Reference & User Services Quarterly articles from September 2007

Reference & User Services Quarterly archives from September 2007

"Nice Shoes."
September 22, 2007... What could be more appropriate for the fall issue than an editorial on library education? I was delighted when Lisa O'Connor accepted my invitation to contribute a guest editorial on this topic. Lisa O'Connor earned her MLIS from the University...

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
September 22, 2007... Of course you are. If you are reading this column, you are most likely a college-educated, twenty-first-century information professional who is engaged in assisting members of your community navigate through, find, and understand complex...

Afro-Latinos: An Annotated Guide for Collection Building
September 22, 2007... Collections that explore the wealth of a culture are vital to the essence of every library, as they provide opportunities to build connections between students, faculty, librarians, and the community As witness to the possibilities stands the...

Fostering Self-Regulated Learning at the Reference Desk
September 22, 2007... Those who assist undergraduates at the reference desk know how tempting it can be, especially under time pressure, to find sources or perform online database searches for them. At the same time, reference librarians are likely to spend a...

The LibQUAL+ Phenomenon: Who Judges Quality?
September 22, 2007... For my second column as the editor of the new Management column, I decided to focus on library service assessment. It is certainly one of the most important activities we need to do; however, often we, as librarians, have little training on or...

Good for What? Non-Appeal, Discussibility, and Book Groups (Part 2)
September 22, 2007... Since the publication of Joyce Saricks's Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library (ALA, 1989, 1997, 2005), readers' advisors have used the concept of appeal as a way to connect readers with books. Looking at the elements of a piece of...

Best bibliographies in history.(FROM COMMITTEES OF RUSA)(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Each year, the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) History Section's Bibliography and Indexes Committee continues its project to honor outstanding book-length English-language bibliographies in the field of history It is our goal...

Best Free Reference Web Sites: Ninth Annual List
September 22, 2007... Welcome to the ninth annual Best Free Reference Web Sites List. In 1998, the Reference and User Services Association's (RUSA) Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) appointed an ad hoc task force to develop a method of recognizing outstanding...

Collection-Related Courses in ALA-Accredited Master's Programs: A Description
September 22, 2007... Education for librarianship has been receiving quite a lot of attention recently. Forums have been held, teleconferences organized, papers written. The population of the concerned include members of ALAs Reference and Adult Services Association...

Whatever Happened to "Always Cite the Source?" A Study of Source Citing and Other Issues Related to Telephone Reference
September 22, 2007... This article presents a study of source citing in telephone reference service at the twenty-five largest public library systems in the United States and Canada. The results showed that in eighty-six out of the 125 total reference transactions...

Comparison of Retrieval Performance of Eleven Online Indexes Containing Information Related to Quaternary Research, an Interdisciplinary Science
September 22, 2007... Interdisciplinary research offers increasing information challenges for researchers and scholars as well as for librarians. Quaternary research is an example of a highly interdisciplinary area incorporating research ranging from geochemistry and...

"If My Mother Was Alive I'd Probably Have Called Her." Women's Search for Health Information in Rural Canada
September 22, 2007... Women living in a rural Canadian county were interviewed about how they locate health information. The experiences they described raise interesting questions about the efficacy of government sponsored e-health initiatives, particularly when such...

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stars.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stars. By James B. Kaler. New York: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 2006. 324p. $60 (ISBN 978-0-521-810803-2). This handsome, large-format (9" by 11") book contains nearly all you ever wanted to know about stars,...

The Encyclopedia of American Law Enforcement.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Encyclopedia of American Law Enforcement. By Michael Newton. New York: Facts On File, 2007. 432p. alkaline $75 (ISBN 978-0-8160-6290-4). "Numbers running." Law enforcement agencies, officers, practices, programs, failures, and...

Encyclopedia of American Urban History.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Encyclopedia of American Urban History. Ed. by David Goldfield. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2007. 2 vols. acid free $300 (ISBN 0-7619-2884-7). The purpose of this two-volume encyclopedia is "to expose the leading scholarship by both...

The Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. By Carol A. Turkington and Ruth Anan. New York: Facts On File, 2007. 324p. acid free $75 (ISBN 0-8160-6002-9). While there are many books about autism and associated disorders, there are few...

Encyclopedia of Evolution.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Encyclopedia of Evolution. By Stanley A. Rice. New York: Facts On File, 2007. 469p. acid free $75 (ISBN 0-8160-5515-7). Publishers must agonize over how they can handle the development and marketing of a reference work dealing with a...

Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies. Ed. by Gaetana Marrone. New York: Routledge, 2007. 2 vols. $495 (ISBN 1-57958-390-3). This two-volume reference source ambitiously encompasses the canon of Italian literature while covering a wide...

Encyclopedia of the Modern World: 1900 to the Present.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Encyclopedia of the Modern World: 1900 to the Present. Ed. by William R. Keylor and Michael McGuire. New York: Facts On File, 2007. 3 vols. alkaline $250 (ISBN 0-8160-4872-X). This set builds on the foundation of its predecessor, John...

The Facts On File Encyclopedia of Health and Medicine: A Comprehensive and Concise Guide to the Human Body and Modern Medical Practices.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Facts On File Encyclopedia of Health and Medicine: A Comprehensive and Concise Guide to the Human Body and Modern Medical Practices. New York: Facts On File, 2007. 4 vols. alkaline $265 (ISBN 0-8160-6063-0). Each of the first three...

Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives. Ed. by Carl L. Bankston III. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem, 2007. 3 vols. alkaline $252 (ISBN 978-1-58765-320-9). Salem Press's Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives augments their Great Lives...

The Ku Klux Klan: History, Organization, Language, Influence, and Activities of America's Most Notorious Secret Society.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Ku Klux Klan: History, Organization, Language, Influence, and Activities of America's Most Notorious Secret Society. By Michael Newton. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2007. 504p. acid free $95 (ISBN 0-7864-2787-6). This work is the...

New Makers of Modern Culture.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... New Makers of Modern Culture. Ed. by Justin Wintle. New York: Routledge, 2007. 2 vols. $395 (ISBN 978-0-415-33831-8). This work is an updated and expanded version of Makers of Modern Culture (Routledge, 1981), a collection of more than...

Opera: An Encyclopedia of World Premieres and Significant Performances, Singers, Composers, Librettists, Arias, and Conductors, 1597-2000.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Opera: An Encyclopedia of World Premieres and Significant Performances, Singers, Composers, Librettists, Arias, and Conductors, 1597-2000. By Franklin Mesa. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2007. 474p. alkaline $145 (ISBN 0-7864-0959-2). ...

The Oxford Companion to World Exploration.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Oxford Companion to World Exploration. Ed. by David Buisseret. New York: Oxford Univ Pr., 2007. 2 vols. alkaline $250 (ISBN 0-19-514922-X). In the introduction, editor David Buisseret acknowledges the difficulty of understanding...

Renaissance and Reformation.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Renaissance and Reformation. Ed. by James A. Patrick. Tarrytown, N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish, 2007. 6 vols. acid free $469.95 (ISBN 0-7614-7650-4). Surveying European history from 1300 to 1700, this lavishly illustrated encyclopedia...

Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film. By Barry Keith Grant. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007. 4 vols. acid free $425 (ISBN 0-02-865791-8). Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film is an attractive, four-volume set with two hundred entries on many different...

Science, Religion, and Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Controversy.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Science, Religion, and Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Controversy. Ed. by Arri Eisen and Gary Laderman. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 2007. 2 vols. acid free $279 (ISBN 0-7656-8064-5). The timing of this...

Social Dancing in America: A History and Reference.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Social Dancing in America: A History and Reference. By Ralph G. Giordano. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2007. 2 vols. acid free $149.95 (ISBN 0-313-33756-X). There are two good reasons to buy this book. First, it clearly fills a gap in the...

Sport in Ancient Times.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Sport in Ancient Times. By Nigel B. Crowther. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2007. 208p. alkaline $49.95 (ISBN 978-0-275-98739-8). Sport is not only a multimillion dollar business in today's global society, it is an integral part of human...

U.S. Presidents and Foreign Policy: From 1789 to the Present.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... U.S. Presidents and Foreign Policy: From 1789 to the Present. Ed. by Carl C. Hodge and Cathal J. Nolan. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 2007. 474p. alkaline $85 (ISBN 1-85109-790-2). This work examines one by one the major foreign policy...

The U.S. Supreme Court.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The U.S. Supreme Court. Ed. by Thomas Tandy Lewis. Magill's Choice series. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem, 2007. 3 vols. alkaline $207 (ISBN 978-1-58765-363-6). In the editor's introduction to The U.S. Supreme Court, St. Cloud State University...

World and Its Peoples: Middle East, Western Asia, and Northern Africa.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... World and Its Peoples: Middle East, Western Asia, and Northern Africa. Ed. by Paul Bernabeo. Tarrytown, N.Y: Marshall Cavendish, 2007. 11 vols. acid free $499.95 (ISBN 0-7614-7571-0). The first set in a series that "will eventually...

The Blue Book on Information Age Inquiry, Instruction, and Literacy.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Blue Book on Information Age Inquiry, Instruction, and Literacy. Daniel Callison and Leslie Preddy. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. 660 p. $45 (ISBN 1-59158-325-X). The need to provide effective information literacy...

Books Kids Will Sit Still For 3: A Read-Aloud Guide.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Books Kids Will Sit Still For 3: A Read-Aloud Guide. Judy Freeman. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. 917 p. $55 (ISBN 1-59158-164-8). Freeman fans know what to expect from her work: clear annotations of outstanding read-aloud...

Collection Development Issues in the Online Environment.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Collection Development Issues in the Online Environment. Ed. by Di Su. Binghamton, N.Y.: Haworth, 2007. 170 p. $34.95 (ISBN 0-7890-3087-X). Simultaneously co-published as The Acquisitions Librarian 19, no. 1/2 (2007). Dedicated to the...

Information Literacy and the School Media Center.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Information Literacy and the School Media Center. Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides in School Librarianship. Joie Taylor. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. 148 p. $35 (ISBN 0-313-32020-9). Information literacy, according...

Libraries and Google.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Libraries and Google. Ed. by William Miller and Rita M. Pellen. Binghamton, N.Y.: Haworth, 2005. 240 p. $24.95 (ISBN 0-7890-3125-6). Let's face it. Google is the preferred search tool of our users. The same can be said for most...

Library Services for the Incarcerated: Applying the Public Library Model in Correctional Facility Libraries.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Library Services for the Incarcerated: Applying the Public Library Model in Correctional Facility Libraries. Sheila Clark and Erica MacCreaigh. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. 246 p. $40 (ISBN 1-59158-290-3). In their aptly...

Literature Search Strategies for Interdisciplinary Research: A Sourcebook for Scientists and Engineers.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Literature Search Strategies for Interdisciplinary Research: A Sourcebook for Scientists and Engineers. Ed. by Linda G. Ackerson. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow, 2007. 132 p. $35 (ISBN 0-8108-5241-1). Literature Search Strategies for...

A Passion for Print: Promoting Reading and Books to Teens.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... A Passion for Print: Promoting Reading and Books to Teens. Kristine Mahood. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. 239 p. $40 (ISBN 1-59158-146-X). Mahood's work hinges upon and opens with a well-documented analysis of teenage...

Technology Made Simple: An Improvement Guide for Small and Medium Libraries.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Technology Made Simple: An Improvement Guide for Small and Medium Libraries. Kimberly Bolan and Robert Cullin. Chicago: ALA, 2006. 250 p. $40 (ISBN 0-8389-0920-5). Bolan and Cullin have created an excellent technology desk reference in...

A Year of Programs for Teens.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... A Year of Programs for Teens. Amy J. Alessio and Kimberly A. Patton. Chicago: ALA, 2007. 168 p. $35 (ISBN 0-8389-0903-5). Teens are a population often unrecognized and underserved in library service, but this book makes them top priority,...

Guidelines for Cooperative Reference Services
September 22, 2007... The Cooperative Reference Service Committee has developed this document to assist institutions in establishing and evaluating cooperative reference services. Cooperative reference service is a process through which information assistance is...