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This guide covers two groups of programs that share a lot of sources: hospitality and tourism management on one side, and food science, culinary arts and fermentation science on the other. A hotel revenue study and a shelf-life trial look different, but both end up needing industry data, regulations and a good literature search.
Hospitality questions are usually about markets and operations: who travels to the region, what they spend, and how a property compares with its competitors. Food science questions are usually about a process or a product: what happens to it, and how to measure that. Pick the database that matches the question.
Expect to use trade sources more than in most fields. Much of what is known about hotel operations, restaurant costs and brewing practice is published by industry associations and trade magazines rather than in journals. That is fine for an operations question, but check who paid for a survey before you rely on its numbers. A survey of hotel owners about hotel taxes, paid for by hotel owners, will reach a predictable conclusion.
Databases and indexes
| Database | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Lodging & Foodservice Literature Index | Hospitality, tourism, events and restaurant management journals and trade press, about 900 titles |
| Travel Market Data | Visitor counts, hotel occupancy and average daily rate by region, and event attendance, including the Lake City–Porter Falls corridor |
| Food & Fermentation Research Index | Food chemistry, microbiology, processing, sensory science and brewing, about 1,500 journals |
| Nutrient Composition Tables | Nutrient values for about 9,000 foods and ingredients, for labels and recipe analysis |
| Food Regulations Locator | The food code, labeling rules and allergen requirements, searchable by product type |
Books and e-books
| Call numbers | Subject |
|---|---|
| TX 901–946.5 | Hotels, restaurants, clubs, foodservice management |
| G 154.9–155.8 | Tourism and travel industry |
| TX 341–641 | Food and nutrition |
| TX 642–840 | Cookery, baking, pastry |
| TP 368–456 | Food processing and preservation |
| TP 500–659 | Fermentation, brewing, wine and cider |
| QR 115–129 | Food microbiology |
Culinary students borrow cookbooks for three weeks, which is long enough to cook from them and short enough that there is usually one left. Please do not use the library copy as a cutting board. The returns desk can tell.
Specialized sources
- Community cookbooks. About 640 church, club and fundraiser cookbooks from Porter County, 1898–1985, are held in Special Collections. They are a real source for food history and regional menus, and for finding out how many ways one county could make a hotdish.
- Food safety plans. Hazard-analysis plan templates and sample plans for FDSC 3500, maintained with the Fermentation & Food Innovation Lab.
- Agriculture and supply. The Agricultural & Food Systems Institute publishes data on regional producers and the University Farm.
- Industry careers research. For company and employer research, use the business guide alongside careers in hospitality and events.
Citing and getting help
Hospitality and food science courses use the author–date style. Cite a regulation by its title, section and year, and a nutrient value by the table, its version and the food’s entry number. A recipe you adapted should cite the original.
Ruth Tollefson is the librarian for the College of Applied & Technical Studies, which also makes her the packaging librarian. She books consultations in Halvorsen 256 or online, and visits HOSP 4900 and FDSC 4900 each fall to start capstone research. See also finding evidence in hospitality.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. This hospitality and food science guide is fictional; the travel data, nutrient tables and the 640 community cookbooks are invented. The databases, call-number shelving, collections and librarians on this guide are invented, so nothing here can actually be searched, borrowed or booked, and none of it describes a real library.