Describes a Delphi study conducted to determine factors that affect the process of routing and assigning reference questions received electronically by digital reference services, both to experts within the service and between services. Fifteen factors were determined, by expert consensus, to be important at the conclusion of this study.…

The types of reference question considered most difficult by the staffs of Northern California public library systems were the subject of a workshop conducted by the Bay Area Reference Center (BARC). The topics included: antiques and collectibles; identifying a poem from its middle line; how to make practically anything; how to repair various…

Criticizes the typical reference librarian's solution to a student's information request--the book--and presents specific reasons for offering a variety of sources and formats. Included is an information 'credo' that emphasizes information, not its package. (JD)

Identifies Internet sites that can be helpful to the business reference librarian confronted with questions regarding international trade. The sites for the major trade agreements are listed along with a currency exchange calculator that can handle date-specific historical conversions. (AEF)

Newspaper librarians discussed the public use of their newspapers' libraries. Policies run the gamut from well-staffed public information services, within or outside the newspaper library, to no service at all to those outside the staff of the paper. Problems of dealing with tax and law enforcement agencies were covered, as well as cooperative…

Proposals are made for a goal oriented approach to coordinate bibliographic control in the multidisciplinary field of mental retardation, establish networks of information service, and provide consultants for setting up services in various institutions and locales. A review of existing efforts for bibliographic control, classification, and library…

The effects of personal systems on formal library and secondary information services use are analyzed. Conclusions are that personal information systems are not personalized libraries;'' formal library services should concentrate on developing complimentary programs. (9 references) (Author)

Key architecture reference sites are highlighted and discussed and grouped into the following areas: directory and biographical information, bibliographical databases, architectural education, product information, databases of buildings, and search engines. (Author)

Discusses information entrepreneurs, or information brokers, and information intrapreneurship, or the establishment of fee-based information services within a library. Annotations are provided for 56 information sources that include general materials, research in these areas, and relationships with traditional reference services. (four references)…

An information services organization based on individual constituent groups, instead of defined physical collections and technologies, encourages a broader, more effective, and innovative use of varying information and technology services for academic libraries. Such a model also provides more focused and clearly defined positions and procedures…

This article compares "Current Index to Journals in Education" (CIJE) with "Education Index" by article type and reveals pronounced differences in indexing practices. Implications for educational and interdisciplinary research, reference services, index selection, and library instruction are discussed. (Author)

The purpose of this paper is to show the growing use of the World Wide Web to answer questions in the public library from the perspective of a librarian at the Parsippany Public Library in Morris County, New Jersey. Discussion includes the following: information on Parsippany and Morris County; a brief history of the World Wide Web; uses of a…

Online bibliographic searching provides an alternative to the traditional manual literature search to access the already large and rapidly growing literature on agriculture. The advantages of online searching over manual searching are greater speed, increased accuracy, and the capability of searching for any combination of topics at once. The…

This handbook presents information for entrepreneurs on launching, managing, and growing an independent research firm. The book is organized into four sections. In the first section, "Getting Started," chapters include: (1) "What's an Independent Info Pro?"; (2) "A Day in the Life of an Independent Info Pro"; (3)…

Describes the services of the National Referral Service of the Library of Congress which assists people with questions in science and technology by referring them to organizations which can answer those questions. (BR)