Introduction—Reference 2007
By Ann Kim, Special Projects Coordinator, LJ -- Library Journal, 11/15/2006
While hard-core reference publishers strategize about multiple formats for their new products—print, online, ebook, CD-ROM, and even some PDA CD-ROMs—the overwhelming number of titles, 800 out of nearly 1000, are still print only. That's about 80 percent of what's listed here. In our first reference supplement, Reference 1997, 75 percent of the 800 titles were print. Given the time span, we'd have expected to see fewer print titles.
The proliferation of print in the trade and specialty world may surprise those librarians and publishers immersed in the transition from print to electronic. Yet, as long as the print almanacs, companions, dictionaries, directories, fact books, guides, handbooks, and sourcebooks listed here continue to find a market in bookstores and libraries, we can expect to continue to see them being published.
What's holding up in print? Sports, recreation, hobbies (price guides; a cheese atlas; wine guides, anyone?). There's a slew of history and science and technology, including consumer health and medicine.
Over the years, however, we have seen clear format changes. Where we had more than 100 CD-ROM-only titles in the late 1990s, now there are barely a handful. And where there were no ebooks in that first supplement, we now have 48, none standalone, all coinciding with print. By far, the strongest growth area continues to be web-based, with 72 new online database releases here, more than a dozen of which are online only (see the Subject Listings, p. 15). That number doesn't include the numerous databases with upgrades in the works or planned (see the Publisher Index starting on p. 65 for these).
As for the e-reference revolution, LJ's Mirela Roncevic spoke to some old hands and new reference publishers about their diverse electronic models (see “E-Reference on a Mission,” p. 8). While consistency is rare, more of them are building their own electronic platforms and delivering their reference any way the user wants it—and that is only likely to increase.
