Comments on: Reference Question of the Week – 5/22/11 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/28/reference-question-of-the-week-52211/ or, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fear and Loathing at a Public Library Reference Desk Sat, 18 May 2013 18:29:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Brian Herzog http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/28/reference-question-of-the-week-52211/#comment-2757 Brian Herzog Wed, 01 Jun 2011 11:30:06 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2016#comment-2757 @sli: unfortunately, yes. Worse still, she’s one of our regulars. She’s usually very appreciative after you find whatever she’s looking for, but fairly brusque with the initial question.

@sfer: very true – one thing I learned repeatedly in library school is that you need to listen to what the patron means, despite what they’re saying.

]]> By: sfer http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/28/reference-question-of-the-week-52211/#comment-2751 sfer Tue, 31 May 2011 15:58:57 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2016#comment-2751 … which goes to show that sometimes my husband’s theory (he’s also a librarian) is right: never trust patrons. They will CATEGORICALLY AFFIRM that they ARE 100% SURE that the author’s name is such and such, or the title such and such, or the publisher such and such, or the date such and such. No matter how sure they are, they might be making a mistake… and you might be losing your time just because you believe blindly on what they say. Dr. House is right: people lie all the time, even when they don’t know they are!!

]]> By: sli http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/28/reference-question-of-the-week-52211/#comment-2749 sli Mon, 30 May 2011 21:14:48 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2016#comment-2749 wow, was the patron really THAT rude?

]]> By: Brian Herzog http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/28/reference-question-of-the-week-52211/#comment-2742 Brian Herzog Sun, 29 May 2011 01:25:44 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2016#comment-2742 @Kniffler & @Brandy: I agree, and I’m actually a bit worried that this is going to turn into some personal challenge: how obscure of a phrase can I use and still find the right result? Hmm.

But I guess this is one drawback to Google Books and the idea of everything-online: the bigger the pool gets, the fewer unique phrases there will be – especially with all the historical texts, and the millions of modern articles and blog posts and tweets, etc. Maybe “statistically improbable phrases” is just a window we can enjoy right now, but which will be replaced with something else once the improbability of any given phrase levels out due to sheer volume.

]]> By: Brandy Stillman http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/28/reference-question-of-the-week-52211/#comment-2740 Brandy Stillman Sat, 28 May 2011 17:56:34 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2016#comment-2740 Kniffler I agree. I got the idea from Amazon’s “statistically improbable phrases.” I have found many a song from the unique bits of lyrics, and caught several plagiarizers too.

]]> By: Kniffler http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/28/reference-question-of-the-week-52211/#comment-2738 Kniffler Sat, 28 May 2011 15:48:33 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2016#comment-2738 If you have a sample of the text you’re looking for, searching for sample low-probability phrases is the best thing ever. It’s why the ability to do a full-text search is exponentially better than just a keyword search.

It’s especially useful for sourcing things where the thing they will be indexed by is the thing you’re trying to identify: mystery song lyrics, unsourced screenshots, unattributed quotations, etc.

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