Of course, I lost the piece of paper. I knew the book would not be difficult to find because I remembered the basic plotline and remembered it had been a Nobel Prize winner. I began my search by accessing the Know it Now 24x7 website and asked the following question:
Who is the author of the Nobel Prize winning novel about a group of young people rising against the communist dictator in Romania?
I appreciate the accuracy of information that can be found by directly connecting with a librarian, but I feel that I could have found this information much quicker had I just done a google search. I was told for over ten minutes that I was number 1 in line and that my wait time would be less than one minute. No such luck. Eventually I was told the following: “We are unable to route your request at this time. To leave a message or request a call back click here.”
Next I attempted to ask the same question to Kent State’s “Ask a Librarian” service. I tried to access the librarian through Gtalk via Gmail but they did not instantly show up on my list of online contacts. Next I decided to try the email option. I was a little confused as to why my phone number was required information, but I filled out the online form nonetheless and waited for a response. After two hours with no response in my email inbox, I logged on to Gmail again and found that the librarian contact was available for chat. I once again asked my question and was finally able to get a response.
Here is a transcript of the Gtalk conversation:
me: Hello, I was hoping I could ask a question about a book I am looking for.
Kara Robinson: Sure, how can I help?
me: I was hoping you could help me find the name of an author of the Nobel Prize winning novel about a group of young people rising against the communist dictator in Romania?
Kara Robinson: Is it a recent book?
me: Yes, I believe so.
Kara Robinson: Does Herta Muller sound right?
me: Yes, that sounds familiar.
Thank you!
Kara Robinson: No problem!
Once I had the name of the Author I knew it would be very simple to find the title of the book by doing a basic internet search. However, I wanted to give Know it Now 24x7 another chance. I submitted the following question:
What is the title of Herta Muller's Nobel Prize winning novel?
Once again, I was told that the service was unable to route my request. Instead of using the Know it Now service, I decided to instead click on the link that directed me to the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s local service. However, once I was there it seemed silly to do a live chat with a librarian to simply ask for a book title when I already know the name of the author. Instead, I simply entered the author’s name into the online catalog. I clicked on the first book that appeared in the results, titled The Land of Green Plums. I read the summary, which confirmed it was the novel I was searching for. I also scrolled down to read some biographical information about the author. I went ahead and reserved the novel so that I could pick it up at my local Columbus Library branch, a system I am very familiar with and utilize often. The novel is now in my possession and is waiting patiently in my “books to read” pile on my desk.
I must say, I was disappointed with both online reference services. Know it Now simply did not work for me at all. I was frustrated that both times I attempted to access the service I was put on hold for more than five minutes only to be told my request could not be completed. The Ask a Librarian service through Kent offered several options in which one can connect with a librarian, but neither option I chose (Gtalk and Email) facilitated an instant response. I eventually got through to someone using Gtalk and I am still waiting on the email response to show up in my inbox.
Out of curiosity and for the sake of comparison, I copied and pasted my original inquiry into my google search bar on my web browser. The first option in my search results was a link to Wikipedia’s article on Anti-communism. I clicked on the “Literature” link and immediately found a photograph of Herta Muller and some brief biographical information about her. I went back to my google search results and also found a review of the novel on Goodreads.com, which is a website I belong to and enjoy browsing. Within less than one minute, I found the answer to my question by doing a google search, when it took a few hours to generate a response from one of the online reference services.
I understand the difference between the Age of Information and the Age of Abundance. I can see that the abundant resources available online can sometimes offer too much information or even inaccurate information. However, our society has grown to expect instantaneous results and internet search engines provide just that. That being said, I do think that the information I found through my library catalog and google search was more akin to metadata and would not satisfy more extensive research needs. Google answered my question but did not necessarily offer in depth information had I wanted to expand upon my research. For instance, say I had wanted to learn more about Herta Muller’s life or more about Romanian history before I read the novel. Perhaps then the online reference services could have recommended some useful resources or books on the subject. However, for my purposes, my needs were better met by a simple and quick google search.
