Accessing Ethnic Group Information on CD-ROM:

Abstract

The reference librarian in academic libraries today is often challenged by the demand from patrons for information on ethnic groups from a variety of disciplines. Questions on the four "mega" ethnic groups (African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans) are common. In addition, depending on the community in which the academic library resides, one or more ethnic groups will be emphasized. Automated indexes (particularly CD-ROM and online databases) can greatly facilitate the search for information in ethnic studies. Yet each electronic index has its own unique structure, indexing, and search protocol. The reference librarian should be attuned to the variation in ethnic group terminology and indexing in these and other resouces in order to maximize retrieval of references. To illustrate this point, an example of indexing and usage of terms related to Southeast Asians in four separate CD-ROM databases is presented.