Anyone who has worked in a library has dealt with this scenario: “I’m looking for a book I read last year. It was blue. Can you help me?”
Google fails here.
I have had other questions posed that are equally difficult.
Today someone asked me, “Can you help me find a book? It was the 4th in a series.” I asked if she perhaps knew the name of the author or the name of any other book in the series. She did not. She showed me the general area of the library where she had seen the book.
She really thought I should be able to come up with the title for her. I explained, very politely, that I did not think I could help her.
I hope she did not fill out a complaint card…
Recently I got a call which started out, “I was in your library in 1988 and you had this book…”
That was 30 years ago! Turns out we had a newer edition of the book she had in mind. But she wanted the old edition.
Best of all was a man who came in and asked one of the librarians to show him where Middle Earth was in an atlas. The librarian tried to explain that Tolkien’s world was fiction and that Middle Earth would not appear on any world atlas. There were maps that Tolkien made of his world, if they would help.
This would not do. He wanted to find Middle Earth on a world atlas. He wouldn’t give up and there was a lengthy discussion. He left grumbling.
(I asked later if he happened to be unusually short and have large, hairy feet?)
We really do try to find what people are looking for. And google can help lots of times. It’s amazing. But there are unanswerable questions.
So if you come in looking for a blue book, 4th in the series that we had in 1988. I may suggest that you try the Middle Earth Public Library. I’m sure they could help you.
Friday with Flo 