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Enzymes are produced by all living cells as catalysts for specific chemical reactions. Not surprisingly enzymes are present in all foods at some time, and play an increasingly important role in food processing techniques. Enzymes, although not recognised as such, have played an essential part in some food processes, notably the making of cheese, leavened bread, wine and beer, for thousands of years.

The history of the public library is long and rich, and continues to reflect this institution's initial mission: to respond to the needs of an evolving democratic society. From its early days as a subscription service for the middle-class, through its evolution to become an educational site for the lower-classes and new immigrants, the public library has served as a touch-stone for urban industrial society in North America (Lerner, 1998, p. 138; Shera, 1974). Over the past century, public libraries have evolved to respond to the growing needs of the communities they serve and continue to do so with recent advances in technologies (such as DVDs, electronic books, the Internet, etc.), and with a more global outlook on the ways that people seek and share information. Indeed, the public library's constituents today are exceedingly diverse, including children and adults from a broad range of socio-economic, cultural, and educational backgrounds, all of whom seek information for a variety of personal and work-related purposes. The fact that public libraries have been fulfilling patrons' information needs for well over a century is a testament to their enduring success and versatility as information providers, and also points to the overall effectiveness of public librarians as intermediaries in the provision process.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the experiences of 65 five library students who visited one of three selected libraries on the campus of the University of Ghana to find out the extent to which the principles of reference services were being adhered to.

The unobstrusive method for evaluating reference services was used. Students were specifically asked to pose two questions (specific‐search or research questions) of their choice to two different library staff at the reference desk of the selected library (The library staff were unaware of this evaluation and exhibited their real behaviors to the clients.). The choice of these types of questions was to allow the library staff to engage them in a reference interview. Their observations were to be summarized in a two page report.

Students were not only concerned with correct answers to their questions, but were influenced to return to the same library staff by certain factors such as approachability of the library staff, effective assessment of their information need, good communication skills and the attentiveness of the library staff.

This exercise gave students a first‐hand experience of being information seekers and directly experiencing what ordinary users are subjected to whenever they visited libraries. This experience it is hoped would guide them when they are later employed in libraries to conform to behaviors that enhance the quality of reference interview and user satisfaction.

This is a modest contribution to the literature on reference services from a developing country's perspective as very few empirical studies are carried out in this area.

This paper attempts to recognize the informational needs of women who suffer from intimate partner violence (IPV). It then presents a model of a web site that may answer to these needs.

First, the paper defines the phases women suffering from IPV go through. This is done by surveying the literature that describes the stages these women experience. In order to clarify the proposed model, the paper then describe our own set of phases based on the above literature. Once the phases mentioned above are understood, the needs of these women become evident, thus allowing us to define and specify them. The model of the web site is then described and the paper shows how it relates to the various aforementioned needs.

The web site would offer a variety of information, such as: names of organizations that offer support, chats, and forums that provide emotional support and advice from women who experienced abuse in the past as well as from professionals.

Security issues of this model need to be researched before applying it to use, as they are beyond the scope of this paper. Such issues should include techniques for erasing the user's traces and for keeping out “unwelcome visitors.”

This model, if applied, may greatly aid women suffering from IPV, as it would provide them with the emotional support and technical information they need in order to make important decisions regarding their situation. Information, if utilized, may give these women the ability to control their fate and actively improve their quality of life.

In a recent RQ column, Sharon L. Baker reviewed the profession's literature in the area of readers' advisory services. She found that very little research existed in the area of readers' advisory services. The research that does exist is focused on “passive” readers' advisory strategies. Baker is a leader in this area and her articles on overload and browsing, the use of displays, and genre classification are essential to understanding the adult fiction reader and ways in which libraries can assist these individuals in locating new authors and titles of interest.

This paper seeks to organize the extensive field and to compile the complete list of information limits.

A thorough analysis of literature from the field beginning with the 1960s up to the present has been performed.

A universal typology of information limits has been proposed. A list of barriers mentioned in the literature of the subject has been compiled.

The term “information limits” is not commonly used.

The complete list of information limits with bibliographical hints (helpful for future research) is presented.

This study investigated the skill development of academic reference librarians. It has been assumed that skill develops over time through experience, yet workplace competencies are currently described without reference to level of expertise. Drawing on the literature of occupational sociology, the Dreyfus model is an experiential, developmental model rather than a trait or talent model, allowing the holistic exploration of skill change through analysis of reference situations as contextualized and social phenomena. Three aspects of change in skill level were investigated: the shift from reliance on rules and abstract principles to the use of real experience to guide action; the growth in ability to discern relevant information from noise in complex situations; and the increase in engaged, involved performance out of initial detachment. Analysis of interview narratives with 17 reference librarians and two reference assistants suggests that the Dreyfus model is applicable to reference skill development with some differences. Skill characteristics were discerned at four levels: beginner, competent, proficient, and expert. Observed skill criteria in the narratives were used to reorganize the mixed skill levels presented in the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Professional Competencies for Reference and User Services Librarians.

This chapter first examines evidence concerning departures of the four flights out of Boston, D.C., and Newark, including identifications of the aircrafts involved, some evidence regarding the flight paths, and then the hijackings. Alleged video evidence at airports for the hijackers themselves is examined, but found to be unacceptable.

The fact of a conspiracy is uncontested by all. Three alternative conspiracy possibilities regarding the planes are examined: the ‘official’ one of suicide hijackers skillfully guiding planes with steeled determination into targets (independent of the hijackers’ identities); use of beaconing or electronic control, similar to ordinary commercial landings, into the targets; and use of ‘drone’ airplanes. The third alternative is not supportable at this time, but the other two are possible explanations, not necessarily equally likely.

The issue of insider trading before 9-11 is addressed. Publicly available data from OptionMetrics are provided and analyzed, indicating that many early reports were not using accurate data. Turning to an academic study in the Journal of Business which relies upon confidential, superior data, the findings are summarized that, indeed, there is evidence of insider trading before 9-11 on American Airlines and United Airlines. Larger concerns of insider trading are also summarized. Lastly, we give brief consideration to the profits certain capitalists make out of 9-11.

This paper aims to describe the personal information and help networks of people with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) in rural Canada, and to present a research‐based model of how and why these networks developed. This model seeks to consider the roles of PHAs, their family members/friends and formal health systems in network formation.

In‐depth, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 114 PHAs, their friends/family members (FFs) and formal caregivers in three rural regions of Canada. A network solicitation procedure elicited PHAs' HIV/AIDS information/help networks. Interviews were analyzed qualitatively, and network data were analyzed statistically. Documents describing health systems in each region were also analyzed. Analyses used social capital theory, supplemented by stress/coping and stigma management theories.

PHAs' HIV/AIDS‐related information/help networks emphasized linking and bonding social capital with minimal bridging social capital. This paper presents a model that explains how and why such networks developed. The model shows that networks grew from the actions of PHAs, their FFs and health systems. PHAs experienced considerable stress, which led them to develop information/help networks to cope with HIV/AIDS – both individually and collaboratively. Because of stigmatization, many PHAs disclosed their illness selectively, thus constraining the size and composition of their networks. Health system actors created network‐building opportunities for PHAs by providing them with care, referrals and support programs.

This study describes and explains an understudied type of information behavior: information/help network development at individual, group and institutional levels. As such, it illuminates the complex dynamics that made individual acts of interpersonal information acquisition and sharing possible.

This paper aims to present an overview of the history of communication research and theory in reference services literature and to discuss the potential of one relatively recent-emerging theory of communication (anxiety-uncertainty management theory) to describe and mitigate breakdowns in reference communication.

An overview and discussion of existing literature and communication-based theories of library reference services is presented.

This paper identifies and describes anxiety-uncertainty management theory as a lens through which to view communication breakdowns during library reference transactions. The concepts behind the theory and articulated as well as its insights for reference librarians.

This is the first article to discuss the anxiety-uncertainty management theory to examine communication breakdowns in library reference transactions.