Internet Reference Service: General Sources and Trends

Summary

Providing quality reference services is more challenging than ever. In addition to traditional print sources, the information professional now has a dazzling array of databases, both free and expensive, readily available. Internet reference service has evolved quickly over the last decade, moving from a place of last resort to a mainstream application. Librarians have responded in many innovative ways to connect their customers with information available on the Internet. However, superior Internet reference service requires substantial investments in equipment that administrators will have to consider. Staff and customer training have become pressing needs. Providing access to appropriate databases and materials will become increasingly challenging.     

Reference Sources and Research Methods

Lorna M. Daniells' Business Information Sources (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976---$14.95)

Gene V. Glass, ed. Evaluation Studies: Review Annual Volume I, 1976 (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1976---$29.95)

The Concise and Comprehensive Reference Guide to Black Journalism, Radio and Television, Educational and Cultural Organizations in the USA, Africa, and the Caribbean (Black List, Box 3552, New York, N.Y. 10017---$50.00, two volumes, paper)

Ray B. Browne, ed. Abstracts of Popular Culture: A Quarterly Publication of International Popular Phenomena (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1976---$50.00 per year/$90.00 for two years/$200 for five years)     

Books and Print Reference Sources

Madeline Miele, et al. (eds.) The Bowker Annual of Library and Book Trade Information (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1976---$23.50)

Sigfred Taubert (ed.) The Book Trade of the World, Volume II: The Americas, Australia, New Zealand (New York: R.R. Bowker/London: Andre Deutsch, 1976---$36.00)

Kenneth Kister's Encyclopedia Buying Guide 1975- 1976: A Consumer Guide to General Encyclopedias in Print (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1976--$15.50)

J.M. Brittain and S.A. Roberts's Inventory of Information Resources in the Social Sciences (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books/ Saxon House, 1976--$18.00)

Harry Carter's A History of the Oxford University Press, Volume I, to 1780 (London: Ox ford University Press, 1976---£15.00 or about $30.00)

Daniel Gore (ed.) Farewell to Alexandria: Solutions to Space, Growth, and Performance Problems of Libraries (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1976---$12.50)

Lester D. Stephens' Historiography: A Bibliography (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1975--$9.00)

W. Philip Leidy's A Popular Guide to Government Publications (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976--$25.00)     

CD-ROM Sources in the Reference Collection:

CD-ROM has become part of the library universe and increasing numbers of libraries are considering the acquisition of reference tools in the new format. Issues of evaluation and selection, hardware purchase, and budget are primary concerns in this decision. Many aspects of day-to-day maintenance and access to CD-ROM sources must also be considered in the evaluation process. These issues - space, security, the care and feeding of hardware and software, reference assistance, staffing and staff training, and user instruction - are vital to the success of CD-ROM in the library. Particular attention is focused on literature about training for staff and users.     

Graduate Student Use and Non-use of Reference and PDF Management Software: An Exploratory Study

Graduate students at the University of Manitoba were surveyed to find out if they used reference management software (RMS), features used, challenges and barriers to using RMS. Interest in different types of PDF management features and training options were also investigated. Both users and non-users of reference management software were invited to participate. Non-users managed their citations and references with a variety of other tools. The principal reasons for non-use were that students were not aware of options that were available, and the amount of time needed to learn the program. RMS users also mentioned the steep learning curve, problems with extracting metadata from PDFs, technical issues, and problems with inaccurate citation styles. Most of the students saved PDF documents to their computer. Students were most interested in full-text searching of PDFs, automatic renaming of PDFs, and automatically extracting citation metadata from a PDF. PDF annotation and reading tools were also of some interest. Mobile features were of the least interest. There were no statistically significant differences in the interest of PDF management features between the user and non-user groups but there were statistically significant differences in the interest of some of the training options between the groups.     

Internet Reference Sources in Education

Summary

With so many Internet sites devoted to education for educators, administrators, and librarians, it can be a daunting experience trying to find needed resources. There are special sites devoted to teachers, children, and parents. The government provides free access to database searching, statistics, and full-text publications. State and local levels of government also host valuable data and reports. More and more journals are appearing online in full-text format escalating user expectation to assume all journals will be available via the Internet. Tapping into higher education and academic library sites connects to content rich links. While this is not an exhaustive listing of educational Web sites, it leads to a myriad of valuable resources.     

Reference Sources on the Internet

Abstract

Many web sites on the Internet are useful in helping answer reference questions in geography and international studies. This paper describes web sites which provide maps, gazetteers and country information. Also included are web guides which collect and organize numerous links to geographical and international sites.     

Reference Sources for Art Law

No abstract available for this article.     

New Reference Sources on Women

No abstract available for this article.     

Reference Sources for Canadian Periodicals and Newspapers

This paper presents a selection of reference tools needed for the intellectual access to Canadian periodicals and newspapers. The discussion covers: (1) Sources used for identification of retrospective periodicals. (2) Sources used for identification of current periodicals. (3) Evaluation tools. (4) Indexing tools. (5) Sources used for verification of bibliographic information. (6) Location tools. (7) Sources used for identification and location of Canadian newspapers. (8) Indexing tools for Canadian newspapers. The paper is aimed at libraries and researchers who are interested in nadian studies.     

Human Rights Reference Sources: A Critical Annotated Bibliography

The area of human rights has had significant attention both nationally and internationally in the press and in the political arena. While there is a renewed commitment to human rights advocacy, there is also an upward trend in popular culture of depictions of torture. This article provides critical annotations of English-language reference sources published since 1990 and available both in print and online, in an effort to aid librarians collecting and weeding materials for human rights research.     

Music Reference Sources: Analog in a Digital World

ABSTRACT

Do we need print reference collections at all? In the case of music reference materials, the answer is definitely “yes.” At the University of Memphis, reference titles in the music library are used at about three times the rate of reference materials in the main library. This paper leverages local reference and reserve book usage to investigate how print reference sources support music research of various kinds, how music faculty integrate reference sources into their courses, and how librarians can make finding and using these resources easier for users accustomed to accessing materials online without an intermediary.     

Internet Reference Sources in the Humanities

Summary

Discusses collection development issues involving humanities Internet resources with a particular focus on sustainability, and highlights a few of the major Internet vendors and resources.     

Government Sources for Business Reference Inquiries

This paper attempts to highlight some of the sources published by the Federal government agencies for answering business reference questions. For the convenience of non-government document depository libraries, ordering information is also provided.     

Reference and PDF-Manager Software: Complexities,Support and Workflow

In the past, librarians taught reference management by training library users to use established software programs such as RefWorks or EndNote. In today's environment, there is a proliferation of Web-based programs that are being used by library clientele that offer a new twist on the well-known reference management programs. Basically, these new programs are PDF-manager software (e.g., Mendeley or Papers). Librarians are faced with new questions, issues, and concerns, given the new workflows and pathways that these PDF-manager programs present. This article takes a look at some of those.