The Oxford Guide to Library Research

T H E OXFOR D GUID E T O

LIBRARY

RESEARCH

How to Find Reliable Information Online and Offline

THOMA S MAN N

w

ith all of the new developments in information storage

and retrieval, researchers today need a clear and com￾prehensive overview of the full range of their options,

both online and offline. In this third edition of The Oxford Guide to Library

Research Thomas Mann maps out an array not just of important databases

and print sources, but of several specific search techniques that can be

applied profitably in any area of research. From academic resources to

government documents to manuscripts in archives to business Web sites,

Mann shows readers how best to exploit controlled subject headings,

explains why browsing library shelves is still important in an online age,

demonstrates how citation searching and related record searching pro￾duce results far beyond keyword inquiries, and offers practical tips on

making personal contacts with knowledgeable people.

Throughout, Mann enlivens his advice with real-world examples,

offering along the way some energetic and reasoned arguments against

those theorists who have mistakenly announced the demise of print. The

Oxford Guide to Library Research offers a rich, inclusive overview of the infor￾mation field, one that can save researchers countless hours of frustration

in the search for the best sources on their topics.

THOMA S MANN , PH.D. , a former private investigator, is currently a

Reference Librarian in the Main Reading Room of the Library of Con￾gress. He lives in Washington, D.C.

COVE R DESIG N BY JESSIC A GREEN E

COVE R PHOTOGRAP H S CORBI S 9 0 0 0 0

The Oxford Guide to Library Research

The Oxford Guide

to Library Research

THIRD EDITION

Thomas Mann

OXFORD

UNIVERSITY PRESS

2005

OXFORD

UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Mann

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mann, Thomas, 1948-

The Oxford guide to library research / Thomas Mann. — 3rd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN-13: 978-0-19-518997-1 (hardcover)

ISBN-10: 0-19-518997-3 (hardcover)

ISBN-13: 978-0-19-518998-8 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 0-19-518998-1 (pbk.)

1. Library research—United States.

I. Title.

Z710.M23 2005

025.5'24—dc22

2005006087

98765432 1

Printed in the United States of America

on acid-free paper

For

Jack Nabholtz

Contents

Preface xiii

What research libraries can offer that the Internet cannot (both

resources and search techniques)—Trade-offs of what, who,

and where restrictions on free access — Hierarchy of levels

of learning — Data, information, opinion, knowledge, un￾derstanding — Wisdom separate — Implications of format

differences — Nine methods of subject searching — Pat￾terns in inefficient searches

1. Initial Overviews: Encyclopedias 1

Characteristics of encyclopedias — Specialized vs. general

encyclopedias — Examples — How to find articles in spe￾cialized encyclopedias — Cross-disciplinary searching —

How to identify additional specialized encyclopedias —

Peculiar strengths of general sets

2. Subject Headings and the Library Catalog 18

Problems in determining the right subject headings — Uni￾form Heading — Scope-match specificity and its modifica￾tions — Specific entry — Four ways to find the right subject

headings — Cross-references — Alphabetically adjacent

terms — Subject tracings — Browse displays of subdivi￾sions — Recognition vs. prior specification — Use of three

menu listings — Precoordination and postcoordination —

vii

viii Contents

Particularly useful subdivisions — Miscellaneous tips on

subject headings — Narrowing a topic — Proper names —

Finding foreign language books — Pattern headings

3. General Browsing, Focused Browsing,

and Use of Classified Bookstacks 46

Alternative methods of shelving book collections — The

problems with shelving by accession number, by height, or

in remote warehouses — Serendipity and recognition —

General browsing vs. focused browsing — Full-text search￾ing and depth of access — Lighthouse libraries example —

Searching for a single word — Valéry and Dreyfus example

— Inadequacy of Google Print as a replacement for classi￾fied bookstacks — The complementary relationship of the

library catalog and the classified bookstacks — The cata￾log as the index to the classification scheme — Trade-offs

and remedies — Exploiting the internal structure of the cata￾loging system — The problems that result when the system

is ignored — Browsing in other contexts — Importance of

full texts of books arranged in subject groupings

4. Subject Headings and Indexes to Journal Articles 65

Descriptors — Separate thesauri — Descriptor fields in

online records — Eureka databases — Browse search fea￾ture — FirstSearch databases and WilsonWeb counterparts

— Related Subjects search feature — Contrast of Eureka

and FirstSearch softwares — EBSCO Host research data￾bases — Search features — Dialog and DataStar databases

— ProQuest databases — Miscellaneous databases with

controlled descriptors — Cross-disciplinary searching —

Finding where journals are indexed and which journals are

available electronically — Identifying the best journals —

Problems with abbreviations of journal titles — The change

in cataloging rules for serials

Contents ix

5. Keyword Searches 99

Problems with controlled vocabulary searches — Advan￾tages of controlled vocabularies — Problems with keyword

searches — Advantages of keywords — Index/Abstract￾level keyword databases and printed sources — Full-text

databases — Convenience vs. quality of access — ProQuest

databases — EBSCO Host research databases — InfoTrac

databases — JSTOR — Project Muse — LexisNexis — Web

sites on the open Internet — Search engines — Subject

directories — Invisible Web sites — Google Print project

— Summary

6. Citation Searches 120

Finding where a known source has been footnoted by a

subsequent journal article — ISI indexes — Web of Sci￾ence — Cross-disciplinary coverage — Cycling sources —

"Reviews" of journal articles — Additional features of ISI

indexes — Citation searching in other databases

7. Related Record Searches 130

Finding articles that have footnotes in common with a

starting-point article — Examples — Differences between

CD-ROM versions and Web of Science

8. Higher-Level Overviews: Review Articles 134

"Literature review" or "state of the art" assessments —

Differences from book reviews and encyclopedia articles

— Web of Science "review" limit capability — Other sources

of literature reviews

9. Published Bibliographies 141

Differences from computer printouts of sources — Doing

Boolean combinations without a computer — Two prob￾lems in identifying published bibliographies — Bibliogra￾phies not shelved with regular books — Subdivision

X Contents

"—Bibliography" can be missed in library catalog — Find￾ing bibliographies via the library catalog — Finding bibli￾ographies in Z class shelving area — Other sources for

finding bibliographies — Guides to the literature — Bibli￾ographies not superseded by computer sources

10. Boolean Combinations and Search Limitations 153

Boolean combinations — Component word searching

within controlled subject strings — Word truncation —

Proximity searches — Limitations of sets — Limiting by

time periods — Limiting by geographic area codes — Lim￾iting by document types — Combining keywords and cita￾tion searches — Boolean combinations without computers

— Precoordinated headings and browse displays — Pub￾lished subject bibliographies — Focused shelf-browsing —

How to identify which databases exist

11. Locating Material in Other Libraries 176

Determining library locations of desired items — WorldCat,

RLG Union Catalog, National Union Catalog ofPre-1956

Imprints — Other union lists and databases — Web sites

for identifying out-of-print books for sale — Determining

which libraries have special collections on your subject —

Interlibrary loan and document delivery

12. People Sources 185

Journalists and academics — Inhibiting assumptions —

"Find it on your own" —Advantages of people sources —

Listservs and discussion groups online — Techniques for

students — Sources for identifying experts — Associations

and directories — How to talk to reference librarians

13. Hidden Treasures 204

Resources not shelved or cataloged with conventional re￾search materials — Microform sets and counterpart Web

sites — Web collections — Government documents —

Contents xi

Particular importance of Congressional hearings — Ar￾chives, Manuscripts, and Public Records

14. Special Subjects and Formats 238

Biography — Book reviews — Business and economics

— Copyright status information — Genealogy and local his￾tory — Illustrations, pictures, and photographs — Literary

criticism — Maps — Newspapers — Out-of-print and

secondhand books — Primary sources — Standards and

specifications — Statistics — Tabular data — Tests (Psy￾chological and Educational) — Translations

15. Reference Sources: Searching by Types of Literature 261

Reference questions vs. research questions — Review of

search techniques for research questions — Type of litera￾ture searches — Internet sources for fact searches — Cov￾erage of the various types of literature — Understanding

the formal properties of retrieval systems—The Discipline

of library and information science — Sources for identify￾ing types of literature in any subject area — Concluding

thoughts

Appendix: Wisdom 275

Index 283

Preface

This book will answer two questions above all. First, what significant re￾search resources will you miss if you confine your research entirely, or even

primarily, to sources available on the open Internet? And second, what tech￾niques of subject searching will you also miss if you confine yourself to the

limited software and display mechanisms of the Internet? As I will demon￾strate, bricks-and-mortar research libraries contain vast ranges of printed

books, copyrighted materials in a variety of other formats, and site-licensed

subscription databases that are not accessible from anywhere, at anytime,

by anybody on the Web. Moreover, many of these same resources allow

avenues of subject access that cannot be matched by "relevance ranked"

keyword searching. One can reasonably say that libraries today routinely

encompass the entire Internet—that is, they will customarily provide termi￾nals allowing free access to all of the open portions of the Net—but that the

Internet does not, and cannot, contain more than a small fraction of every￾thing discoverable within library walls.

If you wish to be a good researcher you have to be aware of the trade-offs

between virtual and real libraries. While the former apparently overcome

the where restrictions of bricks-and-mortar facilities, they do so only at the

unavoidable cost of imposing other significant and inescapable restrictions

of what and who. Internet providers must limit what they make available to

begin with (unregulated copyright-free material); or, if they mount copy￾righted sources and hope to profit from them, they must then impose major

restrictions on who has access (those who pay fees at the point of use, or

who pay special fees or assessments to become part of defined and password￾restricted user groups). Membership fees, in some instances, are covered by

xiii