Comments on: Reference Question of the Week – 7/17/11 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/07/23/reference-question-of-the-week-71711/ 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: Oh, dull person, must you annoy me? | The Bad Librarian http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/07/23/reference-question-of-the-week-71711/#comment-3116 Oh, dull person, must you annoy me? | The Bad Librarian Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:12:55 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2199#comment-3116 [...] Reference Question of the Week – 7/17/11 from The Swiss Army Librarian [...]

]]> By: Brian Herzog http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/07/23/reference-question-of-the-week-71711/#comment-3086 Brian Herzog Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:28:10 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2199#comment-3086 @Sharon: I agree – having a tech background helps, but it’s not necessary; I am not much of a cook, but I can help patrons with cooking-related reference questions. It seems with tech questions (which is also somewhat true of medical, govdocs, and questions), some library staff get tense and almost seem to convince themselves that they can’t find and answer.

Also, funny, one of my favorite sayings is, “Reference librarians don’t need to know everything – we just need to know how to find it.”

@Rosemary: System Properties was actually the first place I checked, because I expected it to be there (I blurred out my registration number. I also checked device manager, which is accessible through Properties, but the Processor information there didn’t indicate 32b or 64b. I’m sure different operating systems are different though, so that might be a shortcut that works for some people – thanks,

]]> By: Rosemary http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/07/23/reference-question-of-the-week-71711/#comment-3085 Rosemary Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:55:09 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2199#comment-3085 In case you ever have to find this again (not very likely, I admit), a much easier way is to simply right click on My Computer, or Computer, or whatever it’s called on the particular operating system, and go to properties. It should list the system type there.

]]> By: sharon http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/07/23/reference-question-of-the-week-71711/#comment-3074 sharon Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:33:56 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=2199#comment-3074 The technology librarian at the NH state library gave a presentation about the “technical reference interview” that made me realize that these are just like any other reference question. They require some special knowledge, but so do reference questions about music or business or science & technology. We don’t have to know everything–we just need to know how to find the information that we need.

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