A survey of over 200 academic, public, and special libraries in 13 selected states was conducted in the fall of 1979 to provide a state of the art report on online or computerized reference services. Libraries were selected from states which had demonstrated leadership in networking, and data were sought in four areas: (1) users of online…

Current trends in public library reference service include use of online systems; budget constraints in public sector; increased service; use, training, and supervision of paraprofessionals; centralized organization of reference service; participation in management of reference services; and more realistic attempts at measurement and evaluation of…

Presents a taxonomy of 11 sources of information used during library and database searching based on observations of 49 searches in a variety of libraries and search situations. Three categories of sources are identified: those internal to the searcher, those created by the searcher, and those external to the searcher. (Contains 54 references.)…

Describes the effects of economic factors on information services in Mexico. Topics discussed include librarians' salaries; inadequate library budgets; acquisitions in academic libraries; the development of public libraries; library networks; national databases; microcomputers and library automation; library research; effects of devaluation; and…

Discusses a variety of library applications of optical disc storage technology, including CD-ROM, digital videodisc, and WORM. Research and development projects at the Library of Congress, National Library of Medicine, and National Agricultural Library are described, products offered by library networks are reviewed, and activities in academic and…