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

Re:Duh.

[gigaherz]

It doesn't need to be. It's still a history lesson. Not many young people would know that in the past you'd actually call a library to ask them questions. Heck, I'm 30 and I would have never considered calling them!

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.

Re:Library Science was and is a true profession

[drinkypoo]

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

Hotels are older than schools. Maybe the hoteliers should teach the schools a thing or two, such as how to run within budget. Hint: reduce administrative staff, everyone needs to do actual work

Dream analysis:

[fahrbot-bot]

What does it mean when you dream of being chased by an elephant?

That you're Hillary Clinton running for President in 2016.

Re: Duh.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm over 40 and while in junior HS my friends and I who couldn't yet drive and didn't have convenient public transit to the library would make a friendly game of calling the librarian on duty in our town's library. We might, once a week, when it would have been slow, think of an aspect of a topic about which we were arguing or a subject we were attempting to understand, and IFF it would require a smart person who knew how to research fewer than five minutes we'd call. Part of the fun was having a public servant almost magically come back with an answer.

They were mostly smart and skilled at what they did. It was even more fun when they said in a surprised tone, "that's a really good question. I'll try to find out." Of course, sometimes they would come back with some information about the reference material and say it wasn't clear that the authors agreed on an answer. Sometimes they couldn't find anything. As often as not they had pretty useful information.

Venomous vs. poisonous

[SpaghettiPattern]

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

Re:No answer for this?

[fahrbot-bot]

"How do I hide a dead body?"

Prop it up at a desk in Congress; no one will ever notice...

Sears & Roebuck?

[Mateorabi]

Of course nowadays the question one-level-up from that might be "Where can I get a Sears & Roebuck catalog?" to which the answer is amazon.com, funny enough.