Plagued by reference questions…
on Oct 16 in ALA, Avenging, Librarianship by Erica Firment
I haven’t worked at a reference desk for almost ten years, but I still get reference questions.
I’m convinced that Librarians and Library Workers have some sort of radiant askability that compels people to ask us stuff. Like this confused gentleman here:
I’m looking for photos of ‘The Avengers’…
Alas, my friend, it’s Librarian Avengers, not Avengers Librarian. I could sell you some photos of our cats, if it’ll help. They, too, wear catsuits.
Related posts:
- That Reference Compulsion
- Reference Challenge!
- How librarians talk when they think no one is looking
I agree with you about the “radiant askability” – I recall that someone asked me where the university hospital was on my first (maybe second) day in Ann Arbor. (The scary thing is that I knew the answer.)
My favorite are the patrons, who happen to know my home number, calling me at the house to ask if I can get phone numbers for them.
Once I called a patron about a book. I asked his roommate for him, not saying who I was, and still I heard his roommate yell “there’s a librarian on the phone for you.”
Amen to the “radiant askability” factor! I have been in bookstores (or even the supermarket, of all places) and people will ask me where things are. My friends tell me that I just look like I know everything.
“Radiant askability” is a nice description!
I cannot set foot out of the door or people are asking me for directions … I think I suffer from radiant askability combined with an air of trustworthiness. :-)
It’s that damn look of helpfulness that is permanently affixed along our eyebrow region. That raised sort of “may I help you?” forehead scrunch. An overdeveloped facial muscle.
And we tend to look fairly non-threatening.
Unfortunately, the last questioning soul was too late in spying my triple bar nunchucks tucked into my bookbag.
I’ve always referred to it as the ‘Ask Me’ Aura. People ask me stuff in the grocery store too. Not only where items are, but how to choose a good one and what’s a good way to prepare it. :-)