Friday, April 06, 2007

Hello! It's the week after spring break, and the reference desk is seeing major activity.

I'm going to start adding notes about some of the sources I've used to answer the questions. Because I only started adding source notes recently, and because I pull these questions from a larger pool, some of which have been marinating for a long time behind the scenes, some questions may not have source notes. Over time, I should start posting all questions with a note on what sources I tried.

And if you know of a better way to handle a question than the one(s) I tried, please comment! I'm always eager for some quick'n'dirty professional development!

  • I'm looking for statistics on childhood obesity rates in California. (GovInfo reference chat. Located CDC reports on national-level childhood obesity rates, and CA-level reports from nonprofit agency providing data to lawmakers. Census doesn't collect this information?)
  • I'm looking for images of Senegal from 1900 - 1970, from popular magazines and papers, etc. (Readers' Guide Retrospective)
  • I'm looking for information about foreign trade zones in the United States, particularly the western states. These are also called export processing centers. Do we have a book on these? (Melvyl, with Business Source Premier etc. to firm up terminology.)
  • I'm looking for books about lighting in buildings, particularly in libraries. I'm interested not just in lamps, but in daylighting as well. (Pathfinder, limited to ENVI)
  • I need to know average climate information for Vancouver, BC. I'm interested in degree-days, amount of sun, precipitation, temperature, etc. (Canadian gov't website: didn't record URL, but statistics given were precise and historical)
  • I'm looking for articles about Mexico during the United States Great Depression. How did the Depression affect the lives of people in Mexico? (America: History and Life, HAPI. Looked for more general works on the history of Mexico in Melvyl; referred student to these.)
  • I need to find a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five. (Pathfinder. This was ridiculously hard to do, thanks to the hyphenated title and very poor performance from the catalog.)
  • I can't find this call number!
  • I need the most recent editions of the California Building Code and the Universal Building Code. (Catalog records are a nightmare. Most recent versions held at ENVI Reserves.)


2 Comments:

Blogger anniez-k said...

I'm glad you're recording how you answer these questions. I've often wondered what you did!

What the heck is pathfinder?

11:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well said.

10:01 AM  

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