Abstract: In this article, Hammond and Mitchell report on a survey of practitioners in four professions: accounting, architecture, psychology, and recreation/tourism. The authors sought data on how professionals looked for information to improve instruction programs, with a goal of providing graduates with information skills to use in their careers. Fewer than half of the survey respondents had discipline‐specific library instruction. Practitioners identify a need for information but a low use of electronic resources. Data support the necessity of information skills for those entering the professions; suggest that instruction be information‐centered rather than library‐centered; and show that continuing education for professionals in information finding is needed. The authors provide suggestions for changes in library instruction.

Abstract: “What basic competencies—body of knowledge, skills, and tools—are needed to work at a centralized reference desk in an academic library?” asked reference staff of Texas A&M University’s Sterling C. Evans Library. Their goal was to identify skills and areas of knowledge with which a reference staff member should be familiar in such areas as reference desk procedures, electronic resources, and the three major subject groups of humanities, sciences, and social sciences. This article presents an overview and discussion of the concept of subject baseline competencies, approaches to organizations of subject‐related baseline competencies, and the documents resulting from discussions with senior subject specialists in those three groups to develop subject lists for baseline competencies as training tools for new librarians and staff.

Abstract: Every librarian knows undergraduate students rarely evaluate the information they find in a print index, much less what comes from a computer screen. This knowledge is compounded by the undergraduate’s belief that anything coming from the Internet is the gospel truth. Is the Internet being integrated into library instruction, taught as another research tool, or taught as something special? Are students being taught to evaluate Internet resources? In this annotated bibliography, Hahn examines journal articles, book chapters, and Web sites that discuss the evaluation of information found through the Internet.

Abstract: As libraries are renovated, retrofitted, or re‐engineered to accom‐ modate robust infrastructures with scaleable Ethernet connectivity, reference personnel must actively help in the design of teaching and learning facilities supportive of technologies that add value and context to the educational experience. In this article, the authors describe the conceptualization, funding mechanisms, and creation of a Student‐centered Electronic Teaching classroom (SET) in a medium‐sized academic library. The SET is viewed as a combination of several elements: electronic classroom, information concourse, and multimedia laboratory. It is designed to foster collaborative learning among students and faculty, while teaching library users specific techniques to increase their information competency abilities.

Abstract: Reference librarians must now confront integrating print and electronic sources into an efficient reference collection. Often the print reference collection has to be downsized to accommodate electronic sources within the reference area. In this article, Welch, Cauble, and Little discuss a project to track the usage of print reference titles through automated reshelving statistics and the usefulness of these statistics in making reference collection development and management decisions. Over a two‐year period the reference staff at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte recorded reshelving statistics. The statistics were analyzed and proved to be useful in making weeding and acquisition decisions as part of an overall program of reference service evaluation.

Abstract: While natural resources conservation and wildlife management have had a long history, the discipline of conservation biology only formally began in the 1980s with the formation of the Society for Conservation Biology. The former fields have tended to focus on management of resources for human use. An analysis of monographs cited in eight selected issues of the journal Conservation Biology between 1987 and 1996 resulted in a list of 47 titles important to researchers in this discipline. The sample is not random, but was selected to include representative issues every three years from the journal’s inception to the present. Over half of the monographs were from related disciplines such as ecology, genetics, evolution, population biology, statistics, and natural resources management. This bibliography of core monographs is arranged on the basis of decreasing number of citations, given in brackets. According to the author, many of the monographs could be expected to receive significant use in libraries supporting programs in conservation biology.

Abstract: The advent of Internet access, full‐text online databases, and graphic user interfaces has vastly increased the amount of hard‐copy information being supplied by today’s libraries. Individuals in both academic and non‐academic libraries are retrieving ever‐increasing amounts of online information. While the majority of libraries have been able to provide some form of electronic information, few libraries are prepared for the volume of printing that accompanies this new form of information access. Individuals without personal computers have little choice other than to print out what they find of interest online. Can a library’s decision to institute a fee for printing present a barrier to information? How does an institution implement a system to recover printing costs? In this article, the authors demonstrate one library’s attempt to provide solutions to these pressing issues.

Abstract: The regular occurrence of human rights abuses makes timely dissemination of information imperative. Much as the fax machine alerted those outside China's borders to its student pro‐democracy movement, the Internet has become a key instrument of communication to individuals and organizations engaged in more recent human rights activities. The many organizational, regional, and country Internet sites, networks, documents, alerts, documentation projects, and news services on human rights provide vital information to those interested or directly involved in protection of human rights. In this article, Carter and Davidson present a cross‐section of Internet sites, chiefly from the World Wide Web.

Abstract: The recent introduction of a new generation of electronic information products is a significant advance in the evolution from paper‐based to electronic research. These products combine indexing and abstracting of large numbers of journals in multiple subject fields with full‐text delivery capability, storage on remote hosts, and access via the World Wide Web. Any library contemplating the purchase of a remote host database must address several issues to insure its successful integration into the library’s repertoire of electronic information products. The analytical process is complicated by these databases’ rapid evolution, by their large and ever‐changing journal lists, and by the differing strategies employed by the major vendors in regard to their products’ structures. In this article, Majka attempts to assist librarians with their purchase decisions by identifying vendor product strategies and library implementation issues and by suggesting analytical approaches for the comparison of the contents of remote host indexes and databases.

Abstract: Many people with Alzheimer’s Disease need long‐term care to help with activities of daily living. Annual costs are estimated at between $38 billion and $42 billion. Medicare does not cover this, and Medicaid help is limited. Longer life spans, shrinking savings rates, and increased costs of long‐term care could spell financial disaster unless remedial steps are taken soon. In this article, Monath attempts to provide a substantive core selection of materials related to Alzheimer’s Disease, long‐term care, and health policy. Documents covered include journals, government documents, and grey literature. Having this knowledge, with facts and figures at hand, can help sway public officials to create policy that uses tax dollars wisely by investing in research that will find a cause, prevention, and possibly a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease while saving taxpayers billions of dollars in the future.

Abstract: Reference questions about recently coined words or phrases or new meanings of old words present library users and librarians with a sometimes bewildering maze of information sources that range in quality from the scholarly to the amateur. In this article, Isaacson discusses some of the lexical issues concerning new words and evaluates new information in 1) unabridged dictionaries, 2) collegiate desk dictionaries, 3) new word dictionaries, 4) a journal devoted to new words, 5) a journal column and a magazine column about new words, 6) dictionaries of words that don’t exist, 7) various specialized dictionaries that may contain new and old words, and 8) Internet resources that may be helpful. All sources have to do with the English language; most were published since 1980 and include new words coined since 1960.

Abstract: In this bibliography, Shedivy includes selected Internet resources for four different audiences interested in cancer. Researchers will find sites for searching the CANCERLIT and Medline databases as well as how to apply for specific research grants, obtain human tissue for their studies, and contact fellow oncology experts. Health care professionals can search for related articles and find up‐to‐date cancer descriptions with standard therapy protocols plus documents they can use in patient education. Patients and their families can learn how to research specific cancers and can read documents on screening, detection, diagnosis, treatment, and more. The general public can access a wealth of highly readable factual information.

Abstract: The Internet should be viewed with caution. Information on the Internet often lacks the review applied to books when they are selected for a library or articles before they are published in a journal. This information can be inaccurate because it hasn’t been proofread, it may not come from a credible source, or it may not have been peer reviewed by experts in the field. Further, it may not be there tomorrow. With these and other cautions in mind, this select bibliography of Web sites on alcohol abuse and alcoholism was designed for those seeking help with alcohol problems, for researchers in the field, and for those seeking information. With a few exceptions, the Web sites are published by national organizations, national programs, academic institutions, and government agencies in the United States. They include no advertisements. The bibliography is arranged by subject or type of material.

Abstract: Post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological condition that became widely discussed after soldiers returned home from the Vietnam War complaining of intrusive thoughts or images, avoidant behaviors, and arousal disturbances, the hallmark characteristics of PTSD. Some might say that PTSD is a failure of time to heal all wounds. In this article, Beall presents a select listing of Internet resources useful for those seeking information on PTSD. Most are geared toward a professional audience; a few are directed toward people with PTSD.

Abstract: Recent years have brought rapid growth to the bibliography of reference works for literary and cultural theory. Because of the expansion of literary scholars’ interests and of literature’s curricular domain, and the convergence of literature’s interests during the last 30 years with other humanities and social science fields, the reference collection’s PNs are filling up with content that, some would say, has lost its way from the Hs and Bs. Literature’s bid to become a more generalized study of culture in all its modes and at all its levels is highly controversial among scholars. This controversy surfaces particularly in recently published dictionaries and encyclopedias. In this article, Kieft treats other traditional classes of reference works as well and includes discussion of such “next step” works as general histories, guides, and anthologies.

Abstract: Despite all manners of instruction, there is a nagging sense that patrons have difficulty using the library. Further, despite the impact of the World Wide Web, the library “as a place” is important. The library building is seldom given much post‐construction thought, although lighting, collection arrangement, service points, signs, and study areas all contribute to a positive learning experience. A committee at Indiana University Northwest Library investigated ways to make the library’s collection and services more accessible by improving signage. This article describes the results of a preliminary and a follow‐up survey to evaluate users’ abilities to locate various signs effectively and comparatively analyzes responses from specific classes of participants.