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April 26, 2007

Ran's Ready Reference

Dr. Ran Hock, former librarian and founder of Online Strategies, presented "Exploring Internet-Enhanced Ready Reference” at the NJLA pre-conference on Monday, 23 April. Dr. Hock hailed the internet, comparing the easy-to-find information of today to what was available in print before the advent of online data. He cited an example that many a librarian related to: that of the confused patron who saunters up to a reference librarian asking for an article on a general topic from Time about two months ago. As we all know, the patron might have wanted an article from Newsweek published about two years ago. Dr. Hock pointed out that finding the specific article that patron wanted would have been nearly impossible before articles and databases were online; but with digitized information, a librarian can provide exactly what the patron is looking for.

The database example aside, Ran Hock listed the sources he uses the most—sources not unfamiliar to the librarian or the layman. He presented some shortcut searches in Google: for example, to search for a phone number without going to a white or yellow pages website, simply enter a person’s last name followed by the town and state that person lives in. Similarly, you can try the same thing for a business, and one of the first results Google yields—if not the first—is a phone number and address. Another shortcut that Hock highlighted is the calculator and conversion tools in ask.com, Google and Yahoo.

Dr. Hock suggests looking at websites’ “nooks and crannies”—all of the extra links found in a web page that offer a plethora of information. He visited the CIA’s World Factbook site, viewed a country’s profile and clicked on the icons within the page. (In the World Factbook, the icons—the nooks and crannies—provide metadata, comparisons and graphs.) He points out that a searcher could spend several hours on the Internet, browsing these ready reference sources, but that’s our job; we should be doing that!

One fun site Dr. Hock recommended is www.forbes.com/lists, such as Forbes’ list of 400 wealthiest people—which what you’d expect to find on a Forbes list—and less common lists, such as the top tastemakers, most romantic hotels and smart cars for teenagers, just to name a few.

To get a full list of the ready reference sites Dr. Hock mentioned in his class, go to www.onstrat.com/reference.

Posted by Valerie Haeder

Posted by at April 26, 2007 3:37 PM

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