It's really hard to help patrons who are looking for government programs but refuse to use any of the government publications that outline said programs, preferring scammy books they saw promoted on late night tv ads.
Becki White, MLS
Reference Librarian
Reference Dept.
Pottsville Free Public Library
215 W Market St
Pottsville, PA 17901-4304
ph: 570-622-8880 ext 11
fx: 570-622-2157
potref@pottsvillelibrary.org
www.pottsvillelibrary.org
www.facebook.com/PottsvilleFreePublicLibrary/
I'm afraid I don't have any answers to Chuck's excellent questions, but he's inspired me to offer some of my own. :-)
Why do genealogists so often feel compelled to tell you about their research to date in excruciating detail?
How do you tactfully negotiate a truce between professors who won't let their students use the Internet for research and students who refuse to touch anything in print?
Where is the big book of "official U.S. government policy" that so many people seem to want to find? (And wouldn't it be nice if there really was one?)
Isn't it sad that so many states have to post an "unofficial" version of their own laws on the web? And finally, if a paper document is no longer available for sale it's "out of print." If an Internet-only document is no longer available on the web, is it "out of site?";-)
Lori Smith
(985) 549-3966
LSMITH@SELU.EDU
Government Documents Department Head
Sims Memorial Library
Southeastern Louisiana University
SLU 10896
Hammond, LA 70402
http://www.selu.edu/Library/ServicesDept/govdoc/
My first position in documents was as the cataloger - after a few years I became fond of agencies as I worked with their changing call numbers - watching some die, others merge, have off-spring and then divorce and merge with another agency. Many will remember ER (ERDA) and E; FS to HE, HE to ED and the controversy over changing HE to HS ->/p>
Which brings me to my point to ponder - if Congress agrees to the new restructuring just how many agency call numbers will be altered to bring them into the new homeland defense agency? Will the new prefix be HD? Should we be measuring for a major stack shift? Or with e-govermment and the new concern about releasing information, will there be many documents to shelve?
Melody Kelly
Associate Dean
UNT Libraries
For some it's the "greatest government reorganization since the 40's." I must admit that, on hearing the news of the proposed new mega-agency, my mind raced to SuDoc. When I talked with the staff in my department this morning, they laughed and said that they too immediately started thinking of SuDoc classes and shifting stacks. Our nomination is HO.
I love being part of this twisted community!
Patrice Stearley
Northeastern Illinois University
We serve a lot of patrons who are tax protesters. The "secret" constitution is one I haven't heard, but a key concept of the tax protester movement is that the 16th amendment (authorizing the federal income tax) was improperly ratified. For a good overview of the justifications, see Christopher S. Jackson, "The Inane Gospel of Tax Protest: Resist Rendering Unto Caesar — Whatever His Demands," 32 Gonzaga Law Review 291-329 (1997).
Peggy Roebuck Jarrett
Documents & Reference Librarian
Gallagher Law Library, University of Washington
(206) 543-1941
pjarrett@u.Washington.edu
Where is the big book of "official U.S. government policy" that so many people seem to want to find? (And wouldn't it be nice if there really was one?)
Oh, that's a good one. The only thing worse is after someone asks for the Official Policy on something and you patiently explain that policies aren't like laws, they aren't necessarily printed in one nice little book, etc. Then you look in the catalog and find a document titled: "The U.S. Policy on (fill in the blank)."
Or, as a professor of mine said: "if the patron says there are no books in the catalog on Shakespeare, don't laugh until you check. Somebody might have removed the records."
Rob Lopresti
rob.lopresti@wwu.edu
http://www.library.wwu.edu/cbl/rob/rob.htm
Wilson Library
Western Washington U
Bellingham, WA
"Desperate times call for desperate analogies."
-John Diamond
I have really enjoyed all of the anecdotes. They would make a wonderful book. I used to wonder if anyone would believe them, but now, being a little jaded, and doing reference interviews....I believe anything!
Perhaps the saddest of all is that we have these stories to tell. College students coming in for research don't have a clue. Basic facts about history, geography, etc. are not known. And if it is not on the internet, (after all, everyone knows that if it is on the web, it's true), then forget it. Research is dead.
Howard L. Coy Jr.
