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[Narrator] Listen to part of a conversation between a librarian and a student.
[Student] Excuse me.
[Librarian] Yes?
[Student] Are you the reference librarian?
[Librarian] Yes. How can I help you?
[Student] Well, I’m looking for a book that compares Great Britain, Australia, Canada, and the
United States.
[Librarian] Okay. What exactly are you trying to compare?
[Student] I’m not quite sure. How about the cost of living?
[Librarian] Oh. Well cost of living is, uh, not very specific. I mean, what aspects of the cost of living
do you need to find? Cost of living is a fairly broad topic.
[Student] It is?
[Librarian] Well, yes. Do you want this for personal information or is it for a class?
[Student] It’s for my economics class.
[Librarian] Unhuh.
[Student] With Professor Brooks.
[Librarian] Oh, okay. Well, do you just need numbers... or is it a report... a narrative?
[Student] Just the numbers. I’m supposed to make a chart. It canbe either a pie chart or a bar  Q39
graph. And I have to have some demographic information, you know, in order to do the
chart.
[Librarian] So you want a general comparison. I’m trying to imagine what you’ll put on the graph.
[Student] Well, I’m not too clear about that. I was thinking I might make several graphs, you know,
one for each country, with the cost of basic things on it, and then I could compare the
graphs.
[Librarian] Was that the assignment? Maybe if you could explain the assignment to me...
[Student] Okay. I, uh, I have it right here... somewhere. Just a minute  Okay, here it is. Uh,  Q36
it says, "make a pie chart or a bar graph with at least four parts. It should be large
enough to share with the class?
[Librarian] That’s it?
[Student] Unhuh. But it’s for an economics class, and we have to be able to explain it to everyone.
So that’s why I was going for the cost of living and my major’s international business
so I was interested in comparing several countries.
[Librarian] But the professor really only asked you for one chart.
[Student] I guess so... but I’m trying to figure out how to compare those countries on one chart
and it’s not that easy.
[Librarian] Okay. Well...
[Student] You think I should just do the one chart then?
[Librarian] It’s usually better to follow the instructions for an assignment unless...
[Student] Oh. Even if it’s more than, uh, more than the professor asked for?
[Librarian] It’s usually better to check with the professor first if you want to change the assignment.  Q37
[Student] Okay then. I guess I need to choose one country and compare several factors for the
one country.
[Librarian] Or, if you want to compare several countries, you probably need to zero in on one factor.
[Student] Yeah.
[Librarian] Like the average income for a family of four or...
[Student] Oh I see  Maybe I could compare the cost of a home.
[Librarian] Right.
[Student] So I could find that in an encyclopedia then.
[Librarian] Well, maybe, but you want current data and I’m not sure that you’d find demographics
on income and home prices in an encyclopedia. Anyway... look, why don’t I show you
where you can find some reference materials in economics? Then, you can browse for
a while. Maybe you’ll find something that sparks an idea. But if you don’t, then just
come back to my desk and I’ll look with you.
[Student] Thanks. That’s great.