Last time, I was given a book about the attack on paper and the underhanded private dumping of America's periodical resources. I have only read 2 or 3 of the chapters in Double Fold, and I find that so far this book addresses a very important issue. As I continue to read I find myself progressively more agitated at the thought of destroying the hard copies of news print. While the idea behind microfilm seems to be logical, the extent to which the Library system purged the hard copies seems a bit extreme. It seems a little planning would have saved space, time, money, and most importantly knowledge.
Everytime I learn more about what this job requires, I grow a little more apprehensive about my lack of knowledge. I find I know very little about how or where to look to find the information I am supposed to provide as I work the reference desk. In addition to this I also realize I know very little about the web and how it works. Things like portals and databases are somewhat foreign to me.
I have used databases at school and I have a very loose understanding of what they are and do. Unfortunately, I only know a couple of different ones. Today I was introduced to some new ones and told which ones are particularly useful to which fields. For example when a nursing student comes in to find information, one of the most important databases to use is CINAHL. I also discovered that the databases taylored for controversies (Issues and Contoversies and Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center) offer many hand links to not only provide the opposing view points, but also provide background and many other links to articles and journals to help flesh out the research.
I also recieved some information on what a portal is and an article on neutral questioning by Brenda Dervin. These I need to look over and see what I ca learn. One thing is for sure I need to get a folder to collect all of these things in, and possibly create my own reference tool.
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