#025.52 reference work

Patron: “Can I ask a dumb question?” 

Me: “Of course! There are no dumb questions!” 

Patron: “All right…what does ‘multi’ mean?” 

Me: “Oh, it means multiple. So a multi-use tool has multiple different uses.” 

Patron: “Right. But how many exactly? Does it mean one or two or three, or what?” 

Me: “Well, it means more than one.” 

A patron approached me at the desk.

Patron: “I’m looking for the U.S. Embassy in the U.S.”  Me: “Do you mean the U.S. Embassy in another country?” Patron: “No, no! There must be one here. I need the address and phone number so I can call them.” Me: “Well, the State Department may be the agency to call. But I can help you look for another country’s embassy in Washington D.C.”   Patron: “Okay, I’m looking for China, Japan, Africa…” Me: “Which country in Africa?” Patron: “Africa.”  Me [turns computer screen] “Here is a list of the countries in Africa. Is there one you were looking for?” Patron: “Ganya.” Me: “Ghana? I can find that.”

The following is a conversation I had with a middle-schooler and her mom.

Mom: “So my daughter needs a multicultural book for her school project.”

Me: “Okay, what culture?”

Mom: “Multi-cultural.”

Me: “Hmm. Okay...” [turns to middle schooler] “Name a country you would like to visit.”

Daughter: “Hawaii!”

Me: “Well, that’s a state in the USA which is a country. Name a country other than the USA you want to visit.”

Daughter: “EUROPE!”

Me: “Europe is a continent which is a group of countries. How about Germany…or Spain…or Ita-”

Daughter: “ITALY!”

Me: “Great! I’ll look up some books on Italy for you.”

I was shelving some books when a six-year-old girl came up to me and asked: 

Patron: “What decides what is separated into mature fiction and regular fiction?”

Me [in my head]: Umm...we have mature fiction? Is that what the kids call erotica these days?  Me [out loud]: “Can you show me what you mean?”

He pointed to the “M FICTION” on the call number label of a book.

Me [answering phone]: “Reference Desk, may I help you?”

Woman: “Hi, I would like to know about treadmills.”

Me: “Are you looking to purchase a treadmill, or looking for more information about them?”

Woman: “Well I need to know if an electric treadmill has to be plugged in to work.” 

Me: “Yes, if your treadmill runs on electricity, it must be plugged in to work properly.” 

Patron: “Do you have a book by someone named Márquez? I think it’s pretty famous and had a movie made about it: Love in the Time of Chocolate?

Me: “I think you’re looking for Love in the Time of Cholera.”