ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 512 / C&RL News ■ July/August 1998 When is a citation just a frustration? Librarians must stand up for the patron by Claudia Rebaza W ho hasn’t had individuals com e to the reference desk with incomplete cita­ tions? When faculty members are trying to track down citations a colleague listed in his or her work, though, it begs the question, why would a scholarly author fail to give sufficient information for som eone else to find the material in question? Does the au­ thor not realize that this is why citations exist? Since no self-respecting cataloger or indexer would put out a record that lacked sufficient information for the item to be found, this prob­ lem was puzzling to me. Yet every day stu­ dents, faculty, and even librarians are confused by citations they see. Many library skills/in­ formation literacy courses have to teach stu­ dents to recognize the pertinent parts of a ci­ tation. Why? Four reasons are variance, poor style construction, a lack of information, and poor instruction in citation usage. Variance am ong styles and poorly c re ­ ated styles o ften do not m ake o b v io u s what you are look in g at. Many librarians d o n ’t seem to think m uch about this b e ­ cau se citation reading is a daily part o f the job. But the faces or qu estion s o f our clien tele m ake it obvious w e ’ve forgotten how confu sing it can be. If an individual has to use three or four on lin e or print in d exes, he or she is likely to be looking at three different citation form ats. Is there really a good reason for so many different types o f citation style? Then there’s lack o f information. Although one can argue that abbreviating journal names and author names in print indexes saves pa­ per and thus money, there is no excuse for these abbreviations to continue in online databases. After having to learn how to search and use the software, who then wants to use a book to spell out abbreviations before cross­ checking sources in a catalog? In assignments where students must find all works a certain author has written, I must explain that a va­ riety o f abbreviations will have to be checked. Ja n e Smith may be listed as J. Smith, Jan e Smith, Jan e (unknown middle initial) Smith o r J (initial) Smith. O f course, Jonathan Smith, Jerem y Smith, Jennifer Smith, Jason Smith, etc. may also be listed as J. Smith. Happy hunting! Surely I am not the only librarian to have fielded calls from faculty members or stu­ dents wanting to make sure they have the correct abbreviation for a particular journal (which, down the line, another librarian will probably be deciphering at the reader’s end). The absurdity o f this seems to lead authors to be less than scrupulous about their abbre­ viations. Confusion later results when the abbreviation used d oesn’t match the one in sources, such as G a le ’s P e r io d ic a l Title A b­ breviations, or w e’re not sure if the article needed is in the journal from the Nether­ lands, Great Britain, or the United States. I have no doubt w e’ve incurred extra ILL costs for material that w asn’t actually what the re­ questor intended. You would expect that the people most responsible for maintaining the use o f cita- About the author Claudia Rebaza is inform a tio n services librarian a t the University o f Southern Mississippi; e-mail: claudia.rebaza@usm.edu mailto:claudia.rebaza@usm.edu C&RL News ■ July/August 1998 / 513 tion styles are faculty (many of whom also set guidelines as editors). Some o f them teach students to create bibliographies or require them as assignments. Yet citations are obvi­ ously a problem for many faculty, as well. I am responsible for maintaining an online faculty bibliography for my institution. It as­ tounds me how many omissions (coauthors, page numbers, issue references) there are in submitted material. The citations, although obviously meant to be in the same style, may not be consistent over a mere six to eight citations. One faculty member was so fond o f abbreviations, he abbreviated the name o f his book, as well. Although as librarians we have no con­ trol over what individual faculty choose to do, or what professional associations want to promote, it does seem to me we should (M ansfield co n tin u ed fr o m p a g e 5 0 8 ) Finally, a “technical support log” details contact with the company regarding a unit or part, including phone calls made or items re­ turned and the company response and repair. This may seem like a lot of unnecessary de­ tail, but the usefulness of such information cannot be overemphasized, particularly in terms of warranty agreements, obtaining parts, etc. Assessing fees We decided from the start that damaged laptops would be treated like other library ma­ terials and established a fine/fee structure ac­ cordingly. However, we also recognized early on that damage was not always the fault of a specific individual, but often accrued from user to user. For example, from the logs we would be aware that the network plug had a slight crack for Users #1—14. We would also know that it finally broke while being used by User #15 and that it was subsequently replaced. If User #16 then returns the laptop and the net­ work plug is broken, we would know that User #16 is responsible. Although we have had charges disputed, the actual damaged piece combined with the detailed record pro­ vided by the assistants’ log soon remove any doubt as to what happened and when. Summary Although maintaining detailed logs may seem to be a very staff- and time-intensive task, the importance of doing so cannot be overem­ stand up for our patrons and lobby for an end to this sort o f headache. We can com ­ plain to vendors who sell us citations that are not “ready for use” and force us to re­ search the citation itself. We can refuse to use unfriendly citation styles in our own publications. We can encourage use o f and training in user-friendly citations in our insti­ tutions and in the nonlibrary publications we are familiar with. While some citation use is the result of preference, most is the result of training, habit, or requirements by others. As I wrote this, I had to help yet another individual figure out som e abbreviations. When I told him what I was in the midst of doing, he sighed “It’s about time. This is crazy.” Making resources easier to find is our business, but sometimes we need to make others aware of how they could help. phasized. Whether it’s to handle a complaint about a fine that’s been assessed, verify war­ ranty eligibility, or determine which machines have had what problems, the logs have more than proved their usefulness. On several oc­ casions, the focus on detail has also enabled the staff to spot problems that might not have been spotted or reported as quickly (e.g., net­ work problems, touchpad driver error). Equally important is the support staff. Al­ though no previous computer experience is required to be selected to work at checking in a laptop, persistent attention to detail is a must. Without it, the whole procedure falls apart. Training staff to look for specific items, as well as recognize the unusual and how to record/describe it, is essential. Looking ahead, w e’re anticipating that many of our existing problems will decrease considerably as incoming students will be given the option o f purchasing their own preconfigured laptop computers. However, we also anticipate that this will create its own unique set of challenges. But, given what we’ve experienced so far, we're confident that we'll be able to effectively meet those challenges when they arise. Notes 1. For a summary of the (dis)advantages of circu­ lating laptop computers, see our article: “Note- book Computers: To buy or not?” American Li­ braries, September 1997: 84.