Introduction

Table of Contents

  1. Publisher and Editors
  2. Content
  3. Audience and Scope
  4. Subscriptions
  5. Reader Response

1. Publisher and Editors

Casalini Libri of Fiesole, Italy takes pride in publishing the journal Reference Reviews Europe (RRE), edited by Gordon Anderson (University of Minnesota), Rebecca Malek-Wiley (Tulane University), and Nancy Boerner (Indiana University). Past editors include Laura Dale Bischof (University of Minnesota), James Burgett (University of Kentucky), Beau David Case (University of Michigan), Tom Izbicki (Rutgers University), Marianna McKim (Dartmouth College) and Jeffry Larson (Yale University). RRE was founded by Jeffrey Garrett (Northwestern University), Heidi Hutchinson (University of California, Riverside), and Stephen Lehmann (University of Pennsylvania), who served as its editors from 1994 to 1999.

2. Content

Each year Reference Reviews Europe features more than 200 English-language reviews of European reference works. The RRE is published in two forms: the web-accessible Reference Reviews Europe Online (RREO) and the printed Reference Reviews Europe Annual (RREA). The majority of the titles reviewed are in the form of English-language abstracts of reviews from the German online journal Informationsmittel: IFB  (IFB) [previous title Informationsmittel für Bibliotheken], edited by Klaus Schreiber (Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart). Since its inception in 1993, IFB has reviewed more than 500 titles per year, covering reference materials in all subjects and formats. The reviewers for IFB are German librarians and academics. The abstractors for Reference Reviews Europe are mainly North American librarians.

Since 1999, Reference Reviews Europe has supplemented IFB content with its own Original Reviews. North American original reviewers provide substantive English-language reviews of European reference books published in the Mediterranean and other lesser covered European countries. Currently, Reference Reviews Europe features some 30 original reviews per issue.

RRE abstracts convey the scope of the work, summarize the work's strengths and weaknesses, assess related titles when appropriate, and provide a final evaluation. RRE follows the system of numbering and sequencing of reviews used in IFB, which was in turn adapted from Guide to Reference Books (Chicago: American Library Association, 1996). The initials of the reviewer and the abstractor follow each abstract (see the lists of reviewers and abstractors linked above). Prices are given in their original currencies, e.g., SFr=Swiss francs, EUR=euros.

From time to time Reference Reviews Europe features special reports of groups of works in a particular topic area. Since 2000, RRE special reports have covered monuments of Jewish art and culture in Germany (2000), Johann Sebastian Bach (2000); Travel Guides to Germany and Italy (2001); dictionaries of Medieval Latin (2002), world atlases (2002); new German dictionaries and grammars in the context of the Orthographic Reform (2003); K.G. Saur's Worldwide Biographical Information System (WBIS) (2003); and new works on Giuseppe Verdi (2004). Recent issues (2008-2011) feature a number of titles on German academic libraries' projects to identify looted books in their collections.

3. Audience and Scope

Reference Reviews Europe is intended primarily for academic librarians interested in acquiring European reference resources for their collections. Each issue covers the imprint year that appears after the title, e.g., RREA 14 (2008). At times, older imprints are included, especially those for which a review did not appear in IFB until after publication. Special reports may list older titles as well. RREA begins with imprint year 1995, but RREO begins with imprint year 1994.

4. Subscriptions

RREA issues can be ordered individually or on subscription for 40 EUR each. The print edition, published since 1995, offers indexes to titles, subjects, and electronic media, as well as lists of reviewers and abstractors. Use this order form to obtain copies of RREA.

5. Reader Response

We invite feedback from librarians to guide us in making this publication as useful as possible. We would greatly appreciate any response, whether of an encouraging or a critical nature. Those interested in current-year new publications from Europe are encouraged to read the semiannual WESS Newsletter (Chicago: American Library Association, 1978- ), specifically its two ongoing features New Publications of Note, and Europe in Bits and Bytes.

Rev. 05/14

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Last update: October, 31 2005 [BG]
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