Assignment 5

In continuing to search for more information on my dream business of owning a microbrewery and brewing my own beer, I visited www.knowitnow.org to see if I could locate addition resources to further my knowledge of the subject; that and because it is what the assignment told me to do. The interface of the website was rather simple. After filling in a few dialogue boxes I was off to the races. Specifically, I ask for information on brewing beer, as well as resources for malting grain for the brewing process. After an eight minute wait, even though the site suggested that I would only be waiting for two minutes, I received a message that I could not be helped at this time and should visit later. Needless to say, my experience earned failing grade.

The next resource visited was Kent State University’s “Ask a Librarian” service. Within moments of accessing the resources, I quickly found that the librarian was offline and unable to answer information requests via a chat format. The one difference between www.knowitnow.org and the Kent State service is that Kent State’s service allows the user to e-mail a librarian regarding an information request, phone a librarian, or even schedule a research appointment. Although these options are better than none, it still doesn’t satisfy my desire for information now and the transmission I wish to receive the information in. The live chat option is nice due to the fact that you can remain anonymous. This may not be as important from an academic library perspective, however, from a public library perspective, I think this is really important. I think it is even more important to provide hours for the chat service, in which the user knows when there is a librarian available. Although www.knowitnow.org suggests it is a twenty-four hour service, no one was able to respond to my request.

I will continue to try to use these services to experience the difference, but I have to admit, my first approach concluded in finding more information. A simple Google search provided me with a plethora of information within a few milliseconds. If nothing else, the Google search provided me enough information to pinpoint the type of information I need to look for at my local library or on the web.

**Update 08/18/2010**

I wanted to follow up on this assignment and attempt to utilize both www.knowitnow.org and Kent State Libraries "Ask a Librarian" services. Again, both services were offline or unable to process the request. This was the third attempt to utilize the online features of the site. As I have reviewed some of my classmates conversations with both resources, it seems to be a good tool. However, my assessment is based on my own personal experience and I haven't had a very good experience; i'm 0 for 3!