[Publib] Librarian talents

[Backwage at aol.com]

For a long time I worked as an investigator and analyst.  I'd often  take my 
work to the local library for the peace and quiet, and of course for the  
chance to take frequent reading breaks.  I have exceptionally good  hearing.  
That's not a good thing all the time.  I have spent quite a  long time grinding my 
teeth over the responses that librarians give to patron  questions--or the 
non-answers, the substitution of directions for facts, and the  too-frequent 
failure to actually satisfy the request.
 
Case in point:  about a million times I've watched a patron get a  two-word 
response to a complex question, then return later and get excellent  service 
from another librarian at the same desk--or from a clerk.  You ever  see patrons 
ask for a particular librarian?  Guess why.  
 
For a long time I would ask, just for the hell of it, "Is there a  difference 
between the California and federal minimum wages?"  Another  favorite of mine 
was "Whose head is on a dime?"  [so now you know it was me  who asked].  The 
answer to the first is yes, and the actual figure is  easily found, but half 
the time I'd get told that the California Statutes were  over in the corner--a 
huge shelf of laws and regulations, not especially  well-updated, a million 
pages for me to wade through.  And no particular  answer there, of course.  
 
As to the dime question, that's another simple one.  My favorite  answer was 
to be presented with a small slip containing a rough Dewey  number--somewhere 
in the vicinity of the thing, perhaps; another was the advice  to look under 
"money" in the OPAC.  One helpful answer was "I don't  know.  Is it 
Washington?"  And then on to the next patron.  If  you think this is painful, imagine 
asking such folk whether a patent is  current.  
 
If I didn't think that they'd throw something at me, I'd mention a few of  
the really excellent librarians I've worked with over the years--the ones who'd  
cook you a steak if you asked a question about cattle.  Those people  make 
the library.  
 
Experience has taught me:  some people, most of them in fact,  shouldn't work 
at a reference desk.  If you aren't dying to help, you're  killing the 
library.  
 
M. McGrorty, and that's F.D.R.  Washington is that town on the  Potomac, 
right next to Maryland.



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