Showing papers in "Reference Services Review in 1994"
TL;DR: The Brandeis University Libraries' research consultation model as mentioned in this paper is one example of such a reform, which has been described by Virginia Massey-Burzio, and the primary goal of this tiered approach was to improve services to the classes of patrons who most need professional reference assistance, while also increasing professional job satisfaction.
Abstract: To judge from the published literature, recent conference topics, or any listserv where academic reference issues are discussed, reference service reforms are in the air. A steady increase in the sheer number of users seeking reference help, driven largely by the proliferation of new information technologies, has led to a questioning of the traditional structure and mission of the library reference desk. Brandeis University Libraries' approach, which has been described by Virginia Massey‐Burzio, is one example of such a reform. The essential change that the Brandeis model entailed was this: Brandeis' Main Library had included a reference desk at which one librarian at a time was assisted by one graduate student helper. Under the new model, reference services are divided in two: the graduate assistants staff an information desk, which is responsible for concerns like directional questions and quick look‐ups, while the librarians staff a research consultation office where more substantive questions are dealt with at greater length. The primary goal of this tiered approach, which we call the “research consultation model,” was to improve services to the classes of patrons who most need professional reference assistance, while also increasing professional job satisfaction in the face of the ongoing information explosion. (A more complete description of the model is given below under the heading: “Some characteristics of a research consultation model.”)
21 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the need for librarians to take on active roles in making the Internet a more usable information resource for their communities, and what librarian can do to improve the value of the Internet and its information.
Abstract: At the office, during the commute, even at home, it is likely that the topic of a conversation will turn to the Internet. Librarians are finding themselves increasingly drawn into this chaotic environment—some willingly and some not. Using the Internet can be an intimidating and frustrating experience, especially for beginners. Yet librarians, many of whom are novices, are increasingly asked to take on active roles in making the Internet a more usable information resource for their communities. What can librarians do to improve the value of the Internet and its information?
9 citations
TL;DR: In the case of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, a search of the American establishment press would yield, at best, only a most shadowy, tenuous, and distorted picture as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: How does one learn of atrocities that have been committed, and are being committed, in remote corners of our planet? The standard answer to this question would likely be, “Consult the indexes to the leading components of the American establishment press, such as, for instance, The New York Times Index.” But, by so doing, one would be deeply disappointed, as I was. If one wanted to learn the horrifying particulars of the genocide the government of Bangladesh has been waging for at least 20 years against the tribal peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, an exhaustive search of the American establishment press would yield, at best, only a most shadowy, tenuous, and distorted picture. One's only certainty would be that there has been unrest in the Hill Tracts and that a long‐suffering Bangladeshi government has had a trying time suppressing it. Indeed, one's dominant impression would likely be of a beleaguered government of a newly independent, “democratic” state struggling against its own unruly dissidents. ...
8 citations
TL;DR: The best reference librarians are intelligent and curious, have good social interaction skills, are knowledgeable about both reference practices and resources, possess relevant subject expertise, and are highly motivated to provide excellent reference services as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Dynamic and effective reference librarians are the single most important factor in ensuring quality reference services in any library. The best reference librarians are intelligent and curious, have good social interaction skills, are knowledgeable about both reference practices and resources, possess relevant subject expertise, and are highly motivated to provide excellent reference services.
5 citations
TL;DR: The standard test reference books, such as the Mental Measurements Yearbook and Tests in Print, are of limited use and do not include actual instruments or noncommercial tests from the journal and report literature.
Abstract: Requests for tests and measuring instruments for use in class assignments and faculty and student research are both familiar and frustrating to most academic librarians. In typical scenarios, an education student wants to measure aggression in children or a nursing student needs a test for patient mobility. Even the faculty member who may know the name of a scale may not know its author or how to obtain a copy. All are looking for a measure applicable to a specific situation and each has come to the library in hopes of walking away with a copy of the measure that day. Those familiar with measurement literature know that accessing measures can be time consuming, circuitous, and sometimes impossible. The standard test reference books, such as the Mental Measurements Yearbook and Tests in Print (both of which are published by the Buros Institute, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska), are of limited use. These books typically do not include actual instruments or noncommercial tests from the journal and report literature. While these standard reference books are essential to a test literature collection, sole use of them would mean bypassing large numbers of instruments developed and published only in articles, reports, papers, and dissertations. Sources are available to locate additional measurements, tests, and instruments, but they are widely dispersed in the print and electronic literature.
4 citations
TL;DR: It should come as no surprise that the 1993 EDU‐COM conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, showcased one of North America's most interesting experiments in automation—Ohio's OhioLINK.
Abstract: It should come as no surprise that the 1993 EDU‐COM conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, showcased one of North America's most interesting experiments in automation—Ohio's OhioLINK. Unusual in this conference, traditionally focused on technical issues, was the focus on OhioLINK as representative of new politics, a new funding strategy, and a new library paradigm, rather than OhioLINK described in terms of mips, routers, and bandwidth.
4 citations
TL;DR: EngineEngineering State as discussed by the authors is a week-long program held at Utah State University each June, designed to introduce top high school students entering their senior year to the engineering field and the university experience, which includes learning to use a library.
Abstract: Engineering State is a week‐long program held at Utah State University each June. It is designed to introduce top high school students entering their senior year to the engineering field and the university experience, which includes learning to use a library. Initiated in 1990 by the civil engineering department, it expanded the following year to include additional departments within the College of Engineering. Although engineers are not typically strong library users, the civil engineering faculty felt a library component should be part of the students' Engineering State experience.
4 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a great artist creates a mural which, bearing his name, eventually reaches the hands of a purchaser who objects to the nude figures that the creator had seen fit to incorporate into his tableau.
Abstract: A great artist creates a mural which, bearing his name, eventually reaches the hands of a purchaser who objects to the nude figures that the creator had seen fit to incorporate into his tableau. The purchaser, therefore, employs another artist to drape the figures. In a now famous decree the German Supreme Court, in 1912, held that the transferee of the mural in a case involving these facts, could not have changed it to suit his individual preferences.
3 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a sound philosophical foundation in the nature of professional activity for resolving the tension between altruism and self-interest in favor of virtue and character is proposed, based on six characteristics of the relationship of professionals to those who seek their help.
Abstract: Is there a sound philosophical foundation in the nature of professional activity for resolving the tension between altruism and self‐interest in favor of virtue and character? I believe there is, and I ground my proposal in six characteristics of the relationship of professionals to those who seek their help. Considered individually, none of these phenomena is unique in kind or degree. They may exist individually in other human relationships and occupations. But as a moral cluster they are, in fact, unique; they generate a kind of “internal morality”—a grounding for the ethics of the professions that is in some way impervious to vacillations in philosophical fashions, as well as social, economic, or political change. This internal morality explains why the ethics of medicine, for example, remained until two decades ago firmly rooted in the ethics of character and virtue, as were the ethics of the Hippocratic and Stoic schools. It is found in the seminal texts of Moslem, Jewish, and Christian medical moralists. It persisted in the eighteenth century in the writings of John Gregory, Thomas Percival, and Samuel Bard, who, although cognizant of the philosophies of Hobbes, Adam Smith, and Hume, nonetheless maintained the traditional dedication of the profession to the welfare of the patient and to a certain set of values. Only in the last two decades has there been—to use Hume's terms—a “sentiment of approbation” regarding self‐interest.
3 citations
TL;DR: Research undertaken in photograph collections presents unique challenges, both for the researcher and for the librarian or archivist attempting to provide access.
Abstract: Research undertaken in photograph collections presents unique challenges, both for the researcher and for the librarian or archivist attempting to provide access. Unlike a book, which most frequently has a recognizable author and/or title, a photograph is not easily described or indexed. The identity of the photographer is sometimes unknown. The names of any people shown in the images are frequently not readily available, and even the location may be ambiguous.
3 citations
TL;DR: In fact, the word ecology in anything like its modern sense of "biospheric house" did not appear in European thought until 1873 when Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, a German biologist and philosopher, used it, with the spelling “Oekologie,” in his The History of Creation as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Plato and Aristotle would have found the modern effort to fuse ethics and ecology to be incomprehensible. Despite the fact that oikos—meaning house or household—is a Greek word, Greek science did not entertain a concept of ecology. Nor did Greek philosophy regard nature as morally considerable. Etymology aside, the word ecology in anything like its modern sense of “biospheric house” did not appear in European thought until 1873 when Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, a German biologist and philosopher, used it, with the spelling “Oekologie,” in his The History of Creation. Furthermore, the words “ecology” and “ecological” always had exclusive reference, until quite recently, to a scientific discipline and not to a branch of philosophy. As with the Classical Greek philosophers, so it was also with modern thinkers. Ethics, they held, were concerned solely with interpersonal relations. They could not, therefore, recognize a duty to nature. That we do owe a duty to nature, however, is the carefully considered conclusion of most of the environmental ethicists.
TL;DR: It may surprise some to learn that many U.S. government agencies have allocated vast resources into compiling, publishing, and updating technical dictionaries in print, microfiche, and electronic format.
Abstract: Researchers, subject specialists, and information professionals have long been aware of scientific and technical (sci‐tech) dictionaries available from the U.S. government. Yet these reference sources often remain invisible to the general public, especially in libraries that exclude government documents from the main catalog or that maintain separate documents collections. However, as more libraries automate their holdings and load cataloging records for government publications into their online public access catalogs (OPACs), government documents should become more visible. Until then, it may surprise some to learn that many U.S. government agencies have allocated vast resources into compiling, publishing, and updating technical dictionaries in print, microfiche, and electronic format.
TL;DR: Determining the number of access points in a manual reference aids file is a dilemma because good, seasoned librarians may not have perfect recall for the minutia of a vexing question answered months or years ago, perhaps by someone else.
Abstract: Many libraries, public, academic, or special, no matter how technologically advanced, maintain a finger‐marked, dog‐eared file at the reference desk. This file, usually on 3x5‐inch cards, contains answers to questions that have proved difficult. Such a file is necessary in any library that has ever had, or ever expects to have, any turnover in reference personnel. Even good, seasoned librarians may not have perfect recall for the minutia of a vexing question answered months or years ago, perhaps by someone else. Determining the number of access points in a manual reference aids file is a dilemma. One could make a cross‐reference for every way any person could possibly seek the information or one could write a single card and trust collective memory to remember how it was filed. Multiple cards increase the possibility of finding the information, but clog the file. The single card approach, as has been observed, “provided only one point of access, which frequently could not be identified in a stress situation.” Also, newer librarians, weaned on computers and impatient with manual files, tend to avoid the card file, which they view as an unworkable relic. The manual reference aids file at the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) Library contained about 800 tidbits of elusive information such as subject headings used for archaeological site reports, a list of the Supreme Court cases kept in the reserve book room, facts of local history, a reminder of which issue of Fortune lists the annual Fortune 500, where to find Nielsen ratings, and more.
TL;DR: Judging by the amount of comment on various electronic bulletin boards, it seems that the library profession is indeed embracing a “new paradigm of reference.”
Abstract: Judging by the amount of comment on various electronic bulletin boards, it seems that the library profession is indeed embracing a “new paradigm of reference.” Libraries around the country are abandoning their traditional reference desk and replacing it with an information desk, staffed by paraprofessionals or graduate students. These students answer repetitive directional and quick‐answer reference questions. Reference librarians, in turn, are moving behind the scenes to await referrals. The student or patron needing more lengthy research help, such as a college student just starting a term paper, a small businessperson needing market information, or a person studying local history spends time with a librarian and receives needed research assistance.
TL;DR: The Historical Atlas of Canada as mentioned in this paper was the first volume of a scholarly research atlas to be published in Canada, and it was published in 1987 and won many honors, including the Macdonald Prize for the best book of the year on Early Canada from the Canadian Historical Association and the George Perkins Marsh Award in Environmental History from the University of Utah.
Abstract: In the fall of 1987, the first of three volumes of a scholarly research atlas—The Historical Atlas of Canada—was published to great acclaim. Describing the Atlas as “the most innovative, beautiful and successful single volume on the history of Canada, and indeed the most ambitious cartographic venture ever attempted in this country,” the Royal Canadian Geographic Society awarded gold medals to the volume's editor, R.C. Harris, and cartographer/designer, Geoffrey J. Matthews, as well as to the director of the whole Atlas project, W.G. Dean. The volume received many honors, including the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize for the best book of the year on Early Canada from the Canadian Historical Association and the George Perkins Marsh Award in Environmental History from the University of Utah. Reviewers described the volume in superlatives. American reviewers were equally generous in their praise. Petchenik (herself the editor of the Historical Atlas of Early American History) described the volume as “an amazing accomplishment” and commented that “Not only a country but a civilization has been enriched by this publication.” Konrad assessed the volume as “a unique statement unrivaled in its potential impact.” Shuman, a professor of library science, noted that “this atlas, when complete, should stand as a model to be emulated by all other nations, whenever possible.” Pye, writing in the [British] Geographical Journal stated that “it is difficult to imagine that it could be even remotely paralleled in the foreseeable future.” Volume III of the Atlas appeared in 1990 and again won plaudits. Reviewers obviously felt that the high standards set by the first volume had been maintained.
TL;DR: In October 1991, the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) introduced FirstSearch, an online reference product designed for the end‐user that offers bibliographic citations to articles in more than 11,000 journals, primarily in the English language.
Abstract: In October 1991, the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) introduced FirstSearch, an online reference product designed for the end‐user. Through a menu interface, which features extensive online help, more than thirty databases, covering a range of subject areas, are currently available. Among these are three unique to OCLC: WorldCat (the OCLC online union catalog), Article1st, and Contents1st. The latter two offer bibliographic citations to articles in more than 11,000 journals, primarily in the English language, in the areas of science, technology, medicine, social science, business, the humanities, and popular culture. Several authors have described the searching, printing, and pricing options available for the system.
TL;DR: The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information.
Abstract: The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the nineteenth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1992. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.
TL;DR: This work states that movies, pictures, and sound are now commonly linked with hypertext in ever‐more complex presentations, and this trend will continue as costs begin to decrease.
Abstract: Since publication of an earlier hypertext/hyper‐media bibliography in Library Hi Tech Bibliography, two trends have experienced accelerated growth. The first is the explosion of hypermedia and hypermedia tools in both quantity and quality. Movies, pictures, and sound are now commonly linked with hypertext in ever‐more complex presentations. This trend will continue as costs begin to decrease.
TL;DR: A growing conviction even among conscientious doctors, lawyers, and ministers that it is no longer possible to practice their professions within traditional ethical constraints is manifest in a growing conviction that self-interest justifies compromises in, and even rejection of, obligations that standards of professional ethics have traditionally imposed as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: A species of moral malaise afflicts the professions today, a malaise that may prove fatal to their moral identities and perilous to our whole society. It is manifest in a growing conviction even among conscientious doctors, lawyers, and ministers that it is no longer possible to practice their professions within traditional ethical constraints. More specifically, the belief is taking hold that unless professionals look out for their own self‐interest, they will be crushed by commercialization, competition, government regulation, malpractice actions, advertising, public and media hostility, and a host of other inimical socio‐economic forces. This line of reasoning leads the professional to infer that self‐interest justifies compromises in, and even rejection of, obligations that standards of professional ethics have traditionally imposed.
TL;DR: The process by which technological innovations developed in one institution are discovered, acquired, and adapted for use by another institution.
Abstract: The process by which technological innovations developed in one institution are discovered, acquired, and adapted for use by another institution.
TL;DR: In the Spring 1992 issue of Reference Services Review, Douglas Ernest, Joan Beam, and Jennifer Monath noted that “Telephone directories have been an integral part of most public and academic libraries for nearly a century.”
Abstract: In the Spring 1992 issue of Reference Services Review, Douglas Ernest, Joan Beam, and Jennifer Monath noted that “Telephone directories have been an integral part of most public and academic libraries for nearly a century. Telephone directories represent an anomaly among library collections; known to virtually all users, they nevertheless often go unrecognized when librarians discuss reference sources.” After the break‐up of the ATT as a result, the regional telephone companies had to pass on the expense to customers. It is still common for a regional Bell to provide libraries with directories of in‐state white pages, but to charge for areas outside the state, separate yellow pages within the state, and independently published telephone directories. Telephone directories, once provided free of charge to libraries to reduce the workload of operators, are now in competition with the fee‐based service of directory assistance.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the role of religious groups and societies in suppressing homosexual and bisexuality and their availability in contraceptive devices, from Plato's Greece to Shakespeare's England to America in the 1990s.
Abstract: Homosexuality and bisexuality have existed since the beginning of life itself, yet such expressions have been repressed by many societies, from Plato's Greece to Shakespeare's England to America in the 1990s. Likewise, contraceptive devices have been in existence for over 3,200 years, but their availability has long been suppressed by religious groups and societies.
TL;DR: In his apocalyptic book on the environment and public policy, Timothy C Weiskel warned of the consequences of humanity's intrusion into the biological and geo-chemical processes of the natural world.
Abstract: In his apocalyptic book on the environment and public policy, Timothy C Weiskel warned of the consequences of humanity's intrusion into the biological and geo‐chemical processes of the natural world He said that our intrusions have been massive and thorough; that they now threaten to transform ecosystemic parameters; and that unless responsible public policy directs itself toward moderating our current destructive impact on the environment, we will face ecosystemic collapse and human catastrophe “on a vastly greater scale than has ever been recorded in human history”
TL;DR: The role of the Libraries of the Claremont Colleges in carrying out specifications of the grant through implementation of a CD‐ROM local area network with remote access and through preparation and presentation of instructional sessions focusing on use of the available databases are described.
Abstract: In December 1989, Pomona College and Claremont McKenna College (CMC) received a grant from the Knight Foundation to fund increased availability of, access to, and use of electronic databases This article will describe the role of the Libraries of the Claremont Colleges in carrying out specifications of the grant through implementation of a CD‐ROM local area network with remote access and through preparation and presentation of instructional sessions focusing on use of the available databases It will also discuss some of the changes that increased use of electronic technologies has brought to the Libraries
TL;DR: This article annotated a list of materials dealing with information literacy, including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information.
Abstract: The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the twentieth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1993. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.
TL;DR: A national multi‐gigabit‐per‐second research and education network known as the National Research and Education Network is to be established by 1996, according to the High‐Performance Computing Act of 1991 passed in December 1991.
Abstract: A national multi‐gigabit‐per‐second research and education network known as the National Research and Education Network is to be established by 1996, according to the High‐Performance Computing Act of 1991 (P.L. 102–194) passed in December 1991. Commonly known as the NREN and referred to as the “information highway,” this electronic network is expected to provide scientific, educational, and economic benefits for the United States and to serve as the basis for an all‐encompassing National Information Infrastructure available to all citizens. The idea of the NREN began in the late 1960s in the Department of Defense and its Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) with the development of ARPANet, the first packet‐switching network. This evolved into the Internet, or Interim NREN, after the National Science Foundation (NSF) linked its national supercomputing centers with the NSFNet. The NSFNet is to be the technological backbone for the NREN, which will continue the networking begun by the Internet. Initially, the NREN is intended to interconnect researchers and resources of research institutions, educational institutions, industry, and government in every state.