Desk Set

Ready Reference for the Digital Librarian

Bibliographies:

ALA | ALSC Notable Children's Media Lists. (2011). ALSC Association for Library Service to Children. Retrieved from October 6, 2011 http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/notalists/index.cfm
This website, published by the Association for Library Service to Children, intends to list "the best of the best" in children's books and other media. Also included are winners of awards such as the Newbery, Caldecott, Batchelder, and other prestigious recognitions. The list, updated annually, is an excellent resource for reader's advisory recommendations.

Bibliographies - CCB - Illinois. (2011, October).The Center for Children's Books. Retrieved October 8, 2011, from http://ccb.lis.illinois.edu/bibliographies.html
This website provides a list of bibliographies produced by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Therefore, it's a bibliography of bibliographies. The bibliographies are abstracted from the Graduate School's journal, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, and then annotated by a staff member or a volunteer. It appears that the site is updated at least annually, if not more often. The site would be a good source for readers advisory ideas and for collection development.

Bibliography of the History of Art (Getty Research Institute). (n.d.).The Getty Research Institute. Retrieved October 8, 2011, from http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/bha/index.html
As noted in the database description provided by Dialog, this bibliography abstracts and indexes current publications in the history of art, and it is the successor to RILA (International Repertory of the Literature of Art) and RAA (Repertoire d'Art et d'Archeologie). The database is a joint effort of the Art History Information Program (AHIP) of the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique (INIST) of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. BHA records consist of bibliographic citations, abstracts, and indexing. Abstracts may be in English or French. The database is available with both English and French indexing.

Books In Print. (2010). Retrieved October 8, 2011, from http://booksinprint2.com.proxy-um.researchport.umd.edu/default.ashx?searchmode=exact
This website offers a comprehensive list of books in print and books that have been in print, and is a convenient way to browse for a book when exact information is not available. The database publisher, R.R. Bowker, claims it is the largest, unbiased and web-based bibliographic resource. The main search page also offers a "cloud" representation of terms associated with the search term one enters, as well as terms in facets to focus the results. This is a subscription database service, so it must be accessed through the UMD research port.

ODP - Open Directory Project. (2011). dmoz open directory project. Retrieved October 8, 2011, from http://www.dmoz.org/
This website proclaims itself as the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web, constructed and maintained entirely by volunteer editors. The directory is an Open Source inspired initiative, and all users must comply with a free use license. Though the Open Directory does not index the number of websites that are available through a site like Google, the website does offer users better browsing capability because of its organization through subheadings.

Oxford Bibliographies Online: Authority and Innovation for Research. (n.d.). Oxford Bibliographies Online. Retrieved October 8, 2011, from http://oxfordbibliographies.com/
This is a bibliography of bibliographies on many different topics. The site describes itself as "Authority and Innovation for Research." Though it presents itself as a subscription site, it appears to be fully functional without a subscription, in the sense that it offers sources on a wealth of topics. It's up to the user to track down the sources.

Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. (n.d.). Library of Congress. Retrieved October 8, 2011, from http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
This is a more of a conceptual bibliography, as it collects and organizations information about and digital copies of prints and photographs from the Library of Congress. Though the collections are international in scope, the emphasis is on materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the United States and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people.

Reuben, P. P. (2011, March 30). PAL: Table of Contents. PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide. Retrieved October 8, 2011, from http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/table.html
This is a bibliography of reference and criticism on the subject of American literature. The compiler is a professor emeritus at California State University, Stanislaus, and this seems to have been his magnum opus, as he is credited for no other publications. The bibliography material begins with Puritan literature and extends to the present. Each listed author has a page with primary works and a selected bibliography. This website could thus offer suggestions about a good place to start with a project about American literature. One note that is occasionally disappointing: none of the pages link to digital resources.