Reference: Some days, it's just worth it to come to work!

Today I had a patron call me, asking for an article from a national magazine.  She gave me what she thought was the month and year, and the name of the person the article was about.  That was all the information she had, and she had been trying for many frustrating hours to find this article.  So, she called the library.  I did my very best to help her find the information she was looking for, but even EBSCO was no help this time.  So, I took her name and number, and promised to do my best to find this article.  Now it was time to call out the big guns, so I called the WV Library Commission reference desk.  Sure enough, after many MORE frustrating attempts to find the information the patron was looking for, I was finally able to determine, we were looking in the wrong place, and that she had the issue off by 2 years.  But with this information, we were able to locate the abstract for said article, and hopefully by tomorrow, it will be here at our library, through the miracle of FAX.  I called the patron, who couldn't believe that we would take the time to do all that work to find her the information she needed.  Her reaction validated why I LOVE doing reference work.   It's a treasure hunt!  And the reward is a happy patron, who will tell her friends and colleagues how wonderful her local library is!

Yep.  It's been a good day.

It's true, I read it on Facebook!

Today is the last day of the WVLC Fall Conference.  It's been a great week, and I've learned a great deal.  One of my favorite workshops this week was titled, "Appetite for Instruction," which was presented by Sabrina Thomas and Eryn Roles from Marshall University.  These two ladies are working on a database of lesson plans to teach people about information literacy.  They're not concentrating so much on how to find information, as much as how to think critically about what is found.  There is a rediculous amount of information out there on any subject you can think of, but is it accurate?  Is the source reliable, or is it someone's Aunt Beulah, posting her absolutely solid opinion, which was based completely on what she read on her Facebook page.

This made me think about my frequent desire to bang my head against a wall when reading posts on my Facebook page.  I'm frustrated on a daily basis (several times a day, actually), at how much people base their opinions on what they hear, or what they read on Facebook, and then disseminate as absolute fact.  No research.  No checking accuracy.  Sometimes from people who are otherwise intelligent and well educated.  Thomas and Roles pointed out how important it is to really pay attention; to check several sources; and to ask yourself, "Where did this information come from, is there proper citation, and how credible is it?"  Be informationally skeptical! 

Check your facts!  And please, don't share things on Facebook that you cannot back up with solid data.  That's tantamount to gossip, in this librarian's opinion.