A view from an academic library: the UCSD Libraries and contemporary academic library resources -- San Diego Professional Editors Network 7/22/98 Much has changed in recent years with the information environment at academic libraries and particularly the UCSD Libraries. UCSD Libraries are more available to the community with free parking at UCSD on weekends Library information resources are increasingly becoming available on the Web. In that context, I would include standard reference works, full text electronic journal and magazine publishing, electronic technical reports and short reports, abstracting and indexing databases covering magazines and journals, electronic government documents, and general and some specific textual information. Book publishing is the same as always and there doesn't seem to be a movement to electronic. Direct user access to indexing databases has made the expertise of reference librarians in information retrievel more evident. Electronic journals are making the cost and expertise of editing more evident. Electronic journals are not less expensive than print; 80-90% of cost is producing the issue. Publishers stress that the editorial cost is a major portion of their cost of production. Electronic journals have a licensing fee in addition to the print cost. Web-only subs may cost a bit less but the annual price increase structure of scholarly journal publishing is killing the golden goose. Universities are unwilling to support library collections with 9% increases each year. Change will take time but indicators are that universities and scientists will introduce lower-cost electronic journals in competition with more expensive commercial journals. This may open up local editing work for those networked to universities and scientists. Many library information resources on the Web are site-licensed so that non-UCSD users would have to use them on-site in the UCSD Libraries. However it has never been easier to get work one in the academic library environment. Typically a library user comes in looking for a precise answer, a small amount of information on a topic, or a review of information on a topic. As before the Web, one chooses the approach and tools depending on the need. The Web is the librarian's friend, we use it constantly as a tool for accessing our information resources, and people seem to be better able to utilize library information resources when presented to them with a Web interface. Many academic libraries maintain links to reference shelf resources on the Web. UCSD Libraries does so at http://sshl.ucsd.edu/refshelf/ Especially useful to check its links to other reference shelves on the Web like My Virtual Reference Desk at http://www.refdesk.com/. I use or recommend resources offering Telephone, Address, Email, & Zip Code Directories News and Newspapers Wordsmithing (thesaurus, quotations, glossaries) Currency Conversion Weights & Measures Conversions Taxonomic Dictionaries Tax Forms Biographical Resources Product & Company Directories like Thomas Register of American Manufacturers at http://www4.thomasregister.com/index.cgi Hoover's Online: the Ultimate Source for Company Information at http://www.hoovers.com/ Web search engines are many. A site called Search Engine Watch at http://www.searchenginewatch.com/ covers them. Excite, HotBot, AltaVista, and Northern Light are my favorites due to the number of Web pages they index. Web directories are useful and I usually start with Yahoo. UCSD library or UC systemwide has site-licensed access to many abstracting and indexing databases and several have links to full text. A list of our databases is available on the Library page accessible from UCSD's home page call Infopath at http://www.ucsd.edu . The variety is surprising and shouldn't be overlooked if you need to research something further. The only open-access database covering magazine and journal articles is UnCover at http://uncweb.carl.org/ which covers over 17,000 multidisciplinary journals including popular magazines since Fall 1988. Make their money on document delivery. Some former commercial-only government-produced databases are now available for open access probably because open access is now deemed to fit within the mission of the govt agency producing the database: The National Library of Medicine's PubMed (Medline) at http://www4.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/ The National Agricultural Library's Agricola at http://www.nal.usda.gov/ag98/ag98.html NTIS technical report database at http://www.ntis.gov/advance.htm (simplified version, shorter timespan) USGS Selected Water Resources Abstracts at http://h2o.usgs.gov/public/nawdex/swra.html Dept of Energy Reports database at http://www.osti.gov/html/dra/dra.html (shorter timespan) Government agencies are now putting many of their technical reports up on the Web and US govt publications are typically not copyrighted. ========== There is a lot you can do on your own initiative to use the library resources at UCSD effectively and you must be an advocate for your needs. As expected, being polite and saying thanks goes a lot further in getting a reference staff person to be extra helpful. However having said that, some are innately less helpful than others. Reference desk service has become increasingly reshaped to incorporate more clerical staff. You may not see a reference librarian when asking for assistance; it is very likely you will see a clerical reference assistant. Important to look out for your own interests and do not assume the answer given is the complete or only answer if you don't get what you need. Ask others whom you see when shifts change. You will find different approaches among reference providers with some giving brief answers and some giving multi-faceted approaches. Some are point-and-sit minimal helpers and some get involved. Ask exactly the question(s) you have in mind and state how much material you need --- some general info or a comprehensive review Classic reference interaction is that people won't ask first exactly what they want; then the reference service provider engages in a reference interview to learn more to answer and the actual question emerges Allow plenty of time because it takes time Be motivated because you are in a self-service environment. Reference desk staff advise but don't do the work for you. There is usually no single source for answering a question. Some resources may be better than others for the same question due to the organization of infomation within them. If you aren't quite getting what you need or it seems unusually laborious, ask the reference staff if they have any ideas on additional resources that may provide an alternate approach to the information.