Librarian Ire

Reference Suicide?

I don't know why we don't have more hare-kari incidents here. There are at least 2 librarians who would drive me to desperate acts. These are the folks you do NOT want to get. I have never seen them answer a question in under an hour. They either do not possess the fine-art of reference assistance, or their lives have such little entertainment they insist upon co-opting others. I'm guessing the later.

What's even worse? On 2 occasions - thus far, I have gotten to "take over" these death interviews. Both times I'm wondering what in the hell was going on before I came because they were both pretty cut-and-dry. One was the simple "I need to write a paper on such-and-such and I wanted to know a few databases to go to for articles." Ok - that's a 30 second answer. Hey, I can even go so far as to take you into the database, demonstrate searching, looking at records, and saving the damn thing; Provide you with a list of further search terms and send you on your way in 10 minutes. I'll admit, the second time was a little trickier - they were looking for information on external air temperature thermometers in cars. However, the bottom line of that one was contacting a dealership or trying for manual specs b/c there weren't any articles. So, I went at the search raw - b/c I wasn't provided with anything from the deadwood - and gave it an indepth try in under 30 minutes.

But for all of this - what I really don't understand is why the heck these people stick around that long??!! I'd get up an leave. Just UP - OUT.

posted by Loki at 4:12 PM