Learning the RC: More Bibliographies by Subject

I was looking through the Reference and User Services Quarterly and found that they do a review of reference books at the back of each issue. Yea! It's nice to see samples of what a book review should look like from a reference librarian's p.o.v. and while I'm not necessarily reviewing each book's worth, I am learning our collection by actively putting my hands of each book as I work my way through it, 3 books at a time. First up is:

Twenty Years of Silents: 1908-1928 compiled by Weaver (016.7914 WEA) Silents? What the heck are "silents"?!? Oh! Silent movies. It includes a list of all the actors and their screen credits (the titles of the movies they were in). It even has the actors vital statistics, so if you wanted to know how tall an actor was and what their eye color was, you are set. There are even birth dates of the actors as well as the dates of their films. The same goes for directors and producers and there is even a little listing of production companies. And while it is a little list, it is impressive (to me, thinking that the film industry was just beginning) nonetheless that there are over 100 companies producing silents in the twenty year era covered.

Yikes! at 2376 pages the Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Anthologies (13th edition, 2007) (016.8088 COL 2007) makes a great workout weight, if I could wrap my hands around its spine. I've heard other librarians refer to "Grangers," as in, "check Grangers, it might be in there," when someone comes in asking for a specific poem. That's great, but what if we don't have a copy of that book/anthology that the poem should be in? But at least you can also find out who the author is and whether the poem is a selection from a larger work and there's always ILL if we don't have the book or anything by that author. Easy to use and behold! there's also a subject index for people wanting a poem about Japan.

Note to self-
Business:

• I asked no other thing by Dickinson in American Poetry Nineteenth Century v.2
• Cash or Turtle or Heaven by Gibbons in Vespers, Contemporary Poems of Religion or Spirituality
• Dropping the Euphemism. by Bob Hicok in American Alphabets

Climbing:

• Hymn to Holy Women by Balbulus in the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces 7th ed v. 1
• Surface by Hall, D. Poems for a Small Planet: Contemporary American Nature Poetry 1993
• Bending the Light by Koontz, T. Visiting Frost: Poems Inspired by the life and works of Robert Frost
• Descending thru Dragon Gate by Tu Fu or Du Fu in Crossing the Yellow River: 300 poems from the Chinese

Skateboarding:

• Sidewalk Racer or, on the Skateboard by Morrison, L.in New Treasury of Children's Poetry: Old Favorites and New Discoveries (I think I own this book) 1984 ed.

Ten minutes til we close and I've got one final book: Blood [POW!], Bedlam [BLAM!], Bullets [HOLY BULLETS, BATMAN!] and Badguys [OUCH!]: a Reader's Guide to Adventure/Suspense Fiction by Gannon. I know this book is a reference book, but it might get better use upstairs at the desk that serves the fiction section. 17 Chapters, each on a sub-theme, begin with a brief explanation of that chapter's theme and its appeal factors followed by a list of authors and their titles that fit that theme. At the end is a fabulous appendix listing the film and tv movie versions of any applicable books.