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Related Experiment Videos

1927 reference in the new millennium: where is the Automat?

Sunny Lynn Worel1, Melissa Lyle Rethlefsen

  • 1Bio-Medical Library, University of Minnesota, 505 Essex Street Southeast, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. sunny@umn.edu

Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA
|July 29, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Historical reference questions from 1927 were answered using 1920s print resources and the internet. The internet proved highly effective, but 1920s materials also offered valuable, multifunctional insights for health sciences libraries.

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Area of Science:

  • Library and Information Science
  • Medical History

Background:

  • James Ballard documented reference questions at the Boston Medical Library in 1927.
  • His findings were presented at the Medical Library Association meeting in 1927.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare the efficacy of 1920s print resources versus the internet in answering historical medical reference questions.
  • To observe the impact of automation on reference services in health sciences libraries.

Main Methods:

  • Authors attempted to answer 60 historical reference questions from 1927.
  • Searches were conducted using both 1920s print reference materials and the internet (in 2001).

Main Results:

  • The internet successfully answered 85% of the questions.

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  • 1920s print resources answered 80% of the questions.
  • Many 1920s resources were found to be useful and multifunctional, despite the lack of modern indexing tools.

    • Conclusions:

    • The internet is a highly effective tool for answering historical reference questions.
    • Traditional print resources from the 1920s remain valuable and versatile in health sciences libraries.
    • While technology has altered the appearance of reference services, core functions persist.