Winner of Library Journal’s Best Databases of 2018
Reviews
Against the Grain, September 2018
By Erin Gallagher
This is a delightful and comprehensive overview of the global history of food and food culture from pre-history to the present, with new content added regularly. Students and researchers of all levels who study food history and culture will benefit from this resource, but the simple interface and easy navigation make it appropriate for a public audience as well…
Who doesn’t love to read about food? This reviewer greatly enjoyed poring over historic restaurant menus.
Erin Gallagher is Director of Collection Services, Reed College Library
Library Journal, August 2018
By Rob Tench
Bloomsbury’s Food Library is a comprehensive and reliable database of food-related content covering history, sociology, agriculture, anthropology, cultural studies, culinary arts, food studies, nutrition, and sustainability.
It offers access to print works such as Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia, the Cambridge World History of Food, Bloomsbury’s Cultural History of Food, and the seminal reference Food History: Critical and Primary Sources. With more than 70 ebooks, images from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, and more, the Food Library is still something of a work in progress. In upcoming months, Bloomsbury will add more primary material, curated pedagogical resources, lesson plans, and images. Especially exciting are its plans to offer more historical recipes.
The database has a clean, modern look, with documents that are clear and easy to read. The interface is simple to navigate, and searches can be saved, shared, printed, or cited…
This superb resource will only improve, especially with the enhancement of historical recipes from throughout the world. Foodies, scholars, and students of culinary arts now have a high-quality source of contemporary and historical information to aid in the research of their favorite subject.
Rob Tench is Acquisitions & Resources Fulfilment Librarian, Old Dominion University
