【正文】 as word processing, highquality printers, and access to the Inter. Many libraries have programs of orientation and instruction to meet the needs of all students, formbeginning researchers to graduate students. Ask about introductory pamphlets or handbooks, guided tours, lectures, and courses on using the library. Be sure to take full advantage of the services your library provides. Nearly allpublic and academic libraries have desks staffed by professional reference librarians who can tell you about available instructional programs and help you locate sources. Consulting a librarian at key points in your research may save your considerable time and effort. Often librarians also prepare and hand out informative bulletins that describe library resources and services. The Central Information System A typical academic library provides an online central information system to serve students and faculty members engaged in research. The system ordinarily includes the library’s catalog of holdings (books, serials, electronic publications, audiovisual materials, and so forth)。 incorporates a number of bibliographic databases, such as National Newspaper Index, Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, Business Periodicals Index, Humanities Index, Social Sciences Index, and General Science Index, and other kinds of reference works like those discussed in the next section。 and often permits access to other electronic resources, including the full texts of sources, available at the school or over the Inter. A central information system might also be part of a work linking the catalogs of a number of libraries. For instance, the system in your school might permit you to search the holdings of local public libraries or of other schools. If your library is part of a work such as the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) or the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN), you may be able to locate sources recorded in the catalogs of thousands of other libraries. You can often use the central information system even if you are not physically in the library. There may be connections with the library at various locations on the campus. With a personal puter and a modem, you might also be able to access information in the system from locations on and off the campus. Reference Works Indexes. Indexes guide you to material in newspapers, magazines, and journals as well as to writings in book collections. The New York Times Index lists news stories and feature articles in the New York Times. National Newspaper Index covers the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Canadian News Index provides citations to the major newspapers in Canada. Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature indexes the contents of popular magazines. Essay and General Literature Index lists essays and articles published in books. Most subject areas have their own specialized indexes, such as Art Index, Business Periodicals Index, Education Index, General Science Index, Humanities Index, Index to Legal Periodicals, Philosopher’s Index, and Social Sciences Index. Bibliographies. Bibliographies are lists of related publications and other materials. Serial bibliographies in specific disciplines include Bibliography of Agriculture, Bibliography and Index of Geology, and MLA International Bibliography (for the field of language and literature). Bibliographic Index contains citations to bibliographies that are published as books or pamphlets, as parts of books, or in periodicals. (For sample citations from a bibliography. Collections of abstracts. Abstracts are summaries of journal articles and other literature. Collections of abstracts include Biological Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts, Historical Abstracts, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, Physics Abstracts, Psychological Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts. Summaries of doctoral dissertations are available in Dissertation Abstracts International. Guides to research. There are guides intended to direct you to the most important sources of information and scholarship in the area you are researching. Whereas indexes, bibliographies, and collections of abstracts tend to strive for prehensiveness and objectivity in presenting information, guides to research are usually selective and evaluative. Some research guides cover entire fields, such as James ’s Literary Research Guide (3rd ed. [New York: MLA, 1998] )。other similar works have titles like A Guide to the Literature of Art History, A Guide to the Literature of Pharmacy and the Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Philosophy: A Guide to the Reference Literature. Some guides to research are devoted to specific subjects (., The English Romantic Poets: A Review of Research and Criticism). To learn of any guides that might b