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INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 1
INFO 521: Spring 2012 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project
Friday, June 1, 2012
Shannon Lewis-Hillstrom
Instructor: Lily Rozaklis
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 2
6/1/2012
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 3
Contents Ipl2 Question 1: What are some International Junior Piano Competitions in the US in 2014 ................................................................................................................................ 4
Transcripts ................................................................................................................... 4 Question ................................................................................................................... 4
Response ................................................................................................................. 5 Question 1 Log ............................................................................................................ 5
Ipl2 Question 2: How to Find Information on the Emancipation of a Free Woman .......... 7 Transcripts ................................................................................................................... 7
Question ................................................................................................................... 7 Post a Note Inquiry ................................................................................................... 8 Post a Note Response ............................................................................................. 8
Final Response ........................................................................................................ 9 Post-A-Note message ............................................................................................ 12
Question 2 Log .......................................................................................................... 12 Ipl2 Question 3: What are some funny facts or trivia? ................................................... 14
Transcripts ................................................................................................................. 14
Question ................................................................................................................. 14 Response ............................................................................................................... 14
Question 3 Log .......................................................................................................... 16 Reaction ........................................................................................................................ 17 Appendix: Ask Lily Discussion Thread Transcript ......................................................... 19
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 4
Ipl2 Question 1: What are some International Junior Piano Competitions in the US in 2014 Question Claimed on Tue, 01 May 2012 22:24:00 Answer Submitted on Wed, Tue, 01 May 2012 22:49:29 Time Spent: Approximately 1 hour
Transcripts Research Questions TBA, article 12109482: (INACTIVE) Subject: Quota: MUS: International junior piano competitions in US in 2014 (need by 4/30/2012) Patron: [email protected] (XXXX) Posted: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:36:40
Needed by: 4/30/2012
Question
What are some international piano competitions taking place in USA in year 2014? I'm looking for junior competitions. In 2014, I will be 17 years old. My piano teacher told me to look for junior international competitions, so that I would have experience through competition with others worldwide. She doesn't want me to take part in any competitions for ages 18 up, because I am only level 8, in music and she tells me she knows it will be difficult to win those competitions as of my knowledge in music. She says she wants me to know the requirements which I need to participate. If the website says the requirements, there is no need for one to repeat it. Thanks. name: XXXXX from: [email protected] confirm: [email protected] location: Toronto, Canada area: Music reason: International Piano Competition school: No
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 5
Response
Greetings from ipl2! Thank you for your question about international music competitions in the year 2014.I have located some sources that might be useful for you. The Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation hosts competitions in Utah annually. Details are available for the 2012 competition but less is available for the future competitions. They have a specific section for junior level artists. http://www.bachauer.com/index.php The World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC) web site has a graphical search utility to locate competitions worldwide by date, discipline, and location. http://www.wfimc.org/ The European Union of Music Competitions for Youth is “a network of over fifty national and international music competitions for young people across Europe.” Some of the competitions listed are only open to members of the organization, but some are open publicly. http://www.emcy.org I found all of these and other web sites on competitions by using the Google Search Engine using the phrase, “junior international piano competition 2014.” http://www.google.com I hope these sources answer your question. If you still need more information, please contact us again. Thanks for visiting ipl2!
Question 1 Log Prior to selecting this question, I did some initial research on this as several other questions that were available. I was a bit nervous about answering my first question, so I ended up selecting one of the more straight forward questions to answer. I spent about 30 minutes in my initial search. Once I claimed the question, I spent about 30 minutes finishing my research and then formulating my response. I started with Ipl2 and MeL.org sites, but I didn’t find much information on international music competitions. I suspect that the reason for this is that the nature of the question was less factual and more events based.
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 6
I went back to Google.com and searched for nearly the exact language in the question. I found a lot of organizations that sponsor these sorts of events. The question targeted a future date (year) so that was a little bit of a challenge, but I found most of the organizations a planning well ahead and had information for at least a year ahead. I was still uncertain about my answer, and found myself wishing I could get some feedback. My search was rather uninspired, consisting primarily of Google.com results. The user really could have easily gotten the same results on their own; however there was no indication of any prior research so I was unsure if I was duplicating efforts. I did look up each organization individually prior to including them in my response to ensure that they were reputable organizations, and didn’t present any potential danger for the user. The user is a teen and I wanted to be sure that the information was safe. In the future I might try using the reference interview options on Ipl2. I would have liked to know what the user had already done, as well as if these sources were in keeping with the user’s expectations.
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 7
Ipl2 Question 2: How to Find Information on the Emancipation of a Free Woman Question Claimed on Tue, 08 May 2012 21:24:28 Answer Submitted on Wed, 09 May 2012 22:53:51 Time Spent: Approximately 3 hours
Transcripts Research Questions TBA, article 12109434: (INACTIVE) Subject: BIO: Quota: MSC: I am searching for information emancipation on a free woman (no need by) Patron: [email protected] (XXXX XXXX) Posted: Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:19:40
Needed by: no need by
Question
I am searching for information/emancipation on a free woman (Henritta/Henny) who at one time was a slave of the Artus family according to statements made by Eli Metcalf in court records here in St. Louis. One child was bought from Marshall Key. She made several trips back to Maysville to buy her family members. She either was freeded by the Artus family or she bought her freedom. Here she used the last name of Dearing and Durham. Time frame is 1830-50. Where would the best place to start Maysville or the Archives? Is there a index of Maysville/Mason county court records? Three of her childrens names were Hilary Durham, Sophia/Sophy Jackson and Matilda Bartlett. There is also a reference to propery called the Bartlett Place. name: XXXX XXXXXX from: [email protected] confirm: [email protected] location: St. Louis Missouri area: Other reason: research school: No sources_consulted: Just starting my Kentucky research.
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 8
Post a Note Inquiry
Wed, 09 May 2012 21:46:37 I'm trying to answer this question, which I find fascinating, but I'm concerned with addressing the question properly. I've prepared the following answer. Could I please get some guidance on if this adequately addresses the question? Thanks! <original response – removed as it is repetitive of final response>
Post a Note Response
Wed, 09 May 2012 22:13:37 by <staff member> ([email protected])
Hi, Shannon- I think you did a great job finding places for the user to locate more information about the emancipation of Henritta/Henny. Many times, this information can only be found in print documents, and you did a good job of explaining how to get assistance in locating those items. Here are a few constructive comments: 1. Be sure to proofread your response. I saw a few grammatical and spelling errors as I read through it. 2. Remember to include the subscription source disclaimer for the Heritage Quest sources. Heritage Quest is a ProQuest database that requires a username/password or access from an authorized institution. Here's the section of the training module that provides more details about using licensed print and electronic (subscription) sources: http://training.ipl.org/backroom/refvols/students/module1.html#licensedsources 3. It's also often helpful to number your sources, so that it doesn't look like just a bunch of sentences and links. For example: ----------------------------------------------------------------
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 9
1. First, I found a web page for Mason County Kentucky – Court House History. It contains email and phone information for the county court house. This might be a place to start inquiring about old records. The court house has been around since the 1700’s. http://www.masoncountykentucky.com/articles/page.asp?articleid=5708 2. I also found a Maysville Public Records Request form. If you had an idea of what records might be available you could use this form to request them. http://www.cityofmaysville.com/admin/records%20request%20form.pdf etc., etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------- I hope these notes help you out. Please post another note if you have more questions. Thank you! XXXX, Sr. Ref. Admin.
Final Response
Wed, 09 May 2012 22:53:51 Hi XXXX, welcome to ipl2! I was very interested in your question about a freed slave. I believe you were wondering about records for the Maysville / Mason County Kentucky area. I found a lot of options for you to explore, though no direct information on Henritta / Henny or any of her children. 1. First, I found a web page for Mason County Kentucky – Court House History. It contains email and phone information for the county court house. This might be a place to start inquiring about old records. The court house has been around since the 1700’s. http://www.masoncountykentucky.com/articles/page.asp?articleid=5708 This link is quite long and could break, so here is a shortened version for your convenience. http://tinyurl.com/7tbe39t 2. I also found a Maysville Public Records Request form. If you have an idea of what records might be available you could use this form to request them.
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 10
http://www.cityofmaysville.com/admin/records%20request%20form.pdf 3. The City of Maysville web site also has an inventory of museums and libraries in the area. http://www.cityofmaysville.com/tourism/museums%20libraries.html 4. The Mason County Library might also be a good source for finding records from the area. Their web site is listed below. http://www.masoncountylibrary.com/ 5. Another option from the list of museums and libraries is the National Underground Railroad Museum. This source might be useful if this woman was involved helping to free other slaves. http://bierbower.org 6. In addition to sources in and near the area you specified, I found a few other interesting resources. These are both Heritage Quest Databases. This is a licensed electronic resource that we are recommending to you. You will not be able to access it or get a copy of it without a paid subscription. We encourage you to take the information we have provided to your local library, which may have a subscription and be able to provide this resource to you for free. Your library may also be able to obtain materials through interlibrary loan services or some other means, or they may be able to recommend a similar resource. We suggest asking a local librarian for assistance. To find a library you can try the sites listed on the ipl2's Library Locator page: http://ipl.org/div/liblocator/ There is a database specifically related to research on freed slaves called the Freedmans Bank. The Freedmans Bank focuses on freed slaves from the period between 1865 and 1874. http://persi.heritagequestonline.com/hqoweb/library/do/freedmans 7. A related site, also a Heritage Quest source, provides Census searches for the years 1790 - 1930. I was able to locate a census entry for Eli Metcalf in St. Louis, though nothing on the Dearing or Durham names. http://persi.heritagequestonline.com/hqoweb/library/do/census/search/basic
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 11
This link is quite long and could break, so here is a shortened version for your convenience. http://tinyurl.com/7twlcdk I was able to locate all of the city and county web sites by conducting a simple Google search. http://www.google.com The Heritage Quest sites I located using the Michigan Electronic Library. While this is not a source local to you or your query, it does have a Genealogy Gateway where I found these sources. This gateway also refers to Civil War research, cemetery searches, and vital records which might be useful avenues for your search in Kentucky or Missouri. To get to these items, go to the MeL site. Then, click the Genealogy button on the left-hand navigation menu under MeL Subject Gateways. http://www.mel.org Thank you for contacting ipl2. I hope these resources help you in your search. Please contact us again if we can assist further.
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 12
Post-A-Note message
Thu, 10 May 2012 08:15:27 by <ipl2 staff member> ([email protected]) Hi, Shannon, Thank you for answering this question. You found some great resources for the patron to do further research. You search description about your Google search is missing some details. Exact search terms should be listed in quotation marks or brackets, and you should describe any particular search strategies that you found helpful. The goal should be to provide the user with enough information that they can easily repeat your steps: http://training.ipl.org/backroom/refvols/students/module1.html#search Best, <staff member> Sr. Ref. Admin./ipl2 staff
Question 2 Log I debated over taking this question for quite a while. When I selected my first question, I looked at this and several other questions. I conducted cursory searches using Google, Ipl2, and MeL.org to determine whether I could be successful at addressing the question in a reasonable amount of time. I was fascinated by this question, and by some of the resources I was able to uncover, such as the Heritage Quest databases. I probably spent at least 30 minutes on this question on my first pass. I determined that while I could find interesting avenues, I wasn’t finding much about the family being inquired upon, so I chose another question that seemed easier to address. When it came time to select a second question, I saw that this one was still unanswered. Again, I felt drawn to it, but was still uncertain as to my ability to adequately address it. I contacted the course instructor, Lily Rozakalis, with my inquiry (See Appendix – Ask Lily Discussion Thread Transcript). Based on the advice she gave, I did some additional research, formulated my response, and used the “Post a Note” feature to request advice from the Ipl2 staff. I focused my response on finding good resources for the user, rather than trying to actually find information about the family in question. This totaled about 1.5 hours including the discussion thread, additional research, and question / response submission to the Post a Note feature. I got great input from the Post a Note response. I added some information about using Heritage Quest databases, since they require a subscription. I also reviewed my
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 13
response for editorial mistakes, and made a few formatting changes. This took about 30 minutes. I used the Ipl2 Path Finder and MeL.org Subject Gateway for Genealogy as starting points, as well as Google.com for community resources. I found some interesting services available in the county where the family in question was thought to have lived such as the county court house, libraries, museums, and even a records request form. Overall, I was quite happy with how my response turned out. I did receive an additional comment from Ipl2 with some helpful suggestions on my description of my search approach. I took this as a learning opportunity, and will keep it in mind for future experience.
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 14
Ipl2 Question 3: What are some funny facts or trivia? Question Claimed on Wed, 16 May 2012 22:07:31 Answer Submitted on Wed, 16 May 2012 23:21:26 Time Spent: Approximately 1.5 hours
Transcripts Research Questions TBA, article 12109710: (INACTIVE) Subject: rjdp: MSC: youth: What are some funny facts or trivia? (need by 5/10/2012) Patron: [email protected] (XXXX) Posted: Wed, 09 May 2012 17:04:32
Needed by: 5/10/2012
Question
What are some funny facts or trivia ? name: XXXXX from: [email protected] confirm: [email protected] location: Kellogg grade: 4 area: Other school: Yes length: HalfPage sourceschecked: text book dontuse: Encyclopedia Greetings from the ipl2!
Response
Hi XXXX! Thank you for your question about funny facts and trivia. I have found a few websites that might help you find some interesting facts and trivia. The first two links are trivia pages from the Kids Space on ipl2.org. The third is a Discovery channel site with videos showing how things work. The last two items are lists of interesting facts from NASA and The Smithsonian, with some fun games to get to the facts. Ipl2 has a special space just for kids, with links to safe and trustworthy sites. This page offers lots of science related trivia. http://www.juliantrubin.com/sciencetrivia.html
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 15
This site is also from the ipl2 Kids Space. It has all different types of trivia, not just science. http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/ The link below is to a series of videos on experiments and other fun activities to show how things work. It is from Discovery (like the TV channel). http://videos.howstuffworks.com/stuff-to-blow-your-kids-mind-videos-playlist.htm#video-51304 This link is quite long and could break, so here is a shortened version for your convenience. http://tinyurl.com/7lkvg9e NASA has some cool facts about science and space on their Brain Bites site. http://brainbites.nasa.gov/#/ask-nasa This web site from The Smithsonian is part game, part trivia. You can “dig” around their pages to find interesting facts about all sorts of topics like animals, history, and people. http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/idealabs/digging_for_answers/ I found all of these sites using kid’s paths from trustworthy library sources. On http://www.ipl2.org , click the For Kids button. On the next page, “For Kids,” you can choose a subject to find trivia about. I chose Fun Stuff and looked at several of the sites that came up. You could also try the links on the right like “US Presidents” and “Stately Knowledge”. I already knew about the How Stuff Works web site at: http://www.howstuffworks.com I went to this site and saw a button for “Stuff to blow your kid’s mind”. This brought me to the fun videos I mentioned above. I also used my state’s online library, http://www.mel.org MeL also has a Kids Path which I used to locate the NASA and Smithsonian sites. Your local library might have a similar service or web page.
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 16
I hope this information will help you with your school work. If you have any more questions, please ask us again. I saw that you live in Kellogg, but I am not sure what state that’s in. With some information about where you are located we might be able to find resources from your local library. Also, if you are interested one area, like sports or science, that would help us to find better web sites to use.
Question 3 Log This question was a lot of fun to research. At the time when I needed to select my third question, there weren’t a lot of options. I wasn’t sure I wanted to answer another question for a child, since my trial and first questions were for children. I didn’t see any other questions that I felt I could answer adequately though. I also wanted to try out some of the other resources we had been discussing in class and that were provided by the instructor to widen or research horizons. I did start out using my two standard starting points, Ipl2 Path Finder and MeL.org, since I know they have resources targeted for children and I can reasonably assume that these sources are safe. I had started doing some research for another project (the Wiki Project) and become familiar with www.howstuffworks.com. This resource was also listed on the Deep Web resources provided by the instructor. Finding trivia in these locations was quite easy, a lot of learning sites geared toward children use games, jokes, and trivia as teaching tools. I spent about 1.5 hours on this question. It was probably a bit more than was necessary, but I wanted to be sure I got sources in a few different subject areas. A lot of the sources I found were science based, but the user didn’t indicate any particular area of interest. I noted that the user indicated they had checked text books already and didn’t want encyclopedia sources. I thought these were probably not the best sources and so in my summary I suggested some ways the user could better frame their question (local library, narrow by subject area, etc). I was very happy with how this response ended up coming together. I have a child a little younger than this patron and made a lot of mental notes on the sites I came across for use myself. I had a little trouble finding a good balance in tone and language. This user appeared to be a bit younger than the other two questions I answered for children. I didn’t want to come off sounding preachy or talk down to the user. I settled on a light, friendly tone and tried to keep the descriptions simple but not too simple.
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 17
Reaction This was my first experience in reference service, technically. Throughout the course I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the amount of cross over between my work and studies. I started this program with the idea that it would help me further my information and knowledge management career, but I was afraid the first few classes would be really focused on libraries and it might take a while to see the connection to my work as a technical communicator in a corporate environment. Fortunately, I am seeing connections immediately. To a certain extent good reference service is the same as any other customer service. In my daily work I consult with all sorts of people on all sorts of topics, from “where do I find this document” to “how do I submit this request.” I have internal and external customers. I have to field walk ups, phone calls, email, and chat. I have to be helpful, courteous, patient, and knowledgeable. I also have to know when I’m over my head and who / where a good referral would be. One key difference between this experience and my work experiences is that there is less opportunity to conduct a reference interview. In all three of my questions I feel that speaking to the person, or at least being able to email back and forth a bit, could have provided vital information that would lead to better answers. In my experience, it is very easy to be misunderstood in email or chat situations. In person or telephone interactions allow for a greater range of communication, voice inflection, body language, and so on. This allows you to get a feel for whether you are on the right track, allows the user to better gauge your understanding of their question, and offer more details if needed. For example, I noticed that in my second question I completely missed that the user was looking for competitions in the US only. Her location was Canada and the question said “international” so I focused on worldwide options, not just the US. In re-reading my responses, I don’t think that they were inaccurate or not useful, but they could have been better. I suspect that this is one key reason why Ipl2 has a strict guideline for formatting responses. The standard format ensures consistency, but also provides a framework ensuring that the answer covers all the right information. It doesn’t ensure a good (accurate, useful, complete, clear) answer, but it is a step toward getting all the right pieces included. In my second question I was very concerned about finding the right sorts of sources, and overlooked explaining my search criteria for my search for community resources. I only listed that I’d searched Google, not the terms I searched for. To me it was obvious, but since I didn’t write it down, the user wouldn’t know what I was thinking, or what terms I used. If we had been using a more synchronous format the user could have asked me for clarification on this point. Another advantage of working together on a search, or for any information based project, is that team work generates more ideas. A search term I thought of may trigger a thought for another term by the user, and vice versa.
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 18
I think email reference service could be a valuable service in the future. I think it lends itself more to ready reference than to research questions. I noticed that there were far more research questions than ready reference, and in some cases I wondered if the user knew the difference between the two. For example, as I scan through the open questions at the time of this writing I see a request for help finding an attribution for a quote and another for locating a specific book. Previously I remember seeing a series of questions on mythology that were very specific to a particular god or figure and what they were famous for. These all have very concrete answers and don’t require a lot of various resources or research. I would guess that ready reference questions are commonly answered by a quick Google or Wikipedia search and that the numbers of these questions are low over all. Also, I would suspect that a lot of ready reference is a quick curiosity. If the user can’t find the answer right away, they might lose interest. An asynchronous email format probably would not be that useful in that situation. Email reference could also be very useful for school children. There is a line between usage, providing instruction on researching and sources versus doing all the work for the student. However, I think this could be a good way to provide outreach and education to students that might not be getting it at their school library. This project reinforced for me the need to be careful and deliberate in my interactions with information seekers. Even when I felt I had carefully considered all the angles, I found later that there were elements I overlooked. As a technical communicator I may take for granted or assume that my experience and education have ingrained in me a need for clarity and concise responses. I am reminded to slow down, read more carefully and consider other options or solutions than the first one that comes to mind. I also realized how reliant I’ve become on the internet and the shallow search options available. My list of go-to sources has been altered and widened immensely. I didn’t discover MeL.org because of this project but have become a big fan by using it for answering these reference questions. This is important for my work as well as my home use. For work I often need to look up information on industry standards, new technologies, or methodologies. I now have a much broader scope of options for finding this type of information. Overall I greatly enjoyed this project and feel like I’ve learned a great deal about reference service. I’ve been reminded of some concepts I have allowed to get stale, learned some new concepts, and expanded my knowledge of online sources.
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 19
Appendix: Ask Lily Discussion Thread Transcript
Thread: ipl2 partial answer
Post: ipl2 partial answer
Author: Shannon Lewis-Hillstrom
Posted Date: May 7, 2012
8:46 PM
Status: Published
Hi Lily,
I'm very interested in a question that was listed a couple of weeks ago and no one has
answered; it is BIO: Quota: MSC: I am searching for information emancipation on a free
woman (no need by).
Last week I did some research and found some potential sources, but no good hits, so I didn't
choose to respond to this one. For something like this, would that sort of response be
acceptable? I found some interesting people search sites, ancestry sites, and specifically a
database on freed slaves that I think could be useful.
Thanks!
Shannon
Thread: ipl2 partial answer
Post: RE: ipl2 partial answer
Author: Lillian Rozaklis
Posted Date: May 8, 2012
9:15 AM
Status: Published
Hi Shannon,
An interesting question indeed - an involved question, which is probably why no one has
answered it yet.
Because the heart of this question is "Where would the best place be to start Maysville or
Archives?" and "Is there an index of Maysville/Mason county court records?" you could
possibly answer with sources - like people search sites, ancestry sites, and databases on freed
slaves - if you are unable to find exact information on Henrietta/Henny Artus. My reading of
the question is that the information seeker would like instruction on how to navigate local
history/government/historical sources to arrive at information him/herself (it may be the
project of a lifetime).
ipl2 has a pathfinder which may be helpful, but key would be to relay whether the town,
county or state entities (libraries, archives, governments, history associations) in the area have
records (including land registers since the information seeker mentions property) accessible
online or in-house.
Since you already have done some research you can claim the question and send what you
have to address the question. Alternatively, ipl2 staff can review the sources you wish to send
INFO 521 – Assignment: Ipl2 Final Project 20
before you send your entire response to the information seeker - you can copy/paste the
sources into a Post-A-Note and ipl2 staff will review and reply to you - if you want to be sure
that you found "enough."
Let me know if you'd like my help in any way.
-Lily
Thread: ipl2 partial answer
Post: RE: ipl2 partial answer
Author: Shannon Lewis-Hillstrom
Posted Date: May 10, 2012
7:26 PM
Status: Published
Thanks Lily, this was very helpful. I followed your advice and focused on the town
mentioned in the question and then added the Heritage Quest sites I found so interesting. I
also used Post-a-Note and got some good advice prior to sending the response.
I did get another Post-a-Note after sending it too though, the ipl2 staff person noted that I
missed a few details in describing my search technique. I was so focused on the results, I
guess I overlooked that part. She did note that the sources were good / appropriate, so I am
taking it as a learning opportunity and will be more careful for my next answer.
Thread: ipl2 partial answer
Post: RE: ipl2 partial answer
Author: Lillian Rozaklis
Posted Date: May 10, 2012
10:09 PM
Status: Published
Excellent response to a difficult question, Shannon. You offered a number of sources and you
refer the user to the local institutions that would be the next best places to seek help (including
the request form should the user know precisely what he/she needs). Overall, substantive.
Each question-answer is a learning opportunity, so don't let the Post-a-Note you received
detract from the quality response you provided.
-Lily
