Reference and User Services Association
Encyclopedia
Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) is a division of the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....

 (ALA) chartered to stimulate and supporting excellence in library reference and user services. RUSA awards a number of medals and honors to promote its goals of excellence in its field and publishes an annual list of Outstanding Reference Sources. The ALA Notable Books for Adults has been chosen yearly since 1944.

RUSA's (formerly the Reference and Adult Services Division (RASD) of ALA) Outstanding Reference Sources Committee was established in 1958 to evaluate and recommend the most outstanding reference publications based on a set of established selection criteria. Originally the list was intended for college and public libraries, but RUSA states that many titles on its lists may also be of interest to large secondary school libraries. An annotated list of RUSA's selections of outstanding reference works is published annually in the May issue of American Libraries. The RUSA list, along with extended reviews of the selections, is also published annually the Reference & User Services Quarterly (the official Journal of RUSA) and published on the RUSA web site.

RUSA award lists are now selected by the RUSA Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES) Reference Sources Committee and are intended to include high-quality reference works.

Publishers and others in the industry often cite the RUSA’s Outstanding Reference Sources list as the highest award or honor for reference books or reference ebooks. Many traditional publishers consider RUSA to be "the authority in top reference works".

RUSA also has a Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) that creates a Best Free Reference Web Sites Combined Index in order to recognize outstanding reference sites on the World Wide Web. The index was created by as MARS task force at ALA annual meetings as a resource for librarians looking for free or predominantly free websites that contain excellent reference content.
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RUSA Book and Media Awards

Most recent years:

2010 Awards List

Archaeology in America: An Encyclopedia (Greenwood Press), Francis P. McManamon

Encyclopedia of African American History: 1896 to the Present (Oxford University Press), Paul Finkelman

Encyclopedia of Modern China (Charles Scribner’s Sons), David Pong

The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars (ABC-CLIO), Spencer Tucker

Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy (Gale Cengage), J. Baird Callicott and Robert Frodeman

Encyclopedia of Human Rights (Oxford), David Forsythe

Social Explorer, an online reference resource located at http://www.socialexplorer.com

Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts (McFarland & Company Publishers),
Thomas S. Hischak

American Countercultures (Sharp), Gina Misiroglu

Encyclopedia of Gender and Society (Sage), Jodi O’Brien

Encyclopedia of Marine Science (Facts on File), Nichols C. Reid and Robert G. Williams

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2009 Awards List

Dartmouth Medal: Greenwood Publishing, Pop Culture Universe. Honorable mention: Gershon David Hundert, The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe.

Outstanding Reference Sources:

Books and Beyond: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of New American Reading. Kenneth Womack, ed. 4 vols. Greenwood, 2008. (9780313337383).
Encyclopedia of Taoism. Fabrizio Pregadio, ed. 2 vols. Routledge, 2008. (9780700712007).

Encyclopedia of the First Amendment. John R. Vile, David L. Hudson Jr. and David Schultz, eds. 2 vols. CQ Press, 2009. (9780872893115).

Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales. Donald Haase, ed. 3 vols. Greenwood, 2008. (9780313334412).

Encyclopedia of Education Law. Charles J. Russo, ed. 2 vols. Sage, 2008. (9781412940795).

Climate Change: In Context. Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner, eds. 2 vols. Gale Cengage, 2008. (9781414436142).

Gale Encyclopedia of Diets: A Guide to Health and Nutrition. Jacqueline L. Longe, ed. Gale Cengage, 2008. (9781414429915).

New Encyclopedia of Orchids: 1500 Species in Cultivation. Isobyl la Croix. Timber Press, 2008. (9780881928761).

Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social and Military History. Spencer C. Tucker, ed. 4 vols. ABC-CLIO, 2008. (9781851098415).

African American National Biography. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Brooks-Higginbotham, eds. 8 vols. Oxford University Press, 2008. (9780195160192).

Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History. Bonnie G. Smith, ed. 4 vols. Oxford University Press, 2008. (9780195148909).

2008 Awards List

Outstanding Reference Sources:

APA dictionary of psychology. ed. by Gary R. VandenBos. American Psychological Association, 2007. 1591473802.

Encyclopaedia Judaica. ed. by Staff, Macmillan Reference U. S. A. 22 vols. Rev. ed. Gale, 2006. 0028659287.

Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. ed. by George Ritzer. 11 vols. Blackwell, 2007. 1405124334.

Encyclopedia of Body Adornment. by Margo Demello. Greenwood, 2007. 313336954.

Encyclopedia of Race & Racism. ed. by John Hartwell Moore. 4 vols. Gale, 2008. 9780028660202.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History. ed by John B. Hattendorf. 4 vols. Oxford, 2007. 9780195130751.

Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film. ed. by Barry Keith Grant. 4 vols. Gale, 2006. 0028657912.

Encyclopedia of Asian Theatre. ed. by Samuel L. Leiter. 2 vols. Greenwood, 2007. 03133529x.

Brave New Words: the oxford dictionary of science fiction. ed. by Jeff Prucher. Oxford, 2007. 0195305671.

Postwar America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural and Economic History. by James Ciment. 4 vols. ME Sharpe, 2007. 079568067x.

Oxford companion to world exploration. ed. by David Buisseret. 2 vols. Oxford, 2007. 019514922X.

2007 Awards List

Outstanding Reference Sources:

Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History. ed. James Ciment. M. E. Sharpe, 2005. 0765680653.

Crusades: An Encyclopedia. 4 vols. ed. Alan V. Murray. ABC-Clio, 2006. 1576078620. $385

Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-Speaking World. Geoffrey Hughes. M. E. Sharpe, 2006. 0765612311.

Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War: A Political, Social, and Military History. eds. Gregory Fremont-Barnes and Richard Ryerson. ABC-Clio, 2006. 1851094083.

Encyclopedia of the Developing World. 3 vols. ed. Thomas M. Leonard. Routledge, 2005. 1579583881.

Encyclopedia of US Labor and Working Class History. 3 vols. ed. Eric Arnesen. Routledge, 2006. 0415968267.

Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism Since 1450. 3 vols. ed. Thomas Benjamin. MacMillian, 2007. 0028658434.

Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America. 3 vols. ed. Rosemary Skinner Keller. Indiana, 2006.

Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present. 5 vols. eds. Susan B. Carter, Scott Sigmund Gartner, Michael R. Haines, et al. Cambridge, 2006. 0521817919.

Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity. Stephen A. Marshall. Firefly, 2006. 1552979008.

Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. 5 vols. ed. David Scott Kastan. Oxford, 2006. 0195169212.

Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. 4 vols. ed. Jack Zipes. Oxford, 2006. 01951146561.

Qu'ran: An Encyclopedia. ed. Oliver Leaman. Routledge, 2005. 0415326397.

Right, Wrong, and Risky: A Dictionary of Today's American English Usage. Norton, 2005. 0393061191.

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For RUSA lists prior to 2007 please see * RUSA Book and Media Awards

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Source



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