[Publib] Reference question and snopes.com

[Lise Chlebanowski]

I rely on Snopes for disproving most of what goes around in e-mail chains, etc., however, I would hardly use Snopes as a research tool. I can't believe that they gave you an answer without doing a reference interview. Questions to ask: How much information is needed? Is this for a research project/homework and if so, how many resources and what type are required. Or is it personal interest? In which case I would have given you the FDA website to research, there are other food safety links, even Wikipedia would be better than Snopes! Then I would have printed out the encyclopedia entry for the subject and faxed it to you. That's off the top of my head without trying very hard, which if I were answering a 24/7 reference line I would have tried harder! HTH! 

 

Lisë Chlebanowski

Library Manager

Avondale Old Town Library

328 W. Western Ave.

Avondale, AZ   85323

623-333-2611 D

623-333-0260 F

lchlebanowski at avondale.org <mailto:lchlebanowski at avondale.org> 

 

Now Reading: Confessions of a Contractor by Richard Murphey (ARC)

Now Listening: The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer

________________________________

From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Nate Hill
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2008 11:11 AM
To: mdessent at sbcglobal.net
Cc: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] Reference question and snopes.com

 

Honestly, thats so bad I'm kind of cracking up right now.  Oops.  Um, quality control?



 

On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 2:04 PM, Melissa Dessent <mdessent at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

I am a student in a MLS program. We had an assignment where we had to ask a reference question electronically, and were then supposed to evaluate the service provided.

I asked the following reference question via meebo to a public library reference librarian: I am looking for information on the effects of animal growth hormones on the human population. Can you help me find this?

The librarian asked if they could have my email and get back to me since they had a long line of patrons. I said yes, and he/she replied three days later. This was their reply:

We searched our health and news databases and found very little on animal growth hormone and its effect on humans. there is a good article on this at http://www.snopes.com/medical/potables/walmart.asp

This summarizes concerns about growth hormone in milk and meat products. If you need further information, please call or email us again.

My question for everyone is when asked this question, would you have referred me to snopes.com <http://snopes.com/> ? In class discussion, the instructor and the class thought as I did that they should not have referred me to snopes. Please let me know what your thoughts are.

Thanks,
Melissa




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Nate Hill
nathanielhill at gmail.com
http://natehill.wordpress.com/


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