Issues In Science and Technology Librarianship 011 (SEPTEMBER 1994) URL = ftp://ftp.lib.ncsu.edu/pub/stacks/sts/sts-011 ------------->> ---------- ---- -- ##### ####### ##### - # # # - # # # S - ##### # ##### T ELECTRONIC - # # # S COMMUNICATIONS -- # # # ---- ##### # ##### --------- ----------------------->> ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LIBRARIANSHIP SEPTEMBER 1994 NUMBER 11 _____________________________________________________________________ ALA ACRL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SECTION _____________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS: FROM THE EDITOR: LINES: 51-69 NEW STS LISTSERV LINES: 70-111 NATURAL HISTORY ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION LIST LINES: 112-140 GEOBASE ON FIRSTSEARCH LINES: 141-188 AFRITECH '95 LINES: 189-308 1994 IFLA CONFERENCE IN HAVANA CUBA BY MARTY KESSELMAN, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY LINES: 309-402 GARR: THE ITALIAN ACADEMIC NETWORK BY TULLIO BASAGLIA, TORINO, ITALY LINES: 403-509 NORTH AMERICAN SECTION OF IATUL MEETING BY BOB MICHAELSON, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY LINES: 510-627 RETHINKING REFERENCE REVISITED BY SUZANNE CALPESTRI, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LINES: 628-773 STS SCIENCE DATABASES DISCUSSION GROUP AT ALA IN MIAMI BY ANN EAGAN, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA LINES: 774-866 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM THE EDITOR Yes I am running late with the August issue which turned into a September issue. The next issue will not be coming out until late November or early December of this year. I want to thank all the authors who wrote articles for this issue and encourage others out there to submit articles to this address to be published in future issues. Be sure to take notice of the first annoucement that follows about a new LISTSERV being sponsored by the Science and Technology Section of ACRL. The subscription list for this new LISTSERV is separate from the distribution list I use. If you are interested in joining this new discussion group, and I hope you will be, read the instructions and join up today. Harry LLull University of New Mexico ______________________________________________________________________________ NEW STS LISTSERV STS-L is a moderated discussion group sponsored by the Science & Technology Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) of the American Library Association (ALA). It uses the revised LISTSERV software. All messages are received by the moderators and then distributed to the group. The purpose of the list is to a): provide a forum for the discussion of issues primarily of interest to all science and technology librarians; b): provide a quick communication link between the STS section leadership and the members; and c): serve as a distribution point for STS publications. It is a public list, open to all interested persons. To join STS-L, send email to LISTSERV@UTKVM1.UTK.EDU with the following message: SUBSCRIBE STS-L First-Name Last-Name If you have any questions or problems regarding STS-L, please contact one of the moderators: Marty Courtois Biological Sciences Reference Librarian Hodges Library University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996-1000 Telephone: 615-974-6797 E-Mail: courtois@a1.utcc.utk.edu Terry Wittig Engineering and Science Library Wean Hall Carnegie Mellon University Telephone: 412-268-7212 E-Mail: tw1l@andrew.cmu.edu ______________________________________________________________________________ NATURAL HISTORY ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION LIST The Special Libraries Association Natural History Caucus is pleased to announce the establishment of an electronic discussion list focusing on issues related to natural history librarianship and natural history libraries. The Natural History Caucus Reflector is based at the California Academy of Sciences and is open to both Caucus members and any other interested persons. To be included in the reflector mailings, please send your name and email address to Adam Schiff, Associate Librarian for Technical Services, California Academy of Sciences: aschiff@cas.calacademy.org. To send messages to the list itself use the reflector address: NHC-SLA@cas.calacademy.org. The Natural History Caucus of the Special Libraries Association was formed in 1991 and meets annually at the SLA conference. The Caucus sponsors or co-sponsors programs and field trips at SLA conferences, fosters networking among natural history librarians, and is currently involved in planning a cooperative resource sharing project using OCLC's Group Access Capability. Future ventures may include union list of library collections, cooperative collection development ventures, directories of natural history libraries and institutions, and other projects. For further information about the Natural History Caucus itself, please contact SLA or Ann Juneau, Caucus Convener, at NMNH Branch Library, Smithsonian Institution Libraries (Phone: 202-357-4939 Fax: 202-357-1896 Internet: LIBEM019@SIVM.SI.EDU) ___________________________________________________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL: Nita Dean (614) 761-5002 GEOBASE IS NOW AVAILABLE ON FIRSTSEARCH, EPIC DUBLIN, Ohio, Sept. 8, 1994--GEOBASE, an international bibliographic database covering the literature of physical and human geography, geology, and earth, ecological and developmental sciences, is now available on FirstSearch and EPIC, OCLC's online reference services. GEOBASE, produced by Elsevier/Geo Abstracts, contains more than 620,000 records with abstracts of articles published from 1980 to the present. GEOBASE is the only database in its field that includes abstracts. The database is updated monthly with 4,000 new records. More than 2,000 journals are fully covered in GEOBASE, while an additional 3,000 have selective coverage. More than 2,000 books, monographs, conference proceedings and reports are also included. Beginning in 1989, doctoral dissertations and masters' theses are indexed. "GEOBASE is well known and highly regarded in the information industry, and it strengthens our database offering by extending our coverage of the earth sciences," said Tam Dalrymple, OCLC reference services. Elsevier/Geo Abstracts is one of the units comprising Elsevier's Secondary Publishing Division. Headquartered in Norwich, in the United Kingdom, Elsevier/Geo Abstracts has been serving the scientific and technical communities since 1960. The FirstSearch service is designed for library patrons, with a menu-driven interface that allows easy navigation through the online search process in just a few simple steps, without training or online searching experience. EPIC, a full-featured online reference system that provides subject access, and keyword and Boolean searching to a variety of databases, is used mostly by librarians and experienced searchers. OCLC is a nonprofit computer library service and research organization whose computer network and services link more than 18,000 libraries in 52 countries and territories. (RM) __________________________________________________________________________ AFRITECH '95: AN ELECTRONIC "ONLINE" CONFERENCE Conference Theme: "Science, Technology and African-Americans: Perspectives and Issues for Cross-Disciplinary Debate and Research" Background: The "Technology and the African-American Experience Workshop Group" Planning Committee for the Mid-Year Electronic Conference, with the support and cooperation of the Listserv at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, is breaking new ground both in the use of the Internet and in academic and professional conferences. The AFRITECH '95 conference will be in the first "online electronic conference representing a Culturally-Diverse, Multicultural and Cross-Disciplinary presentation of major research issues from various disciplines of the Sciences and related Technologies, and their impact on the experiences of African-Americans. AFRITECH '95 also represents a new concept in conferences; it will take place entirely on the INTERNET. The main difference between this conference and others of its kind is that there will not be a need to make hotel or airline reservations, or take days off from work to attend the conference; this conference "will be taken" to the participants through the use of the INTERNET. As announced earlier, the First Annual International Workshop on Technology and the African American Experience ( a regular face-to-face conference) was held last May 20-22, 1994, at Howard University. AFRITECH '95 is a follow-up electronic mid-year conference to that meeting, and will lead to the next face-to-face conference scheduled for June 2-4, 1995, at Howard University, Washington, DC. Further information on the upcoming June 1995 meeting will be announced later. The budgetary plight of many colleges, universities and agencies is perhaps being felt the greatest in support for travel funds to professional meetings. As a result, many people are not attending as many meetings, are staying shorter periods of time or have stopped attending all together. The AFRITECH '95 conference will alleviate some of those budgetary problems. Participants will not have to travel to reach the conference. All that will be required is that your pre-register by subscribing to the AFRITECH List and then register to participate in the conference at the level of your choice as follows: Area Chair, Panel Chair, Presenter of a Paper, Discussant/Panelist, or Attendee. To attend the conference in January 1995, you will then just subscribe or access one or more of the listserv panels representing the various subject-areas. Participants will even be able to "present a paper" while remaining in their homes or offices. While we do not think that such conferences will replace "residential" of "face-to-face" conferences, we do believe that this form of interaction is the future of "working" conferences. This effort is only the third such conference that we know of to take place completely through the use of the INTERNET. In planning the AFRITECH List and Conference, we have adapted basic design and operational procedures from two models already in operation and previously announced on the Internet, by the following groups: 1) CRIMECON: THE FIRST ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CRIME AND JUSTICE - The Conference of the Future, January 12-13, 1995; sponsored by the Department of Criminal Justice, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Jeffery T. Walker, CRIMCON Listowner and Conference Coordinator, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; and 2) IURO-ECOTECH '94 ELECTRONIC WORKSHOP - "Barriers to Cross-Disciplinary Research and Technology Transfer in Wood for Energy in the Tropics," September 1994; sponsored by the Integrated Research in Biomass for Energy project group of IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations; Andy Kenney, ECOTECH '94 Listowner and Workshop Coordinator, Faculty of Forestry, University or Toronto. HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE AFRITECH '95 CONFERENCE: (Note: Deadlines Dates for Chairs, Panelists and Presenters of Papers have been extended) If you are interested in serving as an Area or Panel Chair, please send your name and subject-area by OCTOBER 1, 1994. If you are interested in Presenting a Paper for discussion via this electronic conference, please send your name and topic by OCTOBER 15, 1994; and then forward a copy of your Abstracto or an Outline by DECEMBER 10, 1994. If you are interested in serving as a Panelist (discussant or reactor to the presentations), please send your name and subject-area by OCTOBER 15, 1994. WHERE TO REGISTER AND OBTAIN MORE INFORMATION: Send your name by e-mail to Rosie L. Albritton (Listowner and Chair of the Planning Committee for the Electronic Conference of The Technology and African-American Workshop Group) at: RALBRIT@CMS.CC.WAYNE.EDU (or) RALBRIT@WAYNEST1. TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE LIST, and receive updates and further details on both the conference and the list, send a email message to: LISTSERV@CMS.CC.WAYNE.EDU with the message SUBSCRIBE AFRITECH as the only line in the body of the message (without the brackets). HOW TO PARTICIPATE WITHOUT AN "ONLINE" OR EMAIL CONNECTION: A "print-version" of this annoucement is now available as a periodic newsletter, also known as AFRITECH, to keep those interested in this topic informed and up-to-date on the development of the conference, current research efforts in the various disciplines, and related activities. The "proceedings" of the conference will also be released in a print-format. To join the "mailing list" for AFRITECH '95, please send your name and mailing address, or see phone and FAX numbers listed below. Please feel free to distribute this message to others who might be interested in "attending" this CONFERENCE OF THE FUTURE! Rosie L. Albritton, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Library & Information Science Kresge Library 106 Wayne State University Detroit, Michigan 48202-3939 Phone: (313) 577-6203 FAX: (313) 577-4172 _______________________________________________________________________________ 1994 IFLA CONFERENCE IN HAVANA CUBA BY Marty Kesselman, Head of Reference and Instructional Services, Rutgers University Library of Science and Medicine When I traveled down to Havana, Cuba for the 1994 IFLA Conference I really did not know what to expect. I had seen my hotel, the Hotel Deauville in Old Havana, in a newspaper ten days earlier where there had been some riots and broken glass around the lobby. Still, I wasn't prepared for the desperation of the Cuban people on the one hand and the warmth and dedication of the Cuban librarians I met on the other. The streets of Old Havana were full of holes in the sidewalk, dark, and austere. There are many beautiful buildings and plazas but there is much decay and a real lack of essential services. Numerous children begging in the streets at all hours of the day and night is common as well as many people just sitting idlely on the Malecon looking across the water, hoping for a better day. Some are so desperate they risk their lives in make-shift rafts but only a few of their number make it safely. Even at the conference receptions, several Cuban librarians brought bags with them to take food home to their families. Just as it was in Moscow in 1991, the stores and pharmacies were bare and when there is something available to buy, long lines will form. For the Cuban librarians, this was an important accomplishment, to host the first IFLA conference in Latin America. Even with numerous problems of transportation and translation services, the conference did go very smoothly. The conference had a very respectable attendance with over 1,460 participants representing 80 different countries. The U.S., suprisingly, given the trade embargo, had the highest number of participants after the Cubans. Now on to some news from the Section on Science and Technology Libraries. The Section sponsored a very successful program on barrriers to scientific information. Barbara Ford of Virginia Polytechnic University discussed the importance of information literacy as a barrier, particularly in the sciences where electronic resources and tools have changed the way scientists do their work. Jesus Lau of the ITESM Campus in Toluca, Mexico discussed the social barriers that limit scientific and technical information in Mexico including nationalism, traditions based on oral culture and a non-research oriented educational system. The paper by Jagdish Agrawal of King Saud University in Saudi Arabia discussed linguistic barriers in terms of technology transfer and how Arabization of software tools created in the West is a major research effort in his country to help overcome this obstacle. The Standing Committee on Science and Technology Libraries has been working on several projects. David Price of Oxford University discussed some results from a Section-sponsored project on satellite-based communications for access to the Internet for developing countries where their is very poor telecommunications infrastructure and lack of adequate power supplies. Price has been investigating Inmarsat which has four satellites covering virtually the entire world. Portable units can be used with land-earth stations to provide access to the Internet. Unfortunately the costs are exhorbitant when one adds the fees for access, equipment and licensing. Price did say however that this is a rapidly changing market and smaller satellite transmitting units the size of telephones are coming on board as well as increased competition that will hopefully lead to lower prices. The World Survey on the Availability of Theses in Science and Technology is still incomplete but is planned to be put up on the new IFLA gopher with the intent to provide access to the information we've been able to compile so far. There are two new projects in the works -- one is a feasibility study of the usefulness of CD-ROM for developing collections of grey literature in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Asia and a second project to study elements and features of gophers and world wide web servers of major science libraries and come up with some guidelines for these new "electronic libraries" of information. During the conference I had the opportunity to visit the Science and Technology National Library in the Capitolo, a magnificent building patterned after the U.S. Capitol. The library was furnished with beautiful Cuban mahogany, patterned marble floors, and bronze chandeliers. The collection is small with only 6000 serials, 25,000 monographs, several major indexes, and CD-ROMs such as Current Contents, Medline, and Engineering Index. Unfortunately the collection for most indexes ended with 1990, probably due to the fact that that's when the money dried up from the Soviet Union. Just from a glance in their technical services department, I noticed that odd isssues of U.S. science journals from the 1980s were waiting to be processed. Besides the papers and the visits, there was time to network and share experiences with colleagues around the world, the reason IFLA is so special to me. On the last day of the conference there was a wonderful Thanksgiving service, a tradition that's been in existence since 1987. Over 50 participants attended the bilingual service in English and Spanish and I realized that no matter what cultural, geographical, political, or economic barriers may exist on the outside, we all shared a common thread and a need to work towards the breaking down of any obstacles to a free-flow of information. For anyone that's interested in learning more about IFLA or the Section on Science and Technology Libraries, please contact me at kesselman@zodiac.rutgers.edu. All the papers and workshop materials from this year's conference were made available on disks in Wordperfect 5.1 format. For availability and information on purchasing these, please contact IFLA Headquarters at IFLA.HQ@IFLA.NL. _____________________________________________________________________________ GARR : THE ITALIAN ACADEMIC NETWORK BY Tullio Basaglia, Sistema Bibliotecario del Politecnico di Torino Biblioteca Centrale di Ingegneria, Torino, Italy sbp@polito.it GARR is the acronym for Gruppo di Armonizzazione delle Reti di Ricerca (Harmonisation Group of the Research Networks). This committee was created in 1988 with a decree of the Ministry of the University and Scientific and Technological Research (MURST) and continued in office until summer 1992. In the group were represented the cited MURST, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, three national research institutions such as CNR (National Council for Research), ENEA (National Council for Research on Nuclear and Alternative Energy Sources), INFN (National High Energy Physics Institute), and three consortia offering computing resources to Italian universities : CINECA (Bologna), CILEA (Milan), CSATA (Bari). These six organizations constituted the Executive Committee of GARR. They built up the network with funds of the MURST and managed it until March 1993. The GARR network was inaugurated in March 1990. Its backbone connected initially seven primary sites by means of 2 Mbps lines and four TDM channels. The nodes were located in Milano, Bologna, Pisa, Rome and Bari. Afterwards, a project funded by the Ministry of the University and the Scientific and Technological Research made it possible to connect gradually all Italian universities to the network. Some of the new sites are today connected as an extension of the backbone (2 Mbps lines), while the others are linked to the primary nodes through 64 Kbps lines. The network supports five different telecommunication protocols : SNA, DECnet, X.25, TCP/IP and ISO/CLNP. The aims of the GARR network are : - to support "the integration and development of the entire national system of scientific and technological research" (from the `Guidelines for access and the use of the GARR network', 1/2/1991), by optimizing the resources and the services offered by the network. - to draft a plan for the global migration of the network to the ISO/OSI standards. - to connect GARR to other international networks and to participate in various cooperative programs involving European networks. These projects (e.g. RARE, COSINE) aim at the definition of guidelines for the access to the services and to the resources of the networks and for the adoption of a common telecommunication protocol, such as the ISO/OSI. - to act, through its Network Information Service, as the reference institution in Italy for those (organizations, networks, domains, individuals) who want to access GARR and, through it, other international networks. As anyone can see from this description, GARR is an academic network created in order to support the activity of public research institutions and universities. The network and its services are also accessible to private research centers that cooperate with public-funded research programs; it cannot be used for commercial purposes of any kind, for the exchange of information not regarding scientific research, as well as for any activity that leads to a waste of resources or infringement of the privacy of other users. The "external" user wishing to access the network needs a formal authorization from the Scientific and Technical Board of GARR. A new Commission for the Harmonization of the Research Networks, more independent from the Ministry of the University, has been in office since April 1993. The need of an advisory board responsible for technical issues arose soon within the committee. Therefore, the former Executive Commission was replaced by a Scientific and Technical Board, charged with various tasks. Firstly, it has to draft an annual report about the state and utilization of the network. Secondly, it makes proposals regarding its future technical development and the offer of new services. Finally, it promotes the participation of the GARR network in international projects such as RARE, EUROPAnet, etc. The Scientific and Technical Board created several panels dealing with the various aspects of the management of the network (e-mail, Network Information Retrieval, management of the networks based on the IBM, X.25, TCP/IP protocols, and others). From the point of view of scientific and technical libraries a very important panel is the one concerning information, libraries, documentation and data. Within this panel ten working groups have been recently created, together with as many discussion lists dealing with the following issues : cataloguing systems, periodicals and abstracting, bibliographic research and OPACs, electronic availability of documents, grey literature, access to databases and statistical data, academic information systems, statistics about the users and pricing issues, public domain software and related international standards, information systems for archives and related international standards. The creation of these working groups is aimed at involving the librarians and documentation professionals in the project of outlining a network that meets the requirements of the institutions where they work. Every institution or consortium connected to the GARR network can participate in the working groups by registering its representatives for one or more groups. The participation is also possible for the librarians working at ICCU (Central Institute for the Unified Catalogue) and those involved in the SBN project, i.e. the project of the union catalogue of monographs owned by national, university and major research and historical libraries in Italy. The ten working groups have been established since May 1994 and they are still gathering participants. The traffic on the discussion lists is for the moment scarce, but the librarians will avail themselves of the opportunity to make proposals concerning the future of the GARR network, and not entrust exclusively to the network managers the task of shaping the net and offering new services. More information about GARR can be obtained by pointing your gopher server to asso.nis.garr.it, port 70. ______________________________________________________________________________ NORTH AMERICAN SECTION OF IATUL MEETING BY Bob Michaelson, Science and Engineering Library, Northwestern University On Wednesday, May 11, 1994, I attended a meeting of the North American section of IATUL (International Association of Technological University Libraries) at the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City. IATUL's North American section formed in 1984 when Dennis Shaw, then at the Radcliffe Science Library, Oxford University, and President of IATUL, suggested to Jay Lucker, Director of the MIT Libraries, that IATUL members in North America would benefit from their own section since IATUL meetings were always held in Europe. The first North American section meeting was held at MIT in 1984, and subsequent meetings have been held at Georgia Tech, Stevens Institute of Technology, McGill University, Lehigh, and the John Crerar Library of the University of Chicago. There was a meeting of the full IATUL group at MIT in 1991, the first time it had met in North America, but there have been no North American meetings since then until the Linda Hall meeting. The Linda Hall Library The Linda Hall Library was founded by the 1941 bequest of Herbert and Linda Hall, which directed that a free public library be established on what was the site of the Hall home. No details were given as to the type of library to be founded. After the war four consultants each recommended that the Kansas City area could use a library of science and technology, and these recommendations were followed. An early opportunity came when the American Academy of Arts and Sciences divested itself of its library, which was purchased by the Linda Hall. This established a large collection of early works on science and technology, which has been added to in later purchases by one of the twenty-two professiona l bibliographers who specializes in the history of science and technology. Linda Hall also has a very large number of serial subscriptions in science and technology and a large collection of current standards and specifications. Their budget allows them to purchase a generous number of current mono- graphs. They do not collect in medicine, and the increasing cost of technical materials has forced them to reduce purchases in the biological sciences and in agriculture which was an area of historic strength since the Halls had made their money in the grain business. This is quite a change from the 1950's when income from the Hall Foundation gave them more money than they were able to spend on acquisitions. In order to retain non-profit status they spent the surplus on additional building space, and they still have empty shelving ranges dating from that time. For many years Linda Hall was a very traditional (even backward) library, providing basic services to patrons in the Kansas City area but not applying information technology. This is changing dramatically with their new President, Lee Jones. They have hired an information technology specialist, established an Internet connection, and have done a substantial amount of retrospective conversion. They are purchasing NOTIS Horizon and will implement an OPAC to be called "Leonardo" (it will be a joint catalog of Linda Hall and the Nelson- Atkins Art Museum) which will be available on the Internet. Over 90% of their records will have been converted to machine-readable form when Leonardo is brought up. They are also significantly upgrading their ILL service, are a beta test site (and midwest beta test coordinator) for Ariel 2, and allow deposit accounts and ILL requests over the Internet (email address for ILL is REQUESTS@LHL.LIB.MO.US; basic fee is $9 for up to a 20-page copy or for a book loan). In order to maintain their newly-won position in technology they are beginning a $2.5 million fund raising campaign to allow them to acquire current technology and establish an endowment so they will be able to replace that technology every eight years. Their collection will be substantially enhanced in engineering since the Engineering Societies in New York have decided to give up their library; most of the collection not duplicated at Linda Hall will go there, although maps will probably go to the Library of Congress. The Wheeler Collection on the history of electricity and magnetism is legally required to remain in New York City and will probably go to NYPL, and architectural drawings will go to some site on the east coast. The IATUL meeting Twenty-one attendees were present from various libraries. The small size of these meetings is an attractive feature in that everyone gets a chance to meet everyone else. Several attendees distributed copies of materials which they thought might be of interest to others; for example, Helen Schuster of Worcester Polytechnic distributed copies of their brochure on "Employment opportunities and job resources on the Internet". Not surprisingly, there was much discussion about electronic resources. Barbara Lockett (RPI) pointed out that patrons' expectations are raised by electronic resources, which forces libraries to increase staff development programs (so that staff are able to assist with questions about these resources) as well as staff workloads. Jay Lucker (MIT) described the archiving problems associated with an electronic journal to be published by MIT Press, "The Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science". In order to assure future access the MIT Library will keep an archival microfilm copy as well as some electronic format. Given past experience with commercial publishers, it is unlikely that they will guarantee archiving of old articles, particularly when use has declined and providing access is no longer profitable; thus if all-electronic journals merit retention it will be left to libraries to archive them. The problems found by MIT in ensuring preservation of this single MIT Press title indicate that the problem of archiving thousands of titles will not be trivial. Lee Jones (Linda Hall) mentioned the case of the 1960 U.S. census data which was stored on computer tapes in a format no longer used; it required about $2.5 million and three years of work to reconstruct machines to read the tapes and transfer them to a modern format. There was also discussion about personnel implications of technology. Joe Boykin (Clemson) suggested that training was important not only for technical ability but also for what might be considered personality traits: libraries have increasing need for people who can "think outside the box", and deal well with changing and chaotic situations. To some degree this ability can be trained for, and Barbara Lockett pointed out that institutions must reward innovation and encourage open thinking. Moreover, the library profession must redefine its image to attract creative thinkers and dynamic individuals, and must encourage library schools to look for such traits. This lead to a discussion of how to identify applicants with desirable traits. Joanne Lerud of Colorado State said that in their most recent two searches they had first screened out applicants who didn't meet basic job requirements, and then asked *all* of the remaining applicants for brief written responses to specific questions (such as "discuss access versus ownership" or "describe your team- building experience" in one hundred words or less). Of course it requires a great deal of work for the search committee to develop questions and read the responses from fifty to seventy applicants per position, but in the end they felt that they were identifying the best applicants to bring in to interview. Rich Sweeny (Polytechnic Brooklyn) mentioned that he used a similar technique. There were many other items of discussion that I haven't mentioned. This was a very interesting and useful meeting. Next year's meeting will be held at the University of Maryland. _____________________________________________________________________________ RETHINKING REFERENCE REVISITED By Suzanne Calpestri, Head, Anthropology Library, University of California at Berkeley It's been a little over a year since reference librarians from academic Libraries begun actively Rethinking Reference in a structured setting and with an eye to developing new models for delivering information services in academic libraries. Anne Lipow, Director of Library Solutions Institute and Press and Library Consultant Lou Weatherbee organized three 2 1/2 day seminars (Berkeley -- March 1993, Duke -- June 1994 and Iowa -- Feb. 1994) in which librarians from across the country charted new directions for reference, brainstormed specific changes that are desirable and followed up by suggesting practical steps that they might take to enhance the value of library services and meet increasing patron demands while dealing with ever more stringent budget targets. Participants in the Berkeley and Duke Institutes focused on two specific tasks: (1) defining a new model for reference and (2) identifying steps to implement the model. The small group discussions at Berkeley and Duke produced a very similar model for reference -- one that emphasizes proactive delivery of collections and services and an increase in programs that promote user self-sufficiency, and that shows a marked decline in traditional reference elements such as"sit-and-wait" question answering and mediated ILL and online database searching. The first two Institutes, Berkeley and Duke, are well documented in Rethinking Reference in Academic Libraries, edited by Anne Lipow and published by Library Solutions Press, 1993. This 242p. volume includes papers presented by ten library leaders, a record of outcomes from small group discussions, a list of related readings, and a rich appendix including samples of completed homework assignments that participants submitted in advance of the workshop together with selected writings including a fuller discussion of the debate over BI as a more prominent or less prominent element in the new reference service. (Also, audio tapes of the Berkeley presentations including audience discussions are available from Library Solutions Institute Press.) Not included in the volume is the third Rethinking Reference Institute which took place in February 1994 at University of Iowa. The Iowa Institute built on the findings of the Berkeley and Duke sessions and offered participants a close-up look at two libraries that are actively involved in creating a new reference model. University of Iowa Library houses the Information Arcade, a state of the art electronic library. Arcade director, Anita Lowry gave participants a hands-on demonstration and tour through the arcade allowing all to experience firsthand, a reference model that has an electronic library as a central element in its design. Janet Vratney from Apple computer was also added to the Institute faculty to demonstrate another model of the electronic library and its implications for the future for reference. Other faculty returned for the Iowa Institute and presented new papers updating the information covered at Berkeley and Duke, thereby giving Iowa participants a view of change in progress and the benefit of hindsight in evaluating particular ideas and strategies that were part of the earlier institutes. Leading these discussions were Virginia Massey-Burzio on eliminating the reference desk, Frances Painter on continuing change at Virginia Tech University, Larry Oberg on new roles for librarians and support staff, Suzanne Calpestri on forging new alliances, and Karen Williams on the reorganization at University of Arizona. In his Iowa keynote address ("Let go of the stone if you don't want to drown"), Jerry Campbell provided "electric shock treatment" for the group when he suggested that contrary to what we may think, libraries have been relatively stable environments for the past 30 years. The big change is just around the corner. His address was a call to action. He suggested in no uncertain terms that librarians must embrace and promote change if libraries are to thrive and exist as vital institutions in academe. In his Change/Adapt/Thrive (CAT) Strategy, he detailed those behaviors and attitudes we must adopt and strategies we must pursue to embrace change. Organizational change was a key topic in the Rethinking curriculum. This segment of the Berkeley and Duke institutes was presented by Terry Mazany and focused on the theoretical aspects of organizational change. With the Iowa Institute and its emphasis on developing practical skills to implement a new reference model, Terry concentrated on developing skills for consensus building-- a key success factor in implementing organizational change. Participants worked through exercises using real library issues to develop skills and small group discussions provided additional opportunities to practice consensus building - not a way of working together that comes naturally. Moving beyond the outcomes of Berkeley and Duke, Iowa participants were asked to critique the Berkeley/Duke model by addressing three issues. First, identify elements that are missing from the model. Second, identify those elements in the model that are already well developed (i.e., need little or no more attention). Third, identify those elements needing more attention and the steps needed to achieve those innovations. It is this third category that provides practical suggestions for implementing new directions in reference. For example, user independence was identified as a not-well-developed component of the new reference model, one which was hampered by the absence of a campus electronic infrastructure, poorly designed catalogs and information systems and lack of good CAI programs. To promote user independence, it was suggested that we should (1) lobby for campus electronic infrastructure and equitable access to it, (2) become active participants in the design of user-intuitive systems. A total of one hundred and eighty librarians, from Directors, Associate Directors, Heads of Reference Departments and Reference Librarians attended the Rethinking Reference Institutes. Talkback sessions at the end of each Institute gave participants a chance to evaluate their 2 1/2 days work. Participants gave the Institutes very high marks for content, organization and responsiveness to participants suggestions. The real test of the success of the Institutes is in our libraries and our commitment to setting new directions for reference. This is a very exciting time for libraries. Will the library become irrelevant with electronic distribution of information or will the library -- its services, collections and connections -- be even more important as users try to manage the glut of information available to them? It is up to us as librarians to decide. Rethinking Reference was important for focusing the profession on those issues that need attention and solutions if the library is to be vital in the scholarly communication process. PostScript: At the June 1994 Annual Conference of the American Library Association, the Reference and Adult Services Division recognized the significance of these Institutes in bringing "rethinking reference" issues to the attention of libraries nationwide by presenting the 1994 Isadore Gilbert Mudge -- R.R. Bowker award to Anne G. Lipow for a "distinguished contribution to reference librarianship." _____________________________________________________________________________ STS SCIENCE DATABASES DISCUSSION GROUP AT ALA IN MIAMI BY Ann Eagan, University of Arizona The room was great for the ACRL-STS Science Databases Discussion Group this time -- comfortable chairs arranged in a circle in a well-lit room instead of a dimly lit theater that smelled of stale popcorn. The only drawback to the room was that it was two buses or a $20 taxi ride away from the convention center. The distance and the rather esoteric topic of numeric databases kept the number attending down to 25. The lower number attending was probably just as well as the handouts speaker Cheryl Yearell-Vinson from STN had shipped from Ohio never arrived. Cheryl began with an overview of the numeric databases available from STN and then proceeded to guide us through several search examples from some of the materials property databases. She explained when to use materials properties databases, showed how to use STN's Numeriguide to choose the databases where numeric properties can be found and what the differences were between the databases. After her presentation, the questions, comments and discussion began. Cheryl asked why people were uncomfortable with numeric databases. Many people said they were uncomfortable because they do not use them enough and were not aware such files were available. A number of people felt that STN does not publicize their numeric databases well and the people at the STN Help Desk do not have the same level of expertise with the numeric databases as with Chemical Abstracts. Someone suggested having learning files in the numeric databases so people could practice. Another suggested offering some files in CD-ROM format. Someone else thought this would be especially good for teaching students the use of materials properties databases. Teaching students, particularly engineering students, the use of materials property databases was thought to be important as they will need this kind of information in industry. Another problem mentioned with numeric questions is that many librarians do not perceive them to be "big" reference questions. They do not realize an online search may be appropriate for such questions and neither do faculty or engineers and chemists in industry. The discussion moved to the use of the Internet for obtaining numeric information. Dawn Talbot shared copies of a recent discussion on the Usenet newsgroup SCI.MATERIALS. Someone in the newsgroup asked for Internet accessible mechanical properties databases. Respondents replied with recommendations for STN, Dialog, the Department of Defense (Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center, Metal Matrix Composites Info Analysis Center, etc.), the Department of Commerce Clearinghouse for Federal and Technical Information and others. Several attendees expressed concern about using some of the non-commercial Internet sources. So many of the Internet sources do not have documentation so the authority of the data is unknown and too many people take as gospel truth what someone says on a bulletin board. SCI.MATERIALS is not the only newsgroup or discussion list where requests for numeric and other data are made. The _Directory of Scholarly Electronic Conferences_ by Diane Kovacs (available via FTP from a variety of sites or in print from the Association for Research Libraries under the title, _Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters and Academic Discussion Lists_) is a good source for finding relevant discussion groups. Other subject specific Internet resource lists are available from various gopher sites, including the University of Michigan and the ALA gopher. Attendees left the discussion with a better sense of what the numeric files in STN are and how to use them as well as where to find Internet resources. Join us for our next discussion on Pre-Print Databases on the World Wide Web. For more information, contact: Ann Eagan University of Arizona Science-Engineering Library 1510 E. University Tucson, AZ 85720-0055 (602) 621-6378 FAX: (602) 621-3655 aeagan@ccit.arizona.edu or Dawn Talbot CMRR, 401 University of California-San Diego 9500 Gilman Dr. La Jolla, CA 92093-0401 (619) 534-6213 FAX: (619) 534-2720 dtalbot@ucsd.edu ***************************************************************** Issues In Science and Technology Librarianship is a publication of the Science and Technology Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. The Editor: Harry LLull This publication is produced at the Centennial Science and Engineering Library, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and sent out in electronic form only over the internet. Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Section or Division. Articles and requests for subscriptions may be sent to the editor at ACRLSTS@HAL.UNM.EDU. ***************************************************************** END OF FILE *****************************************************************