There has been a very long email string on PUBLIBS about the best reference questions librarians have ever received.  It’s been both instructive to discover the amazing variety of questions and hilarious to read them.  Any librarian who has spent time on a reference or circulation desk has encountered questions real and surreal. 

Although librarians occasionally have to deal with very stubborn members of the public who refuse to believe or accept what answers those librarians have found for their questions, most reference questions turn out to be pretty straightforward.  Then there are the stumpers and jaw droppers.

These are the ones that librarians talk about on listservs and when they get together at meetings and conferences.  “Is it true that you can get rid of hemmorhoids with a lit cigar?” “I want to move a house across a frozen lake.  How thick must the ice be to do that?” “Is this rash herpes?” “I want to know if you have a map of the underground cannibal network in Johnson City.  My husband is a butcher at the  Grand Union and he knows about it.”

And you thought our job was boring didn’t you?  Just in case you don’t believe me (I’m a librarian and  I always tell the truth), there are two new books out that detail those entertaining slices of library life.  Don Borchert has written Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library and Scott Douglas is the author of Quiet Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian.  Both librarians are from the Los Angeles area and before you say “oh yeah, that makes sense,” you should know that anyone who has worked in an urban or large suburban public library can relate to their stories.  I hope the general public finds these books (check the LOC subject heading!) even if they aren’t an accurate snapshot of every public library in the U.S.  The general public has no clue what it is that librarians do.

Some may think that the authors as well as those who share and swap stories are making fun of the people they serve.  I think that is not the case with the overwhelming majority of librarians.  Just think of how many gears a librarian must shift just to initially handle the questions above.  However, yes, there are times when your shift is over that you go into your office or cubicle and recite your favorite mantra  -  “are you freaking kidding me?”

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