Know it All, Find it Fast for Academic Libraries

A comprehensive and easy-to-use version of the best-selling Know it All, Find It Fast developed specifically for information professionals working in academic libraries, this will help you to tackle the questions most commonly asked by students, academics and researchers. A broad cross-disciplinary A-Z of themes including topics such as literature searching, plagiarism and using online resources are covered helping you to address anquery confidently and quickly. Each topic is split into three sections to guide your response:

• typical questions listing the common enquiries you’ll encounter
• points to consider exploring the issues and challenges that might arise
• where to look listing annotated UK and international resources in print and online including key organisations, scholarly bodies, digital libraries, statistical data and journal article indexes.

Readership: This will prove an indispensable day-to-day guide for anyone working with students, academics and researchers in an academic library.

A

• Accountancy
• Acronyms and abbreviations
• African studies
• Anthropology
• Archives
• Art
• Asian studies
• Associations

B

• Banking
• Bibliometrics
• Biographical information
• Book reviews
• Business studies

C

• Careers guidance
• Census research
• Charities
• Citing and referencing
• Company and stock market information
• Computer science
• Conferences
• Copyright
• Country information and rankings
• Courses
• Criminology and criminal justice
• Current awareness tools

D

• Development studies
• Dictionaries
• Diplomatic, consular and foreign service lists
• Disabled students

E

• E-books
• Economic history
• Economics
• Education
• Election results
• Electronic journals
• Encyclopedias
• Engineering
• Environment
• European union

F

• Films, documentaries and moving images
• Freedom of information requests
• Further education

G

• Geography
• Government publications
• Grants and funding

H

• Heads of state/heads of government
• Higher education
• History
• Human rights

I

• Images and photographs
• Information literacy
• International organizations
• International relations
• International students

J

• Journal article indexes

L

• Languages
• Latin american studies
• Law
• Legislation
• Library catalogues
• Literature
• Literature searching

M

• Management
• Maps
• Market research
• Marketing
• Mathematics
• Media studies
• Medicine and nursing
• Music

N

• Newspapers
• Non-governmental organizations (ngos)

O

• Open access publishing and repositories
• Opinion polls

P

• Parliaments/parliamentary proceedings
• Philosophy
• Plagiarism
• Political science
• Psychology

Q

• Qualifications
• Quangos
• Quotations

R

• Reference management tools
• Religious studies and theology
• Research councils

S

• Science
• Slavonic and East European studies
• Social research methods
• Social welfare and social work
• Sociology
• Speeches
• Sports studies
• Standards
• Statistical data
• Student unions

T

• Theses and dissertations
• Think-tanks/policy institutes
• Tourism and hospitality
• Trade unions
• Treaties

U

• United nations

V

• Volunteering

W

• Women’s studies
  Working papers
  Writing and style guides

"Complete and comprehensive, author Heather Dawson, a library leader at the London School of Economics, provides the techniques needed to take a question and answer it for a patron quickly and effectively. Practical advice for librarians in managing their collections through technology and general know how, Know It All, Find It Fast for Academic Librarians is a strongly recommended addition for any librarian's library science reference collection."

- Midwest Book Review

"This is a fantastic practical handbook for any academic library to have at the ready when those tricky questions come in at the front desk. It would also be very useful for someone new to working on the front desk of a busy academic library or working with a new subject area."
- SCONUL Focus

"Heather Dawson has done a truly excellent job and I am in awe of her command of the academic reference landscape and ability to subject it to logic and order and make it approachable for frontline staff without specialist subject knowledge. This is a book that every UK academic library, from the loftiest research led institution to the most humble college, should have available… his is not a book to languish on the backwaters of the reference shelves. It belongs on the frontline at the enquiry point and all staff engaged in responding to queries from students, staff and researchers, especially those new to enquiry work, should be conversant with its contents and use and not be too grand or embarrassed to consult it whenever confronted with a question that leads into unfamiliar territory."

- Reference Reviews

"Overall, I think this book is marvellous and it will definitely have a place on my bookshelf. This book is not going to give you the definitive answer to the “education system of Zambia” query, but it does provide signposts for your way toward the answers and will tell you where to start your search. Ultimately, if you are looking for an information source to give you a starting point on your reference journey, which is packed full of useful tips, then this is the book for you."

- Library Review

Heather Dawson is an Academic Support Librarian in the Information Services Department of the LSE Library.