Resource Review #7: Credo to the Rescue

I got a chuckle out of the reference interview described in QuestionPoint: 24/7 Reference Services "Quality Tip: Credo Reference" advocating the usefulness of Credo Reference to "provide targeted information from authoritative sources". The reference interview described involved the reference provider answering a 'yes/no' reference question for a patron and also providing the source's citation. Part of me wondered if researchers could cite resources they didn't actually have access to, as Credo Reference subscriptions are unique to their participating institutions, or if they didn't actually discover the resource themselves i.e. a virtual reference provider found the source. Another part of me wondered about the process the reference librarian went through to find the answer: did s/he type in keywords (e.g. civil war) and then chose the first result or scrolled through a few? Why didn't the reference provider explain that? Having recently done research about virtual reference interviews, I feel reference providers should 'explain' how they found their information and offer suggestions more than just conclusions: even if it is a yes/no question, I believe patrons would benefit from knowing how the reference provider started their search.

My own experience with keyword searching in Credo made me grateful to be a student in a Library and Information Studies program because I have learned through my coursework the various nuances of information seeking and the tools and technologies we use to access the information. Credo has A LOT of content and sources. A broad term keyword search would probably result in various entries that may not have anything to do with the information-seeking goal. So, I'll give a kudos to Credo for their features that allow a researcher to narrow the focus of the search and their concept maps (I am a visual learner and I like maps...)