Wikipedia tells us that coots "are omnivorous, eating plant material,
insects, fish, and other aquatic animals". [The 10-second answer]
From _Ducks, Geese, & Swans of North America_, I see that coots are
"mainly vegetable feeders, and are particularly fond of wild celery".
[The 10-minute answer]
Which one is the better answer? I have no idea. In WorldCat, various
editions had the LCSH subjects: Waterfowl -- North America, Birds --
North America, and Anatidae.
Advantage: Wikipedia
-- it doesn't require its users to imagine the sort of work that would
likely contain the information that will meet their needs
-- it's faster
-- I didn't even need to know that coots were waterfowl, let alone that
they are in the family Anatidae (more probably, Rallidae, as both
Wikipedia and _Ducks, Geese, & Swans of North America_ assert)
Advantage: WorldCat
-- wild celery is probably a better answer. Mmmm, wild celery.
Geoff
--
Geoff Sinclair
Manager of Technical Services
Education Centre Library, Nipissing University / Canadore College
Tel: 705-474-3450 x4439
E-mail: geoffs_at_nipissingu.ca
Web: http://www.eclibrary.ca
_____________________________________________________________________
Nipissing University Ranks #1 in Maclean's University Graduate Survey
Martha Yee wrote:
> I know this is asking for trouble, but I can't resist sharing my latest
> Google adventure with you all. My husband and I were feeding stale bread to
> some coots on Echo Park Lake (in a neighborhood park near our house), when I
> was suddenly conscience-stricken at the realization that I didn't actually
> know if stale bread was good for coots. When I got home, I typed in to
> Google's famous search box "what do coots eat?" The reply that came back
> was a web site entitled "What do eagles eat?" In the list of eagle edibles
> was coots.
>
> In LCSH, the heading Coots--Food would give you perfect recall and precision
> for monographs wholly about what coots eat, if there were any. If this
> society placed a high value on universal employment (which it clearly
> doesn't), the heading Coots-Food would also bring up journal articles and
> papers that were wholly about what coots eat. We could even imagine a
> future in which correct RDF coding might allow a computer to translate the
> heading for a user who couldn't understand LCSH-ese into "food that coots
> eat."
>
> Just saying...
>
> Martha
>
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>
> Martha M. Yee
> Cataloging Supervisor
> UCLA Film & Television Archive
> 1015 N. Cahuenga Blvd.
> Los Angeles, CA 90038-2616
> 323-462-4921 x27
> 323-469-9055 (fax)
> myee_at_ucla.edu (Email at work)
>
> Campus mail:
> 302 E. Melnitz
> 132306
>
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>
>
> "You have a dollar. I have a dollar. We swap. Now you have my dollar and I
> have your dollar. We are not better off. You have an idea. I have an idea.
> We swap. Now you have two ideas and I have two ideas. Both are richer. When
> you gave, you have. What I got, you did not lose. That’s cooperation"—Jimmy
> Durante quoted in Schnozzola, by Gene Fowler, 1951, p. 207-208.
>
>
Received on Tue Jan 29 2008 - 14:02:49 EST