How can I find a report on reading statistics in the U.S.?

Today a newsletter called Smart Libraries was left in my mailbox. ALA TechSource publishes this newsletter. On the third page, they include an article on the most recent reading report created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is titled "Reading on the Rise. Basically, they claim that reading has increased in the last few years--not dramatically, but they have been able to measure it to some degree.

Naturally, this is good news. Reading in general, even literary titles like novels, poetry, and plays, tends to result in social benefits. In a previous report NEA completed in 2004, reading had gone down: Reading at Risk Report.

I appreciate that the author of this newsletter article, Tom Peters, inserted statistics on persons who listen to audiobooks, why they do it, and how they are more likely to read a physical book than someone who doesn't listen to an audiobook. Most people find audiobooks at a local library and do so for long trips, exercise, or to reduce monotony on their daily commutes. It appears, though, that downloaded electronic books are becoming more popular. He found many of these statistics via the APA Press Release.

Libraries, of course, promote reading, and librarians should be aware of the different formats in which people "read" and make them as easily accessible as possible.

Information Literacy Article by William Badke

William Badke continues to champion the cause of information literacy. As a prolific author, he addresses many facets of finding, evaluating, interpreting, and using information. Though I have not done so yet, it would be a good idea to read his book Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog, 3rd. ed., which was published just last year.

I have enjoyed reading his regular "Infolit Land" column in Online: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals. His Jan/Feb article is titled: "Professors and Personal Information Literacy." In it he describes three different professors he has known (of course he conceals their identity). Professor A comes to him and essentially wants him to do the research for him--a literature review (47). Professor B, on the other hand, copies down search terms and techniques, while not exactly grasping the larger information-literacy strategy. Finally, Badke explains how Professor C brings his students to the Library every semester for instruction, introduces the class, and emphasizes the value of what they've have been taught (48).

Before writing, I had not paid attention to the sections of the article, which shed more light on the character of each professor type here: (a) intermediary dependent, (b) strategy determination, and (c) teachable professor. This article is worth reading.

Badke makes some excellent points, so I'd like to quote him directly:

I've started to wonder if faculty members who are passively resistant to information literacy instruction are guided less by pride than by a lack of belief that information literacy can be taught at all. Most faculty members fell into their own research skills just because they are gifted academically. No one taught them, and they can't even remember learning how to do research. To them, teaching a student how to do research is like teaching critical thinking. Academics are always talking about it, but few have any sort of notion of a pedagogy that could actually bring it about. You learn it by doing it, so how can it be taught. (48)

He says it better than I can. Badke acknowledges that his generalizations do not ring true for every academic in higher education. There are professors who dedicate time to understanding pedagogy and how to really foster critical-thinking skills, but they seem to be in minority. Many academics worry a great deal about covering the content in their courses. Content/knowledge is very important, but understanding how people came to that knowledge is just as important, as is knowing why that knowledge is important and how it impacts other knowledge.

I suppose that if I were to disagree with one thing that Badke says in the last quote, I would take issue with the assertion that "Most faculty members fell into their own research skills just because they are gifted academically. No one taught them, and they can't even remember learning how to do research." In many cases I would think that professors picked up research tips and insights a little bit at a time from a classmate here, a thesis adviser there, an observation they make while combing through footnotes, and sometimes even from a librarian. If it takes a village to raise a child, maybe it takes an invisible college to raise an academic.

On the bright side, it seems that Badke's comments in this article would align well with Ken Bain's ideas in What the Best College Teachers Do; the best college teachers are teachable themselves, make an honest effort to understand their students, and sympathetically invite them to learn--not always relying on just one or two methods.

One other thing that Badke says caught my interest.

But easier search tools do not mean better searches. Abandoning sophistication often means abandoning effective and comprehensive academic research. (49)

Librarians like to hear this sort of thing; it's very vindicating, and it encourages us to go forward in our efforts to convince students of the value of the databases they pay for themselves with their tuition dollars. Taking the time to learn how to search the databases can be very useful, not only for students, but also for faculty.

By the way, I do agree that "easier search tools do not mean better searches."

Tagging Library Catalogs

Would you like to make a comment on a book, video, or other item in your library's catalog? Do you wish to see user-generated keywords/tags next to a bibliographic record in a catalog? If given the choice, would you write a book review for a book in your library? Some libraries have already begun to explore options that allow users do some of these things that can already be done on Amazon. These kinds of catalogs would be called SOPACS, or social online public access catalogs.

Library Hi Tech published an artitle titled "Subjecting the catalog to tagging" by Luiz H. Mendes, Jennie Quinonez-Skinner, and Danielle Skaggs. They talk about a study they conducted on their library's implementation of LibraryThing tags into their catalog. LibraryThing allows its users to catalog their own personal book collections and assign their own personal subject headings, which they call tags. When a user adds a book to their account, they can describe that book with descriptors. Whenever they login to their account, they can click on any of these descriptors to find all the books listed under that heading.

The authors of this article hail from California State University, Northridge, and their library, the Oviatt Library, has pulled these user-generated tags from LibraryThing, using the ISBN numbers. In their discussion section, they claim: "For every new book a user discovers using LCSH headings they will discover four books using LTFL [LibraryThing for Libraries = user-generated tags]. This type of data captures sheer numbers, with the potential for increased resource discovery" (39). They recognize that this does not equate directly to relevancy, but it certainly seems like a step in a positive direction for social OPACs.

I like the idea of having people select user-generated tags, because these tags often reflect more closely the modern-day language people use. One of the standard examples of out-of-date subject headings in the Library of Congress classification system is "cookery," which is the subject heading for cookbooks and cooking. Library patrons would prefer to find just what they want with "cookbooks," and some tags would help them find more specific results more directly, such as "vegan cookbooks," that a user-generated tag might offer.

Choosing a Career

What do you like? Knowing which subjects you like and do well with can help you know which careers would be suitable for you.
The following site helps answer this question by suggesting school subjects and the careers that align best with those subjects. The site also outlines the basic educational requirements, salary ranges, future outlook of the career, number of such positions in the country, etc.

• What do you like? www.bls.gov/k12

For a larger listing of careers, take a look at the Occupational Outlook
Handbook. It provides some of the same kinds of information, except it offers more details. A listing of jobs can be viewed in alphabetical order or browsed by category.

• Occupational Outlook Handbook: www.bls.gov/OCO

To gauge your interest in various careers, take a questionnaire or look at the
resources on the Career Interest Guide.

• Career Interest Guide
• Career Interest Guide Questionnaire
• Career Interest Area

Look at a few books:

• College Majors Handbook with Real Career Paths and Payoffs : the actual jobs, earnings, and trends for graduates of 60 college majors. Reference Collection (1st Floor). Call Number: HF5382.5.U5 F644 2004.
• The Compleat Academic : A Career Guide. Main Book Collection (2nd Floor). Call Number: H62.C584824 2004.
• Internships : theory and practice / by Charles H. Sides and Ann Mrvica. Main Book Collection (2nd Floor). Call Number: LC1072.I58 S53 2007.
• Vault Guide to Top Internships. Reference Collection (1st Floor). Call Number: LC1072.I58 V38 2004.

3 Things to Consider

1. Will it support you and your [future] household?
2. Is it something that interests you? Would you enjoy the work in that field?
3. Will there be demand for this career, or job path? Is there a demand right now?


Need to talk with someone?

Visit ISU’s Academic Advising Center: www.isu.edu/advising
Administration Building - 3rd Floor, Room 316

Job Search Websites

Job Search Websites

Many of these popular job-search websites will allow you to create a free profile, where you can upload your resume and search for job openings. You can search by location or by job title.

1. Monster.com
2. Usajobs.opm.gov
3. Careerbuilder.com
4. Collegerecruiter.com: claims to help students find internships and entry-level jobs for recent graduates.
5. Hotjobs.yahoo.com
6. Labor.idaho.gov: Idaho Department of Labor website. Search for jobs and find recommendations for effective job searches.
7. Career.com
8. Job.com
9. Indeed.com
10. Jobcentral.com

Websites with Tips and Suggestions

1. PriceWaterhouseCoopers: "10 Tips to Recession-Proof Your Job Search" by Lindsey Pollack.
2. Rileyguide.com
a. How to Job Search
b. Before You Search
c. Sites with Job Listings
d. Resumes & Cover Letters
e. Salary Guides
3. Truecareers.com
a. Resume Help
b. Resume Writing
4. Usajobs.opm.gov
a. Student Jobs: www.studentjobs.gov.
b. Government Jobs
c. Career Exploration
d. Career Interest Guide
e. Career Interest Guide Questionnaire
f. Career Interest Areas
5. Careeronestop.org
a. Explore Careers
b. Salary and Benefits
c. Education and Training
d. Job Search
e. Resumes and Interviews
f. People and Places to Help

Other Websites

1. ISU Career Center: Find out their hours, so you can go talk to the experts. Learn how to find and prepare for internships and job opportunities. Develop interviewing skills. Search for jobs here at ISU.
2. Company websites: if you know where you want to work, try looking at well-known companies in that area to see if they have any interesting and relevant job openings. A typical search engine will help you find most company websites.
3. Industry, Trade, or Professional Associations: membership allows you access to their job-searching engines. Exs: American Engineering Association, American Bankers Association, and Chronicle of Higher Education (see their Careers section).
4. Delicious.com/sjardine/jobs. Find bookmarked websites, including the ones listed here and blogs that list even more.

Information in this post was presented during a workshop on job searching in the Eli M. Oboler Library on April 15, 2009.

LexisNexis Academic = Great for Finding Court Cases

One of our most versatile resources, this database provides access to scholarly research, newspaper articles, business data, and legal materials. It allows its users to search the archives of specific newspapers or journals, including the local paper like the Post Register and national ones like The New York Times. The legal tab provides options for searching tax law, federal and state cases, Shepard’s Citations, as well as federal and state laws (the database uses the word “code” here). In the business tab you can search for company-specific information: its history, current value of their stocks, names of its executives, contact information, and more. For help with this resource, talk to the librarians at the reference desk.

I just helped a student today find some Idaho case called State v. Guzman, which he knew had taken place in 1992. Under the Legal tab, LexisNexis allows you to input case names by providing two empty search boxes with a "v." between them. When we searched for "State v. Guzman" there were about 200 results that turned up, and we even had specified "Idaho" as a source or option. When he keyed "Idaho State v. Guzman," we found it right away.

LexisNexis Academic seems to be a lot more user friendly than it used to be a few years ago, but many still consider it to be user unfriendly. The way they display the results it not useful--the typeface does not make it easy to separate the different elements of the result. It can still be a very powerful database, though.

Apollo vs. Dionysus

Since I started using Google Analytics, I have noticed trends over time. One trend seems to perfectly match a phenomenon my humanities teacher at Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) brought to my class's attention. He commented that Apollo ruled the college campus on Tuesday night (perhaps even Monday and Wednesday nights), while Dionysus reigned over the weekend.

Apollo, the god of reason, guides humans to intellectual endeavors and contributing to society. Dionysus, on the other hand, was the god of wine and revelry. This blog, with its focus on finding information (particularly in an academic/education) setting, seems to be accessed most during the middle of the week, notably on Tuesdays, while it is not uncommon for it to go unnoticed on the weekends.

Information behavior of the population at large is probably rather predictable. No doubt, there are probably articles written about this and that marketers and advertisers understand this phenomenon.

Useful Websites for Beginners, Computer Problems, and & Everyone

As I librarian, I frequently receive library-focused magazines and journals. Like other librarians across the country/world, I am expected to keep up on library trends, research, events, etc. There are several periodicals that get routed in my direction. Ideally, I should look at them promptly to allow my colleagues an opportunity to peruse them as well, though I am not as successful in this department as I ought to be. Anyway, I recently read a little article by Jessamyn West titled "Tips: tech tips for every librarian," published in the March 2009 issue of Computers in Libraries (30-31).

I recommend that librarians look at this article, because it provides some ideas for computer-lab policies, tells about some basic websites to help novice computer users, identifies other sites that can answer questions about websites and computer problems, and introduces personally useful and amusing websites. If you want to browse some of these websites, take a look at some of my recent Delicious bookmarks, particularly the computer and humor bookmarks.

The newer "humor," "funny," and "fun" bookmarks tag websites known as single-serving sites, meaning that these sites typically include just one solitary webpage. Ryan Greenberg explains in better detail than I can what a single-serving site is: http://isthisyourpaperonsingleservingsites.com/. Be forewarned that if you start taking a look at his list of single-serving sites you might fall into a time sink-hole.

For info-lit gurus, West makes known a website that reveals the author of any given website: www.whoistheauthor.com. Knowing who the author of a website is can be rather illuminating, since it helps you begin to understand their level of expertise and bias. Check it out.

Working with Faculty on Library Assignments

Today I was made aware of an excellent post on the "In the Library with the Lead Pipe" blog. It talks about librarians working with faculty in a positive way. I'm glad that Ellie Collier wrote this very helpful post on communicating with campus faculty about library assignments. I particularly appreciate the possible responses that one could send to a faculty member; they are very diplomatic and respectful.

Our First Year Seminar program directors believe that a library scavenger hunt would be a great tool for introducing the freshmen to the campus library. I think that a well-crafted scavenger hunt might be a good experience for freshmen who have never entered a larger library in their lives, such as our campus library.

Of course, capitalizing on what the Library has would be optimal. For example, some students may not be aware of the student lounge, location/availability of study rooms, computer usage, how to find a book on the shelf, etc. They may not consider the Library as a relaxing place where they may read popular magazines or check their email.

My experience has been that all students do not appreciate the library tour very much, so they might learn more from a scavenger hunt that they work on with a small group of their peers, especially peers they did not know previously. A First Year Seminar program ought to facilitate networking among students. Perhaps I am digressing, but a (library) scavenger hunt done as a group could help new freshmen get to know someone they might not have. Their instructors know who they pal up with in the class, so they can assign students to groups with individuals other than their pals.

I appreciate how Ellie mentioned why some library assignments are bad. Sometimes I hear people disparage scavenger hunts in blanket statements, and it makes me hesitate to ask why, as if it should be intrinsically known already. If we can talk about the reasons why they are taboo/bad, then maybe we can find solutions for improving them.

While library tours are not the most enthralling events for freshmen, many of them do appreciate learning about the existence of computers, study rooms, and reference librarians. If nothing else, they seem to enjoy the rare books in our Special Collections: pop-up books, art books [they think the shoe book is cool], the 16th-century book of sermons by John Calvin, and ISU maps.

Finding Dissertations & Theses

In the last two months I have been working on a tutorial that incorporates an audio component. The Instructional Technology Resource Center or ITRC helped me download Adobe Presenter software, which allows me to add audio to a PowerPoint Presentation. They allow faculty and staff on campus to publish these audio presentations to their servers.

It really was not as difficult as I feared that it would be. I created a tutorial on finding dissertations and theses at Idaho State University: http://breeze1.isu.edu/dissertations. It begins with a brief overview of the the ProQuest database, Dissertations and Theses--A&I, which can really be a useful source for finding graduate studies on all kinds of subjects. Abstracts and full citations appear with other information, such as the names of committee members. They also provide options for purchasing a copy in various formats, beginning at $34.00. It is a good place to start when doing graduate research and discovering research that has already been done, so you do not duplicate your efforts.

Then I go through the steps of securing a dissertation via Interlibrary Loan. Colleagues in the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) department like to emphasize that a thesis or dissertation is considered a book, and requestors need to remember this.

Not all institutions allow their theses and dissertations to be borrowed; however, researchers do have the opportunity to purchase a copy through the Dissertation Service. They just need to fill out a Purchase a Thesis/Dissertation Form. A photocopy of the book will be made and sent to the proper persons; their university account will be billed $29.00.

Finally, I conclude the tutorial with tips on how to found in-house theses and dissertations at ISU's Oboler Library. The Library's catalog still serves as a great tool (and probably the only tool) for browsing ISU's theses and dissertations online. Using keywords such as "thesis 'idaho state'" will allow anyone to browse all the theses and dissertations. It so happens that even for the dissertations the keyword "thesis" works, since the bibliographic record contains a note, saying it is a "Thesis" for a doctoral degree, or a doctoral thesis.

If grad students or faculty want to limit the results to a specific department, then they can just add the name of that department to the Keyword Boolean or Quick search: "thesis 'idaho state' anthropology." This will retrieve more results than a search on the subject heading. For example, "Dissertations, Academic--Idaho State University. Dept. of Political Science" will only retrieve 21 results, yet a Keyword Boolean search for "thesis and 'idaho state' and 'political science'" will yield 60 results. The subject headings are still relatively new, so if you also want the older titles written by former students I recommend this second search.

The tutorial, "How Can I Find Dissertations: Using ISU's Resources to Conduct More Exhaustive Research" lasts for twelve minutes and thirty-two seconds (12:32). Take a look at it and let me know what you think.

Evaluating E-mails, Urban Myths, and Legends

Not too long ago I received a forwarded email that warned me about solicitors being able to contact me via my cell phone. It said that I should contact the Do Not Call Registry to place my cell phone number on the list before a specific date, so telemarketers would not call on my cell phone. From experience I decided to double-check this information on Snopes.com, and I learned that the claim made in the email was "false."

The website even provided examples of the false email, how it originated, and information about cell phone directories. It mentions that cell-phone providers must gain permission from their customers before they can list their cell-phone numbers in a directory. Cell phone users may still choose to put their phone numbers on the Do Not Call Registry; however, this may not be necessary, because Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations already block nearly all telemarketers' phone calls.

New legislation was passed in 2007 that made it so your phone number on the Do Not Call Registry will not expire after 5 years; this according to the Federal Trade Commission.

How can we trust Snopes.com? This site includes hyperlinks to other sites that verify their information, and they also include a list of references with each entry. If you receive emails that detail dire situations and call you to act immediately, then you might consider verifying that information to find out if it is true or false. It might be a rumor.

Of course, it is also important to check out the sources, or the authors of a site to look at its authoritative nature. Barbara and David P. Mikkelson created the website, and you can learn more about them through this Wikipedia article.

Want to subscribe to a magazine or journal?

In the last week I have recommended ulrichsweb.com to two different individuals. The first called while I was at the Reference Desk. He wanted to know how he could set up his own personal subscriptions to some education journals. The second wanted to know if we had access to Art Journal and how he might start up a subscription.

Ulrichsweb.com takes you to Ulrich's Periodicals Directory. You may browse magazines and journals, or search for a specific title. You can do a keyword search, exact title search, or keyword within the title search. For most individuals the exact title search might prove to be the most useful.

Once you find the expanded record of a particular periodical, you will be able to discover if it is peer reviewed (they use the term "refereed"), its price, number of subscriptions (circulation), its publisher, contact information, its web address, its frequency (weekly, bimonthly, quarterly, annually, etc.), its language, its editor, and so forth. It also provides the different names it has had through the years.

Some students and professors want to know for sure if a periodical is peer reviewed, so this resource provides just that. I also noticed in the EBSCOhost interface on pages that provide links to the issues of a particular magazine or journal it also say if the periodical is peer reviewed or refereed.

Finding Scholarships, Fellowships, Grants, and Loans

Do you need some scholarship money to help pay for your schooling? Where can you go for help? If you want to search for yourself, you might try conducting some internet searches to find databases with scholarship information, such as www.scholarships.com and Adventures in Education's Scholarship site.

Another option would be to find a reference book at your library that has already compiled contact information of organizations that offer scholarships. At the Idaho State University Library there are at least two books, which might prove useful:
1. The Scholarship Book. 12th Edition. The Complete Guide to Private-Sector Scholarships, Fellowships, Grants, and Loans for the Undergraduate. It contains 4,000 scholarship sources, 400,000 awards worth over $2 billion, and awards up to $40,000 per year. Editors have organized this book by the major fields of study: art, business, education, engineering, humanities, mathematics, science, social sciences, vocational education, and general studies. Subcategories within these broad fields also appear.

Beneath the English Language and Literature section there appear various foundations with the details for eligibility, contact information, website, how to apply, deadlines, number of awards, and the amount of each award. Therefore students may write essays about any of three of Ayn Rand's books for scholarships, which would need to be submitted to the Ayn Rand Foundation for the judging process. This book is over 650 pages, so that provides some indication as to the number of scholarships available for the motivated student. Call Number: REF LB2337.2.S28 2006.

2. The College Blue Book. 36th Edition. Scholarships, Fellowships, Grants, and Loans. This title also organizes its information into disciplines of study. Like the previous title it also give contact information, sponsor of the award, title of the award, fields of study eligible to apply, level of education required, awards given, funds available, eligibility requirements, deadlines, websites, and sources of additional information.

This source would be useful not only for undergraduate and graduate students, but it would also be good for professionals in the field looking for grants and fellowships. Call Number: REF LA226.C685 2009.

Need assistance? At most colleges and universities you can find help from professionals at the Financial Aid Office. They can give advice, recommendations, point you to useful resources, and sometimes they can look over applications for you to verify you have all the required materials and that you completed it accurately. At Idaho State University, the Financial Aid Office provides the following mission statement:

"The Scholarship Office administers the University scholarship program (around $10 million in scholarship disbursements each year) and coordinates timely scholarship-related activity including scholarship announcements and advertising, application screening, selection processes, award notification, and tracking of scholarship recipients. We exist to help students find scholarship opportunities and to help donors find qualified students for their scholarships. We hope you'll find the information linked from our website useful. If you have any questions or need help, please feel free to contact us."

Some universities assign specific individuals to help students with scholarship searches. The ISU Scholarship Office can be contacted here:

ISU Scholarship Office
921 S 8th Ave, Stop 8391
Museum Building, Room 327
Pocatello, ID 83209-8391
Phone: (208) 282-3315
Fax: (208) 282-5717
Email: scholar@isu.edu

Reference librarians can also be helpful in finding scholarship information, though they are not trained to review applications or provide advice. See contact information below:

Idaho State University
Eli M. Oboler Library
Reference Department
921 S. 8th Ave, Stop 8089
Pocatello, ID 83209-8089

* Phone: (208) 282-3152
* Email: refdesk@isu.edu

Reference Books About Marine Mammals

In many of the instruction sessions I teach, I like to emphasize the importance of consulting reference materials. Reading an article from an encyclopedia can help you know the basics on a given topic. Reference materials generally do not need to be cited, as they often include information that the experts in that field consider common knowledge on that topic. In several places the index finger symbol is used in close association with reference books, and rightly so, because reference books point or refer you to other sources. Near the end of an encyclopedia article a bibliography or list of sources appears, directing you to sources that contain more in-depth research/information.

Here are some more reference books worth looking at:

1. Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships: contains animal rights information, articles on anthropomorphism, and entries about humans and animals in art, biology, economics, film, etc. Useful features include cross references, side bars, list of and references.

Some may find it annoying that major topics may be split among different volumes, so a section on animals in film might start in one volume and conclude in another. Since there is no list of subheadings, consult the index to find specific items of interest. The art section appeared to be rather short.

Call Number: QL85 .E53 2007.
Volumes: 4

Note: The editor of this encyclopedia is Marc Bekoff, a founder of an animal-rights group, so the encyclopedia will be a bit slanted in that direction.

2. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals provides information on all types of ocean mammals and includes 16 color images toward the beginning of the volume. It has over 1400 pages and includes a useful index.
Call Number: QL713.2 .E63 2002

Entries give specific information on various species, such as their taxonomy, anatomical and physiological feature, population size, ecology, eating or foraging habits, life cycles, behavior, demographic parameters, and relations with humans. Maps portray their habitat ranges, black-and-white photographs give an idea of what they look like, and a list of references point to further information.

General articles talk about marine-mammal fossils, coloration of marine mammals, sociobiology, swimming, and many other related subjects.

3. Marine Mammals of the World: A Comprehensive Guide to their Identification is a newer volume (2008) and includes beautiful color photographs of animals in their aquatic settings. It contains a glossary of terms, an index, references, skull morphology, and a dichotomous identification key.

As the title suggests, this book seeks to aid individuals so they may "more easily identify marine mammals that they may come across during trips to sea, while walking on the beach, or when visiting a museum or other research collection" (xi). By marine mammals they mean "cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), pinnipeds (seals sea lions, and walruses), sirenians (manatees, dugongs, and sea cows), marine and sea otters, and the polar bear. [...] The term marine mammal, therefore, implies no systematic or taxonomic relationship. In fact, the cetaceans are more closely related to camels and hippos than they are to other marine mamals, the pinnipeds have more in common with bears and weasels, and the sirenians are more closely allied to elephants and hyraxes. These differences no withstanding, however, all marine mammals have one thing in common--they derive all (or most) of their food from marine (or sometimes fresh) water" (1). Not surprisingly, this book is organized by these group distinctions.

Reference Books

Periodically, the librarians who work at the Idaho State University Reference Desk meet together to talk about reference books. It gives us an opportunity to understand what we have in our collection that may be of interest to students and faculty. This post seeks to highlight some of these resources and their strengths. Look in our catalog to verify call numbers and locations.

1. The Worldwide History of Dress includes many color images and descriptions of mostly traditional and non-western clothing. Each of the ten sections focuses on major geographical areas in the world. Images portray brightly-colored costumes with ornate dragons, flowers, animals, etc. Dimensions of the articles of clothing appear next to the images.

Reproductions of historical documents also appear that emphasize the clothing theme of various cultures. Entries also detail basic histories of the peoples who have created the articles of clothing, the materials used to make the clothing, and a little bit about the process required for creating them.

It includes a full glossary of terms, an extensive bibliography, and a lengthy index. You may wish to have a magnifying glass on hand when you consult these appendices.

Students and faculty in the fields of anthropology, theater, dance, and history may be the most interested in this book. Call Number: GT511 .A63 2007.

2. For those who are more interested in contemporary clothing The Complete Fashion Sourcebook may be just what you are looking for. This reference resource shows how styles of clothing changed from year to year in the twentieth century. Unfortunately, it does not cover all of the decades of the 20th century, nor does it show all of the styles, since it focuses mainly on upper-class fashions. For the everyday styles you might have better luck searching through old Montgomery Ward or Sears Roebuck catalogs.

Again, this book shows images, includes an index, and may be most useful to students of anthropology, theater, dance, and history. Call Number: GT596 .P393 2005.

3. The Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion was another interesting resource. Call Number: GT507 .E53 2005. It has three volumes and likely fills in a lot of the gaps left by the previous two resources discussed, while it may repeat some of the same things.

While I had hoped to discuss the other books in this post, it appears I am out of time tonight. Most reference materials turn out to be interesting to me as evidence by my experience tonight. Once I open them up I end up looking at them longer than I originally intended.