Skip to content

Pegasus Librarian Posts

Being on the Other Side of Chat Reference

Published by Iris on Thursday, January 25th, 2007

Yesterday I was asked if I could help someone find the first known translation of a Russian short story (from the early 17th century) into German. In no time flat I’d found a bibliography and was composing my email response when I realized she’d asked for first translation into German… not English, and no bibliographies we have would record such a date.

Scrapping that email I wrote another one about using WorldCat to find bibliographies of this author’s works, and then limiting the language to German, because a German bibliography might just record the date she needed. (I don’t think she quite understood my response, though, but that’s another story.)

Anyway, then one of my co-workers pointed out that the University of Illinois has a whole library devoted to modern languages, and they might have such a bibliography. And sure enough, their catalog returned a record for something that looked promising, if only I could read the German. But I didn’t really want to ILL the enter book on the off chance that it contained the date I needed, so I hopped onto their As A Librarian page and, on a whim, chose the chat option. I’ve never been on this end of chat reference, so I was curious to see it in action.

I explained who I was and what I needed, and the librarian was very friendly and helpful, but in the end had me email my request so that she could give it to someone with an actual command of the languages in question.

This more specialized librarian found what I needed in a Russian-language bibliography, even scanning the page from the bibliography (which I still can’t read) so that my patron could see all the information.

What helpful people! And I’ve got to say, I really enjoyed starting out my quest via chat so that I could clarify myself when the librarian didn’t understand what I needed without having to play email tag. By the time I composed the email I was much more confident that I’d be able to write a question that the librarian on the other end would understand.

I’ve always been hesitant to ask for help from people I don’t know. Before library school I had never in my life asked a librarian for help. But every time I have an interaction like this a little more of that old hesitancy dies. World, beware.

4 Comments

"But I’m Not Eating It…."

Published by Iris on Wednesday, January 24th, 2007

I just turned away a pizza from the library. We have a “no food in the library” policy, and here was this kid standing 5 feet from the reference desk holding a pizza box that gave off the (heavenly) smell of a hot pizza.

He looked at me looking at him and winced.

I smiled and shook my head at him. He knew better.

His eyes got big… bambi-ish, almost. “But I’m not eating it. I’m just holding it.”

“I’m sorry,” I answered, “But there’s no food allowed IN the library. And that’s in the library whether your eating it or holding it.”

“Aw c’mon….It’s just a box, and I’m just holding it.”

“How about holding it in the entry-way?”

Grudgingly he and his friend proceeded to walk as slowly as I’ve ever seen a student move (and in my experience college students can move very slowly) toward the main doors. Inch by inch they conversed their way farther from me. Half way there they checked back to see if I was still watching them.

I just smiled at them with my cheeriest “thank you” smile.

Utterly defeated, they turned and walked to the entry way. Now they’re sitting there eating pizza.

That’s one more student who will never voluntarily ask me a question…

Related post: Food and Beverage Policy

Comments closed

Continuing My Entry to the Late 20th Century

Published by Iris on Monday, January 22nd, 2007

Last summer I finally got myself a digital camera (which has revolutionized the way I document my life and communicate with my family). Today I finally caved to another of my secret desires and ordered an iPod Shuffle. I am now the proud owner of a receipt, which will hopefully morph into an MP3 player by the end of the week. Amazing how that happens.

I’m having trouble keeping in shape during these dark, cold, long Minnesota winters, and I thought that if I could listen to audio books, podcasts, or music I might stick to my exercise routine a little better. At least, that’s the justification I’m using.

I don’t like it that the Shuffle doesn’t have a screen of any kind, but since this is primarily for my exercise schedule I decided that the size and clip design outweighed the lack of a screen. It’s also more affordable.

My only regret is that I didn’t spring for faster shipping…

2 Comments

I Knew It!

Published by Iris on Sunday, January 21st, 2007

Remember last year when I wondered what letter would become popular next? Remember I said it would be “s” for “social?” Looks like there’s a possibility I was right. John Blyberg is working on the SOPAC — the social -er- catalog. And man, oh man, does it look good. And you don’t even have to be a library card holder to participate!

But that’s not even the good part. No, the good part is that he’s made his code public.

So let me be among the first to say, “Me too! Me too! I like this idea too!”

[Update: As I suspected, this is getting major buzz in the biblioblogosphere, so I’ve created two ways to keep up with it. You can see (and subscribe to) the posts I’ve read on the topic here. And you can see (and subscribe to) a libworm search for the topic here.]

1 Comment