A Review of “Reference Sources for Small and Medium-sized Libraries”

SUMMARY

In the summer of 1999, the libraries at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) embarked on a Web redesign project. Essential to the new Web site were the development of a database of resources, Sage, and the creation of various in-house tools, which are used to enter and edit database resources. Tools were also created which assist in the creation and maintenance of various Web sites. With the completion of the project, UCSD students, faculty and staff can easily locate the resources and library information they need and library staff have more tools for Web site management.     

A Review of “The Library: An Illustrated History”

Abstract

This paper describes one library's experience of using the Internet in its delivery of service to users. It describes the scope and methods of usage of the Internet via ALISplus, the Library's universal information access workstation at California State University, Fresno. It discusses the results of user surveys which were administered during the 1992/93 and 1993/94 academic years at the Library to assess the users' general response to the newly implemented ALISplus, with a focus on the accessibility of the Internet resources. ALISplus has provided access to the Library's GEAC/ADVANCE OPAC, CD-ROM databases, as well as other resources available through the Internet since the Summer 1993. The collective efforts which went into the process of developing the University's World Wide Web home page, under the leadership of the Library, are also described.     

A Review of “Marketing Today’s Academic Library: A Bold New Approach to Communicating with Students”

ABSTRACT

This paper contends that the potential of Usenet as an information tool is outstanding, but that librarians have been slow to realize this promise. By examining Usenet discussions, the paper looks at the issues involved in using Usenet, and discusses the notion that real information can only come from professionals. It concludes that Usenet is a valuable tool that needs to be developed, especially when determining what sources of information could best assist patrons.     

A Review of “The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction”

Distance education is one of the fastest growing trends of higher education in the United States. This trend has brought various changes and challenges to academic libraries and librarians in their provision of reference and instructional services. This article reviews the literature on the effect of distance education programs on reference and instructional services in academic libraries. The ongoing efforts made by librarians and the various challenges they face in meeting distance learners’ needs for reference and instructional services are synthesized and discussed.     

The Narrow Escape Problem—A Short Review of Recent Results

The narrow escape problem in diffusion theory, which goes back to Lord Rayleigh, is to calculate the mean first passage time, also called the narrow escape time (NET), of a Brownian particle to a small absorbing window on the otherwise reflecting boundary of a bounded domain. The renewed interest in the NET problem is due to its relevance in molecular biology and biophysics. The small window often represents a small target on a cellular membrane, such as a protein channel, which is a target for ions, a?receptor for neurotransmitter molecules in a neuronal synapse, a?narrow neck in the neuronal spine, which is a target for calcium ions, and so on. The leading order singularity of the Neumann function for a regular domain strongly depends on the geometric properties of the boundary. It can give a smaller contribution than the regular part to the absorption flux through the small window when it is located near a boundary cusp. We review here recent results on the dependence of the absorption flux on the geometric properties of the domain and thus reveal geometrical features that can modulate the flux. This indicates a possible way to code information physiologically.