. Problems in mathematics can remain unsolved
for centuries before a proof is discovered.
Fermat’s Last Theorem, Poincaré conjecture

24. Looking Forward
Math is interdisciplinary, a foundational
science
Mathematicians are very open about their
work and often strong Open Access
supporters
You don’t have to be a mathematician to
be a math librarian

25. Annie Zeidman-Karpinski
Science & Technology
Services Librarian
University of Oregon
Science and (separate)
Math Libraries
Subjects: Math,
Computer Science
and Human Physiology

26. Working Together

27. Workflow

28. Co-authoring (Zentralblatt MATH)
Free version:
It will display only three results, but can see the entire entry for those
three results – this includes the citation, summary, and the links. They
seem to be in chronological order and you can’t change it. You
get everything you’d expect for full access, but for only three
results.
Full, paid version:
With the full version, you’ll get more results for your search criteria, but
the first three results are in an entirely different order. It’s not
immediately obvious how the results are displayed, and it doesn’t
allow you to re-sort them without changing your search terms.
Although that’s easy enough to do.
When we want to confirm a citation, it’s really helpful, even the free
version, as we only need one – two results. The reviews seem to be
more of a summary and abstract of the article written in easy to
understand English. Compared to entries in MathSciNet which tend
to be more of a discussion of the arguments in the article.

31. Thanks to John and
Annie!
Let’s view more features
of the Guide

32. Getting involved
» Incorporate into LIS assignments
» Create public notes
» Become an editor – watch for calls
» Want to do what John and Annie do?

33. Wrapping up
» Sign up for a trial
» Subscribe at your library
» Special offer for LIS programs
» We’ll archive the slides and a video
of this webinar sometime next week

34. Q & A
» We’ll answer your questions!
» Contact us at:
» guidetoreference@ala.org
» greditor@ala.org

35. 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