Hypertext & Complexity LO4999

JOHNWFIELD@aol.com
Sat, 20 Jan 1996 08:18:11 -0500

Replying to LO4960 --

in which Bo Newman asks for access on the list to the publications
mentioned in my earlier posting.

I make available bibliographies that list many publications relevant to
the topic of the organization of knowledge. I also send reprints upon
request. I am working on another bibliography that not only lists the
various publications, but also tells how to get them.

Recently I attended (ugh, ouch, pain) a faculty meeting, where the senior
faculty complained that their Ph D students in public policy don't know
how to use the university library facilities to get copies of articles and
to borrow books.

With the remote possibility that some on the list don't know that, most
university libraries provide an interlibrary loan service. They also
provide what are called "reference librarians". If you call a reference
librarian on the telephone and tell her or him what you want, very likely
they can (a) find the complete citation for you, if you don't already have
it, (b) mail to you in a few days a photocopy of the article you asked
about, (c) mail to you in a month or so on loan the book that you
requested, and (d) provide other services.

The costs for this are usually quite small. What you have to do, among
other things, is to be willing to mail or carry the borrowed book back to
the library, and to be willing to read printed stuff in lieu of computer
screens.

For many published books that are out of print and for (many or all?) Ph D
dissertations, it is possible (if you have $$$) to buy your personal
photocopy from UMI in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a division of Bell and Howell.
This service has been available for many years.

In return for this remarkable contribution, I hope somebody will help me
learn how to find stuff in a reasonable time on the world wide web.
Richard has already made a major contribution to my ignorance in this
respect.

-----
Host's Note: A library card for a great university library and the time
to use it is a wonderful combination. I had the luxury of a couple hours
to schmoose around the MIT library last week.

I also recently came across a service which will fax you copies of
Journal articles for a fee (seems to be about $15 per article):

>Uncover Reveal allows you to search the tables of contents
>of 17,000 journals. A search is free; a copy of an documents
>the costs $8.50 plus any copyright costs. You can order
>documents by reply e-mail or fax.
> For detailed instructions, access the Carl Company's Web
>page at:
> http://www.carl.org/uncover/unchome.html
>or email a message to:
> uncover@carl.org
>requesting a copy of the instructions for UnCover Reveal
>and providing a fax number.

(Although addressed from the web, you'll need a telnet capability to use
the service, it seems.)

-- Rick Karash, rkarash@karash.com, host for learning-org
-----

--
John N. Warfield
JOHNWFIELD@aol.com