Reports on a small‐scale experiment designed to assess the performance of the freely available digital reference services. Ten questions – five purely fact‐finding, and five on…
Abstract
Reports on a small‐scale experiment designed to assess the performance of the freely available digital reference services. Ten questions – five purely fact‐finding, and five on the subject of political affairs – were submitted to three digital reference services (DRS), namely, AllExperts, Ask a Librarian, and UCLA E‐Mail Reference Service. The findings show that DRS deliver generally accurate information although the time taken to do so varies both between services and within a particular service. The collaborative nature of such endeavours is also likely to continue as individual institutions seek to limit the expense they incur. Instructing users on how to find information independently has always been one of the hallmarks of academic reference services, and this has to be given priority in a digital environment.
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ALTHOUGH the first Public Libraries (Scotland) Act was placed on the Statute Book in 1853, it was not until 1899 that the Corporation of the City of Glasgow was empowered to…
Abstract
ALTHOUGH the first Public Libraries (Scotland) Act was placed on the Statute Book in 1853, it was not until 1899 that the Corporation of the City of Glasgow was empowered to establish and maintain public libraries throughout the city. Between 1876 and 1897 four attempts were made to secure public approval for the adoption of the Public Libraries (Scotland) Acts, but when all these efforts proved unsuccessful, the Corporation decided in June, 1888 to include in a Local Bill for submission to Parliament, certain clauses conferring upon themselves the power to become a library authority. Promoted in 1899, the Bill became known as the Glasgow Corporation (Tramways, Libraries, etc.) Act 1899, and the library clauses passed through Parliament without opposition and received Royal Assent on 1st August, 1899. The powers conferred by this Local Act empowered the Corporation: