Elements of the bibliographic record used by reference staff members at three ARL academic libraries

This dissertation determined the extent to which the elements of a bibliographic record were consulted by reference staff members of three ARL libraries and studied the relationships of a number of variables. The following hypotheses provided direction for the study: (1) The majority of catalog and bibliographic utility database searches by staff are for known-items, (2) Staff members use the author's name as first access point more often than other access points, (3) Staff members generally ignore elements in the physical description area, (4) The choice of elements used by staff members is related to the search's purpose, (5) The choice of elements used is related to whether the search is for a known-item, (6) The choice of which catalog or database to consult is related to the search's purpose, and (7) The choice of elements consulted is related to the catalog or database used.;The main finding of this study was that staff members consulted a limited number of the elements in the bibliographic records. Another important finding was that practically none of the independent variables had strong or even moderate associations with any of the dependent variables. Incidence of searches for known-items was high.;The study answered the following research questions: (1) What is the incidence of use of each element of the bibliographic record? (2) Which types of access points are used and how frequently? (3) For what purposes do staff members use the catalogs and databases? (4) What is the incidence of use of each category of catalog and database? (5) What is the relationship between data representing the incidence of use of each element and that for the following variables: "experience level of staff member," "purpose of the search," "category of catalog or database consulted," and "whether or not the search was for a known-item?" (6) What is the relationship between data collected for the variable: "experience level of staff member" and that for the variables: "purpose of the search" and "category of catalog or database consulted?" and (7) What is the relationship between data collected for the variable: "purpose of the search" and that for the variable: "category of catalog or database consulted?".