Monday, Feb. 21

I think I forgot to record what I did on monday... I spent most of my time on another reference question, this time about the current industrial reports on carpet and rugs in the 1970s-80s, which totally stumped me. I don't know what I was doing wrong, but I did not find the right material. Anyway, another shift down.

Friday Feb. 18

So, another session in gov docs. I spent some time reshelving some CD-ROMs and then spent most of the rest of the time either looking for articles to read or finding the answers to the knowledge-base questions. I put them on the web here.

105 hours to go.

More reference

So, haven't worked on my "main project" in quite some time now. I did a reference question about a one Llewellyn Thompson, former Ambassador to Russia during the cold war and a member of Kennedy's Executive Committee (ExComm) during the Cuban Missile Crisis. also, i helped a gentleman with a microfiche question. He wanted an obit from 1979. The one thing on microfiche I know how to do!!! (or is it microfilm?? i can't tell the difference). Also, looked for another reference question about the New York Post from 1943, but we only have it from 1949-present. Another 3 hours down. 109.5 to go?

Friday Feb. 11

I spent most of my time doing a reference search. This particular student was doing some research on her uncle who had been an undersecretary of defense at some point. He had also spent a lot of time working for the CIA, etc. She said that during the Korean war, the CIA and the Taiwanese intelligence service collaborated on a "three-pronged" mission into china. Her uncle had participated in the third wave. He mentioned it in his book China Hands. I think I searched on this for 2.5 hours or so and didn't come up with much.

Anyway, another 3.5 hours logged.

R.A. Meeting

From 12p-1:30p, Lou's R.A.'s met to discuss certain library policies and projects. I learned about one problem patron who insists on printing from the "Oki" printers--apparently printers donated by the gov't for the public to use to print out gov. info. She sounds like a real pistol, gives everyone in all libraries on campus hassle, and I am glad that I never work without a fulltimer there to help me out. Also, I got an assignment to look for an article from like the 1943 NY Post. So-let's see, 115 hours to go. Yikes. Better get a move on.

2 & 3

I did a couple of hours of looking for information about creating quick reference guides, but nothing applicable came up. I shall have to re-think my search strategy, maybe new keywords would help. I am kind of stuck.

Today in the library I assisted with a reference question about public intoxication statistics for Monroe County, which we couldn't find. The guy has to go to the state police and the bloomington police and ask for the records. So, good luck to him. Also, I searched for "US Gov Pub: Retrospective Sources" online, and found a good many number of them. Lou should probably hide this list from future gov doc students if she wants us to actually use the print resources ever.

So, 9 hours for this week, so far. With perhaps 1 more hour this weekend or so.