I guess it's just that time of year: with the cold weather finally setting in, there's been a noticeable drop in the number of people coming to the reference desk. As a result, there really weren't any unusual questions this week.

However, I was visited by the sales rep from Thomson-Gale. He dropped by unannounced, but he did not come empty-handed. In addition to sales brochures for their research databases, he brought me a book.

Published by Gale, it is a collection of funny questions that have been asked at reference desks across the country. All of the questions are sent in by librarians (and I think if they use your submission, they'll even pay you). It's called Funny You Should Ask, (in fact, what he gave me was actually the second volume, Return of the Grin) - here are a few examples:

What is the attention span of a fish?

Shauna Good
London Elementary
London, OH

What can I do to stop ghosts coming through the walls and scaring me?

Name withheld

Who invented the bed?

Vernell Craig
Houston Elementary School District
Houston, TX

Do you have a book on coffee tables by Cosmo Kramer?

Delene DelaRosa
Quitman Library
Quitman, TX

Was Pearl Harbor a famous black American? I need to do a report on one.

Gail Faughn
Astoria Park School Media Center
Tallahassee, FL

I don't think this book is available for purchase anywhere. Even according to WorldCat, it is only available in two libraries (one of which is the Supreme Court Library in Little Rock, AR).

But don't despair - if you're interested, you can sign up to receive funny questions in a weekly email. These are new submissions from librarians, and when Gale compiles enough of them, they'll publish volume 3.

gale, humor, libraries, library, reference question, reference questions, thomson-gale

Posted under Uncategorized on Saturday, January 20th, 2007 at 11:07 am, by Brian Herzog. Post and comments available via the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.