February 15, 2010

What Can You Ask a Librarian?

A recent Library Hacks blog post at Duke's Perkins Library, Ever wonder what you can ask a reference librarian? prompted me to publicize some of the questions we've been asked at the Park Library. (I first posted this on the JoMC Park Library blog but thought it would be fun over here too)

Recent questions include (along with answers, where feasible):

Basic Questions, students asked for ...
  • Communication Yearbook by call number. (check the catalog)
  • Dissertations by former JoMC students (online! from 1997-present in ProQuest Dissertations & Theses full-text *)
  • Related: looking for a MA thesis by a former JoMC student (list is online)
  • How to request books from another library (Carolina BLU rocks!).
  • Printing, printing, printing! Lots of questions about printing. We currently don't have the "free" ITS printers anywhere in Carroll Hall, and we answer lots of questions about that.
More Complex Questions, where folks asked for ...
  • Alcohol advertisements from the late 1960s to present (Duke's Ad*Access is a great start, as are some of the other resources on this page)
  • Editorial cartoons (this research page can help)
  • An article from the Los Angeles Times from 1984 (we have the LA Times from 1881-1986 *& the most recent 6 months in LexisNexis *)
  • Tough one: readership of southern, American newspapers in the mid-1800s. We found some material in books and other old-fashioned sources.
  • Industry surveys of the motorcycle industry (I love these market research resources!)
  • Articles from North Carolina newspapers about an event that took place in southeastern NC in the mid-80s to mid-90s. The papers the patron needed weren't on microfilm ... helped her find the appropriate microfilm source and identify specific dates via the Charlotte Observer (available from 1985-present in America's Newspapers *)
Many of these links will work regardless of your institutional affiliation. The links followed by an * are available to the UNC community only.

The library staff and I are happy to answer questions about doing research in journalism & mass communication. You can reach me by email (swbrown @ unc . edu), by phone at 919.843.8300, IM to JoMCParkLib, and now you can even text Qs to us at 919-200-0713.

Ask us anything!

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