NRM I & II

For my outside source I chose to e mail Chesapeake & Newport News Libraries. Both sites had places to fill in information so as to try to fine tune reference questions in addition to the actual request for specific information. Both sites left something to be desired. One I believe copied and pasted catalog items which were a bit confusing and the other was short and not very informative. In all fairness to my e mail requests they did provide me with a book or 2 and one suggested (with a hyperlink) I look on their catalog. Because of the lack of one on one I didn't feel my needs were met as well as they could have been if I had actually spoken to a person. Given that, there is no substitution for good old fashioned human contact, which also leads to immediate gratification, (i.e. getting the information right away or the knowledge as where to find it) My partner and I had a nice exchange of information with a personal touch and being asked additional questions helped to hone in on my exact needs. Learning from someone with good referencing skills helped to better my ability to think about what types of questions to ask and to use layman terminology..