[Publib] Best reference question ever

[jnicholson at williamson-tn.org]

I remember a good one from my first 2 weeks or so in my very first job.  A patron asked for assistance finding articles about people receiving messages through their dental work.  I had heard of this before, radio signals? so I went off to the reference local area network to look on the database for articles.  I started to realize I was in trouble when he leaned close to my head and asked me if I could hear anything from his dental work.  Then he confided in me that he probably shouldn't have said anything because now 'They' would be after me or something along those lines.  I finally said I needed to ask a co-worker for assistance or something like that.  I'm pretty sure they had told me we shared a building with the county mental health department but I don't think it settled in my head until then.  
 
Jeffie Nicholson
Franklin, TN

>>> "Helen R" <librarylass1959 at gmail.com> 12/1/2008 9:16 AM >>>
I don't know if these qualified as best ever but they were funny.  In a former life I worked as a librarian aide at a community college.  My favorite question was from a young man who was at the college on a sports scholarship.  He came to the library in search of some information - I knew he was in speech class as he had the textbook.  He suffered from a combination of things - he used a lot of slang, had a speech impediment and mumbled horribly when he talked.  So he "asked" me a question....all I got out of it was "mouse."  After he tried to clarify it for me several times we were no closer.  He then drew a picture of mouse ears...I said Mickey Mouse and he nodded yes!  Then he went on to draw a house which confused me but then his face brighten, he got the atlas off the stand and found Florida.  Turns out he wanted to do a report on Disney World.  We found some material (this was before the internet) and he went out happy.
 
The other one was I was listening to a student from Nicaragua practice a demostration speech she had to give (I was sounding board, proofer, tutor, etc to many students) and she kept talking about sewing naked.  After the third time refering to this activity I stopped and asked if naked sewing was what she meant and I described naked sewing.  She blushed horribly and then tried to explain what she meant - turned out to be a "hidden stitch."
 
Helen Rigdon
Branch Manager - Argentine Library
Kansas City Kansas Public Library




 

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