Reports reflections of library school reference teacher who practiced for year as day-to-day reference librarian. Highlights include ideal reference librarianship; concepts helpful in explaining low morale; changes in basic reference service elements (information resources, clients, librarians); current coping strategies; and ways in which to cope…

Suggests that librarians are uniquely qualified to review information sources on the Internet. A structure comparable to traditional reference reviewing is needed to replace trivial and ambiguous rating systems. Discusses the Infofilter Project, run by reference librarians and designed to apply some measure of bibliographic control to the World…

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…

Describes the process of question referral in California's second-level reference centers where questions are referred by public librarians, and provides examples of questions and sources typical of humanities research. Topics include the varied clientele and the use of databases, reference files, library collections, organizations, special…

Chronicles the development of the legislative reference services of the Library of Congress and briefly describes the current Congressional Research Service, which resulted from legislative acts passed in 1946 and 1970. (CLB)

Public libraries do not always meet community information needs because librarians are trained to answer questions through books when often the best information in an area is from alternative sources. The government provides free information on investments, jobs, health, and legal problems; experts and clearinghouses are other good information…

Differing perspectives of reference collection development librarians and publishers are presented for the following topics: fairness of pricing trends; best/worst ways to communicate about new reference titles; deciding which sources should be published; impact of electronic materials on reference services; deciding on/selecting formats; and…

From a librarian's point of view, children using the Internet need to be cautioned about more than just the dangers of offensive materials and persons. Topics include teaching critical-use skills for evaluating electronic reference sources, problems with commercialism, and differentiating between fact and opinion. (LRW)

This essay extends observations made by the author to Dan Marmion, in his editorial, "The Bully Pulpit" ("Information Technology and Libraries," June 1999). The author makes the point that sometimes a user can find an answer to a reference question more efficiently and effectively in a print source, sometimes in an electronic source, and sometimes…

People with disabilities are present and visible at universities and postsecondary institutions as never before. This reflects changes in societal attitudes, law, public policy, and government programs, and, perhaps most important, the views disabled people have of themselves. The growing presence of this new "minority" on campus poses…

Describes ways in which people use local collections, increased interest in local history in Great Britain, and sources of local history. The discussion includes the implications for training librarians, and the need to offer training to all librarians, not just those who specialize in local studies work. (31 references) (CLB)

Outlines considerations in the design of a Competitive Intelligence Information Resource Center (CIIRC), which is needed by business organizations for effective strategic decision making. Discussed are user needs, user participation, information sources, technology and interface design, operational characteristics, and planning for implementation.…

Discusses the development of practical strategies for library mediation between Internet resources and potential users. Topics addressed include a hierarchy of information skills; awareness of information services and resources; the information structure of a discipline; analysis of information needs; and retrieval, evaluation, and management of…

Librarians cannot distribute their collections electronically until the problems of intellectual property and free-and-equal access are resolved. Libraries must overcome restrictions of "virtual libraries" thereby making copyrighted texts freely available. Libraries must be promoted as places where readers freely consult both copyrighted…