bibliographic requests

[Tamara Al-Kasey]

--On Thu, Mar 18, 1999 1:13 PM +0100 "Annick.DeHouwer"
<vho...@uia.ua.ac.be> wrote:

>> Can anybody help me with one of the following questions (or perhaps
>> both)?

Dear readers,

I enjoy reading the discussions of issues relevant to the field and rejoice
when a discussion can lead researchers to a solution they are looking for
or help them to find obscure and/or unpublished sources or a request from
experts for "the best" of something. Unfortunately, various lists have
become overwhelmingly requests for bibliographies. Many students seem to
believe that such lists are a replacement for going to the library. If you
have students that are beginning a research project and you don't have the
subexpertise to give them a starter bibliography, please refer them to a
relevant search site or print bibliography rather than helping them to take
the easy way out and let others do the work for them.

Tamara Al-Kasey
Carnegie Mellon

[Lois Bloom]

Good advice! I'd also add that the replies to the list are not
necessarily 'complete.' --Lois Bloom

[Annick.DeHouwer]

Dear colleagues,

I agree wholeheartedly with the messages below. Nevertheless, I think
there are mitigating circumstances for some of our younger colleagues,
especially in countries outside the United States: they may not have
advisors that can appropriately guide them to the relevant literature,
especially if this literature is in a foreign language and about a foreign
language. In addition, in many less well-off countries bibliographical
queries through email might be the only way for researchers to get
information, however basic and 'well-known' the information requested
might seem to researchers who are fortunate enough to live and work in
more affluent places.
Also, potentially useful information about a particular topic
might be 'hidden' - as my own response to Elma Blom's queries showed,
there may be information about a topic that can only be accessed if you
have the table of contents of a book in front of you.
But there is no question that doing a first bibliographic search when a
library is available or/and a search through internet sites should precede
any query put out on email lists.

Best regards,

Annick De Houwer

[MAYNE ALISON MARIE]

Just curious...which search engines/ databases are people finding most
helpful for doing literature searches?

Thanks for your input.