Posted in Reference on May 10th, 2004
The Data & Statistical Reference Interview blog was renamed to the Data Interest Group for Reference Services blog, or DIGRS for short. At the May 2004 Data Liberation Initiative (DLI) External Advisory Committee (EAC) meeting, a contest was held to find a new name for this blog that had a more memorable acronym. Mark Leggott [...]
Posted in Reference on May 5th, 2004
The metadata are not always conveniently located with the data, which can lead to problems. Here is an example of trying to understand the units of measurement associated with statistics from the Trade Analyser. A patron was referred to the Data Library from the Business Reference Desk. She was using the Trade Analyser database, which [...]
Posted in Population and Demography on May 4th, 2004
Part of the Data Reference Mystery Series: A patron would like statistics on vegetarians in Canada. What constraints have they provided? Geography: Canada Population: Individual Characteristics: Vegetarians What further information might you like from this user? Time frame: How recent must the statistics be? Characteristics: Is the type of vegetarian important (e.g. vegan)? Purpose: How [...]
Posted in Education, Training and Learning on May 3rd, 2004
Part of the Data Reference Mystery Series: A patron wants statistics on the gender distribution of university faculty in Canada. This request seems to be for statistics and has the following constraints: Time frame: ideally 2000 to 2004 Population: Canadian university faculty Characteristics: gender What further information would you like from this patron? Geography: Does [...]
Posted in Reference on May 1st, 2004
At the Atlantic DLI Workshop on April 22-23, 2004, Elizabeth Hamilton taught a session called Reference Mysteries. She discussed a model for conducting a data or statistical reference interview, including the types of follow-up queries to be asked of patrons, and then presented the group with a series of real reference questions. Organized in small [...]
Posted in Reference on May 1st, 2004
Three presentations at the Orientation for new DLI Contacts, which was held in conjunction with the Ontario DLI Training Workshop at Queen’s University on April 5, 2004, addressed different aspects of reference for data and statistics. First, Chuck Humphrey outlined two conceptual frameworks that offer a vocabulary useful in describing the resources in this area. [...]