Why Did You Leave Your Last Job

For this question I turned to About.com, one of the resources listed in the Best Free Reference Web Sites Combined Index on the RUSA website. In one of my classes, we read an article about positioning theory. In this case, I did not want to position someone who was having anxiety about a job interview by suggesting they may have been released from previous employment. So I listed general information first and samples for how to respond if you were fired second, in order to illustrate how it is important to put a positive spin on things.

Here’s the Link
How to answer “Why did you leave your last job”?

Is Neptune's great dark spot bigger than Earth

Some say "write what you know;" Emily Dickinson said, "forget that, I'll write whatever I want." I went looking through the categories on Yahoo Answers because I wanted to learn more about astronomy. I am happy to say that when I went looking for this answer I had no idea what the answer would be. I had to do some double-checking to come to an answer I was satisfied with. Now I know something new. Yipee!

Here's the link to the question

Neptune's Dark Spot

So many answers, not enough questions: How many miles to the moon?

This would qualify as a reference-ready question. However, I got to use one of the new resources we discussed in class. I'm still trying to figure out the ins and outs of WolframAlpha, but I feel like it could be really handy for someone like me, who doesn't really care for numbers.

Here's the link
Miles to the moon

I'm beginning to really question the level of academic discourse on Yahoo Answers.

More Catch-up: What was the name of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien's Oxford Literary Discussion Group

So I may have inadvertently thrown the book at this one. I looked first at Tolkien Studies, and then to the Journal of Inklings Studies, which provided many links to free resources on the web. I may have gone looking for questions on the Chronicles of Narnia... Even reference librarians have their guilty pleasures, right?

Here is the link:

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien

Playing Catch-up: Doctors aren't legally allowed to date their patients?

Would I trust a doctor who saw his or her patients as prospective sexual partners? Heck no! Which makes this one of the moments where you sort of have to set assumptions aside.

I was actually surprised by the way which this one went; I expected it to be a clear-cut answer, but as it turns out provisions against doctors dating patients is kind of a grey area relegated to the realm of professional standards and guidelines. I guess not many people, doctors hopefully being the exception, actually think about these moral issues coming down to a matter of being a member of a professional organization.

I started with the fact that I knew that the Hippocratic Oath included a line about sexual relationships with patients. Of course, this isn't exactly a binding document in today's day and age, but the AMA's page on the Hippocratic Oath led me to modern resources on the topic.

Here's the link to the question

Doctors aren't allowed to date patients?

[Redacted]

Okay, so, as I glanced over my repertiore of Yahoo Answers, I noticed something annoying: one of the questions I had answered had been deleted. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, because the user was basically asking about where to access copyrighted material for free.

The thing is, I felt like I handled the question really well. I found Martha Stewart's website had a few of the recipes from the book available, and directed her/him to the preview of the contents page on Amazon.com, and suggested she/he visit a free service, AllRecipes.com as a means of finding similar recipes. And, of course, I suggested she/he check out her/his local library.

As a responsible and ethical librarian, I felt I was able to offer the user a little bit of what she/he wanted, and where I lacked I offered her/him some alternative sources. Oh well.

Is sophmore [sic] an oxymoron?

I'm generally off-put by the level of discourse on Yahoo Answers. I know that as an embedded librarian, I need to respect the culture of the environment, but seriously, how many people are going to ask how long it will take for opiates to leave their system? I was hoping to find a question that I could approach using some of the new resources we talked about in class, but I spent so long browsing that I just had to pick something to answer to make myself feel better.

So this was another short one, and I happen to love words, so it certainly wasn't the greatest reference challenge I've ever attempted. I also took a shortcut, in that as a sophomore in high school, my guidance counselor gave my class a grand speech on why we shouldn't be sophomores, particularly the "-mores," so I began knowing what I wanted to find.

I wanted so badly to OED this question into submission, but unfortunately the mighty Oxford does nothing for free. Instead our book mentions OneLook.com and Dictionary.com. I tried OneLook first, hoping for a tidbit from Merriam-Webster or the Compact OED (referenced in the text.) Instead the search engine directed me to Wikipedia (gasp!) I turned instead to Dictionary.com, which in turn directed me to the Online Etymology Dictionary, which gave me what I wanted, a link to the Greek roots of the word.

I then Dictionary.com-ed the definition of oxymoron, which itself contained an allusion to the "wise fool," and was able to offer this up to the user.

Here is a link to the question: Sophomore

What are 3 organelles plant cells have that animal cells do not?

Bravo to me! My fist Best Answer; I did try to work pretty hard on this one, inspecting many different resources. I don't know very much about biology, so I wanted to make sure I got it right. I looked at a lot of .edu and educational websites. I suspected that it was a high school student asking the question and tried to find resources that were somewhere in the middle of the age spectrum, not too young, not too old. I would probably consider this a medium-long answer; I tried too pull out the most pertinent bits for my summary.

Here's the link: Plant Organelles

Is there such a thing as a reversed dictionary?

This question was so quick and simple, I just had to answer it. It even gave me a chance to show off one of the resources we learned about in class. More than anything, I thought it would be a good idea to answer an easy question to boost my confidence and familiarize myself with the service.

Here is the link: Reverse Dictionary

Seriously, how did I not get the best answer?