Reference Question of the Week – 9/9/12
September 16th, 2012
This seemed like it was going to be an easy question, but it ended up taking me almost an entire day before I found the answer. A patron asked,
Can you tell me where Lowell, MA, ranks among other Massachusetts towns and cities in teen pregnancy rates?
That seemed straight-forward, but I was pretty sure none of our ready reference books would include that. National statistics books probably wouldn't do in-state rankings, and the state books (at least those we have) don't do social statistics like this.
So, instead of spending too much time myself looking for a resource, I just thought I'd call the Massachusetts Office of Health and Human Services. On their contact page, I narrowed it down to their Office of Children, Youth and Family Services, Department of Children and Families - but when I explained what I was after, they referred me to the local Lowell office. The person who answered the phone didn't know, so she transferred me to the manager, whose voicemail said she was on vacation this week.
This might be the right place, but I didn't want to wait that long, so I tried again with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services... who transferred me to the statistics office... who transferred me to the budget office.
I think you're getting the picture of how my day went. By the way, the last transfer (to the budget office) was because I had kept web searching while I was waiting on hold, and had found a line item in the Massachusetts budget specifically for Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Services, referencing "funding shall be expended on those communities with the highest teen birth rates according to an annual statistical estimate." When I mentioned this statistical estimate to the person at the statistics office, and mentioned I saw it in the budget, it seemed like she used that as an out to pass the buck to someone else. I was getting frustrated.
I tried again, this time with the Department of Public Health. Again, the first person I talked to didn't know, but gave me the number of someone who he thought might be able to help. But the difference this time is that this new referral was to the Chief Demographer and Epidemiologist in the Center for Health and Information, Statistics, and Evaluation. Impressive title, and totally relevant to my question, so I called him - he was out.
I called back a few hours later and spoke to him, and he couldn't have been nicer or more helpful. When I described what I was looking for, he knew exactly where the data was, looked up the report and gave me the info. He also gave me the report's web address [pdf], so I could print the cover page and data table for the patron's bibliography.
Which I did, and brought it to the patron - about five hours after she initially asked me for it. She was working on a major class paper and was still in the library, and even though the latest data was from 2009, she was delighted I was able to find it.
For the record, Lowell ranked #10 in teen pregnancy rates (and is #4 in overall population) - here's a portion of the table:
September 16th, 2012 at 2:42 pm
Wow ! I seriously wish I could work with you, would be so great to be able to learn from you (I’ll definitively let you know as soon as we have an opening here, ha!). I also sincerely admire your perseverance ! How many librarians would have given up after the second call ?
When I get transferred from one office to the other (especially with gov. administration), and spoke to a dozen different specialists, I usually go as far as forgetting what the patron’s question was in the first place…(unfortunately true fact, but luckily questions are always written or sort of scribbled down somewhere, which saves the day…).
In my opinion, we should dig as deep as we can for our patrons, simple professionalism, but what do you tell the patron (and how?) if you couldn’t find the info ? How do librarians go about that ? I’m always uncomfortable in that situation and just never know what to say
September 17th, 2012 at 8:47 am
First, I love the photo! *Juno* is a favorite movie of mine and my wife’s.
I used to live in Massachusetts, and find the list presented fascinating! One statistical fact jumps out is the mix of different sized communities in the top 25. Adjusting for population sure makes a difference, and only a few births can make a small community rank high on the list. It is also interesting that 24 communities are above the state average. My recollection is that there are something like 359 cities and towns in Massachusetts. That means that there are 325 below the average. A social worker would look to see what those communities which are well below the average are doing that the higher ranked communities are not.
September 17th, 2012 at 11:57 am
@SAL Fan: thank you – although hopefully this isn’t too unusual. But on some of these tough questions, it ends up being a personal quest for me to get an answer, in addition to helping the patron.
@Former: I noticed that too, and it makes a huge difference. Holyoke is about 40,000, Lawrence about 70,000, while North Adams has about 14,000 residents (although I don’t know if teen girls is a consistent percentage or not). Also, I didn’t notice how many communities are below the state average – thank you for pointing that out, that is amazing.
September 28th, 2012 at 1:21 pm
This is great! I actually discovered that I wanted to be a librarian while working for a state statistics office. Helping people find the right information got me excited. And still does.