Librarians: The Google Before Google

An anonymous reader writes NPR has an article about the questions people ask librarians. Before the internet, the librarian was your best bet for a quick answer to anything on your mind. "We were Google before Google existed," NYPL spokesperson Angela Montefinise explains. "If you wanted to know if a poisonous snake dies if it bites itself, you'd call or visit us." The New York Public Library in Manhattan recently discovered a box of old reference questions asked by patrons and plans to release some in its Instagram account. Here are a few of the best:

• I just saw a mouse in the kitchen. Is DDT OK to use? (1946)
• What does it mean when you dream of being chased by an elephant? (1947)
• Can you tell me the thickness of a U.S. Postage stamp with the glue on it? Answer: We couldn't tell you that answer quickly. Why don't you try the Post Office? Response: This is the Post Office. (1963)
• Where can I rent a beagle for hunting? (1963)

Comments

Library Science was and is a true profession

[kriston]

Library Science was and is a true profession with a true college degree.

So is Hotel Management, now sometimes known as Hospitality and Hotel Management.

Venomous vs. poisonous

[SpaghettiPattern]

Poisonous snakes poison you when you eat them. Venomous snakes poison you when they bite you.

Re:Stamps?

[drinkypoo]

But then the question just becomes "where can I buy a vernier caliper?". It's not like they had amazon.com either, and I doubt it was in the Sears & Roebuck catalog.

It was in the Sears & Roebuck catalog. The fashion today is to underestimate just how great S&R was back in the day, because Sears is so godawful terrible today, but you really could get pretty much anything from S&R. You could get a doorknob, for example, and a house to go with it.