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Welcome to the latest issue of Reference Update, Xrefer's quarterly newsletter filled with information for the wired librarian.
In this issue:
Xrefer News
More Titles; More Publishers
The Latest Xreferplus Customers
Come See Us in St. John's, Canada; Washington, D.C., US; and Hatfied, UK
Sign Up for the Weekly Brainteaser
Get a Free, 30-Day Trial
Xrefer News
Learning from the Reference Interview
John G. Dove, Xrefer’s CEO, presented a paper at the Sydney Online conference this past January. His talk, titled “Diversity Preferent Ranking Improves Query Results: What can Search Engine Designers Learn about Users from the Reference Interview?” surveys some of the new developments in query systems and presents a case study on improving query result presentation. Read John's paper at www.xrefer.com/sydney2007.
Are you interested in hearing more about search queries and what can be learned from reference interviews? Sign up to participate in one of our upcoming webinars. Just send an email to marketing@xrefer.com and let us know you are interested.
Z39.50 Server
Xrefer has recently launched its new Z39.50 server. Metasearch vendors can now choose to connect to Xreferplus through either our Z39.50 server or XML gateway. Read detailed technical information about each:
COUNTER Presentation to the UK Serials Group
At the UK Serials Group meeting (UKSG) held at the University of Warwick, UK, 16-18th April, Jenny Walker, Xrefer’s EVP Marketing led a briefing session “Understanding, Implementing and Using the COUNTER Code of Practice for Books and Reference Works”. Xrefer was one of the first providers to implement this important new standard that will facilitate the analysis of usage statistics across services. Further details on Jenny’s presentation will be published shortly and will be available on the Xrefer Web site .
Read more about COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources) at www.projectcounter.org.
Xreferplus Adds Animations, Sound Clips and More!
The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia including Atlas was recently added to the Xreferplus Ready-Reference collection. With more than 75,000 articles, the encyclopedia provides authoritative insight into the subjects of science and technology, history, geography, politics and the arts. Over 4,000 images, an integrated atlas, animations, video, sound clips and quotations support the encyclopedia's articles. To browse through our animations, go to the 'Encyclopedias' section, select the
'Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia' and type 'ANIMATION' in the search box.
More Titles; More Publishers
Xrefer has recently signed agreements with two new publishers – Marquis Who’s
Who and Wisden.
Marquis Who’s Who in America, a well-known reference work, has chronicled the lives and careers of America's most noteworthy men and women since 1899. Today, Marquis Who's Who has grown to include biographies for millions of leaders and achievers from around the world and from every significant field of endeavor. With this new agreement, Xrefer will now provide Who's Who in the World, with its 50,000 personal profiles, and Who's Who in America, containing biographical information for over 110,000 people.
Xreferplus now provides access to selected entries from Wisden Cricketer’s Almanack, one of the most famous sports books in the world. The almanack was first published in 1864, and 2007 is the 144th edition. Wisden's obituaries, famous for their sharp and authoritative judgments, are included in the Xreferplus Ready-Reference collection.
The West Indies recently hosted the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Read about the results at http://cricketworldcup.indya.com/.
New titles
New titles and publishers are continually being added to Xreferplus. Recently added titles include:
- Astronomy Encyclopedia, Philip's
- Brewer's Curious Titles, Cassell
- BUSINESS: The Ultimate Resource - Dictionary of Business and Management, A&C Black
- Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures
- Chambers Classic Speeches
- Chambers Film Factfinder
- Chronology of American Literature, Houghton Mifflin
- The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Sixth edition, Houghton Mifflin
- Harrap's-Dalloz French-English Law Dictionary, Chambers
- How We Talk: American Regional English Today, Houghton Mifflin
- McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
- Who's Who in America, Marquis Who's Who
- Who's Who in the World, Marquis Who's Who
- The Wisden Archive of Cricketers' Lives
- Word Histories and Mysteries, Houghton Mifflin
We continue to update our titles to the most recently published editions. The following new editions are now available:
Help your users find these new titles by adding them to your catalog and online subject guides. Learn more about incorporating Xreferplus and increasing awareness and usage with our new Librarian How-to Guide. Download a PDF of the guide for US libraries or UK/Rest of World libraries.
And coming soon:
- The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
- Encyclopedia of African History, Routledge
- The Encyclopedia of American Folk Art, Routledge
- Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Routledge
- Encyclopedia of German Literature, Routledge
- Encyclopedia of Paleontology, Routledge
- The Great American History Fact-Finder, Houghton Mifflin
- Holocaust Literature: An Encyclopedia of Writers and Their Work, Routledge
- Reader's Guide to British History, Routledge
- Reader's Guide to the History of Science, Routledge
- Reader's Guide to the Social Sciences, Routledge
Also, watch for updates to these titles:
- Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
- Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary, Revised edition
- Roget's II The New Thesaurus
See a complete list of forthcoming titles .
Read about our Specialist Reference titles .
The Latest Xreferplus Customers
Xrefer has announced a new partnership with the US Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET). SOLINET’s members will have access to Xreferplus at a discount. Based in Atlanta, SOLINET is a library cooperative serving the southeastern US and Caribbean. Over 2600 libraries are members of SOLINET, including academic, research, public, school, corporate, medical, law and special libraries.
Over the past few months, libraries of all types have selected Xreferplus as their online reference solution. We're happy to welcome:
- Art Center College of Design, US
- Babson College, US
- British Council, Romania
- British Council, Yemen
- CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, US
- Darien Library, US
- Empire State College, US
- Georgia Institute of Technology, US
- Illinois College, US
- Independent News & Media, UK
- Indira Ghandi National Open University, India
- Kennet School, UK
- Lake Land College, US
- Nakamura Gakuen University, Japan
- Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, Norway
- Paderborn University, Germany
- St Peter’s School, Cambridge, New Zealand
- Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, US
- Toronto Public Library, Canada
- University of Hertfordshire, UK
- University of Wisconsin - Superior, US
- Wawasan Open University, Malaysia
- The Welsh Assembly Government, UK
- Western Maryland Public Library, US
Come See Us in St. John’s, Canada; Washington, D.C., US; and Hatfield, UK
For the first time, Xrefer will be exhibiting at the Canadian Library Association conference. From 24-25 May visit booth #59 in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador to learn about the latest Xreferplus features and content.
 Xrefer will be at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., 21-27 June 2007. Stop by booth #3933 to share your reference title suggestions with us and hear about new features.
You can also see Xrefer at Umbrella 2007 (28-30 June) at the DeHavilland Campus at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, UK. Please do stop by stand #11 to say hello.
Sign Up for the Weekly Brainteaser
Like a challenge? Then sign up for Xrefer's free, weekly Brainteaser! The brainteaser is a fun quiz that is e-mailed to over ten thousand subscribers every Friday. It's a great way to exercise your mind. Sign up here.
Get a Free, 30-Day Trial
 Have you tried Xreferplus? If not, sign up for a free, 30-day trial and find out why Xreferplus is the best online reference solution for libraries. Get your free trial here.
Reference Update is a free e-mail newsletter from Xrefer. If you have friends or colleagues who would be interested in receiving Reference Update, make sure that you tell them to sign up. If you have any feedback, ideas for future articles or would like to contribute an article, let us know .
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