Running head: REFERENCE SERVICE REPORT 1

Reference Service to Incarcerated People:

Summary Report

LIS 652-01 Spring 2018

Dana Kautto

Pratt Institute School of Information

REFERENCE SERVICE REPORT 2

Reference Service to Incarcerated People:

Summary Report
1. Summary of Questions & Answers

M7:
1. What are the songs on the original Game Boy for Tetris, other than “Korobeiniki”?
The three songs that players could choose from in the original Tetris game for Game Boy
were created by Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka. “Type A” is his arrangement of the Russian folk
song “Korobeiniki,” “Type B” is an original composition by Tanaka, and “Type C” is his
version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s French Suite No. 3 in B minor, BWV 814: Menuet.
2. What are the English and Russian lyrics to “Korobeiniki”?
I included the lyrics in Russian Cyrillic script, in transliterated Russian, and in English.
3. What are instrumental jazz songs like “Adopted Highway” (The Bad Plus) by other
bands?
For this, I listed “Professor Nohair,” “Hidden Moon,” and “Kota” by Medeski, Martin &
Wood; “Youth Oriented” and “Green Grass Stains on Wrangler Jeans” by Happy Apple;
and “Lady Gabor” by Nels Cline.
4. Are there tips for getting more familiar with program officers when applying for
grants?
Many federal granting bodies make their phone numbers available on their website. It is
common practice for people in the various stages of grant preparation to call the agency
in question and ask to speak to the program officer. Many resources suggest calling
program officers with questions and concerns about your proposal during the grant-
seeking process, and also report that program officers they've spoken with say it's fine to
talk with them in general terms about your research interests and how they may intersect
with the agency's priorities. These resources also mention that program officers are
normally evaluated on the number of quality proposals they support, not on the overall
number of proposals they get, so they have a vested interest in answering your questions
and helping you craft a quality proposal.
5. What steps are being taken to remove hydrogenated oils from the food industry?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been taking steps to remove artificial trans
fats (partially hydrogenated oils) from processed foods, and in June 2015 they released
Final Determination Regarding Partially Hydrogenated Oils, the text of which I included,
along with an article that appeared in Bloomberg on August 17, 2017 that mentioned
some of the steps food manufacturers have been taking in light of the FDA’s
determination in order to prepare for the June 18, 2018 compliance deadline.
6. Can hydrogenated oil be unhydrogenated?
Hydrogenated oils are formed through a manufacturing process that adds hydrogen to
vegetable oil, converting the liquid into a solid fat at room temperature. Since this is
something being done to the oils or fats being used, there is no un-hydrogenating process,
just the option to not hydrogenate in the first place.
7. How is glue made?
I included short descriptions of the manufacturing processes for several types of glues,
including animal-based (this one also had a graphic), vegetable-based, methyl cellulose,
rubber, and eco adhesives. I mentioned that if they were looking for a more in-depth
explanation of a specific kind of adhesive, that they could specify and write back.
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M32: Request for samples documents of having to do with nonprofits, including a

Nonprofit Fundraising Plan, Outline of an Organizational Plan, Press Release,
Fundraising Letter Proposal, Letter Proposal Written to a Corporation, and Board
Contract. They included a URL for the Dummies website as well as for the
Nonprofit Finance Fund.
I copied and pasted the requested samples from the Dummies website, which were made
to exemplify how to format and what to include in these nonprofit-related documents.

M44: Request for journeymen’s electrical licensing requirements for Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland & Virginia
Though it varied by state, generally the process involved first enrolling in an electrical
apprenticeship, trade school, or other work experience program for a certain number of
hours. After the time requirement was met, one would qualify to apply for a journeyman
license, and possibly have to take an exam. The specifics for each state—including
options for programs, details about the tests, and information about the administrative
process—were all provided.
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2. List of Sources Used to Answer Each Question

M7-1:
• Wikipedia
o Entry for Tetris: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_(Game_Boy)#Music
• Tetris’s website
o History of the Tetris Theme Music: https://tetris.com/article/9/the-history-of-the-
tetris-theme-music
M7-2:
• Wikipedia
o Entry for Korobeiniki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korobeiniki
M7-3:
• Spotify
• Recommendations from friends & family
M7-4:
• Debbie Rabina
• The Chronicle of Higher Education
o What to Say—and Not Say—to Program Officers:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/What-to-Say-and-Not-Say-to/131282
M7-5 & M7-6:
• The Food & Drug Administration
o Trans Fat: https://www.fda.gov/Food/PopularTopics/ucm292278.htm
o Final Determination Regarding Partially Hydrogenated Oils: https://www.fda.gov
/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/FoodAdditivesIngredients/ucm449162.htm
• Bloomberg News
o Trans Fat Is (Almost) Out of Your Food. Here's What's Going In:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-17/trans-fat-is-almost-out-of-
your-food-here-s-what-s-going-in
M7-7:
• Bond Tech Industries (“Adhesives for North American Industry”)
o How are Adhesives Manufactured?: https://www.bond-tech-industries.com/about-
us/blog/adhesives-manufactured/
M32:
• Dummies:
o Nonprofit Kit for Dummies, 5th Edition Resource Center: http://www.dummies
.com/book-extras/nonprofit-kit-for-dummies-5th-edition-resource-center/
M44:
• ElectricianSchoolEdu.org
o State-by-State Electrician License and Certification Requirements At a Glance:
https://www.electricianschooledu.org/state-by-state-licensing-guide/
o How to Become an Electrician in…
§ Pennsylvania: https://www.electricianschooledu.org/pennsylvania/
§ New Jersey: https://www.electricianschooledu.org/new-jersey/
§ Delaware: https://www.electricianschooledu.org/delaware/
§ Maryland: https://www.electricianschooledu.org/maryland/
§ Virginia: https://www.electricianschooledu.org/virginia/
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3. List of Additional Sources Used in the Search Process

• Google: https://www.google.com
• Wikipedia: https://www.wikipedia.org
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com
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4. Description of the Search Process

M7-1: A Google search of “Tetris soundtrack” had the official Tetris site as a top result, where
there was a page dedicated to the theme music’s history. I cross-referenced this with
Wikipedia’s entry on Tetris, which had a short section on the music with some additional
details.

M7-2 My Google search of “Korobeiniki lyrics” yielded many song lyric websites, but after
comparing several and finding them not to match exactly, I went to the Wikipedia entry
for the song to try and find some clues about what the original version might be. There, it
so happened that they had the lyrics (in Russian and English), and they were matched by
some that I had already seen.

M7-3: For this question, I first texted my friend from back home in Minneapolis, where the Bad
Plus is from, to see if he was familiar with them, since I knew he frequented some jazz
venues there. He suggested Happy Apple to me which, as it turns out, actually has some
of the same members. I also called my father, who I was pretty sure had some Bad Plus
CDs, and he suggested Medeski, Martin & Wood and a couple others. Since the asker
wanted specific songs, I listened to the Bad Plus song they liked (on YouTube),
interspersed with bits of songs from these other bands’ YouTube channels. I admittedly
spent a lot of time trying to find songs that I deemed to be adequately similar.
Additionally, I played the asker’s song on Spotify and listened to some of the following
songs, and ended up picking one of those results to include as well.

M7-4: In class, Professor Rabina had said to ask for her help if we were having trouble with this
particular question. I took her up on it, emailing about tips regarding grant program
officers. She provided me with an answer that seemed to be from her own experience,
and most of the points she made were reflected in the article I also used for my answer,
that I found from Googling “grant program officer tips.” I skimmed several articles that
weren’t quite what I wanted, but eventually found an instructional article from the
Chronicle of Higher Education.

M7-5: The top result Googling “remove hydrogenated oils” was the FDA’s determination on the
matter. This provided a clear stance on hydrogenated oils, and outlined what was needed
for food companies to be in compliance. Since the asker wanted to know what companies
were doing, not just what they had to do by the deadline, I wanted to find an article from
a food industry standpoint. I added “food industry” to the search terms and skimmed a
few articles before settling on the Bloomberg one I included.

M7-6: This I did not need to do a separate search for, since from my reading of the FDA’s
determination regarding hydrogenated oils, I gleaned that this was a process done to oils,
not a naturally occurring phenomenon that could be undone.

M7-7: For this, I started with a Google search of “how is glue made.” This yielded several
histories of glue-making, almost exclusively about horse glue. I really wasn’t sure what
kind of glue the asker had in mind, so I wanted something a bit more general and
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inclusive. Since “glue” was yielding mostly horse-related results, I changed the search
term to “adhesive.” Within the first few results was the page for Bond Tech Industries,
which I had never heard of, but they provided brief overviews of the manufacturing of
several types of adhesives. Admittedly, I do not know the first thing about making glue,
so I was not in a position to determine how accurate the information was, but I did not
just want to give an in-depth answer on one kind of glue, in case it was the wrong kind,
so I decided that these summaries would be sufficient in giving the asker an idea of the
scope of methods in all types of adhesive-making.

M32: In this instance, the asker provided me with the websites on which to find the materials. I
followed the URL they provided for the Dummies website, to find that it was no longer
active. I assume that they had a previous version of the Nonprofits book in their
possession, and the site had changed their pathways it seems, but after a Google search I
was able to find the current edition and all of the requested materials. The Nonprofit
Finance Fund URL worked, but I could find no document samples or related materials on
the entire site, and I think that this is most likely due to an out-of-date publication again.

M44: I began with a Google search for “journeyman electrician license requirements,” and
added “Pennsylvania” first. I was on a site called “Electrician Training Info” for a while,
but was not satisfied with the amount of detail, nor the specificity of the information. I
opened up tabs of Google searches for all of the requested states, and noticed that
ElectricianSchoolEdu.org was a result about midway down the first page of results for
each. This site had through, well-organized information for each state, so I decided to end
my search there.
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5. Reflection on the Process, Program, etc.

First things first—I have very strong feelings regarding the criminal justice system and
prisons. I consider myself a prison abolitionist, not only due to their apparent ineffectiveness and
often inhumane conditions in this country, but also on account of the overwhelming prejudice
with which sentences are issued, landing a disproportionate number of people of color in prison
on lesser charges, for longer. For this, I was eager to help in this small way, despite having
somewhat ambivalent feelings about reference service being a part of my future career.
Reading the articles Dr. Rabina co-wrote about this project, I was horrified to hear that
some students had to sweep aside their reservations about serving incarcerated persons, that they
had to work to ignore the “terrible things” they imagined their askers might have done. Knowing
that these views exist, hand in hand with my own views, caused me to perhaps over-correct in
the opposite direction. When writing my responses, I usually imagined the asker to be someone I
thought shouldn’t be in prison, who probably got there on an unfairly-applied possession charge.
While we were asked not to make assumptions about the users, I think that my (perhaps naïve)
belief that the asker hadn’t done anything I’d consider wrong, and that they were unfairly
imprisoned, was at least effective in getting me to treat them like any other user, if not with more
energy and compassion than I’d give just anyone.
The nature of the questions I received seemed to only solidify my stance on the matter.
They ranged from lighthearted, just-wondering type questions—the kind of thing that anyone
with a smart phone could just Google on a whim—to serious questions about (their now much-
more-limited) career options. Particularly depressing was my second letter, which gave me the
URL for the Nonprofit Kit for Dummies online resources page, which had document samples for
people wanting to start and manage a nonprofit. Here, someone presumably had this book in
hand—an outdated edition at that—and was presented with a URL if they wanted more
information. And instead of being able to access this information, they had to hand-write the
URL and send it in the mail, and probably wouldn’t get a response for a month.
I felt so much empathy for the frustration these askers must have at not being able to
satisfy the wants and whims that those with internet access can easily, immediately obtain. This
privilege is definitely taken for granted, as we constantly gratify ourselves with information
without a thought. It’s painful to think about how depriving people of this only puts them further
behind, widening the gap of technology and information literacy in favor of the already more-
privileged. I’ve been so happy to contribute to this project, and hope to continue to volunteer my
time to it after this semester, and really, really hope that it doesn’t need to exist in the future.
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6. Learning Outcomes

Out of the course objectives listed in the syllabus for Information Services and Resources
(LIS-652), this assignment built upon several. Due to the varied nature of the reference
questions, students were asked to develop an ability to understand and evaluate information
sources in a variety of applied contexts. While most of my searches started with a Google search,
I had to pare down the results into what I deemed accurate and appropriate for my response. I
had a wealth information at my fingertips and had to think contextually about the asker’s
intended question, as well as their current situation, in order to parse the results into the most
useful answer. Relatedly, this helped me to build knowledge of the process of learning from a
variety of sources and in different settings. Luckily, sometimes a single source would provide a
comprehensive answer to the question at hand, but other times it was necessary to synthesize
information from multiple sources into a more complete response.
Another course objective that I didn’t have to deal with directly, but always had to keep
in mind, was to ensure I was making professional and socially responsible decisions in managing
the process through which the resources functioned to communicate information. The rules
regarding the information the incarcerated askers were allowed to receive (e.g. no violent or
pornographic materials, no maps, etc.), required that I remain cognizant of the content of my
responses. An instance where this played out was when I was including images of album
covers—one of them pictured a knife stabbing through a heart. While I didn’t find this to be a
provocative image at all, nor something that would trigger any sort of response from the asker, I
wanted to make sure that my letter would not be confiscated on its account, and opted to exclude
it for the sake of getting the information to the user.