[Publib] Reference Questions

[Judith Turner]

We used to get a lot of questions that were actually intended for the Milwaukee Public Library.  Even though our voice mail answered the phone with a message giving our hours (M-F, 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m) and MPL's Ready Reference phone number, it was a rare Monday morning that we didn't find a message or 2 asking for help with weekend homework assignments. I could only hope the callers tried  calling again and listened to the message on the second attempt.

Since the Museum and the Library had shared a building from the 1890's to 1963, older residents and former residents called Directory Assistance and specifically asked for the "Museum Library" and that was us. This resulted in lots of calls where the caller and library staff laughed about after we explained we were the natural history museum across the street.  We gave them the phone number for the library dept. they were trying to reach.  

Every now and then people arrived in person after talking their way through Museum Security and taking an escorted ride on the keyed elevator to the 4th floor.  They'd look around, slightly stunned, and ask for today's NY Times or where to pick up the new book they'd put on hold.  We'd give them directions, including a reminder to drop the visitor pass off at the front desk. 

One of my favorite funny reference desk questions happened to a friend of mine.  He was working at the archives reference desk when he was approached by a student looking for Brown Deer tax rolls.  Upon inquiring further, it turned out the student was writing a paper on brown deer for a zoology class and when she entered "brown deer" as a search term she wound up with the tax rolls in the University Archives.  She did think it a bit odd that brown deer were taxed.

Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI

"Donna Noble has left the library. Donna Noble has been saved." ---- "Silence in the Library"  (Doctor Who, Season 4, Ep. 8)  


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20081202/7b1d9318/attachment.htm