ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


2 9 4 /C&RL News

Use it! Usenet a s a 
reference tool

By Leslie Campbell Rampey

Useful information can be fo u n d  
amidst the “j u n k ”

P erhaps no electronic resource is so reviled, or so passionately defended, as is Usenet 
News. A vast conglomeration of electronic bul­
letin boards, Usenet is home to virtually every 
interest, pastime, problem, and controversy that 
delights or troubles the human family. Yet 
Usenet in itself is a problem to many people. 
Some computer services administrators deplore 
it for the inordinate file space and staff time it 
consumes; many people in general fear it be­
cause they believe it to be a sleazy hangout of 
perverts; some information professionals dis­
trust it because they question the quality of in­
formation it houses. On the other hand, those 
who love Usenet— well, they love Usenet. Some 
literally cannot go without their daily fix of it; 
others consider it a second (or even in some 
extreme cases a primary) home where they find 
longed-for acceptance and understanding.

Where on this spectrum do or should refer­
ence librarians find themselves? Although his 
or her personal feelings about Usenet are each 
reference librarian’s private business, the fact 
is that Usenet is a potentially rich (albeit not 
faultless) source of information. It should be a 
tool in the reference librarian’s kit— one that 
he or she cannot afford to ignore and should 
be practiced at using. It also is reasonable to 
assert that the smaller the library the greater 
Usenet’s reference potential.

How Usenet is organized
To test the validity of those last two statements, 
we should examine the structure of Usenet.

Although electronic information has been char­
acterized fairly as chaotic, Usenet does have a 
coherent structure of sorts. It’s not the LC Clas­
sification System, but it’s hardly mysterious.

Usenet is divided into hierarchies.1 Some­
times it is said that several groups are the “com­
mon” or “traditional” ones. The fact is, how­
ever, that some that might once have been 
labeled “other” have outdistanced the former. 
For finding information, the most valuable of 
the hierarchies probably are “rec,” “sci,” “soc,” 
“comp,” “bionet,” “biz,” “k l2 ,” and the ever­
problematical “alt.” If we exclude “alt” for a 
moment, it shouldn’t be difficult for a refer­
ence librarian to decide into which hierarchy a 
given subject probably falls.

The only caveat is to remember that “rec” 
encompasses a good deal more than most of 
us might attribute to the word “recreation.” In­
deed, the “rec” hierarchy includes those gen­
eral subject areas that we might more likely 
refer to as “the arts and humanities”— fine arts, 
literature, and drama.

A few  words about the “ alt” 
hierarchy
The second thing we need to remember is sim­
ply, “Remember ‘alt’; don’t ever forget ‘alt.’” As 
I write, the “alt” hierarchy on my newsreader 
includes 437 subheadings, and it no doubt will 
have more by the time this article sees print. 
There’s no way to know what is in “alt” other 
than to keep current with it. That’s also true of 
the other Usenet hierarchies, but not to the 
degree it is true with “alt.” At least in “sei,” for 
example, one has a pretty dependable idea of 
what can be found there. New subheadings and 
new groups will be added, of course, but one 
knows that they all will be about science.

Leslie C a m p b ell R a m p ey  is assistan t lib r a r ia n  f o r  p u b lic  services a t  M id d le G eorg ia College; e-m ail: 
lram pey@ w arrior.m g c .p ea c h n et.ed u



May 1 9 9 6 /2 9 5

That cannot be said of “alt.” It’s a world of 
information unto itself, sometimes paralleling 
(but not duplicating) topics found in the other 
hierarchies. It’s very true, as some Usenet de­
tractors claim, that much of what is in “alt” is 
pure junk— for example, the infamous group 
“alt.b a rn e y .d in o sa u r.d ie .d ie .d ie .” (B e fo re  
people are too quick to indict all of Usenet for 
this failing, however, they should take a walk 
around any library periodicals section where 
they would find that about the same is true to 
about the same degree.) The fact that junk ex­
ists should not obscure the very real informa­
tion that can be found. Examples are endless, 
so here’s just one I found on a recent trek 
through “alt”: How else could a small library 
provide immediate access to an episode-by- 
episode guide to the TV series M*A*S*H but in 
“alt.tv.mash”? That, by the way, is not available 
in the more standard “rec.arts.tv. . . . One sim­
ply would need to know about the “alt.tv . . . ” 
subheading. That is true over and over again, 
all up and down the “alt” hierarchy.

Usenet in the reference environment
Assuming that you’re familiar with the Usenet 
landscape, how would you use it as a refer­
ence tool? Approach it first the same way you 
would a potential interlibrary loan transaction— 
that is, first make sure that the item or suitable 
substitute does not exist locally. If it’s a spe­
cific item (book, article, etc.), you would choose 
the standard interlibrary loan route. If, how­
ever, the request involves a piece of informa­
tion or documentation for which the location 
is unknown, Usenet might be the way to go.

Select the group or groups you think might 
be a likely source of the information. You could 
get very lucky and find that the specific piece 
of information you are hunting is a standard 
part of the newsgroup always up for view. That 
is the case in the aforementioned example of 
the M*A*S*H episode guide. It exists as an FAQ 
(frequently asked question) that permanently 
resides at the top of the group. B e on the look­
out for these FAQs. If they don’t contain the 
information themselves, they might tell you 
where it can be located easily— perhaps a go­
pher, FTP, or Web site.

If no FAQs exist or the information you seek 
is not in them, you still might get lucky if the 
subject is a hot topic currently under discus­
sion in the group. What would be left for you 
and your client to do in that case is to evaluate 
the reliability of the posts you find.

Posting queries to Usenet
If you believe that you have found the most 
likely group(s), but the information you need 
is not in evidence, you might want to post a 
query. This is where using Usenet can be both 
tricky and very rewarding.

If you are fortunate enough that your insti­
tution has its own Usenet newsfeed, you should 
know (or can easily learn locally) how to go 
about posting a query. If that is not the case, 
and you have been depending on a public 
gopher site to read Usenet, you already are 
aware that your access is less than dependable. 
Posting is going to be even more difficult. I 
have had some success e-mail posting to the 
public sites listed by Yanoff,2 but that process 
is not hassle-free. For one thing, it is difficult to 
be certain which site carries which groups. If 
you do go the public reading/posting route, be 
sure to request in your post that all replies be 
e-mailed to you personally or to your client as 
it might not be easy for you to access the group 
on a regular basis.

Another option— the one I advise— is for ref­
erence librarians to maintain some sort of per­
sonal Usenet access, at least until such time as 
their institutions may provide a local newsfeed. 
Many commercial Internet providers now fea­
ture Usenet access, but the expense of using a 
personal commercial account in a work envi­
ronment might be prohibitive. A more practi­
cal option is for the reference librarian to have 
an account on one o f the several FreeNets that 
provide Usenet access.3 That is the solution I 
have found, and it has been working for me. 
At least I know that I have a dependable and 
hassle-free reading/posting capability.

Real life exam ples of Usenet 
reference queries
In recent months, I have been using Usenet as 
a reference tool more and more. I’ve had some 
particularly good luck with the “rec” hierarchy. 
For example, I found several people who 
helped identify postage stamps (and in the pro­
cess received a very generous offer to donate a 
set o f Scott catalogs to our library); I received 
some helpful ideas on how a left- handed per­
son might be taught to knit; and I obtained 
information about ordering tickets for NASCAR 
events at the Talladega Speedway. In the “k l 2 ” 
hierarchy, I turned up a correspondent willing 
to snail-mail one o f our patrons an official copy 
of the proposed national standards in geogra­
phy education. As far as I know, none of this



2 9 6 / C&RL News

information was available in our library, nor 
was I able to pin down specific items to re­
quest through interlibrary loan.

Reference benefits of Usenet
While it is true that there are also e-mail dis­
cussion lists where one might obtain similar 
information, it can be difficult to know which 
list might be best to query unless you are a 
subscriber. And you simply cannot subscribe 
to all e-mail lists just on the off-chance that one 
day one of them might be a potential reference 
resource. But you c a n  periodically browse 
Usenet to be at least vaguely familiar with its 
reference possibilities.

Two aspects of using Usenet as a reference 
tool should be kept in mind. First, most Usenet 
groups simply would not exist at all unless there 
were people out there interested in reading and 
posting to them. And what better people to ask 
about a particular subject than those you know 
have an interest, sometimes a passionate one, 
in that subject? They might not all be highly 
qualified experts, but often they at least can 
offer useful advice and put you on the track of 
further information. Second, it’s been my ex­
perience that library users are thrilled and very 
impressed to receive information this way—  
that is, from an unknown real live person who 
is willing to take the time to help them. A happy 
user is good for the library and not incidentally 
for the reference librarian.

Although the less than sterling reputation 
Usenet suffers in some quarters might discour­
age reference librarians from taking advantage 
of it, the truth is that it can be very fruitfully 
exploited as a reference tool. Moreover, it can 
infinitely expand the walls of small libraries in 
very exciting ways. So, use it!

Notes
1. A number of good basic descriptions of 

Usenet exist. I suggest either: Mark Veljkov and 
George Hartnell, “Using and Navigating Usenet,” 
vol. 3 of P ocket G uides to the Internet (Westport, 
Conn.: Mecklermedia, 1994); Gord Nickerson, 
“Usenet,” Computers in Libraries 12 (April 1992): 
31-34.

2. See Scott Yanoff s regularly updated “Spe­
cial Internet C onnections” at http://www. 
uwm.edu/Mirror/inet.services.html.

3. To learn how to locate and join Free- 
Nets, see my “Confessions of a Free-Net Junkie,” 
I nternet H om estead er 1 (September 1994): 1, 
5–7. ■

http://www