91´«Ã½

Seattle—The annual Best of the Best Business Reference Websites list was announced today at the Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) Book and Media Awards ceremony at the 91´«Ã½’s Midwinter Meeting in Seattle.

The list made its first debut in 2009 in Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ), RUSA’s research journal, and recognizes three websites highly relevant to information professionals involved in providing business reference services.

The theme for the 2018 winners is Travel & Hospitality.

The list includes:

International Trade Administration National Travel & Tourism Office,

The International Trade Administration (ITA), an agency of the United States Department of Commerce, provides information, services, and expertise to help U.S. organizations compete in the global business environment. The ITA website menu directs users to a variety of helpful resources, including statistics, industry links, and export guides. One unique offering on the site is TradeStats Express, a tool for retrieving and visualizing annual and quarterly trade data at the state and national levels.

Free

United Nations World Tourism Organization,

The United Nations World Tourism Organization promotes the value of worldwide tourism as a driver of socioeconomic growth and encourages practices that support ethical and sustainable tourism development. The general public can freely access a wide range of information from the organization’s website, including a tourism glossary, country statistical reports, and an Elibrary with over 1300 publications and 1700 tourism data sets.

Free

U.S. Travel Association,

The U.S. Travel Organization is a nonprofit association with a membership of over 1200 organizations representing multiple segments of the travel industry. Some of the association’s offerings are available only to members; however, much information on its website is free and publicly available, including industry fact sheets and toolkits, research reports, and interactive tools, such as a travel economic impact calculator.

Free

The Best of the Best Business Reference Web Resources selection committee includes: Robbi De Peri (Vanderbilt University) Co-Chair, LuMarie Guth (Western Michigan University) Co-Chair, Charles Allan (Texas State University), Mary A. Aquila (Athens State University), Cara Cadena (Grand Valley State University), Amanda Click (American University), Kimberly Fama (The University of British Columbia), Bridget Farrell (University of Denver), Heather Howard (Purdue University), Hiromi Kubo (California State University-Fresno), Helen Kula (University of Toronto), Jordan Nielsen (San Francisco State University), Susan M. Norrisey (University of Virginia), Andy Spackman (Brigham Young University), and Teresa Williams (Butler University). Nominations and voting were organized by Jordan Nielsen and Teresa Williams.

The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the 91´«Ã½, represents librarians and library staff in the fields of reference, specialized reference, collection development, readers’ advisory and resource sharing. RUSA is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need. Learn more at .