"Hello! Id like to know if any former patients or staff of the Athens State Hospital have written about their experiences at the hospital (published or unpublished)."
I spoke with two librarians; one was ending his or her shift, and the next one was coming on duty. The first librarian directed me to Chapter 22 of Dr. Cordingley's book, which I remembered finding long ago as described in the previous post. This librarian also provided a link to the Ohio American Local History Network (ALHN), which I had never found before. The next librarian offered to do some research and email me the results. She found a number of resources at the State Library of Ohio, and she also suggested the Chronicling America historic newspaper digitization effort by the Library of Congress. I remember wanting to visit this site for genealogical purposes, so I am glad she reminded me about it. She suggested searching for "Athens asylum," and I would also try other combinations of search terms, such as "Athens State Hospital" and the other names the hospital had over the years.
Next, I posed my question to a librarian on Kent State University's "Ask a Librarian" page. I emailed my question and got a quick response by email from someone with the title of assistant professor. He encouraged me to contact the Ohio University Special Collections and Archives Department. He pointed out that without specific names, it would be difficult to determine who has published. He mentioned that OU has a file on Athens, which can be found here. He also observed that my question is an interesting one, and he said he would continue to search, but for a quicker response, he suggested contacting OU.
This experience is positive, of course, because it's like having a team of experts to work on your question. In a way, it's a lot like hiring a professional genealogist. Having an expert do the work is convenient, but doing the research yourself can be much more rewarding. I personally love KnowItNow, and I took it as a compliment that the librarians thought my question was interesting. I hope to be in their place one day providing services to people in search of information.
I realize that each time you use services such as these, you can get a different librarian, which adds an element of uncertainty to the response you will receive. This could be positive or negative depending on your question and the urgency of your information need. My personal opinion after this particular experience is that the KnowItNow librarians at the state library were willing to put forth more effort to find an answer. I am not saying that the Kent State librarian was not helpful; I am saying that the state librarian who emailed me with the results of her search clearly put more time and effort into the question. She did not point out that more specific information was needed; she did what she could with the information I had provided. You could say she did more with less. One of the more significant takeaways from this assignment is that it pays to ask as many librarians as possible. Combined with your own research, you should be able to find more than a few decent answers to your question!
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