Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Reference Questions?

Being a librarian, I get my share of reference questions. These range from the usual, kind of information searching questions to the bizarre. I've had two very weird phone conversations today:

The first one went something like this:

Me: "North Liberty Library, this is Elaine."
Patron: "Yea, I want to know what vegetables you have there."
Me: "Vegetables? Well, we don't sell vegetables here, sir......."
Patron: "Well, don't you have something where you can get different vegetables?"

(Ahhhh haaaa. This guy is asking about the Farmer's Market)

Me: "There is a Farmer's Market, every Sunday, from 1-4pm, in the back parking lot."
Patron: "Yes, that is what I needed to know! Have a good day!"

The second call went something like this:

Me: "North Liberty Library, this is Elaine."
Patron: "Yes, this is Jane Doe, and the last time I returned books at the library, I may have returned one of my own books. But I don't remember the title of it."
Me: "I can look in the lost and found and see if there are any books......" (rustle through lost and found box.) "No, no books in there."
Patron: "If I did return it, what would you have done with it?"
Me: Well, it probably would have gone into our book sale, but without the title, there's really no way of finding it." (Seriously, are you kidding me?)
Patron: "Ok, then. Thank you."

Just a day in the life.....

2 comments:

Annie Jeffries said...

the patron probably believed that the princess could spin straw into gold too. LOL

Jason and Janelle said...

Strange, strange people! The first one I can somewhat understand if he was a hick or someone who is a little out of touch with the real world..But the second one?! C'mon!!! What the heck? LOL
Strange people gives us something to talk about, I guess, and possibly makes the day go faster. Thanks for sharing!