Finding “best books”, and more, to support the campus curriculum is not always an easy task for librarians or faculty members. Campuses the size of Greater Hartford have a great tool in a web site called Resources for College Libraries (RCL) http://rclweb.net/ which is described as having a “… core list [which] features 65,000 titles in 58 curriculum-specific subjects…selected… by more than 300 subject specialists and bibliographers.” One of those specialists was Trecker’s Social Sciences Librarian, Janice Mathews, who worked on the Urban Studies section.

RCL, a combined effort by the R. R. Bowker company, a prominent library publisher, and the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, “is the long-awaited successor to Books for College Libraries” which has for years been a basic selection tool used by librarians to build academic library collections.

The new web version has expanded features for faculty looking for the most prominent materials in their field and librarians working to assure that local collections have the most important resources.

A new service, for undergraduate students looking for solid advice on how to conduct a research project, “…lists books, websites, and other electronic resources which professors and librarians have identified as the best or most useful…”

William Uricchio — Library Director