bibliographic requests

[Annick.DeHouwer]

Dear colleagues,

I agree wholeheartedly with the messages below. Nevertheless, I think
there are mitigating circumstances for some of our younger colleagues,
especially in countries outside the United States: they may not have
advisors that can appropriately guide them to the relevant literature,
especially if this literature is in a foreign language and about a foreign
language. In addition, in many less well-off countries bibliographical
queries through email might be the only way for researchers to get
information, however basic and 'well-known' the information requested
might seem to researchers who are fortunate enough to live and work in
more affluent places.
Also, potentially useful information about a particular topic
might be 'hidden' - as my own response to Elma Blom's queries showed,
there may be information about a topic that can only be accessed if you
have the table of contents of a book in front of you.
But there is no question that doing a first bibliographic search when a
library is available or/and a search through internet sites should precede
any query put out on email lists.

Best regards,

Annick De Houwer

>
>
> Good advice!  I'd also add that the replies to the list are not
> necessarily 'complete.'   --Lois Bloom
>
>
> On Thu, 18 Mar 1999, Tamara Al-Kasey wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > --On Thu, Mar 18, 1999 1:13 PM +0100 "Annick.DeHouwer"
> > <vhouwer at uia.ua.ac.be> wrote:
> >
> > >> Can anybody help me with one of the following questions (or perhaps
> > >> both)?
> >
> > Dear readers,
> >
> > I enjoy reading the discussions of issues relevant to the field and rejoice
> > when a discussion can lead researchers to a solution they are looking for
> > or help them to find obscure and/or unpublished sources or a request from
> > experts for "the best" of something.  Unfortunately, various lists have
> > become overwhelmingly requests for bibliographies. Many students seem to
> > believe that such lists are a replacement for going to the library.  If you
> > have students that are beginning a research project and you don't have the
> > subexpertise to give them a starter bibliography, please refer them to a
> > relevant search site or print bibliography rather than helping them to take
> > the easy way out and let others do the work for them.
> >
> > Tamara Al-Kasey
> > Carnegie Mellon
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>