I was eating dinner and thought of a question:
What’s the weight difference of a body on the equator vs the poles on Earth?
I decided to use two different UNC library resources to help me answer this question. I used both the Instant Messanger buddies “undergradref” and “davisrefdesk”. These buddies are librarians waiting to help you answer your questions. I wanted to see how similar these buddies were.
The davisrefdesk was not as helpful as the undergradref. davisrefdesk walked me through accessing confusing online databases through the library’s website. I had to ask what to search for and they said “gravity”. That got me nowhere. I got the impression that they were annoyed with my question. They ended the chat with a suggestion to come to the library and check out a physics book. Unacceptible. If davisrefdesk wants folks to come to them rather than google, they should be prepared to deliver a quick answer to my question. Once they do that, they can follow up with more elaborate sources of information on the subject, like physics textbooks.
undergradref was EXCELLENT. I asked my question and within 5 minutes they sent me a link to a Cornell webpage answering it in detail. I think they would have answered more quickly but they were interupted at the desk during the chat.
I’ve been using undergradref for months now to answer different questions I come up with. They have always been helpful and quick. I thought I’d try davisrefdesk to see how well the folks at Davis Library were emulating the Undergraduate Library service. I’ll have to test it out some more to see if I get consistent results back from davisrefdesk.
So, what IS your weight difference between the equator and the poles on Earth?
You may want to start thinking about what you are eating at diner instead of such complex questions?