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What kinds of questions did Duke students ponder 50 years ago?
Here’s a glimpse at some of the questions recorded by Duke Reference librarians in 1958:

Have we (the U.S.) ever been out of debt?

I have to write a paper on the origin of the earth.

I want material on the moon in July 1778.

Where can I find material on safety items in airplanes, like ejection seats?

Is Thurston the Magician still alive? If so, where does he live?

Where can I find how many witches were killed in Europe?

Can you recommend a book on “mind reading”?

Where can I find how to grind the lens of a telescope?

I need some quarto-sized pictures of prehistoric man.

What color is the star Venus in the morning sky?

Are the people of Massachusetts called “Massachusettentians”?

Could you give me a list of brand names of all whiskey made in the U.S.?

I want a list of cities with their pollen counts, so I can locate to a pollen-free community.

Shortly after World War I (probably 1924), you sent me a booklet on inflation. As I recall it, that booklet discussed the evils of inflation and what happened to people in the area it hit. I would like to get a copy of it as a more modern version.

What is the source of the quotation “It is better to light a candle, than to curse the darkness”?

Where in the Manhattan yellow sheets should I look for a company which handles foreign exchange currency and sending money abroad?

I ate some fruit at lunch and I’ve forgotten what it is. Can you help me?

I am writing a 1500 word paper (due tomorrow!)–on how to set up a beach (life saving corps, etc.).

Who makes Edith Lance bras? I want to write a complaint to the company…

Image credit: “Studying Dink, 1957.” Duke University Archives. Durham, NC. USA. library.duke.edu/uarchives. Accessed Nov. 17th, 2008.

Written by Hannah Rozear

Today in Perkins we are testing some software for keeping Reference statistics. Why? It’s helpful to plan for staffing–how many questions, from which kinds of patrons, what types of questions (from staplerology to ‘jumpstart my thesis’).

But what I really want to get at is the human element. There is talk of the future irrelevance of a Reference Desk, if not the actual Reference librarians, whose minds presumably will be accessible in other modes and places. Here’s an excerpt from the TAIGA Forum Provocative Statements:

Within the next five years…There will no longer be reference desks or reference offices in the library. Instead, public services staff offices will be located outside the physical library.

Or, to expand on this line of reasoning:

If the truth be known, as a place to get help in finding information, the reference desk was never a good idea. A reference librarian standing behind a desk waiting for someone to say, “I can’t find what I’m looking for; can you help?” might be justifiable if, as is the case with other service professionals, that librarian was the reason the person came to the building to begin with. But reference librarians have not served so central a function. They have stood ready to help “just in case”-just in case navigating the building isn’t clear, just in case the catalog doesn’t produce wanted results, just in case the collections seem not to contain the desired material or information. In short, reference service-in particular point-of-need reference service-has been an afterthought, something to be considered after the building’s signage or the finding aids or the collections fail the user.
(Anne G. Lipow, “Point of Need Reference Service: no longer an afterthought,” in ALA-RUSA The Future of Reference Services Papers)

Do you come to the Reference Desk for f2f consultation with a librarian? Why or why not?