Reference & User Services Quarterly articles from December 2003

Reference & User Services Quarterly archives from December 2003

Strange Bedfellows: Evidence of Accuracy in Professional Performance
December 22, 2003... A brief article in a local newspaper revealed a disturbing set of statistics. In an unobtrusive test conducted by investigators from the Treasury Department, employees of the Internal Revenue Service provided correct answers to 57 percent of...

A tour of road bicycling books.(Tour de France: The Illustrated History)(Tour de France--Tour de Force: A Visual History of the World's Greatest Bicycle Race)(The Official Tour de France Centennial 1903-2003)(The Unknown Tour de France: The Many Faces of the World's Biggest Bicycle Race)(The Giro D'Italia: Coppi versus Bartali at the 1949 Tour of Italy)(Off to the Races: 25 Years of Cycling Journalism)(Graham Watson: 20 Years of Cycling Photography)(The Giants of Cycling)(Uphill Battle: Cycling's Great Climbers)(It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life)(Complete Bike Book)(Richard's 21st Century Bicycle Book)(Bicycling Magazine's Complete Guide to Bicycle Maintenance and Repair for Road and Mountain Bikes)(Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance)(The Haynes Bicycle Book)(Barnett's Manual: Introduction, Frames, Forks, and Bearings)(The Ultimate Ride: Get Fit, Get Fast, and Start Winning with the World's Top Cycling Coach)(The Lance Armstrong Performance Program: Seven Weeks to the Perfect Ride)(The Complete Book of Long Distance Cycling: Build the Strength, Skills, and Confidence to Ride as Far as You Want)(Serious Cycling. 2d ed.)(The Cyclist's Training Bible, 3d ed.)(North Wind in Your Spokes)(The Yellow Jersey)(The Rider)(French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... American cyclist Lance Armstrong made history on July 27, 2003, when he won his fifth consecutive Tour de France title. Armstrong became the fifth rider to win five Tour titles. He is among an elite group, sharing this honor with Miguel...

Transformations of Librarianship in Support of Learning Communities
December 22, 2003... Commentaries and expressions of concern over the direction, future, and ultimate survival of librarianship parallel the development and widespread acceptance of an impressive array of information technologies. From desktops to cellular phones to...

Writing Information Literacy: Contributions to a Concept
December 22, 2003... In the field of instruction and information literacy, we often talk about the need to understand other discipline's research and perspectives in order to better inform our own. This goal is frequently difficult to achieve unless both areas have...

Location, Location, Location: The Importance of Placement of the Chat Request Button
December 22, 2003... It is generally acknowledged that academic chat reference services do not receive heavy use. Why don't chat reference services receive more questions? How can we increase use of our services? Chat reference (also known as digital or virtual...

Academic Librarians and Distance Education: Challenges and Opportunities
December 22, 2003... The phenomenal growth of distance-learning programs at colleges and universities has tremendous implications for providing library services to distance students. Academic libraries are trying to meet the accreditation requirements for providing...

Cost-of-Living Calculators on the Web: An Empirical Snapshot
December 22, 2003... Employment-related resources have always been a vital part of the reference collection in academic and public libraries. To assist job seekers, the Web is now presenting free and interesting opportunities for collecting cost-of-living data....

The African American Years.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... By Gabriel Burns Stepto. Chronologies of American History and Experience. New York: Scribner, 2003. 475p. alkaline $125 (ISBN 0-684-31257-3). The African American Years brings to the reader, through the use of a chronology, essays, and...

Amazons to Fighter Pilots: a Biographical Dictionary of Military Women.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by Reina Pennington and Robin Higham. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2003. 2 vols. alkaline $175 (ISBN 0-313-29197-7). From Adelaide of Turin through Ilona Zrinyi, Amazons to Fighter Pilots documents the military contributions of some...

American Presidential Campaigns and Elections.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by William G. Shade, Ballard C. Campbell, and Craig R. Coenen. Armonk, N.Y.: Sharpe Reference, 2003. 3 vols. alkaline $325 (ISBN 0-7656-8042-4). With the 2000 presidential election still fresh in many readers' minds, this reference...

Artists of the Middle Ages.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... By Leslie Ross. Artists of an Era. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2003. 182p. alkaline $59.95 (ISBN 0-313-31903-0). In the introduction of this book, the first volume of the Artists of an Era series, the author provocatively asks the reader...

Building Blocks of Matter: A Supplement to the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Physics
December 22, 2003... Ed. by John S. Rigden. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2003. 530p. alkaline $130 (ISBN 0-02-865703-9). Editor John Rigden and his 132 contributors have succeeded in creating a significant new core reference for particle physics. Conceived as a...

Cold War America, 1946-1990.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... By Ross Gregory. Almanacs of American Life; Facts On File Library of American History. New York: Facts On File, 2003. 670p. acid free $105 (ISBN 0-8160-3868-6). The goal of this volume is to provide an in-depth look at trends in everyday...

Current Issues.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Macmillan Social Science Library. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2003. 4 vols. alkaline $375 (ISBN 0-02-865744-6). Current Issues provides background information and different points of view on 265 debatable topics, some of which young...

Cyclopedia of Literary Places.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by R. Kent Rasmussen. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem, 2003. 3 vols. alkaline $290 (ISBN 1-58765-094-0). The study of literature often begins with the elements plot, character, and place (or setting). Students have a wealth of library...

Encyclopedia of African-American Politics.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... By Robert C. Smith. New York: Facts On File. 2003. 432p. $85 (ISBN 0816044759). An appreciation of American politics is gained by understanding that the political system in the United States functions as the result of the interaction...

The Encyclopedia of Alzheimer's Disease.(Facts On File Library of Health and Living)(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... By Carol Turkington. Facts On File Library of Health and Living. New York: Facts On File, 2003. 286p. acid free $71.50 (ISBN 0-8160-4818-5). As the older population increases, most of us have witnessed a family member or friend who has...

Encyclopedia of Community: from the Village to the Virtual World.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by Karen Christensen and David Levinson. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2003. 4 vols. $595 (ISBN 0-7619-2598-8). Alienation, blogs, community-supported agriculture, cyberdating, edge cities, Hutterites, mobile home communities, plant...

Encyclopedia of Juvenile Justice.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by Marilyn D. McShane and Frank P. Williams, III. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2003. 416p. acid free $125 (ISBN 0-7619-2358-6). While juvenile delinquency has a regrettably long history, the increasing and often highly sensational...

Encyclopedia of Population.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by Paul Demeny and Geoffery McNicoll. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2003. 2 vols. $240 (ISBN 0-02-865677-6). The Encyclopedia of Population successfully meets the objectives of its authors to bring together relevant research...

Encyclopedia of Religious Freedom.(.(Routledge Encyclopedias of Religion and Society)(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by Catharine Cookson. Routledge Encyclopedias of Religion and Society. New York: Routledge, 2003. 555p. alkaline $125 (ISBN 0-415-94181-4). This volume offers a potpourri of articles on the relationships between religion and society...

The Encyclopedia of Senior Health and Well-Being.
December 22, 2003... By Joseph Kandel and Christine Adamec. Facts On File Library of Health and Living. New York: Facts On File, 2003. 324p. acid free $71.50 (ISBN 0-8160-4691-3). With the increase in the number of seniors in our society, this encyclopedia...

Encyclopedia of Women in the American West.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by Gordon Morris Bakken and Brenda Farrington. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2003. 381p. $99.95 (ISBN 0-7619-2356-X). www.sagepub.com There are books about women in the American West and there are encyclopedias of the American West,...

Encyclopedia of World Pop Music, 1980-2001.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... By Stan Jeffries. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2003. 277p. alkaline $54.95 (ISBN 0-313-31547-7). Stan Jeffries is a music critic, radio host, and contributor to The Rough Guide to Rock (Rough Guides, 2003). Jeffries clarifies the purpose...

Encyclopedia of World Terrorism.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by Frank Shanty, Raymond Picquet, and John Lalla. Armonk, N.Y.: Sharpe Reference, 2003. 2 vols. alkaline $299 (ISBN 1-56324-807-7). The Encyclopedia of World Terrorism was originally published in 1997 in three volumes that covered...

Genetics.(The Macmillan Science Library)(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by Richard Robinson. The Macmillan Science Library. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2003. 4 vols. $395 (ISBN 0-02-865606-7). Macmillan's encyclopedia on genetics joins a number of similar works. The primary goal of this work is "to...

Historical Atlas of the Holy Lands.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... By Karen Farrington. New York: Checkmark Books, 2003. 192p. acid free $35 (ISBN 0-8160-5219-0). This is the fourth book in a recent series by the author that has been published by Facts On File or its Checkmark Books imprint: Historical...

Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by Sorrel Kerbel, Muriel Emanuel, and Laura Phillips. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2003. 695p. $125 (ISBN 157958313X). Aiming to "recover the rich history of Jewish creative writers worldwide in the 20th century" (Editor's Note),...

Medieval Iberia: an Encyclopedia.(The Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages, vol. 8)(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by E. Michael Gerli. The Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages, vol. 8. New York: Routledge, 2003. 920p. $175 (ISBN 0-415-93918-6). Medieval Iberia holds a fascinating place in world history. Here was where the clash of...

Ocean Politics and Policy: A Reference Handbook
December 22, 2003... By Peter Jacques and Zachary A. Smith. Contemporary World Issues. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 2003. 267p. acid free $45 (ISBN 1-57607-622-9). This title, one of the ABC-Clio Contemporary World Issues series, may also be purchased as an...

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by Dennis Kennedy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. 2 vols. acid free $275 (ISBN 0-19-860174-3). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance is a most welcome addition to the area of theater reference. Dennis Kennedy,...

Reader's Guide to British History.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by David Loades. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2003. 2 vols. alkaline $295 (ISBN 1-57958-242-7). Reader's Guide to British History (RGBH) is a wonderful publication for anyone interested in the history of the British Isles. As the...

South Asian Folklore: an Encyclopedia.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by Margaret A. Mills, Peter J. Claus, and Sarah Diamond. New York: Routledge, 2003. 710p. alkaline $175 (ISBN 0-415-93919-4). Once in while a unique volume that has the potential to make an outstanding contribution to reference...

Space Technology.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... By Joseph A. Angelo Jr. Sourcebooks in Modern Technology. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2003. 394p. alkaline $65 (ISBN 1-57356-335-8). This book is the first volume in the Greenwood series, Sourcebooks in Modern Technology. The series will...

Water: Science and Issues.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... Ed. by E. Julius Dasch. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2003. 4 vols. alkaline $350 (ISBN 0-02-865611-3). As earth scientists would agree, water in one form or another is associated with most earth processes. Water is also a policy issue...

Books in Bloom: Creative Patterns and Props That Bring Stories to Life
December 22, 2003... By Kimberly K. Faurot. Chicago: American Library Association, 2003. 321p. $38 (ISBN 0-8389-0852-7). www.ala.org. This story-time resource demonstrates visual storytelling techniques, both common and uncommon. Many other resources cover the...

First Year Student Library Instruction Programs
December 22, 2003... Comp. by Debbie Malone and Carol Videon. CLIP Note #33. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2003. 176p. $26 (ISBN 0-8389-8230-1). www.ala.org. Why reinvent the wheel? During times of economic shortfalls and possible staff...

Going Live: Starting and Running a Virtual Reference Service
December 22, 2003... By Steve Coffman. Chicago: ALA, 2003. 182 p. $42 (ISBN 0-8389-0850-0). www.ala.org. The road to "going live" with a virtual reference service can be long and uncertain. Funding bodies must be convinced of the value of the service, decisions...

Leadership, Higher Education, and the Information Age: A New Era for Information Technology and Libraries
December 22, 2003... Ed. by Carrie E. Regenstein and Barbara I. Dewey. New York: Neal-Schuman, 2003. 233p. $75 (ISBN 1-55570-455-7). www.nealschuman.com. Defining leadership is a difficult task in any organization. Combining leadership with higher education and...

Success at the Enquiry Desk: Successful Enquiry Answering--Every Time.(Book Review)
December 22, 2003... 4th ed. By Tim Buckley Owen. London: Facet, 2003. 114 p. $45 (ISBN 1-85604-4777). www.neal-schuman.com. This fourth edition of Success at the Enquiry Desk is a practical, step-by-step guide to answering reference questions, from...

Teaching Information Literacy: Thirty-Five Practical Standards-Based Exercises for College Students
December 22, 2003... By Joanna M. Burkhardt. Mary C. MacDonald, and Andree J. Rathemacher. Chicago: American Library Association, 2003. 106p. $31 (ISBN 0-8389-0854-3). www.ala.org. Information literacy is a leading topic of concern for academic librarians today....

Teens and Libraries: Getting It Right
December 22, 2003... By Virginia A. Walter and Elaine Meyers. Chicago: ALA, 2003. 154p. $32 (ISBN 0-8389-0857-8). www.ala.org. This title encompasses many topics related to the field of young adult library services in a very slim volume. In the first section, the...