This book, first published in 1984, analyses the various ways in which sci-tech libraries are meeting the needs of end-users in an era of fast-growing technical literature and increasingly complex tools and products used for the retrieval of information.

Learn how sci-tech libraries are encouraging and training end-users to do their own online searching of sci-tech databases. In sci-tech disciplines, efforts to increase collegiate end-user training and on-the-job training in searching are more prevalent in many colleges and business/government organizations. This timely book includes information on how to train end-users to search with both natural language and controlled vocabularies in the sciences, describes a planning assessment for implementing end-user searching in a sci-tech organization, examines how the scientists at a major industrial research organization have begun to do more online searching with the encouragement of the information center, and explores the proactive role that medical libraries have taken in training health care professionals to search MEDLINE.

In response to the general lack of information about zoo libraries, Editor Ellis Mount has compiled a fascinating collection of descriptions of the libraries serving six American zoos. The accounts of zoo libraries in this unique book include the National Zoological Park in Washington, DC, the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, and the Minnesota Zoological Garden Library in St. Paul. The contributors detail the types of collections and services offered at zoo libraries. In addition, a survey made of 78 American zoo libraries is included, including information about their staffs, facilities, collections, and services, as well as data on 32 archive collections.

Here is a readable book on the important role played by libraries and information centers which serve sci-tech societies, associations, and institutions.

Required reading for any librarian who has been asked to identify standards and specifications, this unique new book highlights the importance of standards in many sci-tech libraries. Collections of standards in sci-tech libraries encompass a great variety--from the most narrow subject fields, to those covering many, and from collections of American standards only, to those with an international array. Role of Standards in Sci-Tech Libraries addresses the need for standards in libraries and provides crucial guidelines for developing standards collections. The first chapter describes the operation and collections of the ideal service that could be established to serve those needing stadards and to promote the use and collection of standards. A helpful list of foreign and domestic organizations that issue standards is included. Successive chapters explore the role of standards in different types of libraries--a public library’s science and technology department, a corporate library, an academic library, and the library of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The final chapter addresses the role of Information Handling Services (IHS), a commercial source of all types of standards, discusses the range of standards services, and explains how information is acquired.

Here is a unique volume on the relationship between sci-tech materials and trade literature, commonly called manufacturers’catalogs. Because very little has been published about the value and nature of trade literature in regard to sci-tech libraries, this volume will be important in informing librarians about a little-known segment of the larger picture of sci-tech information sources, thus adding to the value of their services to their clients. The Role of Trade Literature in Sci-Tech Libraries addresses the problems of handling sci-tech trade literature in a corporate technical library, a large public library, and a government library devoted to American history. Experts offer practical advice on selecting and organizing trade literature and on managing the growth and extent of a collection of trade literature. They discuss modern literature and older publications, which often have great historical value. Libraries that collect both old and new materials are identified, as are publishers of trade literature. The book also focuses on how a publisher of classic trade literature views its role. Of interest to any professional in the information science field, this practical volume will be particularly valuable to managers of corporate sci-tech libraries, managers of library collections in Americana, and beginning librarians who are learning about trade literature.