Joseph Janes

Documents are milestones and markers of human activity, part of who and what we are. Our story can be told through the objects, profound and trivial, famous and forgotten, by which we remember and are remembered. Documents That Changed the Way We Live examines dozens of compelling stories that describe these documents; their creation, motivation, influence, importance, historical and social context, provenance; and their connections to contemporary information objects, technologies, and trends. These documents include the following: ·“Exaltation of Innana,” a Sumerian hymn composed c. 2300 BCE by the high priestess Enheduanna, likely the first known author…of anything ·The “We Can Do It!” poster everybody knows is Rosie the Riveter calling women to work in the factories in World War II. Except it’s not, and she isn’t ·Joseph McCarthy’s “list” of Communists that ruined lives and careers, because it was believed - even though it never existed ·The “He has waged cruel war…” passage on slavery, deleted from the Declaration of Independence ·The poorly designed Palm Beach County “butterfly ballot,” on which the 2000 U.S. presidential election may have hinged ·And the lesser-known stories behind the Zapruder Film, the Watergate tapes, the Obama birth certificate, airplane black boxes, Thanksgiving, IQ tests, the Star-Spangled Banner, why Americans spell the way they do, Nobel Prizes, Wikipedia, and how you’re cooking dinner tonight

Documents are milestones and markers of human activity, part of who and what we are. Our story can be told through the objects, profound and trivial, famous and forgotten, by which we remember and are remembered. Documents That Changed the Way We Live examines dozens of compelling stories that describe these documents; their creation, motivation, influence, importance, historical and social context, provenance; and their connections to contemporary information objects, technologies, and trends. These documents include the following: ·“Exaltation of Innana,” a Sumerian hymn composed c. 2300 BCE by the high priestess Enheduanna, likely the first known author…of anything ·The “We Can Do It!” poster everybody knows is Rosie the Riveter calling women to work in the factories in World War II. Except it’s not, and she isn’t ·Joseph McCarthy’s “list” of Communists that ruined lives and careers, because it was believed - even though it never existed ·The “He has waged cruel war…” passage on slavery, deleted from the Declaration of Independence ·The poorly designed Palm Beach County “butterfly ballot,” on which the 2000 U.S. presidential election may have hinged ·And the lesser-known stories behind the Zapruder Film, the Watergate tapes, the Obama birth certificate, airplane black boxes, Thanksgiving, IQ tests, the Star-Spangled Banner, why Americans spell the way they do, Nobel Prizes, Wikipedia, and how you’re cooking dinner tonight

For many librarians, the meaning of the word ""reference"" is changing so rapidly in this Information Age that the subject has become unsettling. With so much questionable information out there, and so many avenues to it, who will point the public to the information truly worth having? How are the approaches to and principles of reference work changing from past to present and future? How do librarians take hold of the reins? Joseph Janes, founder of the Internet Public Library, offers this practical guide. The text is a mix of Janes's provocative arguments and hands-on advice to answer questions such as: what is the optimal mix of desk/phone/e-mail/chat? What kind of resource for what kind of user? What software for what purpose? What values to hold on to and what habits to break? Janes seeks to identify user needs and choose the best reference approaches for seeing that those needs are met. The work features salient considerations, pointers and encouragement.

Designed to assist beginning searchers, whether they are students or practitioners, this text offers a comprehensive introduction to online systems that primarily provide information in the form of bibliographic citations. Walker and Janes give basic how-to information on the use of online systems, discuss topics for which there are no accepted paradigms, and present alternative points of view within a framework of previous research. Expanding on their immensely popular and critically acclaimed first edition, the authors have added extensive new material addressing Internet search and retrieval techniques as well as the more traditional Dialog and Lexis-Nexis services. Invaluable as a textbook for students in online retrieval courses, practicing librarians, and online searchers in library settings, this book can be used as a quick reference tool and as a handy guide for in-service training. Information seekers who want to perform their own searches for bibliographic information using an online sea

Founded in 1995, the Internet Public Library (IPL) was the first virtual public library created exclusively to serve the online community. In this guide, the founding members deliver practical advice on issues related to providing library and information services on the Internet, including: technical support; maintenance; understanding users; site design and organization; funding; and access issues. Also featured are step-by-step instructions for assembling and maintaining collections of networked resources, adding new resources and original content, adapting sources to a web environment, and developing remote services. Profiles of successful services such as IPL's e-mail based "Ask a Question", ready reference and online text collections complete the guide.