Hi, I'm Peter Armenti, a reference librarian at the Library of Congress and a member of the QuestionPoint Team since 2002.
Several weeks ago, the 10,000th record was activated in the QuestionPoint global knowledge base (the count as of this writing is 10,390). As someone who has worked with QuestionPoint librarians to help build their local knowledge bases as well as the global knowledge base, I want to highlight this important QP landmark.
The global knowledge base is a wonderful tool for helping
librarians answer their reference questions. This week, in my role as librarian on the Digital Reference Team at the
Library of Congress, I've used global knowledge base records to help me answer
a question about whether a man named John Hanson was really the first president
of the United States (KB ID 98253),
and to suggest to a patron resources for tracking down a novel she'd read years
ago based only on its plot (KB ID
91747). You'll find helpful KB records
in all major subject areas (click here to view a breakdown of active
records in the global KB by LC class), and I often make it the first place I
search upon receiving a new reference question. You can search it from anywhere in the QP interface; you can even send a
KB record (modified, if you want) directly to your patron.
The global knowledge base is open to the general public as well as to QP librarians. Patrons can access a global KB search page from their QP account login screen, and QP libraries can create their own search box or search page on their websites. The KB's public search option offers us one more way to meet out patrons at their point of need and give them authoritative, library-vetted information that they can trust.
If you haven't explored the global knowledge base before, try searching it to discover how helpful it can be. Feel free to respond with questions you have about it, or any experiences using it that you'd like to share.
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