ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 482 / C &RL News Kay grew up in Australia, Massachusetts, and New York, eventually attending Brooklyn Technical High School. He received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and molecular biology from the Uni­ versity of Colorado in 1966. He was a computer programmer during his Air Force years, then re­ ceived his Ph.D. in 1969 from the University of Utah. He joined the artificial intelligence project at Stanford and in 1970 became a founding principal at PARC, where he remained for ten years. Since Xerox, he has worked at Atari and is presently with Apple Computer where he is an Apple Fellow, one of three select scientists who have an independent charter to pursue far out ideas for Apple’s future. Beyond computers, music is Kay’s special pas­ sion. He has been a professional jazz musician, composer, and has built several musicial instru­ ments. His sole professional membership is in the International Society of Organ Builders. Every summer he attends a music camp in New Hamp­ shire, where he plays chamber music. Kay dismisses concerns that artificial intelli­ gence will somehow lead to the takeover of the world by computers (á la HAL in 2001). “Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior, but then, anybody in his right mind should have an inferiority complex every time he looks at a flower!” A colleague asked, “What has Kay done directly for libraries?” Based upon reading a profile that appeared in Psychology T oday in December 1983, a better question might be, “How can Kay stimu­ late the thinking of librarians about why they should want to use computers and bother to learn how to converse with them?” In that article, Kay dwells upon the desirability of having computer language that provides power, simplicity, and im­ mediacy (i.e ., a sense of control while maintaining the detail necessary for readability). In that con­ versation he talks in metaphors and analogies that ought to appeal even to those who are not yet com­ puter literate: “I always tell people, if you want to learn about com puters, w rite and produce plays… The computer is the most general of the ki­ netic arts.” (Psychology T oday, December 1983, p.5 3 .)— B ill W ilson. ■ ■ BI for business students By Aubrey W. Kendrick Administrative Services Librarian University of Alabama in Huntsville Team-teaching at the University o f Alabama. O t h e r librarians might be interested in the expe­ rience of the librarians at the University of Ala­ bama in Huntsvile in teaching a required biblio­ graphic instruction course for business students. The course—Bibliography of Business and E co­ nomics (Bibliography 230)— started as part of a general library use course called Bibliography 100. Many years ago, business students could take Bib 100 for four weeks of general library instruction, then take the business track for the rest of the quar­ ter. In this extension of Bib 100, they covered the commonly used business and economic reference sources. As the course became more popular, it was decided to create a separate course. The faculty in the School of Administrative Sci­ ence felt that the course was useful for their stu­ dents, and in 1980 it was made a requirement for business majors. The course now meets once a week for ten weeks and the students earn one credit hour. There are eleven sections of the course offered each O ctober 1985 / 483 year— three in F a ll, W inter, Spring, and two in Summer— with each section having an enrollment of about 25 students. Currently, there are about 275 new students entering the School of Adminis­ trative Science each year so this schedule keeps up with the demand. The course is team taught by members of the L i­ brary staff. For example, the government docu­ ments librarian covers three classes on government documents and statistical sources, one of the refer­ ence librarians does a class on the use of the card catalog and a class on periodical indexes, and an­ other librarian covers information on industries and financial and industrial ratios. E ach librarian plans his/her own lectures, does handouts and as­ signment sheets for each class, and grades the as­ signments when they are turned in. T he course co­ o rd in ator condu cts the first class, w hich is an introduction to the course, as well as class on corpo­ rate inform ation, a class on business directories, and the last class, which is a course wrap-up. The coordinator also takes care of class rolls, com puta­ tion of the final grades, and sim ilar administrative matters. (See the course outline below.) In eight of the class sessions the instructors hand out hom ework assignments, w hich the students complete and turn in at the next class. The assign­ ments are worth 15 points each (total of 120 for the course) and are the basis for the course grade. Team teaching allows the librarians to teach in their area of interest and permits each one to con­ tinue his/her collection development, reference, and other activites. I f a reference librarian had to teach three classes each week and grade three sets of papers each week it would be difficult to keep up with other duties. One drawback is that a few stu­ dents say there is a lack of continuity because of having a new teacher ever}’ few weeks. T he goals of B ib 230 are: 1) to introduce business students to the UAH L ibrary; 2) to show them how to do basic research by using the card catalog and the commonly used periodical indexes in business and economics; and 3) to introduce them to the commonly used business inform ation sources. The students are encouraged to take the course before the end of their sophomore year so that it will help them in their m ajor courses. T here is usually a tendency in bibliographic in­ struction courses to tell the student too much and to cover too many sources. It is much more helpful in a course like this to cover the card catalog and a few im portan t periodical indexes and basic sources, than to cover a great deal of m aterial that the stu­ dents will not rem em ber and probably will never use. T h e assignments are designed to reinforce what was covered in class by using exercises which force the students to handle and use representative samples of the sources. W e do not try to cover every possible source, but only representative samples. After B ib 230, students are required to take a busi­ ness writing course which requires a term paper or project that will make use of library information sources. This serves to reinforce many of the things covered in Bib 230 by getting the students to use them on an actual project. O f course, a library skills course like the one de­ scribed here is a practical course and its usefulness can be judged by whether the students actually use what is covered in their research through inform a­ tion gathering in future courses or later in their ca­ reers. T here has not been a scientific follow-up sur­ vey on the students who have taken Bib 230. It would no doubt be informative to question them when they graduate and then about five years later to see how useful the course has actually been. Al­ though we do not have solid d ata, w e are per­ suaded that the course serves a useful purpose be­ cause of the form er students who tell librarians that it has helped them both in their school work and later on in their careers. Bib 230 Class Outline Class 1: Overview. Discuss the course— its pur­ pose, organization, assignments, grading— and tour the library. Briefly go over the access points for various types of materials— monographs, peri­ odicals, and government documents. Class 2: Locating books. Discuss using the card catalog and L ibrary of Congress Subject Heading volumes and briefly discuss the L ibrary of Congress classification system. Class 3: Locating periodical articles. Discuss the materials covered by newspaper and periodical in­ dexes and look at these indexes: Business P e r io d i­ ca ls In d ex , P red icasts F & S In d ex , T h e W all S treet Jo u r n a l In d ex . Briefly review these indexes: A c ­ c o u n t a n t ’s I n d e x , In d e x o f E c o n o m i c A r tic le s , Jo u r n a l o f E c o n o m ic L ite r a tu r e , and S o cia l Sci­ en ces In d ex . Class 4: Locating government documents. D e­ scribe w hat government documents are, how to lo­ cate th em , and briefly explain the government doc­ uments classification system. Class 5: Business statistics published by the gov­ ernment. Discussion of commonly used sources of statistics which are published by the Federal gov­ ernm ent, such as: S tatistical A b stra ct o f th e U .S., Survey o f C u rren t B usiness, F e d e r a l R eserv e B u lle­ tin, Business C o n d itio n s D igest, and census m ateri­ als. Class 6: Business statistics published by non­ government sources. Discuss sources such as: Sales & M ark etin g M an ag em en t’s S u rv e y o f B u y in g P o w er, Editor & Publisher’s M a r k et G u id e , and Standard & Poor’s S tatistical Service. Class 7: Corporation directories. Discuss how to locate directory-type inform ation about corpora­ tions and how to find out w hat company makes what products. Sources covered are: Standard & Poor’s R eg ister o f C o rp o ra tio n s , D irecto rs, a n d E x ­ ecu tiv es, Dun & Bradstreet’s M illion D o lla r D ir e c ­ tory, T h o m a s R eg ister o f A m er ic a n M a n u fa ctu r­ ers, and the T r a d e N a m e D ictio n a ry . ACQUISITION PERSPECTIVES 3. W e provide each custom er a list­ ing of books not immediately available from the publisher. This m onthly open ord er report assures you we have re­ cen tly taken effective actio n tow ards earliest possible delivery o f y o u r o r­ ders. P u blisher stock statu s and addi­ tion al inform ation are av ailab le on a con tin u ou s com puter printou t or on individual 3 x 5 slips fo r easy filing. W e cancel only publisher-docum ented out-of-print or out-of-stock-indefinite- ly titles. Eliminate your claiming and begin receiving your open order reports from Book House. CALL TOLL-FREE the TODAY 1-800-248-1146 BOOK In Canada & Michigan H JO BB ER O S SERV U ING L S 7) IBRA E CALL COLLECT (51 849-2117 RIES WITH ANY BOOK IN PRINT SINCE 1962 208 WEST CHICAGO STREET OCLC Vendor No. 17397 SAN 169-3859 JONESVILLE, MICHIGAN 49250 Swets… an attractive, many facetted and transparent subscription service. We would be pleased to send you our informative brochure as well as detailed documentation of our services. contact: Swets Subscription Service Heereweg 347-b 2161CA Lisse The Netherlands Class 8: Corporation research. Discuss the types of corporations, both public and private, listed and unlisted, and how to find information about them. Sources discussed are Moody’s M anuals, Standard & Poor’s C o rp oration R ecords, T h e Value L in e In ­ vestm en t Survey, and corporate reports. Also dis­ cuss the use of the card catalog and periodical and newspaper indexes for finding information on cor­ porations. Class 9: Information on industries. Discuss in­ fo rm a tio n on ind u stries in general and the commonly-used sources for locating this informa­ tion; U. S. Industrial O u tloo k, S ta n d a rd & P o o r ’s Industry Survey, industry analysis in T he Value L in e Investm en t Survey, and special issues of trade journals. Briefly discuss financial and industrial ra­ tios and the basic sources for locating these: Robert Morris A ssociates’ A n n u a l S ta te m e n t S tu d ies, Troy’s A lm a n a c o f Business i t Industrial F in an cial R atios, and Dun & Bradstreet’s Industry N orm s a n d K ey Business Ratios. Class 10: Course wrap-up. Discuss basic business and economic encyclopedias and dictionaries, computer database searches, and putting together the research paper. ■ ■ Degree of overlap in instructional collections: A reconsideration By Jeffry Larson H um anities B ib lio g ra p h er Yale University L ib ra r y Paul Mosher, in a recent contribution to the “Re­ search Forum” in C &R L N ew s, July/August 1985, pp. 3 36-38, describing “The nature and uses of the R LG verification studies,” reported findings that “library holdings of the many smaller R LG li­ braries … demonstrate … lower overlap rates than these very large collections” (p. 337). This is seen as advantageous for the smaller collections: “This large increase in coverage among the com­ bined holdings of smaller R LG libraries under­ scores the advantages of resource pooling to an even greater degree than among large institutions” (P . 337). It is not self-evident, however, why it is a virtue to have less overlap among smaller, instructional collections than among larger, research collec­ tions. Presumably the missions of research libraries differ at least as much among themselves, espe­ cially in the more recondite subfields, than do the curricula that are supported by instructional col­ lections; one would expect this to be true particu­ larly in the conservative disciplines involving a tra ­ ditional canon of texts, such as English or French literature. Under a rational allocation of resources, therefore, instructional collections should have higher, not lower, overlap rates than the very large collections. That this is not so requires explanation rather than self-congratulation. Perhaps the large re­ search collections are too similar, and greater ef­ forts should be made to assign different parts of the perimeter to different libraries. This has certainly been the thrust of the assignment of “Primary Col­ lecting Responsibilities” within RLG . But conversely, and more obviously, it would seem that the instructional collections are not simi- 486 / C&RL News RESEARCH FORUM