A snapshot of Public Service in Memorial Library
During the week of Nov. 14, all staff in public service areas in Memorial Library were asked to log interactions with library patrons. In seven days, library staff answered at least 3,402 queries, and some proved rather interesting. The following is a selection of some of the more intriguing information collected.
In the Periodicals Room:
Q: Gentleman having a couple questions regarding word choice ("Should centuries be pluralized in this sentence?") and MLA quotation format questions.
A: My degree in English finally pays off as I am able to answer, "Yes, when talking about multiple centuries, the word 'century' should be pluralized" and that commas are unnecessary in quotations before parenthesized citations in that particular grammatical structure.
At the card window:
A husband and wife were on campus for the day. She was wondering if she could hang out here while her husband went to meetings. She used to be a librarian in England and loved that we still had a card catalog, even if it was out of date.
To the Digital Content Group:
Q: I have one glass tube fire extinguisher with the letters C & NW RY on it. My father worked for the C&NW for more than 30 years. He passed away this past January. I am willing to sell this very priceless antique. I do not know what it is worth. But I am NOT going to give it away either. Is there a way I can find out what this is worth, and where would I go? Thank you for your time and patience.
A: Referred patron to WHS Museum Web site, "Appraisal of Art and Artifacts," list of curators and appraisers http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/collections/appraisal.asp
At the Reference Desk:
Q: I need a recent travel book on Hawaii, since I'm going there for the holidays.
A: Most description-and-travel guides in MadCat (see Hawaii - Guidebooks) are in Historical Society Library or in College Open Book Travel, yet everything recent is checked out. Suggested trying College Library anyway and then Madison Public. Bonnie says UW football team is going to Hawaii.
In Special Collections:
Q: Patron was looking for a citation about UW-Madison being a party school mentioned in Playboy in the 1960s.
A: He is sure it is real, but not found so far. A discussion about publishing practices of Playboy followed.
At the Reference Desk:
Q: I need information on the beetle Dorcus titanus for art project.
A: Showed patron how to limit Google search to .edu. Patron was happy with the article we found online, "Developmental Stability and Adaptive Variability of Male Genitalia in Sexually Dimorphic Beetles."