Although we started the winter quarter with a horribly cold snow day, there were still plenty of reference questions at the library This Week in Reference!
You might guess that the most frequently asked question was: “Do you have my textbook?” – and you’d be correct! However, we also answered many more complex questions in person about things like:
- Theories of Health Care Policy
- Galileo and the Church
- Young Peoples’ attitudes toward death
- 1963 public school boycott
- History of Spain
And, questions from IM included:
A student asked if DePaul subscribed to any databases that would provide yields of specifically rated bonds. A librarian directed the student to the Bloomberg terminals as the best source for that information, and provided instructions on how to sign up for use.
A student wanted to find a work of fiction about Africa, written by a writer from Africa. A librarian searched through the catalog with the keywords: “Africa” and “fiction” and then did some research on the authors to find their nationalities. The DePaul library has quite a few titles that fit this description, including: Life and a Half by Sony Labou Tansi, Passage of Tears by Abdourahman A. Waberi and Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan.
A patron wanted to find a list of all the recordings of Palestrina’s Pope Marcellus Mass held by the library. The librarian advised the searcher to use the classic catalog and to set the limit to music recordings under Primary Format. After trying a search for Palestrina as an author word, and “Pope Marcellus” as a keyword at first, the librarian found more recordings using the alternate: “Papae Marcelli” instead.