Reference Survey Recap: Days 1 - 7
Submitted by jrollman on Fri, 04/01/2016 - 09:35
Reference Questions: 6,120
Non-Reference Questions: 10,149
Questions by Library
Questions per Interaction
Reference Questions
Non-Reference Questions
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Comments
Hiya. The previous graphic representation was a bit clearer. With the reference and non-reference as separate bars...in my ohhpinion. Thanks for the data though! =)
You got it! Thanks for commenting!
I'm still holding out hope that we'll have some sort of a "Best Questions Received During Reference Survey" contest:
"Does this look like cancer?"
"I need a photo of an angel."
"Do you have a copy of the Steve Guttenburg Bible?"
Make it happen, Metro. Make. It. Happen.
One of my favorites (although not during this survey) was, "I'm looking for guts." Had to use all my reference interview skills to get to the bottom of that one. ;-)
Also, I was asked a while back, "Can you find something even if I don't know if it exists?" How existential. LOL.
One of my favorite reference questions of all time was "Do you know if the makers of Chef Boyardee was in league with Satan."
I could not find any information that would confirm or deny it. I guess he just took his chances with the Spaghetti-O's.
My favorite reference question was "Are any of your CDs compact discs?"
I'm surprised the DL numbers are so low. I just assumed people were sitting around in their boxers trolling "Ask a Librarian" all day long!
Should I be pleased with humanity or disappointed?
Forgive me, what does "DL" stand for? Digital Library?
Yes, DL represents Digital Library.
I think the best reference question I've ever had was a young man who wanted a copy of the actual vocal transcript of the conversation between Lee and Grant at the surrender. we told him the press didn't get an invite to that one.
The second one was someone wanted an actual photo of a dinosaur, not a drawing.
According to the pie charts there is still the need for live, flesh-and-blood staffing to handle the questions of our customers.
My favorite was for pictures of unicorns. I found several and kept showing my customer more, but he rejected all of them. His objection was that he was an artist, along with his sons, and they only wanted the realistic ones.
I was once asked if the library carried a Directory of Whores. I said we did not have such a resource but thought if he checked with his local police station, they might be able to help him.