Dumb questions….no such thing

Here’s a nifty piece from the director of the Fairbanks North Star Borough Libraries trying to convince folks that there’s not such thing as a dumb question. He also writes about how patrons should generally not expect their librarian to be subject experts, but experts in finding information of all types. The rest from the Fairbanks News-Miner.

July 12, 2004 by Uncategorized 3

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3 Responses

  1. djfiander says:
    July 12, 2004 at 6:09 pm

    Ignorance vs Stupidity

    One of my profs in library school was quite surprised when I expressed the opinion that being ignorant is not bad. But, as I said at the time,

    Ignorance can be corrected. Stupidity is for life

    Reply
  2. Eli says:
    July 12, 2004 at 6:52 pm

    Questions
    We are in a unique position. Not only do we answer reference questions and bibliographic needs we teach the public an important lesson. No one can have all the answers. What we have is a lack of information and that lack can be filled with knowledge and the ability to locate that knowledge. Unfortunately the widespread use of the INTERNET gives people the feeling that they have all the answers and if one doesn’t know something they are stupid. Quite the contrary bibliographic requests are the indication of someone who seeks to be educated. I once had a patron who said to me that I probably go home and laugh at the patron’s lack of knowledge. I replied that how can one laugh at someone who seeks knowledge and pursues that knowledge. We librarians aside from all we do for the public also give them confidence in themselves.

    Reply
  3. Cyberpunk Librarian says:
    July 12, 2004 at 9:31 pm

    No dumb questions

    Like Mr. Garrison on South Park said:

    There’s no stupid questions, only stupid people.

    But let’s be honest with each other, there are such things as dumb questions. Like patrons who come into the library and ask if they can check out books here. The people who look right at signs saying that these materials are on display and can’t be checked out and then turn around and ask me if they can check these materials out are asking dumb questions. People who walk by several stacks of videos and DVDs and then ask me where the DVDs are. When I worked at a grocery store produce department, people would literally look at a large (4 foot by 4 foot) sign that said “Bananas 3lbs for $1.00” and then ask me if the bananas are really three pounds for a dollar. At the end of the day I told one that nope, the sign was wrong, we were lying and that the actual price is 99 cents a pound. You know what? The stupid bastard believed me.

    Of course there’s dumb questions, but they’re usually asked by dumb people

    Reply

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