First, I'm not doing your homework, especially your court mandated homework: don't ask me how many teens died in DUI-related accidents last year. The first thing I'll tell you, if I'm not in my usual mood, is that much of this data will be be over a year old, so no one is going to finish counting all of last year's numbers until some time next year. This goes triple for all the idiots who check for statistics on January 2nd.
The Ask a librarian service can't always find you hard numbers, but we can give you leads. Here is someone who understands:
I asked the service: "Where can I find businesses in North Carolina which provide intrastate freight service?" I got a chat window and was asked to wait for a librarian. About 30 seconds later a librarian turned up in the chat and asked me a few questions. The librarian then referred me to Web sites (they opened up in a frame of the chat window) and gave me some ideas. This first step didn't of course complete all my freight research, but it was a useful first step that gave me other avenues to explore.This is exactly how this should work. You ask a question and I ask a question back. And you, like a non-paranoid, civilized person, answer that question without freaking out or asking more, completely unrelated questions. Yes, it is normal for a librarian to ask, Why do you need this information? or What will this be used for? It helps us to decide how much answer you get, from quick to detailed. We are not spying on you for the government. Yes, we will blog about your idiot question or your paranoia, but that's just between librarians. We won't tell the FBI about your question. We promise.
Most of my questions are local to the asker and out of my power to answer:
What is my library card number? Where is my book? How much is that fine?
These are the chat equivalent to Where's the bathroom?
I also hate when someone writes back, You're the librarian, and you should know this.
Yes, I should. Pay your freakin' taxes so we can buy more very expensive resources so I'll know it for you next time. [Then I disconnect.]
And then when someone asks, How do you know how to do that?
I answer, I observe what is there and I apply it to what I already know and then I take action. Monkeys do it all the time.
For most people who log on to the service, there is an answer to their question; it's called a phone.
But people don't like using the phone because then they are at the mercy of, well, me, and often get put on hold, and then what? They have to sit there holding the phone and waiting. I guess they could read the paper while they wait, or they could watch TV, or they could go to the toilet, or put it on speaker, but when I click back and say, Hello? Hello? if you're not ready for me, I might hang up. But when they chat, they can do other stuff, answer email, chat with someone else, maybe a second librarian to compare answers, who knows.
This are other advantages and disadvantages to the service. One disadvantage, there are transcripts of each chat session, so others can see just how much of an ass I really am. But one great advantage is that if you don't want to answer something, you can just claim that your computer froze. I mean, not everyone asks stupid questions; sometimes someone asks something that I'm just not qualified to answer (because Wikipedia doesn't have an entry- really? don't all librarians simply quote Wikipedia for everything?) and instead of looking stupid, I just pour my coffee over the computer monitor, oops. No, you can always take an email address and answer later.
I like finding the article online and emailing it. Often I'll email stuff just because. Maybe they'll find a use for the article later. Or maybe I just like collecting email address. To give to the FBI.
