Corporations employ data mining to analyze operations, find trends in recorded information, and look for new opportunities. Libraries are no different. Librarians manage large stores of data--about collections and usage, for example--and they also want to analyze this data to serve their users better. Analysts use data mining to query a data…

More than 100 colleges and universities have arranged to give people using the Google Scholar search engine on their campuses more-direct access to library materials. Google Scholar is a free tool that searches scholarly materials on the Web and in academic databases. The new arrangements essentially let Google know which online databases the…

An information service designed to meet women's needs operates at the Montclair, New Jersey, public library. (PF)

This document contains validated activities and competencies needed by librarians working in a database distributor/service organization. The activities of professionals working in database distributor/service organizations are listed by function: Database Processing; Customer Support; System Administration; and Planning. The competencies are…

Questions related to the expansion of online bibliographic searching at the University of Wisconsin-Stout are examined. A brief review of the literature on why libraries search online is followed by a discussion of the specific situation at Stout where the ERIC data base is the only online service currently used. The variety of online data bases…

This survey of online search service centers in Canada was conducted to provide data on these centers and, more specifically, on the characteristics of the human search intermediary; and to provide an accurate overall picture of online searching in Canada. The survey questionnaires were mailed to approximately 765 Canadian customers of seven…

Costs and cost-related factors connected with providing on-line search services through the public library are examined. The examination was based on preliminary results from an on-going evaluation of an experimental program (DIALIB). In the DIALIB experiment Lockheed's DIALOG search service was available to the public through four public…

A cost analysis was made of on-line bibliographic searching in four public libraries in the San Francisco Bay Area using the Lockheed DIALOG system. The study involved monitoring the time that 35 individuals in the libraries spent processing some 411 search requests. The study identified a set of seven tasks that are performed for each request and…

Information services provided by the reference librarians at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) are outlined as an introduction to this document on projected services to the public by the Center for Information Services (CIS). The report discusses the types of data base which may be searched (bibliographic reference tapes, full…

Automation of a table of contents service at the Methodist Hospital School of Nursing Library using dBase III facilitates matching patrons with journals. The program is also used for journal check-in and mailing labels. Future applications may include production of a journal holdings list, statistics, and reporting. (21 references) (MES)

This profile of INFORM, the fee-based service offered by Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center, highlights its background, online search services and frequently used databases, major planning considerations (equipment, user aids, choice of vendor, training), internal operations (billing, purchasing items for clients), marketing, and…

The Selective Dissemination Project at a regional medical education center followed a two-and-a-half day continuing education program with related bibliographies at one- and three-month intervals, as well as information on finding the articles in the local library. Evaluations of the service by participating physicians and librarians showed that…

This 62-item bibliography lists library journal articles published in the 1980s which provide an overview of what is happening in the world of bibliographic utilities, i.e., organizations that maintain large online bibliographic databases and provide products and services related to these bases and to its members. Subdivision within bibliography…

This report presents statistics on how Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries spend money on electronic resources. This report indicates that expenditures for electronic resources account for 25%, on average, of ARL institutions' library materials budgets. ARL libraries reported spending more than $228 million on electronic…

Libraries will play a key role in providing access to machine-readable data bases by functioning as the interface or broker between the users on campus and these regional and special processing and distribution centers. High cost will prohibit libraries from acquiring and managing data bases. (6 references) (Author)