There are countless anecdotes out in Library Land about crazy reference questions (Where can I find a photograph of a dinosaur?) and misunderstood book titles (Can I get a copy of Tequila Mockingbird by Harper Lee?) But I plead guilty to some verbal gaffes, malapropisms, and just plain confusion of my very own in the name of public service. Won’t you join me in a journey down my embarrassing memory lane?
A young girl infected with Justin Bieber Fever recently asked me, breathlessly, if we had any books on the pint-sized heartthrob. None were on the shelf, so I put some on request for her. She walked away, and my next patron asked for several items including Elizabeth George Speare’s The Sign of the Beaver.
“Yes”, I said, “the catalog does indicate we have on the shelf The Sign of the Bieber.”
Sigh. Maybe Justin should have chosen that for the title of his new autobiography instead of First Step 2 Forever?
A friend and colleague confided in me that although she loves sharing Miss Nelson is Missing with visiting classes, she’s afraid she’ll read the line “Miss Swamp was a real witch” as, well – you can figure it out. Very susceptible to the power of suggestion, I too am afraid that I’ll refer to Miss Swamp as a female dog when I read the story. So far I haven’t slipped with that story, but I did have a moment with another story that contained the line “the door slammed shut.” For some inexplicable reason, I replaced the “h” in shut with “l”. The meaning of the story was changed entirely. I tried to cover my gaffe, but some parents snickered knowingly. Busted.
But as far as comedic value, the story that gets the most laughs involves my shameful lack of sports knowledge. A boy approached the desk to ask for a book on “caca.” I looked at him a little quizzically.
“Caca?”
“Yes, caca.”
The library recently received several new “grossology” titles, so I thought I might have just the book for him. But I wanted to confirm we were on the same page, pun intended.
“So you want a book about poo, right?”
The boy looked disgusted and horrified. “No, I want a book about the soccer player Kakí¡!”
And that, my friends, is why we do something called a reference interview.
I’m not the only one guilty of the occasional boneheaded move, right? Share yours in the comments! After all, what’s the point of looking like a dork if you can’t laugh about it with others afterwards?
Susan Baier, Santa Clara City Library
Sharon
While at the service desk, my colleague was answering a question. She is a master of reference behaviors. The girl in question asked for a book about Grease. Lori asked: Would you like a book about Ancient Greece, modern day Greece or something else?
It turned out she wanted something else: the musical Grease songbook.
We use it as a training aid. Sometimes you just don’t know.
KT Horning
This is not quite a reference question, but a gaffe from LibraryLand, nonetheless.
I was once speaking to a group of librarians at our state library association conference, talking about a finer point of children’s book illustration. I could tell by their faces, I was saying something wrong, but didn’t know what it was. I kept blathering on and on until finally some kind soul in the front row stage-whispered: “Garth WILLIAMS.” I had been saying Garth Brooks.
And my all-time favorite mangled title was from a boy who asked if we had a Newbery book called “The Midwife’s Appetite.”
–KT
DF
I once had an 10- or 11-year old boy asked for a book about what I heard as “fission.” After searching in vain and showing him some books about nuclear power, I realized he wanted a book about “fishin'”!
Kara Cervelli
My favorite is a phone call I got at the reference desk just as storytime was letting out (visualize lots of parents and little ones milling about nearby). The man on the phone asked for the definition of “cardinal.” So I asked him “cardinal like the bird? or cardinal like the pope?” and he said no, “like in cardinal knowledge.” Oh! So here I was with all the little ones around trying quietly to read the definition for “carnal” knowledge to him on the phone! I’m sure my face was quite red.