News Release - Blackwell to Launch Reference Resource Online

["Gillingham Emily" <Emily.Gillingham@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com>]

- - Blackwell to Launch Largest Academic Social Science and Humanities
Reference Resource Online - -

Blackwell Publishing today announced the forthcoming launch of 
its first online reference product.  Blackwell Reference Online 
will be the largest academic collection of reference material in 
the humanities and social sciences to be published online. 
Launching at London's Online Information conference on November 
29th, the product will hold almost 300 volumes and 10,000 
chapters including Blackwell's award winning Companions and 
Handbooks series and the entire 12-volume Blackwell Encyclopedia 
of Management.

"Blackwell's prestigious series, such as the Companions to 
Philosophy and the Handbooks in Psychology, have become essential 
resources for students and their teachers across the humanities 
and social sciences," said Philip Carpenter, Director of Academic 
Publishing at Blackwell. "In print, each book is in effect a one 
volume encyclopedia of its sub-discipline.  Taken together and 
published online, this vast collection offers the most 
comprehensive and sophisticated university reference resource 
available".  He added that, "researchers will find authoritative 
reviews of the state of their own and related fields in Blackwell 
Reference Online, whilst advanced students will quarry the 
database for detailed accounts of current thinking, helping them 
bridge the gap between teaching materials and the research 
literature.'

Blackwell Reference Online will comprise six essential subject 
collections: Business and Economics; Philosophy and Religion; 
Literature and Cultural Studies; Language and Linguistics, 
Sociology and Psychology; and History.  Users can search for 
answers to their research questions across the reference database 
using a sophisticated content classification - by subject, 
person, period, key topic and place.  All bibliographic 
references are OpenURL compliant, MARC records are provided, and 
there are DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) at book and chapter 
level to facilitate easy linking for library systems.

Blackwell Reference Online is available to institutions as a 
one-time purchase for perpetual access to the whole collection or 
individual subject collections.  New titles and editions 
published during the course of 2007 will be automatically 
included in Blackwell Reference Online and new volumes published 
in subsequent years can be added to the service for an additional 
fee.  For more information about Blackwell Reference Online, 
including the list of volumes and sample screens, visit: 
www.blackwellreference.com

The launch of Blackwell Reference Online will be soon followed by 
the publication of The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology in 
print and online in December 2006.  This 11- volume 
ground-breaking project brings together 1800 specially 
commissioned entries written and edited by an international team 
of the world's best scholars and teachers.  The Blackwell 
Encyclopedia of Sociology online can be purchased separately to 
Blackwell Reference Online and is available either by annual 
subscription or as a one-time purchase with an annual fee 
covering hosting and updates.  For more information, visit: 
www.sociologyencyclopedia.com

- About Blackwell Publishing -

Blackwell Publishing is the world's leading society publisher, 
partnering with 665 academic and professional societies. 
Blackwell publishes over 800 journals and, to date has published 
more than 6,000 books, across a wide range of academic, medical, 
and professional subjects. The company remains independent with 
more than 950 staff members in offices in the US, UK, Australia, 
China, Denmark, Singapore, Germany, and Japan. Blackwell's 
mission as an expert publisher is to create long-term 
partnerships with clients to enhance learning, disseminate 
research, and improve the quality of professional practice.

- For More Information -

For more information about Blackwell Reference Online and The 
Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, visit: 
www.blackwellpublishing.com/reference. To request a quotation or 
to register for a free trial, please contact your usual Blackwell 
Publishing Account Manager or email 
libraryinfo@blackwellpublishing.com


Best wishes,

Emily Gillingham
Library Marketing and Communications Manager
Blackwell Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)1865 476425
emily.gillingham@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com