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Re: Question about Reference questions



I keep a database to record the results of searches
if I think the questions will come up again.  It's come
in handy many times, especially when I'm trying to
help someone on the phone and need a quick way to look
things up.  But I've also been surprised to find that keeping
paperwork on questions for at least a year has also come in
handy.  I've had people (usually genealogists) repeat the
same questions to me after a long interval--either forgetting
that they had already asked me, or hoping that this time the
answer would be different.  In one case, I had a person who
asked me the same thing 3 different times. I finally just sent
her copies of our correspondence from the year before.
I wonder sometimes whether this happens in other archives
as well, or am I just -- umm, lucky?

Joy Kingsolver
Chicago Jewish Archives



At 04:23 PM 8/27/01 -0400, Fitzgerald, Rebecca wrote:
>I've thought about keeping the paperwork for a year or two and then
>putting the replies with substantive information into vertical files.
>However, I'd have to figure out a way to strip out researcher
>identification unless they were willing to share their interests, and
>I'd also have to find time to do it.  I had a student intern do that for
>some older genealogy research, and I found it useful.

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