Reference Question of the Week – 2/8/09
February 14th, 2009
At my library, one of the phones on the Reference Desk is a cordless phone, so that we can still answer the phone while we're away from the desk.
I answered it while in the stacks one morning, and an older woman asks:
Patron: Can I ask you the definition of a word?
Me: Sure [as I scurry back to the desk and the safety of our ready-reference and access to an online spell checker]
Patron: Good, thank you, it's spelled l-o-c-as-in-cat-a-v-as-
Me: [just arriving at the desk and trying to write the word out] I'm sorry, did you say B as in boy?
Patron: -in-victory-o-r-e-as-in-easter. No, an E not a P
This actually went on for some time, and by the time I was sure I had the right spelling, I had so many scribbles and crossings-out on my scrap paper that I didn't recognize the word. I said I'd check the dictionary, and the patron said she'd already checked two dictionaries and couldn't find it.
So while I was looking it up, I asked her where she'd seen the word. She said it was in the caption to a photograph in the newspaper. I didn't see it in my dictionary either, so typed it into Google.
Even as I was typing l-o-c-a-v-o-r-e, it didn't dawn on me what it was until I saw the search results.
When I explained to her that, just as a herbivore eats only plants, a locavore is a person that eats only local food, she was delighted - both to learn a new word, and also that a made-up word would appear in the newspaper.
Having a cordless phone is nice, but maybe I should try to talk the library into getting iPhones so that we can answer questions like this in the stacks without having to rush back to the desk - sort of roving reference in a holster.
February 14th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
We tried it, pre-iPhone admittedly, and it was violently resisted by the staff. We bought four at $2000 a piece. They lost one. They dropped another in water. The final two sat in cupboards until we went to retrieve them.
I would LOVE to implement iPhones in our libraries however we just can’t afford that kind of wastage.
February 16th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
This post made me smile, Brian. Thanks for sharing the humorous element to Roving Reference.
Where I live we call them “localvores“, which raises the question: When a new/slang word is being developed, at what point does the spelling and definition become standardized?
February 17th, 2009 at 12:07 am
@Kath: Honestly, I myself am not sold on roving reference – at least, not for my library.
@Sarah: English seems fluid enough that it’s never really standardized, just accepted – although Oxford and Merrian-Webster might disagree. In the meantime, Urban Dictionary and Wikipedia usually allow consensus by democracy to chose a winner(s). Or, it’s decided by the print media and everyone else just goes with it. I, however, prefer to make up my own words.