Comments on: Reference Question of the Week – 9/9/12

By: AKS

AKS — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 18:21:19 +0000

This is great! I actually discovered that I wanted to be a librarian while working for a state statistics office. Helping people find the right information got me excited. And still does.

By: Brian Herzog

Brian Herzog — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:57:27 +0000

@SAL Fan: thank you – although hopefully this isn’t too unusual. But on some of these tough questions, it ends up being a personal quest for me to get an answer, in addition to helping the patron.

@Former: I noticed that too, and it makes a huge difference. Holyoke is about 40,000, Lawrence about 70,000, while North Adams has about 14,000 residents (although I don’t know if teen girls is a consistent percentage or not). Also, I didn’t notice how many communities are below the state average – thank you for pointing that out, that is amazing.

By: Former Library Director

Former Library Director — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 13:47:22 +0000

First, I love the photo! *Juno* is a favorite movie of mine and my wife’s.

I used to live in Massachusetts, and find the list presented fascinating! One statistical fact jumps out is the mix of different sized communities in the top 25. Adjusting for population sure makes a difference, and only a few births can make a small community rank high on the list. It is also interesting that 24 communities are above the state average. My recollection is that there are something like 359 cities and towns in Massachusetts. That means that there are 325 below the average. A social worker would look to see what those communities which are well below the average are doing that the higher ranked communities are not.

By: Swiss Army Librarian Fan

Swiss Army Librarian Fan — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 19:42:09 +0000

Wow ! I seriously wish I could work with you, would be so great to be able to learn from you (I’ll definitively let you know as soon as we have an opening here, ha!). I also sincerely admire your perseverance ! How many librarians would have given up after the second call ?
When I get transferred from one office to the other (especially with gov. administration), and spoke to a dozen different specialists, I usually go as far as forgetting what the patron’s question was in the first place…(unfortunately true fact, but luckily questions are always written or sort of scribbled down somewhere, which saves the day…).
In my opinion, we should dig as deep as we can for our patrons, simple professionalism, but what do you tell the patron (and how?) if you couldn’t find the info ? How do librarians go about that ? I’m always uncomfortable in that situation and just never know what to say