Humorous (to us) reference questions
Eileen Lefelhocz
In a medium-sized public library a high school student quite seriously
asked where the source "Footnotes" was. She was astounded that I had
never heard of it since everyone used it. When she told me what her
assignment was and that it was -yellow- I pointed her to the shelf with
Cliff's Notes although I must say I was surprised that I hadn't picked up
on her request a little earlier.
Virginia F. Moreland
And my favorite, from years ago in a college nursing library:
Patron, generally pointing toward the stacks, "Ah, excuse me, but are the
books arranged in any particular order?"
I was "only" an LAII at the time and I sure knew it was funny. We enjoyed
thinking of replies for days. e.g.: "No, they are completely random; or
yes, they are arranged by color of binding and sub-arranged by size; etc."
(The patron was not really that ignorant, of course, just an unfortunate
choice of wording. But we take our chuckles where we can get them.)
Linda Fortney
Catherine
Re finding the article by Williams in JAMA--when faced with this
kind of question, picture yourself as OZ the Great and Powerful,
wave your hand and the infor will automatically appear.
Try it, it works. I have found "the green book the other librarian
gave me yesterday that is about science."
Happy Tuesday
Maggie Exon
I once had a lady ask me for help in clarifying a reference. She had
a rather old book, the text of which contained a quote, helpfully
accompanied by a superscript number. At the bottom of the page were
the words:
1. Public Record Office
Anyone who has ever tried to access that vast collection of nine
hundred years of British history will appreciate the joke.
Maggie Exon, Senior Lecturer, School of Information and Library
Studies, Curtin University of Technology, PO Box U1987, Perth, 6001,
Western Australia. Phone (09) 351 7215; Fax (09) 351 3152
email: mag...@biblio.curtin.edu.au
nin...@athena.mit.edu
My favorite, from a music library:
"I heard the most marvelous piece of music on the radio on my way to
work this morning. I didn't catch the title or the composer's name,
but it had a violin in it, I think. Can you help me find it?"
PS The patron did not remember which station he'd been listening to,
either.
Nina Davis-Millis
MIT Humanities Library
David Tyckoson
I don't want to put the breaks on "humorous" reference questions,
but I do want all of us to remember that these questions are usually
only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the patron actually is seeking.
We all know that patrons do not state their questions precisely, but try
to phrase them in such a way that they will fit into their ideas of what
the library might provide. Thus, instead of asking for information on
a topic, they ask where the magazines are because in their minds the
answer to their topic (which remains unexpressed to us) is found in
a magazine. One of the biggest challenges of reference work is to
explore for the real question without challenging the sanity/integrity/
etiquette/etc. of the patron.
My favorite example of this was a question from a student who
asked in these exact words:
"Do you know my where grandmother is?"
This was not a joke and not at all funny to her (although I do confess that
we were amused at the reference desk). What she really wanted was to get
the address and zip code for her grandmother to send a card. The
question was legit, but the student was unfamiliar with using large
libraries and had no idea how to express the need. I will leave it up
to you to try and determine what your follow-up question might be in
this situation. As it turned out, her grandmother had retired and moved
to Albuquerque and we were able to use the phone book and zip code
directory and satisfy her needs.
I bring this up because I will be filling in for Bill Katz this
summer (shoes that will be impossible to fill) and will be teaching
his beginning reference class. One of the areas that I will be
concentrating on is the area of interpersonal communication and behavior
at the reference desk. These "humorous" questions will make good
examples, but let's not forget that there is usually a real information
need lurking beneath the surface.
David Tyckoson
Head, Reference Department
University at Albany - SUNY
Fran E. Rich
> And my favorite, from years ago in a college nursing library:
>
> Patron, generally pointing toward the stacks, "Ah, excuse me, but are the
> books arranged in any particular order?"
>
Don't laugh! :-) In my role as library consultant I once dealt with a
small town library whose director had arranged the books on each shelf by
size. She thought it made the library look much neater. Problem was . . .
Another of my favorite stories is the poor fellow who called the library
wanting a definition of the word "consumate", in reference to a marriage. My
colleague who took the call started by reading the dictionary definition.
He didn't quite understand so she tried paraphrasing. He *still* didn't
get it. She wound up getting quite graphic before he caught on. Turned
out he had just been served divorce papers, grounds being that the
marriage had never been consumated!
Fran
fr...@tenet.edu
Julie Blake, 5-9857
A couple of my favorites:
Some one called and asked "Do you have any videos of Luciano Pavarotti?"
Perfectly fine question, but this was a law library! Turns out that the
county law library came alphabetically before the county public library, and
the operator kept giving out the wrong number...
Someone else mentioned that often humorous questions are the result of the
patron trying to match their question to what they think we have. Another
problem is that the librarian's assumptions might get in the way. Back when
I was a young and foolish student library assistant, I once had a patron
ask for help in finding material about "reproductive technology". I said,
"sure, no problem" and began to lead him through reams of material on
artificial insemination and so forth. It took us several confused minutes
before he could get across to me that he was looking for stuff on Xeroxc
machines!
Julie Blake
Indiana University
Zane Clark
I have moonlighted for many years at the public library and they get
by far the most unusual and humorous questions. The reference desk
does a lot of telephone questions and I have, among other things, read
over the phone the directions for skinning and cooking a rattlesnake.
I was head of the cirulation department here at the university for
several years and we had a large sign over the desk saying "Loan
Desk." It's not hard to guess that more than one lost soul asked if
this was the place to get financial aid.
--
zane
A. Zane Clark
Library Instruction Coordinator
California State University Fresno
******************************************************************
"The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when they fill out
a job application."
Stanley J. Randall
******************************************************************
Gordon Cochrane
How about a freshman asking about American Royalty. Surely
(you the librarian) have heard of Malcolm the Tenth. (Malcolm X).
Ralph
One of the best questions in the humorous category that I ever had was when
I was a graduate reference assistant at Indiana University. An undergraduate
student called while I was working on the desk and very seriously asked if
we had any translations of Shakespeare in English. He went on to tell me
that he just couldn't understand it unless it was in modern English. Since I
was working on my Masters in Medieval & Renaissance English lit at the time,
I couldn't help but laugh after I got off the phone.
Ralph A. Lowenthal
Psychology/Sociology Librarian
Washington State Univ
Pullman, WA 99164-5610
Bitnet: lowentha@wsuvm1
CHRISTIN%M...@kentvm.kent.edu
CMD
David Tyckoson's point about the "real reference question" lurking
behind the humorous one is important. Often, our favorite humorous
questions do have real questions behind them. I am reminded of two
similar-sounding, but very different questions. One (asked of a
colleague) was "which state has the most square feet of lawn?" The
person had to develop a marketing plan for a sprinkler system as a
class project. The other was "how many square feet of cemetery are
there in the U.S.?" This person was doing a speech supporting
cremation for an introductory speech class. Real questions, and
answerable once we figured out what the person wanted--but they did
give us a chuckle or two.
Christine Whittington
University of Maine
chri...@maine.bitnet or chri...@maine.maine.edu
Bob Rittenhouse
Once a patron asked me for the "green book." In a lucky not necessarily an ESP
response I said "Do you mean the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature?" and
that was the book the person wanted.
nin...@athena.mit.edu
I'm still mulling over yesterday's eloquent and insightful message
regarding how "funny" questions mask preconceptions on the part of
user or librarian or both. You're right, and it's important to keep
that fact fresh in our minds. Your posting reminded me of an
interaction I had at a reference desk early in my career, which
hit me powerfully at the time and has continued to symbolize for me
the many potential pitfalls in this work. A high-school or college
age student asked where the library kept paperback books. She was
pretty insistent, even belligerent, about it; fortunately I was able
to persevere and determine that she was actually looking for a
specific volume of poetry by Langston Hughes. We had it, I helped her
locate it, and she went away happy.
But the incident spooked me because it really captured some pretty
complicated dynamics. Like, why did she phrase her question that way?
Possibly because she'd seen the book somewhere, and thought that if
only I could lead her to a nice rack of paperbacks, she'd recognize
the cover. On the other hand, I've always wondered whether she
perceived the library as a "white" institution which would only have
the work of African-American authors in paper editions (if at all).
And perhaps she perceived the library as a white institution and
myself as a white individual potentially antagonistic to her, an
African-American? I'll never know, but I surely am glad that we found
that book (in a nice, solid hard binding with a very impressive LC
call number on the spine). The lesson I learned was that seemingly
"silly" questions often mask powerful expectations between two human
beings (patron and librarian).
Nina Davis-Millis
Humanities Library, MIT
nin...@athena.mit.edu
San Joaquin Valley Library System
On Fri, 4 Jun 1993 CHRISTIN%MAINE....@KENTVM.KENT.EDU wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> CMD
> David Tyckoson's point about the "real reference question" lurking
> behind the humorous one is important. Often, our favorite humorous
> questions do have real questions behind them.
Hello, Christine.
I'm sorry, but I think both you and David need to lighten up a
bit. We are all bright enough and professional enough to know that
humorous questions mask real and important questions, at least to that
patron, but that doesn't stop them from being funny. I find humor in all
sorts of places, including off topic posts about how serious all we
librarians should be.
I have never met a librarian who laughed in a patron's face, and
that is all that matters.
Jim Maroon
Tulare County Library System
Errol Lam
while we may not "laugh in a patron"s face," we must be honest and laugh with th
e patron every once in a while...
Pat Dewdney
Gill Michell and I have a three-year research grant to do some serious work on "
+ funny" reference questions. We are interested in why people phrase their
+ initialquestions the way they do. We believe that part of the explanation
+ simply has to do with the functions of language (getting a conversation
+ started with a stranger in a public place) and part with mental models that
+ users have of library systems (e.g., the answer will be in one book, the law
+ section is small, the
librarian's job is to know where everything is, like a retail clerk). We are
+ notinterested in humorous questions per se but many funny questions end up in
+ our
classification system (e.g., acoustic failure, mispronunciation, assumptions
+ abouthow the world works-- the marshmallow farm is ideal). We've been taking
+ some
of your examples for analysis-- if you have others of this type, you could send
+ them to us directly. We think this project will help practitioners understand
+ the need for the reference interview and to see the problem (question) from
+ the user's viewpoint.
Pat Dewdney
School of Library and Information Science
University of Western Ontario
Phone: (519) 679-2111 ext. 8506 Fax: (519) 661-3506
..
WAT...@stetson.bitnet
The two best questions I ever got at our law library:
1: Several years ago, a junior college student came in and walked
around looking befuddled. When I asked her if she needed some help
this was the conversation:
her: So, like, umm, have you got laws here?
me: Yes we do, state and federal laws. Which ones do you need?
her: So, like, umm, I'm taking a class in math. Like, do you
have Archimedes' law?
2: My absolute favorite: Again, several years ago, the student
working our front desk handed me a sheet of paper with a name and phone
number on it, and one word: "motherf*!%er". The horror-stricken student
then told me that a very sweet-sounding elderly woman had called and
wanted a definition for a word, and when the student had asked her
what the word was, the woman would only tell her the first part of it
and spell out the rest.
I called the woman back, after I actually found a definition for
it in a slang dictionary (of course, you had to first get past all the
synonyms like motherhumper, mothergrabber, etc.). And she was an
extremely nice woman, who first had to turn down the sound on her
TV becuse she had Jim and Tammy turned up too loud, and then told
me that someone had called her good friend "that word", and they
weren't sure what it was but felt that it meant something really
bad.
My husband still does not believe that this was a real question,
but someone playing a joke. I'm sure the woman was for real - and
I still have, as one of my most treasured souvenirs of my
professional career, the sheet of paper with her name and phone
number on it!
Sally G. Waters, Queen of Reference / "Strange situation -
(waters@stetson) / Wild occupation -
Stetson Univ. College of Law Library / Living my life like a song."
1401 61st St. S. / --Jimmy Buffett
St. Petersburg, FL 33707 /