Calling all Internet Resources . . .

Although there have been a few exciting incidents for others, life for me has been uneventful here in Club UGL over the past week. Sure, Club UGL has been busy, however interactions at the Info Desk have lacked the intricacies, tumult, pathos, or humor that make for good, blog-worthy stories and observations. Due to the humdrum nature of the Info Desk this week, I've been staring at the blog hoping for divine intervention or professional inspiration to descend upon me and fill this space. I've been side-tracked, however, by the ugly "edit-me" links on the gray navigation bar over here on the right -->

Thus, my Club UGL Topic Du Jour for this week will be . . .

Internet Resources

When students ask me a question, I hesitate to hop onto the Web to answer them. Not that I have anything against the Web -- I am a child of the Internet and rather like it. However sitting at the reference desk, and as a future librarian, I feel like I should be an emissary for library resources. The library does have a lot of "stuff," however sometimes it just isn't current enough, detailed enough, or close enough at hand to meet patrons' immediate needs. I like Google, but I hate having to turn to it when patrons are standing at the Info desk. It can take a while to sort the useful Web sites from the advertisements, porn sites, and those written by middle-schoolers. Additionally, it patrons who are not skilled in information literacy may assume that any Google search will pull up accurate and reliable information or may not know how to filter Google results themselves. When I have to turn to a Google search to find an information resource, I usually like to preface it with something like "Here's a good (government/university/association) resource. This should be reliable."

Whenever possible, I prefer to show patrons Web sites that I already know and love. I've already decided that I can trust these resources, and I generally know how to navigate them quickly. As an added bonus, I also look like I know what I'm doing. As I am learning in management class right now, appearance, suavity, and savvy can go a long way in smoothing your interactions with others.

Thus, to provide quicker and more accurate information to our patrons (and to make ourselves look and feel more knowledgeable), I would like to post a few of our favorite online resources on the gray navigation bar over here on the right. Perhaps I could even sort them into categories. So, my fellow GSAs, what are your favorite Web sites at the Info desk? Do you turn to FirstGov (www.firstgov.gov) first? Does the Internet Public Library (www.ipl.org) rock your world? Does Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org/) set your heart a-flutter? I'm hoping that we will get a long list of great Web sites for our navigation bar, so please share the wealth of your Internet knowledge.

-InfoMaven