FW: how to find books - a cry for help

["Endlich, Rebecca (EWHS)" <EndlichR@EDMONDS.WEDNET.EDU>]

Can any of you public librarians or anyone so inclined speak to her dilemma?
Please answer her directly, NOT ME!

Rebecca Endlich
Librarian
Edmonds-Woodway High School
Edmonds WA 98026-7556
Phone 425-670-7311 ext. 6127
Fax 425-670-7922
endlichr@edmonds.wednet.edu
http://staff.edmonds.wednet.edu/users/endlichr/default.htm


-----Original Message-----
From: Kerry Bryna Mockler [mailto:kbm26@GEORGETOWN.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 3:18 PM
To: CHILD_LIT@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Subject: how to find books - a cry for help

this is a strange-ish request and maybe off-topic, but since you all are the
smartest group of people I know of I thought I'd ask here.

In the course of my daily life, i come across topics or subjects or things
that i'm interested in knowing more about - for example, Thomas Edison, the
Byzantine empire and Russian cultural/social history. My problem is then
finding books (nonfiction, almost always) to satisfy me.  I have to admit to
having fairly poor research skills - i can never seem to find quite what i
want - and also to lacking a good (or any, really) network of people with
varied interests who can offer recommendations.  I try to browse places like
amazon.com, and of course, the library catalog, but some things are
simultaneously vague and specific (russian history from a social/cultural
perspective) that it's difficult to find either anything, or choosing a good
title from a list of hundreds.  i know librarians are geniuses (genii?
genies?) who can find almost anything, but often the ones i encounter are
very busy or aren't actually librarians - instead, they're library clerks
with a fairly narrow ran
ge of knowledge.

My question, i guess, is how to find GOOD books on sort of broad subjects,
or ones, as in the sciences, that I approach as a totally outsider with very
little current knowledge of.  I am constantly coming across things that i
KNOW someone has written a good book about -- but i rarely find that book,
or that someone.

any ideas? of course, child_lit is my favorite & best resource for any kind
of children's book, but outside that category, where to look?

thanks in advance -
~kerry

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