Thursday, August 25, 2005

Phone number of small publisher in England

This question came via phone directly to me. (Not sure why since I did not know the person.)

Needed to find phone number of a small press called "Nagra" in Coventry England. Patron already had the address and said that had tried to find a website but there was none. Publisher of books on Indian languages. Patron asked, did we have British Books in Print?

Since I was at my desk I started with online sources. Gave the patron the benefit of the doubt, for now, and assumed that he searched correctly on Google. I went to our Internet Researcher's Toolbox telephone directory section, http://www.library.umass.edu/toolbox/reftools.shtml#People and then to the Telephone Directories on the Web link http://www.infobel.com/teldir/default.asp

[patron interrupted me to ask again if we had British Books in print. I told him I wanted to try online sources but that I would check. We did not have a book with this title nor did a keyword search in this title help. I told patron that I would keep him on the phone a little longer but that if I needed to I might ask for his phone number so that I could search other sources without keeping him on the line. Patron said he had a few ISBNs. I asked for one of them so that I could check the orange ISBN directory in Ready Ref if need be.]

I was able to find 3 Nagra's in the business directory for Coventry. One of them was at the same exact address the patron had but listed a different line of business - "ABRASIVES AND SUPER ABRASIVES (MANUFACTURE, WHOLESALE)". Since it was a small publisher I figured it could possibly be the same business. Gave patron phone number and how I found it and asked him to call me back if it didn't pan out. [I never did ask him how he found my phone number.] Patron said this is great, that I had gotten much farther and quicker than other people who had tried to help him.

Patron called back and said no one answered at the number I gave him and could I give him the other 2 listings for Nagra in Coventry. I gave them to him and asked him to call me back if they didn't work out, because there were a lot of other things I/he could try, especially the Publishers' International ISBN Directory. He never called back and I'm now pretty sure he must have gotten the right number because I did do some follow up after:

I did a google search on "nagra and Coventry and book" and found a book titled G.C.S.E. Panjabi, by J.S.Nagra. One of the Coventry listings I had given him was for JS Nagra! I also did find Nagra Publications in the Publishers International ISBN directory, with yet a different number from what I found online but at the same address as the abrasives manufacturer. I'll keep this by my desk in case the patron calls back.

1 Comments:

At 2:36 PM, Blogger Isabel Espinal said...

Well, patron *did* call back to tell me that all the numbers I gave him were out of date! He did find another online phone directory (britishtelecom.com) and there he got the updated phone number.

 

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