Automation in Library Reference Services: A Handbook

(Hardback)

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The future of reference librarianship as a viable and essential part of the library depends on developing a proactive, participatory and hands-on approach to automation. This book pulls together the most important elements of change likely to influence library information services and explains them in clear terms. It covers both the conceptual context and practical real-life implementations of current automation in reference services. The automation technologies dealt with include OPACs, CD-ROM, international networks, expert systems, natural language processing and virtual reality. In addition to helping people find information, reference librarians also perform another service - the comprehension and understanding of the operative connections between items of information and the route to information. It necessitates an unrelenting exploration of, and immersion within, the world information matrix to maintain currency and knowledge. The author aims to show how reference librarians have in the past, and will in the future, take a leading role in adapting automation to reference services.

Reviews

The text is organized clearly and well supported by over 400 references.-The Journal of Academic Librarianship
"The text is organized clearly and well supported by over 400 references."-The Journal of Academic Librarianship

Author Bio

ROBERT CARANDE is Head of the Science Division in the University Library of San Diego State University. He specializes in expert systems and computer applications in reference services.