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The advent of computerized literature searching of on‐line databases has convinced librarians that a significant increase in both the quantity and quality of reference service can be delivered to library users. As part of a technically‐oriented academic environment, the Lehigh University Libraries in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania were particularly anxious to demonstrate to faculty, students, and the community the benefits available through online database technology. Therefore, searching of online databases began at the University Libraries in early 1978 and by 1981 the services used included Lockheed/DIALOG, SDC/ORBIT, and BRS.

The material in this hardbacked book has also been published as The Reference Librarian, No. 23, 1988.

A major event which is likely to have a considerable impact on engineering libraries and librarians is the inauguration (January 1, 1980) of the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES), which, as a central organization representing the engineering profession, will now consolidate and augment the work hitherto handled by the Engineers Joint Council, Engineering Council for Professional Development and Association for Cooperation in Engineering. This is primarily looked upon as a device to enable engineering societies to communicate with each other more effectively. A unique feature of the AAES will be one of its autonomous groups, the Accreditation Commission for Engineering and Technology (ACET). The collection and dissemination of data on matters like engineering manpower and continuing education, until now handled by bodies like the EJC, will be entrusted to ACET.

As information services become more complex and the methods of delivery more diverse, the professionals providing this service must become skilled in problem solving, and have a sound theoretical understanding of their discipline. It is not sufficient to offer users vague, unsatisfactory solutions to their problems because we are unsure of our own strategies. As educators, we must look to the best means accessible to us to systematize our discipline; expert system development applied in a variety of subject areas is worthy of close examination as a means of working towards this goal.

To meet the increased demand for assistance from both the novice and the more experienced enquirer amidst an environment of decreasing funding for staff resources, some automation must be used. University libraries are increasingly implementing computers and automation. This trend encourages and facilitates the use of expert systems in those libraries. Expert systems can be used as guides to provide a broad overview of library services and resources. Expert systems may also be used within the narrow focus of a particular course or department, and, soon, may be used to provide detailed relevant information to suit the “level” of the user.

The Albert R. Mann Library at Cornell University has created a working electronic library and has made significant changes in services and staff responsibilities to address users' evolving needs. This article presents an overview of these changes, after discussing the development of electronic libraries at Mann and elsewhere. The increased usage that Mann's collections have received as the electronic library has been developed is also described.

We've been living in a homogenous world, you know a world centered on and seen through the language perceptions of men. The consequences of this for everything that we take for granted, for all our assumptions are very deep. Feminism, in the sense I use it, is a radical complexity thought in the process of transforming itself. It is a kind of breaking open of not only the oversimplification but of the lies and the silence in which so much of human experience has been cloaked. Too much has been left out, too much has been unmentioned, too much has been made taboo. Too many connections have been disguised or denied. (Interview with Adrienne Rich, Christopher Street, Jan. 1977, pp. 9–16.)

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.