For my Information Awareness Report I sought out information to answer my question, "How do I make sure I am a healthy vegan?" After assessing the information I gathered on my own, I sought the same information using Knowitnow.org and Kent State's "Ask a Librarian" online services. The following is a critical analysis of my experiences.
Knowitnow.org
Here is a transcript of our conversation:
Jessica Crossfield: How do I make sure I am a healthy vegan?
wcpl615: Hello. You've connected to your 24x7 online reference service staffed by librarians across the state. Please wait one moment while I take a look at your question.
wcpl615: I am going to send you links to some articles - click on the I'm going to send a web site link. If you click on it, the page will open in a new window or tab. Please take a look, and let me know if this helps answer your question. Enter your zip code when prompted
wcpl615: http://web.ebscohost.com.kin.oplin.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&hid=111&sid=5d1a63ed-d3a7-4363-bf81-4a678dca8664%40sessionmgr114
wcpl615: http://web.ebscohost.com.kin.oplin.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&hid=111&sid=5d1a63ed-d3a7-4363-bf81-4a678dca8664%40sessionmgr114
wcpl615: http://web.ebscohost.com.kin.oplin.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=8&hid=111&sid=5d1a63ed-d3a7-4363-bf81-4a678dca8664%40sessionmgr114
wcpl615: Is this the type of information you are looking for?
wcpl615: Or do you need more scholarly articles?
Jessica Crossfield: No, this is very helpful. Do you have any information on important vitamins or health supplements needed?
wcpl615: Ok, just a minute
wcpl615: Here's a few articles
wcpl615: http://web.ebscohost.com.kin.oplin.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=14&hid=111&sid=5d1a63ed-d3a7-4363-bf81-4a678dca8664%40sessionmgr114
wcpl615: http://web.ebscohost.com.kin.oplin.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&hid=111&sid=d755d6d7-e7b2-47cc-8d75-b398a6abe380%40sessionmgr114
wcpl615: http://web.ebscohost.com.kin.oplin.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&hid=111&sid=d755d6d7-e7b2-47cc-8d75-b398a6abe380%40sessionmgr114
wcpl615: http://web.ebscohost.com.kin.oplin.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=9&hid=111&sid=d755d6d7-e7b2-47cc-8d75-b398a6abe380%40sessionmgr114
Jessica Crossfield: Thank you so much, this has been very helpful!
wcpl615: Your welcome, is there anything else I can help you with?
Jessica Crossfield: No, I think that is everything. Thank you!
wcpl615: Thanks for using KnowItKnow 24x7 Local.
• The Knowitnow.org librarian was very helpful in offering me articles. She sent me 7 articles on the topic of a vegan diet. The first set the librarian sent me basically centered around recipes, so I then asked the librarian again, "What kind of vitamins or supplements should I make sure that I get?" To this question she sent me an additional 4 articles. Unfortunately, one of them I thought was kind of inaccurate, according to the research I have done. I did enjoy one article she sent me on being vegan on a low-budget diet. It is quite a misconception that it costs a lot of be vegetarian or vegan, when in reality it is possible to eat cost-effectively when you center your diet on whole foods.
This librarian was helpful and definitely open to helping me find materials; however, a lot of the material she sent me I really didn't find that informative. I also felt that some of the articles were a bit dated. On the upside, I liked that the materials she sent were complete and not just links or snippets of the article.
I did think that the site in general is a great idea. It was very nice to know that I could have a librarian immediately available to answer my questions. I also found it well designed and easy to navigate. I liked that the librarian asked if it was what I was looking for, and if I needed more scholarly articles. I also liked that the entire conversation, including links, were emailed to me after our meeting was through. This will be helpful in revisiting sites.
Kent State's Ask a Librarian
Here is the transcript from our conversation:
meeboguest395259: How do I make sure I am a healthy vegan?
imaksulibrarian: Check with a doctor and do a little research.
meeboguest395259: Can you recommend any books that would be good for information?
imaksulibrarian: Sure, let me check!
imaksulibrarian: Hang on a sec
imaksulibrarian: Check out some of these materials: http://www.vegancoach.com/best-vegan-books.html
meeboguest395259: ok, thank you!
imaksulibrarian: No problem!
•First of all, I was a little disappointed with this librarian's initial response. I felt that is was a bit obvious and unhelpful, so I decided to probe some more and ask another question. Again, I was a disappointed in the offering of only one web page when there are thousands of websites and books out there offering information.
On the up side, this wasn't a website that I was familiar with, so it did offer some new information, and although I was already familiar with all of the books listed, it might be a good start for a new vegan. The librarian did respond quickly to my inquiries, but I would have liked if the librarian had asked me more about what I was looking for, or tried to narrow down the search.
Conclusions
This was my first time using these programs, and overall I was a little disappointed with both experiences. There could be a couple reasons for this, one being because I asking a question that I already knew a lot about, and two, because it is a topic that very few people are informed on. Either way, both services seemed willing to help but didn't really teach me anything that I didn't already know. I was extremely disappointed that neither services recommended any of the best sources of information on this topic and that a person who might be interested in researching this topic and adopting this lifestyle, wouldn't get access to some of the best materials out there.
In my personal research I found a lot more helpful information that led to my successful life choice. This could be because libraries are lacking in materials about this topic, or that librarians just aren't as informed about the topic. Either way, knowitnow.org and Ask a Librarian are wonderful services for some instances, but in my case, they were not as informative as I would have liked.
I think these services would be most useful with inquiries on the right side of the continuum of specifiability at the cognitive level. With a defined problem or question, answers would be easier for these librarians to come by, but with a question like mine that doesn't really have a defined answer, the librarians didn't seem to be sure what information to find. I believe I would possibly use these services again but for a different reason. They might be more helpful in finding scholarly sources or specific answers, but I really found they lacked in helping me find information on my question.
Despite the unsuccessfulness of my search, I do think that Kent's Ask a Librarian is a great service that is offered to its students. Under different circumstances I think it could be a very useful tool. In both cases, I only had to wait a minute or two for the librarians to come back online, and once that happened I received information quickly. The sites were quick and efficient and easy to navigate. Both librarians seemed very nice and willing to help, but just didn't share the information I was looking for.
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