finding info on the Web

[Elisabeth Roche]

I have one for you today! My ex-husband sent me a message yesterday, he has
an aol account. He couldn't get a Dunn and Bradstreet report because they
charge $20 for them on the net and needed netscape 1.1n for encryption for
the credit card.

Not quite understanding at first what the problem was, I did a net search
for the name of the company he wanted. AFter getting several tens of
answers, some on first eagle- part of name, some on place, Florida, I
decided to do the reference interview on him<gg>

i called him  up and asked, what type of business are these people in,(I had
eagle name, I had subject technologies, I had place Florida and needed to
get this honed down.)
BTW this took me all of three minutes in excite!

So he said, I need to get Dunn and Bradstreet and they won't take my credit
card over aol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lordy, aol is making a mistake
here at $20 a pop!<gg>

I said, I should have called you right off, i called up dunn and bradstreet
got them in a few seconds, it took me three minutes to find the place on
their webpages where you can order this info (why not up front first, why
all the BS about the company I wondered) we ran through the entries, I put
in his credit card number and he got the report in 15 seconds.

I am planning to do a hopefully publishable and published research project
on webpages and design w/ lib sci and industrial psych (human interaction
etc) starting / well i already started I am looking for a dept that will
accept this project at UA for next semester.

I am a beta tester for two different online magazines and hope this will
help get me in the door somewhere here!!

Elisabeth roche ace at opus1.com


At 07:29 PM 12/5/95 -0800, Ilene Frank (REF) wrote:
>Rebecca, I have a story for you (and other readers.) I met up with a very
>helpful HELP-NET participant last year.  After watching him answer lots of
>questions for others, he finally asked for the group for help concerning a
>research paper of his own.  The stuff HAD to be at his library - which
>turned out to be at the University of New Mexico(!!!!  See Rebecca's
>address below) 
>
>After some email interchanges and me telnetting to UNM to
>check out my hunch - lo and behold - everything he needed was right down
>the street!  It turned out he had NO IDEA there were so many cool
>resources at his home institution.  I've been doing long-distance
>reference service with him ever since.  And he's become a great fan of
>libraries.  Do you want him?  He's finishing up a 20 page paper for a 
>german history class this week.
>
>The moral of the story?  Sometimes people act on their own because they 
>haven't got a clue?  
>
>Ilene Frank, ifrank at lib.usf.edu
>Tampa Campus Library, Reference Dept.
>University of South Florida
>      
>                    ********************************
>On Tue, 5 Dec 1995, Rebecca Bauerschmidt wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 4 Dec 1995 TravLib1 at aol.com wrote:
>> > I recently attended a 2-day workshop sponsored by Ameritech on the Web. One
>> > of the presenters related the time he was trying to find the cititation
of a
>> > certain poem. He posted the question to the Web (site unknown), and, within
>> > an hour he had his citiation.
>> > 
>> > I was not too shy to suggest that if he had called his local public
library,
>>                                               ******
>> > he could have had that answer within a few minutes, or less.
>> > 
>> > Ever heard of Granger's (and *not* the one on-line).
>> > The Web's a miraculous place. However ...
>> > Use what's best and what's quickest. This is our job.
>> 
>> Not always.  I feel it is also our job to empower our clientele and let
>> them know the myriad of options they have.  If one option doesn't pan out
>> try another. 
>> 
>> Perhaps the individuals are working when the library is closed or when the
>> reference desk is not available. Thankfully most/many Internet sources
>> don't have a closed sign hanging on the door.  Patrons may prefer to find
>> the answer without direct (human) assistance from others in the comfort of 
>> their home or office.  If it takes an hour or a day that is okay.
>> 
>> I previously worked for our campus computing center help desk, and I now
>> work for our library.  As a help desk person, we were always amazed how
>> many people would call when they could easily find the information they
>> needed locally if they were only willing to look. With three phone lines
>> coming in, most of them busy, we felt it important to teach people how to
>> help themselves especially when a human is not available to assist.
>> 
>> Please do not condone someone trying to find information in the best way
>> they know how, but suggest other sources they may find helpful and
convenient. 
>> 
>> Rebecca Bauerschmidt                            ...no matter where you go
>> University of New Mexico General Library                there you are ...
>> Library Technology Development Dept
>> rebs at unm.edu           505/277-2587
>> 
>