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A reference advisory system (RAS) is a public access expert system that provides reference suggestions based on user information needs. It is designed to run without the presence of the “expert.” I use the acronym “RAS” to distinguish this kind of computerized reference tool from more sophisticated and elaborate expert systems such as REFSIM and Plexus. The hallmark of the RAS is ease of construction and update.

Expert systems are interactive computer programs that ask the same questions a human expert would ask, and from the information given to them provide the same answer the expert would provide. If a body of knowledge can be codified into a set of questions and answers, it can be incorporated into an expert system. A good example of such a body of knowledge is the reference librarian's knowledge of the reference collection at his or her library; the set of questions asked by a librarian during a reference interview can be used to access this body of knowledge.

Provides an overview of the evolution of Spanish economic policy throughout the nineteenth century and considers the economic thought of the Spanish professor of this time. Discusses the work of Heinrich von Stackelberg while he was based in Spain from 1943. Suggests that Stackelberg’s ideas were key to the quantum leap in Spanish economic policy, abandoning utilitarian historicism which had permeated it up to then.