Reference Questions, 9/5/09

The first Saturday of College Football season and I'm the reference desk. How did this happen? Mendy said it has been slow, we'll see...

1. A patron wanted to know who he should contact about getting grants to go to college. I told him to contact the UNCG Financial Aid Office.
2. A student needed to know where Tower 2 and 8 were.
3. A Guilford College student was looking for information on Buffalo Soldiers. He was interested in finding primary sources.
4. Someone once again wanted to browse the art books. People will never learn.
   A student from GTCC wanted to thank the librarian that helped her the other day. However, she didn't know her name and all she did know is that she had brown hair. ?
5. The Guilford College student from question #3 had a printing question.
6. The Guilford College student (#3) needed me to go get a Government doc on Buffalo soldiers for him.
7. A nursing student needed an article on light therapy and depression. She then needed a guest log in because she couldn't remember her Novell username and password.
8. (Phone) A student wanted to know if we had any APA Quick Reference Guides at the Ref Desk.
9. The Guilford College student (#3) wanted to know if he could go up on the Stacks.
10. (Phone) A student was having trouble accessing an journal article off campus.
11. A patron wanted to know where all the library science classes were held.
12. A mother and daughter were touring the campus and had some question about locations for different buildings on campus.
13. A patron wanted to know what an e-book was.
14. The student from #9 (who is a Greensboro College student) wanted the APA Quick Ref Guide she had requested over the phone. She also was looking for some mental diagnostic books we had in the Ref Dept. However she wanted to check them out. I was able to find an older copy for her in the Stacks.
15. Two patrons needed guest log ins.
16. A student was having trouble accessing an e-book she checked out. Access Services sent her over saying I was the e-book person. Not. I had no idea how to help this person. I suggested that she send an email to NetLibrary, and that she ILL the book. She had already done that.
17. (Chat) A student wanted to know if the library was open on Monday.
18. A student had a printing question.
19. A student had a question about accessing journal articles via IE.
20. One of the patrons from question #16 wanted to know if there were any guest computers that had Word on them. No there are not.
21. A student had a question about shutting down the guest computer.
22. A student had a question about free printing.
23. A student had a question about the location of the reserves.
24. (Phone) A faculty member from Elon wanted to check out a DVD from the library. I gave her the number to the UTLC.
25. (Phone) A student wanted me to look up a book on Worldcat. I had to put him on hold, because the two phone reference questions I got came at the same time. (Second time this has happened today. When I went back he had hung up.
26. A patron wanted to know where he could get ratings on answering machines. There was nothing in Consumer Reports about answering machines. The only thing I can think of is Google it.
27. A student wanted to know if there was anywhere he could post flyers or place free newspapers. He then asked me if I was a Deacons fan. No, I just decided to wear this shirt because I hate them.
28. (Chat) A student wanted to know how to get SPSS to work. SPSS is a statistics software that is installed on many UNCG computers. I told them to contact 6-Tech.
29. A GTCC student wanted to check out headphones. Access Services had sent her over to me to do this. As far as I know we do not check out headphones at the ref desk. I am not too happy with access services today.
30. A student wanted to clarify what time the library closed today and wanted to know what time we open tomorrow.
31. A student wanted to know where she could get educational videos.

Today reminded me once again that I truly want to be a cataloger. I honestly cannot remember I more busy, stressful day on the ref desk. This was a crazy shift. Had a few run ins with Access Services too, all in all a bad day. :(