PHILADELPHIA -- The "Encyclopedia of Food and Culture," a historical, cultural and scientific work edited by Solomon Katz, a professor of anthropology in the Department of Orthodontics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, has received four major book honors.

This winter, the American Library Association awarded Katz's multi-disciplinary title its Dartmouth Medal, the association's highest honor for a reference resource, calling it entrally important to libraries and to the pursuit of learning. The Dartmouth Medal is considered to be the ultimate award in the reference-publishing world.

"The book is the source material for the beginning of a new field of food studies that integrates what we know about food and nutrition together in both biological and cultural contexts," Katz said.  "This is the first time to my knowledge that anything about food has won a Dartmouth Medal."

Published by Charles Scribner Sons, the book also has been:

• Included on the ALA's Reference and Users Services Association's list of Outstanding Reference Sources for 2003.
• Selected this month as one of only three "Booklist" Editor Choice Reference Sources.
• Named an Outstanding Academic Title in "Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries," a publication of the ALA's Association of College and Research Libraries.  

Katz, who is primarily an anthropologist, is director of the Krogman Center for Research in Child Growth and Development at Penn.