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Digitization projects in Maryland, Montana, and Houston, TX, present a glimpse of current trends in digital archives, as state and city libraries work to create collections that reflect local and regional history.

Set to be updated this cycle, consider these 80+ databases and online products. Arranged by category, these resources range from titles on the arts to those on travel and tourism.

Whether building circulating collections on hot topics or aiding scholars engaged in deep inquiry, these 780+ recent and forthcoming titles, organized by category, address a wide range of reference needs.

Publisher Roger Jänecke talks with LJ about Visible Ink’s distinctive approach to reference.

Walk through the doors of libraries across the nation where patrons are fully engaged in research and discovery. The staff at the Browne Pop Culture Library, a professor of library and information science and department chair of the Kennedy-King College Library, and the adult information services supervisor at the Springfield City Library offer tours and highlight the resources that enable scholarly pursuits in fields as varied as romance fiction, the African American diaspora, and changing city landscapes.

LJ’s database reviewers share their thoughts on databases that inspire, surprise, and offer new learning opportunities.

What’s the state of reference today? Members of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association, share their thoughts.

From film costumes to business statistics to the afterlife, 19 reference titles earned starred reviews from LJ since the start of 2023 through the November issue. 

Holly La Due, Princeton Architectural Press's editorial director, talks with LJ about the publisher’s reputation for identifying trends, visual culture, and broadening its scope of titles.

Librarian Sara Duff, vice-chair of RUSA CODES and chair of Notable Books, shares her thoughts on RUSA’s reference committees.

Kathryn Earle, managing director for Bloomsbury Publishing, discusses Bloomsbury’s signature style and shares insight into how their resources contribute to scholarship, research, and discovery.

Seth Cayley, vice president of global academic product at Gale, part of Cengage Group, offers insight into how Gale provides up-to-date content and innovative research tools for its users.

Top reference books for building collections.

Maps, atlases, gazetteers, and more pull readers into landscapes across the earth and sky, onto modern roads, and into history.

Support research and scholarship with these 50+ new and forthcoming databases and online products, organized by category.

The documents and visual materials in this compilation detail the companies, events, and pioneers crucial to the 20th-century growth of the mass media and communications industry in the U.S.

Designed by and for higher-education teachers in Spain, Latin America, and the U.S., Platino Educa delivers access to hundreds of hard-to-find Spanish-language and Portuguese-language films.

Hiveclass gives time-strapped programming librarians guides and suggestions for creating active programs for all ages.

With its sophisticated search capabilities, support for primary-source literacy, and singular collections of primary-source material, this resource is a must-have for libraries supporting historical and political research of far-left political movements.

This first-rate resource is for anyone who wants to know more about the history, development, and evolution of educational policy, practice, and theory over the last century. Teachers, educational administrators, and policymakers will also benefit. 

AM’s database Africa and the New Imperialism covers the history of European colonial expansion in Africa during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s a valuable addition for institutions seeking to expand their collection of primary source offerings on African history and European colonialism during this time period. 

AM’s most recent archive is the first in a planned two-module collection that highlights the political, social, and cultural upheaval in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Bloomsbury Contemporary Aesthetics offers students and researchers an engaging entry into robust scholarship and innovative thinking in contemporary aesthetics. This user-friendly resource should have a place in academic libraries.

Revolution and Protest Online provides access to excellent primary resources, but there is room for improvement in terms of usability and accessibility.

The first installment in Gale’s four-part State Papers Online Colonial series offers researchers unprecedented access to primary-source documents that reflect Britain’s complex history of trade and governance in East and Southeast Asia.

ProQuest’s Ethnographic Sound Archives Online database contains more than 6,000 audio recordings that are ideal for libraries wanting to offer a vast collection of world music, oral storytelling, and ambient sound. Ethnomusicologists can utilize these materials in their college-level courses. 

The Bloomsbury Drama Online database now has an additional 270 films that will benefit instructors looking to teach and engage students in stage performances and productions. 

Public and technical libraries will want to add this comprehensive resource with an intuitive and streamlined platform. It’s a one-stop shop on everything to do with vehicles, making it a sound investment.

ProQuest’s LGBT Magazine Archive is ideal for researchers studying LGBTQIA+ history, for it contains well-established and hard-to-find content from significant LGBTQIA+ magazines published in the U.S. and the UK from the mid-20th through the 21st centuries. 

The Rolling Stone Archive is for lovers of popular music, personalities, and cultural newsmakers of the last 50 years. There's also something for researchers of non-music content that relates to history, politics, and social conditions.