Salem Press, 75 years old this year, offers multivolume resources that meet the needs of many readers. LJ talked to Leslie Mackenzie, Salem’s president and publisher, about Salem’s vision for reference and its approach to making its materials accessible to all.

How does Salem Press define reference?

The goal of reference content is to help someone find the right answer to a question. Years ago, that meant going to the library, visiting the reference desk, and asking the librarian for help. Now researchers have access to more information than ever before—but is that information accurate?

Reference means putting accurate and understandable information into the hands of library users. But instead of content being tucked away behind the reference desk, today’s digital access means that researchers can tap into a knowledge base of information anytime. Salem Press is proud to be part of that information-finding and question-answering process.

Who is your biggest target audience?

One of Salem Press’s target audiences is the high school to early grad-level college group…. Public libraries make up a significant part of our customer base too.

What is your strategy for ensuring that your reference materials are accessible to a wide range of libraries?

When a library purchases a Salem Press title in print, they get digital access to that title at no additional cost, with an unlimited number of simultaneous users and remote access too….

Salem Press Online is not a subscription, so libraries don’t have recurring costs and their prices don’t increase each year. The only cost is when the library purchases a single title, so the librarian has full control over their costs.

What do you want librarians to know most about Salem?

Salem Press is committed to providing quality research materials to its users—information that is vetted by our editorial team. 

We feel that Information-gathering is a learned skill. Being an informed citizen today means knowing how to gather information, how to find sources you can trust, and how to make sense of the avalanche of information available online. Libraries are helpful guides on this journey. We want our librarians to know that they can depend on Salem Press—it’s our mission to help readers learn how to find information, understand it, and make sense of the world around them.

What is your hope for reference in the future?

We believe that reliable information needs to get into the hands of researchers, now more than ever. 

In this day of misinformation, dis-information, algorithms, and fake news, having access to information you can trust is more important than ever. While the technology may change how information gets delivered to researchers, we feel that reference publishers, like ourselves, still have a duty to help those researchers find answers to their questions, understand the concepts involved, and know where to go next. Solid, vetted information that’s easy to understand will never go out of style.