What's in a (silly) name

Now here’s the thing: somebody at Xreferplus thought the name Xreferplus didn’t quite cut it as a catchy title for a great product. Right so far. Instead they went for Credo Reference. Nah…you’re right, it isn’t any better. Which is a pity because the product was great and has just got better.


Watch it grow

Credo Reference aims to be a one-stop shop for online reference sources, covering subjects from Art to Technology. In its previous guise as Xreferplus, Westminster Libraries subscribed to a mix of 100 titles covering all the main categories. Pretty impressive, hein?
Well, as you know we don’t like to let the grass grow under our mousemats, so we increased the subscription to all 250 titles on the Credo list. This means that Art, for instance, now consists of 15 titles, ranging from a biographical dictionary of artists to a dictionary of fashion, not forgetting – no really, don’t forget it, it’s truly great – the Bridgeman Art Library Archive.
I must go on a bit about the Bridgeman. I first came across the name on arty postcards and underneath the illustrations on book covers. They have a vast range of reproductions of famous paintings and drawings, ancient and modern.

Stuff for philistines, too

Not interested in art? OK, how about the Directory of Publishing and Printing? Or Collins German Dictionary? Or the Cambridge History of Food? If these titbits don’t tempt you, there are 247 more where those came from.
Credo comes equipped with what has become the standard search facility for quality online resources – you can either specify which reference work or category you want to search, or you can just bung in your terms and search the lot together. I always try "sausages" (I’m just that sort of guy); from Credo Reference I got 323 hits, including some rather tempting recipes. I’ll let you know how they turn out.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Quick reference" at the top. Credo Reference is under "Dictionaries & encyclopaedias".)



Picture Credit: paulabflat/morguefile