Basic Business Library: Core Resources

The fourth edition contains an updated core list of the best current business resources, as well as a collection of new essays on important topics in business librarianship. Entries in the core list provide full bibliographic information, online ordering information, brief descriptions of authority and scope, and brief evaluations of the works' strengths and weaknesses.

The essays cover such topics as:

· Marketing the business library

· Organizing business libraries and information centers

· Acquiring business books

· Developing a business reference collection

· Accessing government documents

· Evaluating online and investment resources

· Assessing the state of business libraries in 2001

This volume will serve as a checklist of essential business reference tools that smaller libraries can use to evaluate their collections, and provides a guide to the best practices for smaller libraries seeking to begin or expand a business reference collection. The collection of essay also makes the book useful for library science courses in business reference.

This book contains an updated core list of the best current print business resources, as well as a collection of new essays on important topics in business librarianship.

Library Journal

In this fourth edition, editors Karp and Schlessinger, along with 12 expert practitioners and three online database consultants, update the core list of current print business resources and provide an outstanding chapter entitled, "Online in the Information Age-Access to Business Databases." Last revised in 1994 (Professional Media, LJ 12/94), the core list now includes 210 titles, listed alphabetically. Each entry provides title, author or editor, place of publication, publisher, year, cost, web site (if applicable), authority and scope, and a short evaluation. According to the introduction, the total cost of these resources is $65,204.98, with the "budget conscious resources" list totaling $34,981.98. Joseph P. Grunenwald has written a vital new essay, "Marketing the Business Library," and Barbara A. Huett expanded the timely chapter on "The Best Investment Sources," especially valuable when money markets and CDs are no longer a hedge against inflation even for small investors. A very thorough index completes access to this valuable collection development tool. Michael R. Lavin's third edition of Business Information: How To Find It, How To Use It (Greenwood, 2001) is a complementary resource but not as comprehensive for business reference sources.-Susan Awe, Parish Lib., Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

RASHELLE S. KARP is Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Clarion University.

BERNARD S. SCHLESSINGER is Professor Emeritus from the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman's University in Denton.