ALA Guide to Information Access

The American Library Association Guide to Information Access is the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and easy-to-use tool for researching facts and topics. It provides not only a thorough coverage of the print sources but also of the electronic sources that have revolutionized the research field. It is, in fact, the first major research guidebook to do so.
Whether the researcher is a student, educator, legal or medical professional, financial or marketing executive, journalist, hobbyist, scholar, writer, or just someone trying to find out more about an area of special interest, this book is the place to start.
The traditional research sources - libraries, archives, newspapers, government publications, and government agencies - are examined in detail, as are all the methods of accessing them, from the printed word to electronic databases.
The book guides the reader through a virtual minicourse in electronic research sources, from the OPACs (online public access catalogs) and other online services available at most public libraries to those available by subscription on home or workplace computers. These include specialized databases such as Lexis (for lawyers) and Medis (for physicians and medical scientists), as well as more general information exchanges such as the Internet - the international network serving at least thirty million people in more than fifty countries. Also covered are CD-ROM (Compact Disc - Read-Only Memory) sources of data, many of which are available in more than eighty percent of all libraries. They can also be purchased for use on home or workplace computers with a CD-ROM drive.
The heart of the American Library Association Guide to Information Access, however, is its extensive compilation of the basic sources for the thirty-six most frequently researched areas. Each topic chapter starts with a list of books that provide a general introduction to the subject; a guide to the literature lists other reference books as well as special sources such as periodicals and library collections. This is followed by the current electronic sources, both online and CD-ROM. Finally, the traditional sources are enumerated: periodicals, government documents, government agencies, associations, and special-interest libraries.
The American Library Association Guide to Information Access will enable any reader to readily locate and access both the print and electronic research sources in virtually any field.

In this ambitious book, the editors try to cover sources of information, the electronic revolution in information dissemination, and 36 topics-ranging from genealogy to multiculturalism-chosen to reflect the questions librarians are most frequently asked. Unlike the New York Public Library Desk Reference and books of its type, this Guide does not offer answers to typical reference questions but serves as a point of departure for best investigating them. Whiteley and her impressive list of contributors have done a good job; this handbook could evolve into an extremely useful tool, though some problems still need to be worked out. For instance, the chapters on the electronic revolution are short and, like the beast itself, already out of date; no mention is made of Dialog's SourceOne delivery service, and NTIS's free bulletin board, FedWorld, is not listed even though it provides a single point of access to all other government Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). Sorely lacking from the topical chapters is any information on foreign countries (besides travel books) and international affairs in general. Overall, however, this is a good source of information if the reference librarian is otherwise engaged. It would be nice to see the next edition enlarged and enriched. Recommended for school and public libraries.
C. Christopher Pavek, Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett, Inc. Information Ctr., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

(It is Booklist policy that a book written or edited by a staff member receive a brief descriptive announcement rather than a recommending review.)

Whiteley has assembled a comprehensive, timely guide to retrieving information from traditional libraries and archives as well as electronic sources, such as the Internet and stand-alone CD-ROM databases. (See also News & Views, p.1898.) John Mort