14 posts tagged “reference question”

Haven't talked about this in a while. Here's one from today, where I learned something, and got to talk about music I like:

Guest (Customer): what is a good rock song

Me: Welcome, ____. I'm looking at your question right now; it will be just a moment.

Guest (Customer): ok

Me: Wow- that is an interesting question. I think you could ask 1,000 different people, and they would give you 1,000 different answers! It's all a matter of opinion.

Guest (Customer): in your opinion

Me: I think I found something from Billboard. Just a moment.

Me: URL > http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/top-rock.shtml

Me: Are you looking for a classic rock song, or a current one?

Guest (Customer): screamo type

Me: To be honest, I don't think I really listen to screamo bands.

Me: URL > http://www.funadvice.com/q/emo_grunge_scremo

Guest (Customer): can you give me a list of some screamo bands

Me: Here's some people's choices

Guest (Customer): some more?

Me: URL > http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071217172631AAyAPzE

Me: You have to scroll through that list- there are some people who aren't fans of screamo

Me: http://www.amazon.com/All-Around-Good-Screamo-Music/lm/2ZZSNAA0GW23R

Me: Here's a list on Amazon

Me: (click the green link above to open that page)

Guest (Customer): ok what is your favorite band over all

Me: My favorite band of all-time? THat's tough

Me: Beastie Boys, Bob Dylan, Beatles, Flaming Lips

Me: Guided By Voices, Josh Ritter, Todd Snider

Me: Phish, The Who, Rolling Stones

Me: I listen to a lot of old stuff

Guest (Customer): cool all good bands

Me: The Ramones, Avett Brothers

Guest (Customer): k thanks

Me: Cool- have a good weekend!

Guest (Customer): u too

For those of you who, like me, have never heard of the genre "screamo," here's what wikipedia has to say:

Screamo is a genre of music which evolved from hardcore punk and emo in the early 1990s. The term "screamo" was initially applied to a more aggressive offshoot of emo that developed in San Diego in 1991, which used short, chaotically executed songs which grafted "spastic intensity to willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics," often with a political message. Some groups had an even harder edge that put them closer to the noise rock and noisecore styles. In the early 2000s, the genre name began to describe a different, slower and less dissonant style that borrowed from alternative rock, most notably in a 2003 New York Times article. The term's application to the "second wave" is controversial among fans and practitioners of the earlier style^. One musician observed that the term "has been kind of tainted in a way, especially in the States".

It's been a while since I've wrote about my experiences providing virtual reference service to the lovely youth of today.

Guest: what is lamar high school mascot, and please hurry

Guest: i think its the eagle

Me: I'll see what I can find...

Guest: nice

Guest: come on know this is taking forever

Me: Excuse me?

Guest: you still their

Guest: excuse you

Me: I'm trying to find your answer. You telling me it's taking forever isn't helping.

Guest: well i tries

Guest: tried motivating you

Me: Looks like it's the Savages (Sent him a story from the sports section of the local newspaper's website)

Me: Yes- the Lamar Savages

Guest: no i just found it its the longhorns

Guest: no its not

Guest: i go to that school dumb

Me: The Lamar Ledger newspaper says the Lamar High School basketball team is the Savages. The girls' team is the Lady Savages.

That was the end of that one. A minute later, I see the same question coming up again- he's probably trying to get someone else. I thought about letting someone else answer, but then figured- why put someone else through that?

Guest: no its not your are damn wrong

Guest: what is the lamar high schools mascot

Guest: whats up jon

Guest: i was just talking to you

Me: I can give you the Lamar High School telephone number, if you would like to call them. You're telling me that the Lamar newspaper is wrong.

Jon: 719-336-****

Guest: yea that newspaper is all messed up man

Guest: you call them i dont have a phone

Guest: pueblo sucks but thats just my opinion

Jon: editor@lamarledger.com is the email address for the Lamar Ledger. Feel free to email them and let them know you think they are wrong.

Guest: u do it i dont know how

Guest: douchebag

Jon: Your behavior is inappropriate, and I am ending this session. Your IP address has been noted.

 

The best part about my job is that, as I try and help people find information, I learn new things. Sometimes, these things are life-altering.

I was fortunate enough to help a gentleman today who enlightened me with tales of the Reptilians. Apparently, the 80s television show V was based, partly, on true events. However, the dude who I was helping thinks that the Reptilians started out on Earth, then left for outer space later. And maybe there was some alien-reptilian inbreeding. And George W. Bush is a Reptilian. More here.

Oh, yeah- also, the number "11" represents a gateway. If you look at it, it looks like a door, or portal. That's why crazy things always happen on the 11th day of a month. The number "9" is also important, because it's the last number, before you start all over at zero. That's why 9/11 was so crazy. And that's why 2011 is going to be REALLY F*CKING CRAZY! The Earth is going to reverse it's polarity, and maybe its axis will change, too. The sun will rise from the west. But, there will also be another sun. There will be two suns in the sky. But the second sun won't really be a sun. It will be a planet, whose orbit will lead it between Earth and Venus, for the first time in 25,000 years.

It won't necessarily signal the end of humanity, but most of us won't live. So, you've got the next three years to do all those things you've always wanted to do. Live it up!

More fun with Web reference! School's back in session, which means lots of interesting exchanges. Here's two from today:

Guest (Customer): How would such a process affect the geologic record?

Me: Welcome to **********. I'm looking at your question right now; it will be just a moment.

Me: I don't think you've provided an entire question. What process are you referring to?

Guest (Customer): it dose with like earth science geokogic events and processed basic

Next, a little attitude:

Guest (Customer): Which one of these fractions have a denomintor less then 50?< BR>3/15, 8/3,1 4/6.
Me: Welcome to **********. I'm looking at your question right now; it will be just a moment.
Me: We cannot do math problems for you. I can show you some math resources on the Web.
Me: URL > http://webmath.com/
Me: URL > http://www.mathwords.com/d/denominator.htm
Me: The denominator is the bottom number of a fraction.
Guest (Customer): i said less then 50!!!!!!!!
Me: Yes, you did.
Me: If you typed in the question correctly, the answer would be all of them.
Guest (Customer): I know what a denominator is why did you give me this website?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!
Me: If you know what a denominator is, then what is your question?
Guest (Customer): Which one of these denominators are LESS THEN 50!!!!!!!
Me: There is either a problem with your question or your possible answers.
Me: You agree that a denominator is the bottom number in a fraction, correct?

...and that's when he hung up.

Reference service in the 21st century has expanded to include virtual reference, via online chat. Here at _____, we get a ton of questions routed from the colorado.gov page (where people see a link that says "Live Help," and assume they're getting someone from the department whose Web page they're on, rather than some random public librarian), and a ton of questions from kids in grade school. Dealing with the kids can be fun, but it's also quite a challenge. They want an answer immediately (one kid literally said "well, don't you just know the answer), they use IM acronyms, and they can be quite juvenile. Here's the transcript from a lovely exchange I had today (it looks long, but there's a payoff in the end- I get called a "stupid whore"):

Guest (Customer): what was the most eventful day in the history of the united states of america?

Guest (Customer): how r u today

Jon (Provider): Welcome to **********.

Jon (Provider): There really isn't an answer for that question. It's a matter of opinion. Many people would give many different answers.

Guest (Customer): so what would u say?

Guest (Customer): i was thinking that it was the fourth of july

Guest (Customer): but i didnt know

Guest (Customer): so would you agree with me?

Jon (Provider): "Eventful" is a word that can be interpreted many ways. Do you mean the most important day?

Guest (Customer): yes

Guest (Customer): or would u lean more towards the influenza virus of 1918

Jon (Provider): Independence Day is a day that many people would answer.

Jon (Provider): The Influenza Virus of 1918 isn't really a "day."

Guest (Customer): well yes but it is an event that is very important

Guest (Customer): so could i have information on the independence day?

Jon (Provider): URL > http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Independence_Day.shtml

Jon (Provider): This site from the US government has a lot of useful links.

Guest (Customer): thank you and for english i have a project on american authors during the age of reason

Jon (Provider): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(United_States)

Jon (Provider): Wikipedia also has a lenghty article about Independence Day.

Jon (Provider): What is your question about American authors during the age of reason?

Guest (Customer): were they more or less creative than those of the romanticism

Jon (Provider): It's probably going to take some digging to find online sources that address this. Do you have print sources (textbooks, etc.) as well?

Guest (Customer): u stupid whore u r so slow my dog just died and my mom ran away with a circus clown so dont u give me that shit about u dont know what i am talking about. u have no idea what my life is like i just wanted someone to talk toand u failed me. i am going to g

Guest (Customer): i hope your happy

Jon (Provider): This is a library information service. When you have a reference question, we will be glad to help you. Goodbye.

Every now and then, I get some fun, heavy-duty reference questions (don't tell that to the crabby "back in the day, when we did real reference" librarians I work with). I've decided that it is my duty as a God-fearing, flag-waving citizen of the USA, to share this wonderful knowledge with the thousands millions of people who read this blog every day. Unless you're not American. Then stop reading right now.

What US states use the most water? Both in total usage, and on a per-capita basis. For those of you who think you're smart, why don't you think about it for a little bit.
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(If the Jeopardy! theme helps you think, play the video below to hear a young metalhead tapping it on his bass.

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The (obvious, I thought) answer for which US state uses the most water is California. They're practically their own nation, what with the 36 million people living there. Plus, there are a lot of farms in Cali.

Overall usage (in millions of gallons/day):

California- 51,200
Texas- 29,600
Florida- 20,100
Idaho- 19,500
Illinois- 13,700
Colorado- 12,600

Per capita (gallons/day per person)

Nevada- 344
Utah- 308
Idaho- 262

Interestingly, in 1980, Minnesota had the 3rd highest rate, at 322/day.

Something else I found interesting was the states that used the highest percentage of their water for irrigation:

Montana- 95.9% Do Montanans not drink water or bathe?

By a library patron, nonetheless! That's a first.

This happened while I was staffing the virtual reference desk- a Web-based, interactive chat environment, in which Web pages and files can be transmitted. It's much busier at my current library than it was in MN, partly because there is a link on the Colorado State website that says "Live help," and we often get those questions, as well. (You'd be amazed at how well I can already navigate the state's site!)

In any case, the question I got a few minutes ago had to do with following baseball games on the Web. The exact question was: "i want to check the scores and have live pitch-by-pitch and i've tried mlb.com's gameday but i dont have flash on my computer are there any other ones?"

Being someone that follows baseball online quite often, I have a fair amount of knowledge in this matter. I told him that Sportsline and ESPN both ran live Webcasts, but I'd have to see if they required Flash. They do. So I told him that Flash seemed to be a minimum requirement for these sites. I let him know Flash was a free, quick download, and asked him if there was a reason that he could not or did not want to download Flash. His reponse?

"maybe i can bitch"

At first, I read it as "I want to complain (bitch) about this." But he disconnected immediately after typing this, which made me realize he was actually saying:

"Maybe I can, bitch!"

Ouch.

OK- I've made this claim before. More than once. But this time, I mean it. Well, maybe not the best reference question ever, but the best topic. And one of the easiest questions I've ever had.

I just got a phone call from a woman who was stumped while filling out a crossword puzzle.

"What does Homer Simpson say?"

D'oh!

It reminds me of a party in Denver with a bunch of my librarian pals. We were playing Outburst, and the category was "Simpsons Characters." My team stepped back, and allowed me to blurt out about 75 characters in a minute. And I somehow missed Grandpa, Mr Burns, and Moe (but I did shout out such notables as Jub Jub, Artie Ziff, Jasper, and Surly).

How do you spell that word...it's kind of like "optometrist," but it has a "th" sound in the second syllable? It ends in gist?

(It's a lot easier just to say the word out loud, and ask people to spell it. Can't do that in a blog, though.)

A library patron brought this word up today, and I've asked a half dozen fellow librarians to spell it. It's tricky! Don't cheat and use a dictionary- try spelling it first.

**Update- I've now asked well over a dozen people, and nobody has gotten it right**