Comments on: Reference Question of the Week – 10/2/11 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/10/08/reference-question-of-the-week-10211/ or, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fear and Loathing at a Public Library Reference Desk Fri, 24 May 2013 13:15:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: In the state of New York there are several places that are also found in a number of other states. » Reference Question of the Week – 10/2/11 :: Brian Herzog | Library world, new trends, technologies | Scoop.it http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/10/08/reference-question-of-the-week-10211/#comment-4123 In the state of New York there are several places that are also found in a number of other states. » Reference Question of the Week – 10/2/11 :: Brian Herzog | Library world, new trends, technologies | Scoop.it Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:16:12 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2583#comment-4123 [...] In the state of New York there are several places that are also found in a number of other states. … Swiss Army Librarian is a blog by Brian Herzog mostly about library and technology issues relating to public libraries… Source: http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net [...]

]]> By: Danielle http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/10/08/reference-question-of-the-week-10211/#comment-4120 Danielle Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:11:12 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2583#comment-4120 Oh silly me! Here I go confusing AK for Arkansas instead of Alaska again. Ok so never mind Springfield works for that state, but still nothing for Kansas, not to mention that Springfield is found in many other states not listed like Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Texas, etc.

]]> By: Danielle http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/10/08/reference-question-of-the-week-10211/#comment-4119 Danielle Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:59:43 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2583#comment-4119 I’m pretty sure #3 is not Springfield as Springfield is in many other states not listed and can’t find a Springfield for a few states like AK.

I don’t have any good sources for all the items. But among my searches I happened to find this blog post: http://www.howderfamily.com/blog/county-with-state-name/

I found that when looking for place #1. It’s not comprehensive, but it led me to Place #1 Delaware is the place #1. I’ll keep looking for the others.

]]> By: Cezanne http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/10/08/reference-question-of-the-week-10211/#comment-4115 Cezanne Wed, 12 Oct 2011 03:19:50 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2583#comment-4115 I see someone has already suggested a gazetteer – that thought just occurred to me this evening. I have gone to the 2010 Census site and downloaded the 2010 census gazetteer files here: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/files/Gaz_places_national.txt

I copied it into a spreadsheet and sorted it by name instead of by state. I am not sure if there is a quick way to look for duplicates (I am not very excel savvy). I decided to format any cell that contained NY to have a green background so it would be easier to spot while scanning for duplicates. My computer is caught up with this conditional formatting (been at it for about 30 minutes – it hasn’t crashed it does seem to actually be working slowly). Maybe someone can come up with a better way to proceed from here.
But I love the question – reminds me of some of the questions you find on the Almaniac Competition where we often scan long lists of information looking for answers. It’s like reference questions just for the fun of it (and limited to using the World Almanac for answers)
http://home.earthlink.net/~oldmaltese/Almaniac.html
from the website:
“The challenge will be to use the clues (there are clues) and avoid the tricks (not as easy as it sounds) in tracking down the answers in the World Almanac.

Try these two questions from this spring.

What is the original first name of both J. R. R. Tolkien and Ozzy Osbourne?

Which American state’s motto is in French?”

]]> By: Brandy Stillman http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/10/08/reference-question-of-the-week-10211/#comment-4114 Brandy Stillman Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:37:56 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2583#comment-4114 I though that Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) might be a possible, but tougher, resource. The reason I say that is because I was looking for Central Park in a nearby town, and the drop-down presented me with MANY options, inducing the definitive Central Park in New York.

]]> By: Julie http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/10/08/reference-question-of-the-week-10211/#comment-4103 Julie Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:47:28 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2583#comment-4103 Have you tried a gazetteer?

]]> By: Meka http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/10/08/reference-question-of-the-week-10211/#comment-4095 Meka Mon, 10 Oct 2011 02:11:50 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2583#comment-4095 Number three seems like it could be Springfield. Using the common names site you linked to, noticing that Springfield occurs in 28 states and going to the subsequent wiki shows there is a springfield in NY.

]]> By: Jessica http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/10/08/reference-question-of-the-week-10211/#comment-4087 Jessica Sat, 08 Oct 2011 20:36:02 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2583#comment-4087 Knowing that number is in fact Ontario lead me to a wikipedia page labled Ontario (disambiguation) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_(disambiguation)] that has all the other states listed. I personally think the word “place” is a little confusing… cities, towns, counties what exactly is the teacher looking for? A combination of resources (like most common place names) and the word disambiguation might yield results for the other answers if only to cross check which cities are in which states.

]]> By: Brian Herzog http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/10/08/reference-question-of-the-week-10211/#comment-4086 Brian Herzog Sat, 08 Oct 2011 20:04:46 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2583#comment-4086 @Becca: that’s a great find – I bet we could track down an answer sheet by contacting them.

@Billy: thanks for the link – I hadn’t heard of that website before, but I’ll definitely use it now.

@Andromeda: wow, that might be a little over the top, but cool. And you’re right about “places” – I had found on the Census website a list of all the different designations they use, which is a lot.

]]> By: Andromeda http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/10/08/reference-question-of-the-week-10211/#comment-4083 Andromeda Sat, 08 Oct 2011 17:08:05 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2583#comment-4083 You could write a script that read in the various List_of_X_in_State pages in wikipedia, built up some lists, and compared. But I don’t feel like learning the wikipedia API today. I did copy-paste the list of common placenames page you linked and wrote a script to munch on it, but it didn’t yield any results consonant with that question.

The fact that it’s “places”, not, say, “towns”, does complicate things…I mean, what scope do these places have to be on? Is “Union Station” too small?

If the census people provide an API, they go out of their way to obscure it. Grr.

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