Archives for Reference Question:
May 5th, 2012 Brian Herzog
I always feel bad when I can't find an answer for a patron, but can still be amused by the situation. One afternoon, an older woman walked up to the desk and asked for help finding reviews of floor mops.
It took me a second to register this - and immediately I was skeptical that we'd be able to find anything at all.
We started with Consumer Reports magazine and their online database. We found reviews of steam mops, but not the old-style floor mop that she was looking for.
Next we tried Amazon and other online review places for "wet floor mops" and other descriptors, and there were lots of the Swiffer-type mops, but again, not what she was looking for. The only thing that came close was the (appropriately-named) Libman Wonder Mop.
She was disappointed, but wasn't surprised, and I really liked the way she expressed this:
Well, I guess it makes sense that something as fancy as the internet doesn't care about mundane things like an old-fashioned floor mop.
In the end, she just decided to go to the hardware store and ask them which they liked - and as long as it was light enough for her to use, it would be good enough.
I was impressed that she was willing to put this much effort into just a minor purchase - but if you mop a lot, I don't suppose it's all that minor after all. Not finding anything for her really made me want to go to the store with her to keep helping, but I hope the hardware store people find something for her.
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Posted under Library, Reference Question | 4 Comments »
April 28th, 2012 Brian Herzog
A friend of mine from library school, who now works in a library in Northeastern Ohio, told me about an interesting reference transaction that is worth sharing here:
On a recent Monday, a customer approached me with a stack of paperbacks from another library. We don’t carry many, preferring to stock our fiction shelves with hardcovers and replacing with paperbacks only when necessary, so I assumed he wanted to order some more. Instead, he said, “I don’t think W.E.B. Griffin really wrote these books. I would like to know who did.”
The question took me by surprise. “I’ve read all of his books,” the customer insisted, “and these aren’t like his other ones. I want you to let everyone know that he didn’t write them. Including this other library that I got them from.”
My friend knew, which I did not, that Griffin was currently writing his books with a co-author (his son, William E. Butterworth IV). The titles in question were from Griffin’s early writing career though, so she searched Fantastic Fiction and NoveList but could find no evidence that Griffin hadn't written the books himself.
Her mind went to the same place mine did: James Frey, The Last Train from Hiroshima, and the many other book hoaxes and fake memoirs that have been identified.
My friend is a writer, and she explained to the patron that the difference could be attributed to the author’s age, his style changing over time, and the influence of his son’s writing style. I thought this too, and it reminded me of an NPR story of someone applying textual analysis to Agatha Christie's books. They found that, although never acknowledged in real life, the vocabulary and writing style of her last book seems to indicate that she was suffering from Alzheimer's when she wrote it.
The patron seemed satisfied with her explanation, although he still wanted my friend to “let the other libraries know” - she felt a responsibility to the patron to do so, but just wasn't sure how.
We have had this same discussion in my library, most recently with The Last Train from Hiroshima. We discussed putting a note in the catalog record, a label on the book itself, or shelving it in fiction, but ultimately just sent it back to the publisher. In a cut-and-dry case such as that, I think it'd be okay. But in this case, with just a single patron's suspicions, I don't think there can possibly be any library responsibility here.
Finding out a non-fiction book is false is one thing - just one person suspecting an author of a fiction book didn't actually write is entirely different. My friend went on to say that if the patron had kept pushing, she would have found contact information for the author and publisher, so the patron could contact them directly. I agree - I don't think we can investigate claims like this, but we certainly can handle them once they've been proven. In this particular case, I think my friend did the right thing - made the patron happy.
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Posted under Books, Library, Reference Question | 1 Comment »
April 21st, 2012 Brian Herzog
One evening this week, a patron walked up to the desk and said,
Can you find me a website to adopt a cat? But not a real cat.
What he wanted was an online virtual pet. I had never looked for this before, but a search for adopt a cyber cat returned lots of results.
We looked at a few sites*, but he ultimately chose adoptme.com, because it had the best graphics. For the next forty-five minutes, he sat at the computer playing and chatting with it, and every once in awhile he'd come up to the desk to tell us something the cat did or said.
But the last time was the funniest: he came up and said, "the cat said I talk too much." Maybe he exhausted the repertoire of the artificial intelligence of the program that responds to chat messages, and that was how the program forced the conversation to end.
He wasn't deterred though - he left, saying he couldn't wait to come back the next day to play with the cat some more.
*One that didn't make the cut, but made me laugh, was
virtualkitty.com. Their
Create an Account screen included this field:
Pick an Emergency Web Address (URL):
(You will be sent to this address if you click the special emergency button while playing with your cat. We recommend your company website, or something business related, in case you need it to look like you are working on something else.)
Tags: adopt, adoption, cat, cyber, libraries, Library, online, pet, public, virtual, website
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Posted under Library, Reference Question | 1 Comment »
April 14th, 2012 Brian Herzog
This reference question marks the unofficial start of blood-borne pathogen season:
A patron called Monday morning and said he had been bitten by a tick Sunday while hiking, and wanted to have it tested for Lyme Disease.
He knew he could mail it to UMass-Amherst for testing, but wanted to know if there was a more local testing facility, so he could get results quicker. I didn't know of anything, so before consulting our Town's Board of Health, I just searched for tick testing massachusetts to see what came up.
The first result was a Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services listing of the testing services they trust - perfect. Only one was closer than UMass, but still not close enough for him to drop it off. It was $20 per tick, as opposed to the $40 UMass charges, and although the patron liked the cheaper price, he decided to go with UMass. They do their testing on Tuesday, so if he overnighted it, he'd get results quickly - besides, he said, he had already filled out the envelope before he called me.
Before we hung up, I offered to contact our local Board of Health to see if they knew of any services in the immediate area. He said they already did - it was they that told him about the testing at UMass, and they also referred him to the library if he wanted to look for more.
Ha. It makes me laugh when the resource I would consider the authority on a subject refers people to the library. It's always good to check multiple sources, but referral-looping like that makes me feel like I'm missing something.
And on another note: it's only April, and the ticks are already out in force and biting. Man, it's going to be a long summer.
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Posted under Library, Reference Question | 1 Comment »
April 7th, 2012 Brian Herzog
One night this week, a father brought his eight year old daughter to the desk, along with her new laptop and Nook Touch, and asked that I show her how to download ebooks. This was, hands down, the most interesting ebook instruction I've ever given.
Happily, everything went smoothly - usually the biggest hurdle is actually finding an ebook the patron is interested in downloading, but in this case, there were quite a few kids books that caught her eye (she struggled to decide between Junie B. Jones Has a Peep in Her Pocket and Barbie and the Three Musketeers).
We checked out and downloaded one, but when it came time to transfer it to the Nook, the father realized that he had left the Nook's cable out in the car. The daughter stayed at the desk with me while he ran out to get in. While we were waiting, I asked the girl if she had any homework to do that night.
She said she had expanding math to do, which they were just learning and she really didn't understand. I told her I had never heard of "expanding math" before (which was true), and asked her if she could show me. We got some scrap paper and a pencil, and the practice problem she came up with was 104 - 57. She explained it as she worked it out, and when she was finished the paper looked something like this:
| 104 |
= |
10090 |
+ |
0 |
+ |
14 |
|
|
| - 57 |
= |
0 |
+ |
50 |
+ |
7 |
|
|
|
| |
|
90 |
+ |
0 |
+ |
7 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
50 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
40 |
+ |
7 |
= |
47 |
This seemed slightly over-complicated, but I was able to follow her, and she actually explained it quite well. I had just never heard it called "expanding math," I guess. But when her father came back, his reaction made me laugh. He just stared at the paper, and commented that he's never seen her doing homework like that.
Anyway, cable in hand, we were back to ebooks. We plugged in the Nook, transferred the ebook with no problem, and they were delighted to see the text and pictures on the Nook's color screen. They went through the whole process again, this time downloading Go, Dog. Go! for her little brother, and again, everything worked smoothly.
The dad reminded the girl that she had homework, and said it was time to go. He started putting the Nook away, and told her to pack up the laptop. When she clicked Start > Shut Down, I overheard this exchange:
Father: Oh, you don't need to shut it all the way down, just put it to sleep.
Daughter: I don't like putting it to sleep.
Father: Why not?
Daughter: [leaning over and whispering] Sometimes it has bad dreams.
Again, a puzzled look on the dad's face, but mixed with a little humor, because it was a random and funny comment.
After they finished packing everything up, the only thing left on the desk was the scrap paper with the girl's math problem on it. The dad picked it up to take with him, saying,
Father: Come on, it's time for you to teach me how to do your homework.
And they walked away from the reference desk holding each other's hand.
All in all, this was one of the most ridiculously saccharin slice-of-family-life scenes I have witnessed at the library. The bad dreams comment kind of bothered me, but hopefully they will bond while doing her homework together.
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Posted under Library, Reference Question | 9 Comments »
April 1st, 2012 Brian Herzog
This isn't exactly a reference question, but it is something reference staff deal with all the time. A patron came up to the desk and said,
That man on the last computer over there is looking at porn.
This seems to go in waves for us, but we probably average three or four porn complaints a month. The way we handle this in my library is to print out our Appropriate Library Behavior policy, and highlight the line that says,
The library is a public building and objectionable or pornographic images that can be seen by others (either intentionally or accidentally, and either on screen on in print) are not permissible.
I then give it to the patron in question, while at the same time saying something like, "another patron complained about something they saw on your screen. Since this is a public building, you must make sure that anything on your screen is appropriate for all ages."
At least, this is how we handle first-time offenders - we don't accuse them of anything, we don't kick them out, we just make it clear that anything they do must be clean enough for kids and the general public. We approach it this way because porn isn't illegal, but very subjective, and just not something we can allow at the library.
But it got me thinking: there are other things the library can't accommodate, for one reason or another: color photocopying, notary service, etc. In these cases, we have little handouts at the reference desk that list other locations in town that can accommodate those needs.
So, I thought, why don't we also make a handout for the porn people, listing other places in the area that cater to Adult Services? Here's what I came up with:
From now on, whenever a patron complains about someone looking at porn, in addition to giving them a copy of the official library policy, I'm also going to give them one of these handouts - that way, we're maintaining our yes-based policy and fulfilling a core library function by referring them to the most appropriate resource.
It's formatted to print three per page - feel free to download and edit one for your library [ppt], or check out the PDF version.
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Posted under Library, Random, Reference Question, Service | 14 Comments »
