h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, I could expand this until kingdom come, but I've added more details about on-line databases and mentioned ATHENS and the UK Libraries Plus scheme.

David - who hates the BIDS databases

Couple more typos:
" One relevant items have been tracked down, you can photocopy or borrow them if they are in your library" Another One -> Once

"These services are particularly valuable if you study a field which moves quickly (medicine being a prime example), as books can often go out of date before almost they hit the shelves" -> almost before

The stuff you added is in the 'Internet' section, is that the most appropriate? These aren't really net searches...

Nice work

They are internet searches as most students understand the term, as the databases are found on-line. Perhaps I could make it clearer, though, with a sub-heading...

David

Typos fixed. Clearer now?

David

BIDS...evil thing. The BIDS search on our library database was crap - more than once I typed in the exact title of a book/paper (with and without speech marks) and the book/paper I was looking for would either not be in the results or would be 5 pages back

In the end I went back to the tried and tested methods of getting lost browsing in the relevent sections and tracing likely looking references back from current papers.

Last year I braved the microfiche(sp?) machines for the first time (2 years after graduating) - fantastic...I was so proud of myself it was quite sad. After I'd fumbled my way through getting the thing to work someone actually asked *me* for help...and I helped em

Simple things eh...

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Congratulations

Sprout

Thanks! As I'm a library person, this is probably the most exciting thing that will happen to me all day!

David

*sulks that getting my first edited entry was the best that happened to me that week*

Erm, slightly too late I suppose, but if anyone in the editing process reads this, I think JSTOR could be another useful site to mentiojn in the databases section.

PCI links to JSTOR! If the sub-ed asks me for input, I might ask for JSTOR to be added, though, as not every library that subscribes to JSTOR also subscribes to PCI and it is indeed very useful. [Though so are many others, like Science Direct, Web of Science, Digimap, RILM...]

David

Fair enough, it's just that I think nthe only two my university subscribes to are ATHENS and JSTOR, so i thought \it could be worth mentioning.

Time to go into librarian mode...

ATHENS isn't actually an on-line service at all, it's simply a username and password that allows access to lots of different services without having to remember a million passwords. You more than likely access the BIDS services through an ATHENS log-in, but I can't be certain. Which university do you go to?

I'm studying literature part time through the Open University while working full-time in the library at Canterbury Christ Church University College. JSTOR has been a godsend, but I have a random soft spot for Zetoc.

David