Imagine an entire metropolitan library packed into
a box sitting on your desk. Think your desk could
hold it? Since you're reading this on a screen, you
know the answer is yes, because the box is your
computer, and the library comes through GEnie's
Reference Center.
  
You can spend hours in a library sometimes looking
for a specific piece of information. On occasion,
after that long search you find out it just doesn't
exist! Or if it does, it's only available at some
other library.
  
Check Out Your Library
  
With Reference Center, you quickly find out what's
available and how to find it, and you can get a lot
of the information in full-text right there online.
Reference Center covers all major subject areas
including science, history, medicine, education,
art, literature, business, computers, technology,
and more. Think of Reference Center as the
reference section of a library.
  
A computerized online librarian called KNOWBOT acts
as your guide. Tell KNOWBOT about the topic you're
researching; it will do the searching for you. It
reads every article in the database and, in effect,
responds with "Here's everything I could find about
your topic. Tell me if it's what you're looking
for."
  
KNOWBOT displays a list of the subject areas where
it found a match with your topic, along with the
number of occurrences it found in each. You can
then ask KNOWBOT for more information about what it
found. It will display article headings in sets of
up to ten, most recent first. You can then select
specific headings and KNOWBOT will retrieve the
full-text articles or abstracts, whichever are
available in electronic format. You complete your
search in a matter of seconds instead of spending
frustrating hours at the library.
  
On some occasions no full-text or abstract is
available online. In these cases a full
bibliographic citation is shown so you can locate
the original publication in a traditional library
setting.
  
Remember that Reference Center is a GEnie$Premium
service, so there are charges in addition to
connect time, mostly per-search charges. Be sure to
check the rates listed right on the main menu.
KNOWBOT keeps you posted with a running estimate of
your charges (not including connect time) so you're
never surprised by your bill. And to help you learn
your way around the Reference Center, it is
available to you during October for HALF PRICE.
  
Reference Center comprises copyrighted databases
made available by Dialog Information Services,
Inc., and is offered through GEnie via Advanced
Research Technologies' ARTIST(R) Gateway System. To
get to Reference Center, enter M1260 or the keyword
REFCENTER at most any GEnie prompt.
  
Reading The Information Menu
  
The Reference Center menu on GEnie Page 1260 looks
like this:
  
 ͻ
   GEnie        REFCENTER          Page  1260  
         GEnie's Reference Center              
                                               
    1.[*]About GEnie's Reference Center        
    2.[*]Reference Center Rates                
    3.[*]Reference Center Info & Instructions  
    4.[*]Disclaimer & Warranty Limitations     
                                               
    5.[$]Search in GEnie's Reference Center    
                                               
    6.[*]Send Reference Center FEEDBACK        
                                               
    Enter #, <P>revious, or <H>elp? _          
 ͼ
  
Select Item #5 to search through the many databases
which make up GEnie's Reference Center.
  
With thousands of publications, bibliographic
citations and summary records available and the
potential costs involved, you'll want to put a
little thought into your search BEFORE you access
Reference Center.
  
Searches in Reference Center are performed against
full records, so your search term needs to be
specific enough to find the information you want
while being broad enough to ensure you retrieve all
pertinent information.
  
Look Carefully
  
For example, if you wanted to find information
about World War II in the Pacific Ocean, your first
inclination might be to search on WORLD WAR. If you
do, you'll end up with matches for World War I and
World War II; a lot more than you want.
  
Narrow your search somewhat by using both WORLD WAR
and PACIFIC. This would cut out a lot of "noise" in
the search results, but you would still get
information covering the entire Pacific theater.
  
Think about it first. If what you're really looking
for is information about the bombing of Pearl
Harbor, use search terms like PEARL HARBOR. The
articles Reference Center finds using these search
terms will tend to be more focused and therefore of
much greater value to you.
  
Reference Center uses the same interface as the
other ARTIST systems on GEnie, so you can quickly
learn to navigate it and become a true Information
Artist.
