Bog Soil and AccessScience

For the first time in a couple weeks, I had a really interesting reference question this evening at work. I had a young man who wanted "a book" on "bog soil". After a a brief reference interview, I discovered that he needed to know how to make bog soil, like that of the Everglades, in order to replicate it himself. I tried our catalog without much hope for sucess. At this point the "aha" hit and I showed him AccessScience (thank you McGraw-Hill). He left very happy with a full article on bogs, a segment of the article on soil, describing the soil type found in most of Florida (characterized by a large amount of organic matter and a high proportion of sand), and a pathfinder to finding the full 45 page article from home.

Overall it was the most satisfying reference experience I've had recently. I like pushing the boundaries of my personal experience and really puzzleing things like this out.

Also, I just want to say that I really can't say enough about how nice a resource AccessScience. I really think its a must have for public libraries and anyone else who serves a high school population. Its easy to navigate, makes excellent use of multimedia, and uses the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology as its base (a gold standard for general science reference). Its great for High School Students, College Undergrads, and Life-Long Learners, so if your library doesn't have it, ask that they get it, you won't regret it.